Principal Dancers

On Friday, 700 guests walked a hot-pink carpet into a champagne reception at the Harris Theater. The reception kick-started the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Spotlight Ball, a black-tie affair that headlined the company’s spring series of events, which took place from March 26 to April 5 (other, more casual events included pre-show receptions and networking parties).

Inside the theater's auditorium, guests took their seats to watch a 90-minute performance created for the gala that featured the world premiere of Extremely Close, a contemporary dance piece choreographed by company member Alejandro Cerrudo.

Though  M.C. Ron Magers (of ABC-7) took to the stage to thank corporate sponsors, the dancers remained the center of attention during the performance and throughout the Spotlight Ball. “We really try to keep the focus of the event on Hubbard Street,” said the dance company's manager of special events, Paula Petrini Lynch. “Our gala is different from others in that sense. At some events, there’s a different theme every year or a special guest star that comes in. Hubbard Street’s event is built on Hubbard Street.”After the show, guests filed out of the theater and hopped into buses that were waiting to transport them to dinner and more dancing (though this time of the DIY variety) at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers.

Throughout a dinner of filet mignon (served in the Sheraton's ballroom), Hubbard Street dancers remained the focus. In videos shown on oversize screens that flanked the ballroom's stage, dancers spoke about their experiences with the company; footage also included black-and-white, close-up shots of individual performers. Even the post-dinner pastries paid homage to the gala’s guests of honor: The dessert featured a wedge of chocolate that bore an image of spotlit dancers.

As the evening continued, a limelight-themed after-party started up outside the ballroom. “We just started doing the after-party last year,” Petrini Lynch said. “We noticed that when the band stopped playing, people would still want to hang out. The dancers were all keyed up because they’d just performed, and the crowd just wasn’t ready to go home.”

So for a modest budget of roughly $350, Petrini Lynch and her team put together a casual party for the after-midnight crowd. Beside the after-party's makeshift dance floor, Hubbard Street company member Robyn Williams played DJ for the night. To add a lime-green hue to the lobby, Petrini Lynch and her team employed “fun, flashy, blinky things we found online,” she said, including lit-up lime wedges for drinks and vases filled with glowing green balls.

The party “stayed hopping till the end,” Petrini Lynch noted after the event, adding that showing guests a good time is one of her major goals for the evening. “We want to be known as a fun, hot benefit, because in the end, we’re all vying for the same people and the same dollars. We want people to want to come back.”