Hubbard Street Company and Tharp Plan to Work Together : Dance: The company gets the rights to stage three of her early works.

Choreographer Twyla Tharp and Chicago’s Hubbard Street Dance Company announced Wednesday a collaboration in which the 16-member company will become the repository for three of Tharp’s earlier pieces. “The Tharp Project” will mark the first time the choreographer has worked with a modern dance company since she dismantled her own company in 1988 and became an artistic associate with the American Ballet Theatre.

The collaboration gives Hubbard Street the rights for three years to “The Fugue” (1970), “Sue’s Leg” (1975) and either “Eight Jelly Rolls” (1971, the first Tharp dance set to music) or “Baker’s Dozen” (1979).

Hubbard Street board director Sandra Guthman said the project’s price tag is about $300,000, but the amount has already been raised through grants from AT&T; and other sponsors “so it doesn’t impact on our budget.”

“I think this is just a landmark day for Hubbard Street, and I’m very grateful to Twyla Tharp,” said Lou Conte, Hubbard Street’s artistic director. “We’re getting some American classic works in our repertory.”

Conte said a Tharp representative first inquired last summer whether his company would be interested in acquiring some of the choreographer’s early works, and he did not hesitate.

“I realized this is the kind of thing that would propel Hubbard Street into its next stage of growth,” he said, adding that although the agreement covers only three pieces, “I hope someday to get an original work. It all depends how the relationships go.”

Tharp also took a wait-and-see stance about new works for Hubbard Street. “It’s always possible,” she said.

Hubbard Street will premiere two of the Tharp pieces in August at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Lee, Mass. The company will visit Los Angeles next January with scheduled appearances at the Irvine Theater in Irvine, the Bob Hope Cultural Center in Palm Desert, UCLA and Pepperdine University.

Conte founded Hubbard Street in 1979 with four female dancers who initially performed for senior citizens in lunch rooms. He was exclusive choreographer for the first four years but, as the company expanded to 16 dancers, invited outside choreographers to mount their works. He said the addition of Tharp’s three pieces will have no impact on collaborations with other choreographers.

The three currently contracted Tharp pieces are now exclusively Hubbard Street’s. (“The Fugue” has recently been in the ABT repertory, but a spokesman for that company said that there are no plans to perform it any longer.)

Hubbard Street is also considering obtaining “Golden Section” from “The Catherine Wheel” and “Nine Sinatra Songs,” which is currently in ABT’s repertory.

Tharp insisted that “There is no conflict here” between her interests in ABT and Hubbard Street. “Much of this early repertoire was built for a smaller company. There’s no way Ballet Theatre could do ‘Sue’s Leg,’ ” she said, adding that Hubbard Street lacks the capabilities to mount larger productions that might call for a choir and 20 dancers.

Tharp relinquished her title at ABT after Mikhail Baryshnikov resigned as artistic director last June. “She’s currently in discussions with the company over specific plans for next season and beyond,” ABT spokesperson Robert Pontarelli said Wednesday, noting that the company has five of her works under contract through next season.

Although she will not be involved day-to-day with Hubbard Street, Tharp said she plans to oversee all the productions and to make suggestions when needed.