For five days, tap dancers of all experience levels gathered at Columbia College Chicago’s Dance Center to learn, perform and celebrate the history of a dance form deeply rooted in Chicago.
Now in its 36th year, Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Rhythm World featured classes, workshops and four showcases from Aug. 4 through 9, bringing professional dancers and students together for performances ranging from choreographed pieces to improvisation.
Chicago had “one of the biggest tap festivals, even when I was a younger dancer training in the city,” said artistic director Jumaane Taylor.
The first Rhythm World festival had performances held at Northwestern University, and has since been held at the Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago for many years.
The festival brings together all levels of tap dancers, including audience members with little tap experience participating.
Taylor has been involved with Rhythm World since its inception in 1990, and was appointed artistic director after his experience directing in 2021. During Friday’s performance, he performed a choreographed piece with five other dancers and a live band.
Nicholas Young, a performer in the showcase, has known Taylor since he was a child.
“It’s just Chicago family, you know?” Young said of the Rhythm World organization.
Young was among nine performances on Friday night, eight of which were fully improvised.
Young said improvisation comes as a second nature to him.
“It feels like a completely natural extension of my internal voice,” Young said. “It just feels like it’s me speaking.”
The live band on stage showcased a pianist, bassist and drummer. Throughout the showcase, different instrumentalists were brought on to assist the improvisation.
Dancer Lisa La Touche performed an improvised piece titled “JP’s Time Step,” alongside saxophonist Greg Ward and bassist Junius Paul.
Founding director of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project Lane Alexander credits the performers’ confidence in how they are able to improvise with their own body.
“With tap dance, the musical instrument is the body, and everybody’s body is different,” Alexander said. “Even though it’s all tap dance, they’re all playing different instruments. When you’ve done it for a long time, you sort of create your own physical vocabulary.”
The final dance of the showcase, entitled “Shim Sham,” featured every soloist and performer.
The Shim Sham Shimmy is a well-known tap routine that originated in the 1920s. It was created to be a dance that every dancer would be able to join in and perform at the end of a show.
Jumaane Taylor directed the dancers to perform an “eight-bar shimmy with a haircut,” a phrase that all of the performers understood.
“Tap is so international and global these days,” said Taylor. “Everyone is finding their voice through tap.”
The Chicago Human Rhythm Project offers tap classes throughout the year, as well as hosting “Stomping Grounds” at the Logan Center for the Arts and a yearly holiday concert.
Copy edited by Venus Tapang
