Theatre News Wire

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's (HSDC) Season 43: A Virtual Homecoming will conclude with the world premiere of Greener Grass, a full-company work choreographed and directed by former HSDC company dancer Jie-Hung Connie Shiau and featuring original music and composition by Jerome Begin and videography and editing by Kevin Michael Briggs.

Shiau sites the seed of this work as witnessing the establishment of..."re-education camps," referred to by some as concentration camps, to forcibly contain Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other traditionally Muslim minority groups in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Zone. From her perspective, the insufficient effort and failure by world leaders to recognize and condemn this violent act leads to the necessity of the piece. Her hope for this work is to raise awareness of this humanitarian crisis.

"As a Taiwanese woman who grew up seeing her own country constantly dismissed and silenced on the international stage due to pressure from the Chinese government, I am inspired to speak out against the Chinese government's current efforts to silence and erase the Uyghur and Kazakh Muslims' cultural identity," says Shiau. "Of course, I will never be able to fully understand the pain of the Uyghurs and Kazakhs, but I'd like to use my voice as an artist to draw attention to these issues and encourage people to
take action."

Greener Grass will premiere on June 24, 2021 at 7:30pm and will have additional screenings on June 26 at 7:30pm and June 27 at 2pm. The performance will be live streamed on Vimeo and will include a post-show Q&A. Admission is free, find out more and register at hubbardstreetdance.com. Registration opens June 11.