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Ana Lopez: One of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch for 2012

Ana Lopez and Alejandro Cerrudo ~ Photo: Todd Rosenberg

It is Dance Magazine’s tradition of highlighting dancers and dance companies to watch as each year new constellations appear over the horizon.  I am about to present a series of blogs honoring each of these future stars, helping to cast light on each one’s attributes so that you the reader and member of the audience can seek each one out and see for yourself.  Let’s begin in this blog with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Ana Lopez.

Before joining the company in 2008, Lopez performed with other major companies in Europe, including  Joven Ballet Carmen Roche, Compañía Nacional de Danza 2, and Ballet Theater Munich. Born in Coruña, Spain, she brings her own private corporal language to every role she dances.  Dance Magazine calls her “cat-like” and indeed she is, with her intensity of focus and concentration combined with a feline sensuality that provides a mystery no matter what the role.  The Chicago Tribune has called her dancing “spectral.”

When I watch Lopez dance what impresses me is her incredible “through-lines,” making one motion carry through to the next seamlessly.  Her body is an extremely legible instrument, with torso, legs, and arms that stretch beyond bravura movement to express something more than just technique.

Lopez has lit up the stage in choreography by Alejandro Cerrudo, Jirí Kylián, and Nacho Duato and will be featured dancing in the following ballets during Hubbard Street’s 2012 season:

  • Too Beaucoup by Sharon Eyal and Subtle Current Upstream by Alonso King from March 15 – 18
  • Malditos by Alejandro Cerrudo and Three to Max by Ohad Naharin from May 17 – 20
  • All at Chicago’s Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater

For more information on performances:

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/8567139/IL/Chicago/Hubbard-Street-Dance/Joan-W-and-Irving-B-Harris-Theater-for-Music-and-Dance-at-Millennium-Park/