I see Hubbard Street 2 as the train that Taryn (Taryn Kaschock Russell, Director, HS2) so often compares the company to. Most of the time it’s moving at warp speed, sometimes it’s relentlessly chugging along, and sometimes the group stops for much needed rest, but only sometimes. The conductor may be different, the passengers get on or off, but the idea behind it and the goal that it is presented with each year is the same: to take these nine (for the first time this year!) young and brilliant artists to their next beginning. It is to take them to what lies ahead. Although of course Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is the goal of most, if not all HS2 members, the train doesn’t only stop there. Each person eventually gets in their own personal car and takes themselves where they’ve needed to go all along, with or without being aware of it.
This is what I have come to know at the ripe age of 24; things happen the way they are going to happen. People believe that they happen because you want them to or don’t; that we can make anything we want happen regardless of our surrounding environment. Others believe we have no control over anything; that life is set for us and that we’re along for the ride. Still more believe that life consists of random occurrences; that we are made of timing and location. My thoughts are somewhere in the middle of the circulating ideas. My experience has shown me that compassion and hard work can get you where you want to go. It has shown me that you truly don’t need a shiny school or a sense of self-importance. It has shown me that with kindness and ambition in your back pocket anything is possible.
Being a member of Hubbard Street 2 changed everything. The two years I spent there, in every aspect and with every individual I encountered, enabled me to move on, to be ready for the next, to be ready for more and to seek it out. It not only gave me the tools and experience I needed but also gave me the confidence and the belief that I had what it took then and that I have something to offer now.
So I say goodbye to Hubbard Street. I was sad to leave the beautiful people who I’d come to know and love, but I am excited for the wonderful individuals I have yet to meet and for the experiences that are yet to be. Hubbard Street showed me that goodness is plentiful and most definitely immeasurable.
A final welcome to the new incarnation of HS2: enjoy the present moment and enjoy the journey to the future!
Adieu,
Nick Korkos
