I believe I dance because I am thankful to believe in God. This art form I practice comes from a spiritual tradition, and I feel the history of that tradition whenever I am being honest with myself on the floor…or whenever I’m improvising to John Coltrane albums.

What happens when a dance festival is set to celebrate a landmark anniversary, but a global pandemic has other plans? Chicago’s Rhythm World, the oldest tap festival in the country, should have enjoyed its 30th iteration last summer. Disrupted by COVID-19, it was quickly reimagined for virtual spaces with a blend of recorded and livestreamed […]

Hoofer Jumaane Taylor’s newest work, Ugly Flavors, collides tap dance with two musical scores known for their difficulty and dissonance: Ornette Coleman’s album The Shape of Jazz to Come and “The Rite of Spring,” by Igor Stravinsky. Taylor, a Chicago native, trained at Sammy Dyer School of the Theatre, one of the places where he […]

There’s a healthy dose of repetition in your dance education—whether it’s those same fundamentals you’re asked to practice over and over as you deepen your technique or the many run-throughs it takes to polish a piece of choreography. But teachers also see the same missteps and issue the same reminders from student to student, perhaps […]