dance

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what's the best American dance troupe of them all? According to Randy Swartz, artistic director of Dance Celebration, it's Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. "They have gone from being a really good dance company to a world phenomenon," he says.

Of course you'd expect a guy who runs a performance series to hype the acts, but in this case Swartz is not merely blowing his horn. The last two times Hubbard came to the Annenberg Center it presented knockout shows, featuring several selections that remain in this writer's memory to this day, and that's sayin' a lot.

Hubbard pulls audiences into special worlds. With each piece the company grabs and holds you under its spell. The cast is exceptional, but what truly sets Hubbard apart has to do with the ensemble's capacity to convey an underlying humanity. These are not merely high-performance dancing machines, but rather thinking, feeling people with outstanding movement skills.

Meanwhile, the repertoire is consistently intriguing. The upcoming show includes William Forsythe's "Enemy in the Figure," where dancers delve into provocative patterns that appear to shape-shift with canny lighting techniques. Nacho Duato's "Gnawa," set to Mediterranean music, is a sensual tour de force that Swartz is particularly high on: "This one's just to die for. It's an abstract work that takes the music and makes a pictorial out of it."

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Thu., Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., Feb. 24, 8 p.m.; Sat., Feb. 25, 2 and 8 p.m., $32-$44, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St., 215-898-3900.