Dancer, choreographer, writer and former Windy City Times dance columnist Zachary Whittenburg, 34, now finds his daily grind on Jackson Boulevard in the offices of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago ( HSDC ).
Whittenburg finished his second season as master of communications at HSDC recently, after nearly a decade of hustling in dance journalism and freelance gigs. One of those gigs was as the go-to guy for dance coverage during his tenure as dance editor at Time Out Chicago from 2009-2012, a position that was terminated when Time Out moved exclusively online.
Whittenburgan accomplished performer with credits at Pacific Northwest Ballet, Crystal Pite's Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal and HSDCedged himself out of the dance-journalism market before it edged him out; he edged himself out of the dance-journalism market before it edged him out; he left Time Out and spent the summer of 2012 back hustling, picking up coveted spots in Pointe Magazine, Critical Correspondence and a cover story on Paris Opera Ballet in Dance International. He was even published in Hoy Chicago, a Spanish news publication, with a piece on photography.
He spent the first few months after leaving Time Out attempting a sustainable living in freelance dance writing, not fully knowing whether it was possible. "I felt like I had the experience that anyone else would have in the market, and it was either going to be possible, or not. … Things were happening, it's not like I was getting no work," he said in a dinner meeting with Windy City Times across the street from the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, where he would work the press table for opening night of HSDC's Summer Series that evening. "But it all didn't add up to what I needed to make ends meet, and also the pay cycle was so long. I didn't see payment for most of that work until I had been at Hubbard Street for months. ... In retrospect, who knows?! But I hit July/August, and remember thinking, 'I don't think this is possible.'"
Whittenburg now enjoys a life that has more balance. He's working more "normal" hours, and his CV of freelance-writing credits and speaking engagements continues to grow despite his full-time job. In the two years he's been at HSDC, Whittenburg has written a dozen freelance editorials ( mostly for Dance Magazine, Pointe and Dance Teacher ). He hosted an audience engagement series called "Dance, A Moving Canvas," and has a number of additional projects in the works. His former 80-90-hour work week consisted of five shows, two interviews and three reviews. "Now, my week is 40-45 hours at Hubbard Street, one dance show, a play, a concert, a dinner party, and a night watching Mad Men," he added. "There's a balance to my life now that's really satisfying. ... I loved that crazy pace, but there are a lot of things you have to give up to have that experience."
By sacrificing a bit of his bird's-eye viewand, with it, the knowledge of everyone and everything happening in Chicago's dance communityWhittenburg's still the go-to guy. However, he's a go-to guy who preserves a tiny bit of personal time, gets more sleep and enjoys a more sustainable lifestyle. "I'm not as moody as I was a couple years ago. I get more exercise. … I was the textbook cliche of a hunchbacked writer; the irony of that was not lost on me. I was giving to this devotion to dance and performance art, and my physical experience was a wreck. Part of the culture [at HSDC] is being healthy.
"At the end of the day … I want to advocate for the importance of dance as an art form, I want to help engage readers and the public about dance as an art form, and raise the level of familiarity so you can start to have those richer conversations. Whether I'm doing that at a dance company, or at a magazine, or at a newspaper, the important thing is that I feel like I'm doing that. That was the thinking behind moving forward … and it guides me with how I'm doing this job."
How he's doing his job appears to be working. The company's presence in the Chicago dance community and on social media is stronger than ever. Whittenburg works with the many compartments of Hubbard Street to present the whole picture to the press and public. In one moment he's scanning costume sketches and interviewing guest repetiteurs for upcoming engagements; in the next he's discussing adaptive dance programming for children with disabilities or setting up visits from So You Think You Can Dance's Nigel Lythgoe and the Dizzy Feet Foundation.
The stories he shares now are not dissimilar to stories you might see in print or online press publications, but there aren't enough personnel, energy, and resources left in dwindling arts journalism to cover such stories. "Ultimately, we all want the same thing," he said. "We all want more people in Chicago to care about dance; that's the goal. When I look back at the end of my workday, I don't feel any less impactful being the PR manager at Hubbard Street than I was as the dance editor at Time Out. ... That work won't go away, and I don't think I'm chipping away at it any more slowly than I was before. That's reinforced my decision to do what I'm doing."
As Whittenburg looks toward the future, he sees a long relationship with Hubbard Street, and a dance world that is bigger, richer and more diverse. Dance is pretty gayit always has beenbut Whittenburg speculates if a world more accepting of LGBTQ people in general will change the demographics of the dance community. If it becomes more "OK to be gay," will there be a shift away from dance and toward sports, or some other activity that queer people generally shy away from? If the demographic of dancers changes, how does the work created also change, and then how does the audience change? As society grows and perceptions widen, art, traditionally, imitates life.
"There's going to be more of everything," Whittenburg said. "There are more people, more audience members … nothing is going to turn down the volume, so there's going to be more dance, more dancers, more audience members. If you look at Hubbard Street, when we perform in March, we're up against 10 shows. In 10 years, we'll be up against 50, and that theater is not going to get any smaller. The plurality of voices, that's what's going to happen. You're just going to see more variety, and that's great! They say it's the spice of life."