Chicago Human Rhythm Project's Bam! Performs premiere and more April 4 -

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Princess Grace Award Winner Michelle Dorrance, Broadwayâ€™s Ted Levy, CHRPâ€™s Lane Alexander,

Live Music by Greg Spero Trio and Tressa Thomas at MUSIC + MOVEMENT FESTIVAL

Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP) presents its resident ensemble BAM! performing a world premiere by 2012 Princess Grace Award winner Michelle Dorrance, commissioned by the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University as part of its debut MUSIC + MOVEMENT FESTIVAL. The program, which takes place Thursday, April 4 at 6 p.m. at the Katten/Landau Studio at 425 S. Wabash, also features works by Chicago native and Broadway star Ted Levy, CHRP Founder Lane Alexander and BAM! member Kristi Burris, as well as live music by the Greg Spero Trio and Chicago jazz vocalist Tressa Thomas.

Winner of the first Princess Grace Award for tap choreography in the awardâ€™s 30-year history, Michelle Dorrance has created a piece that explores abstractions in vernacular blues and jazz movement coupled with cutting-edge innovations in contemporary tap technique. The piece presents a range of visual and aural aesthetics, from grounded, open, bass-heavy movement and sound to seemingly effortless slide work and treble-dominated airborne turns with light but rapid footwork. Thanks to support from the Auditorium Theatreâ€™s MOVEMENT + MUSIC FESTIVAL, BAM! performs this new work with the Greg Spero Trio and Chicago jazz vocalist Tressa Thomas.

One of the most sought-after tap dancers of her generation, Dorrance first performed in Chicago as a teenager with the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble and appeared in CHRPâ€™s 1998 documentary JUBA! Masters of Tap and Percussive Dance. She teaches, choreographs and performs throughout the U.S. and abroad, directs her company Dorrance Dance and has taken New York City by storm for more than a year performing in the Off-Broadway production STOMP.

The program also includes Three Little Words (2009), with music by Harry Ruby arranged by Nat â€œKingâ€ Cole. Choreographed by Chicagoâ€™s own Emmy and Tony award winner Ted Levy, the piece takes the audience on a journey through natural flow of rhythm and movement.

CHRP Founder and Director Lane Alexander contributes several works to the program: How Insensitive (2007); Reflections (2011), set to three works by J.S. Bach; Prisms (2004), set to several of Chick Coreaâ€™s Childrenâ€™s Songs, which combines haunting, classically structured jazz compositions with complex rhythms and modern/jazz movements to create a visual as well as aural quilt; and acaBAM! (2004), a blend of post-modern movement, layered a cappella rhythms and body percussion that culminates in a rousing polyrhythmic finale.

BAM! member Kristi Burris contributes a new take on the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic My Favorite Things, arranged by John Coltrane.

Chicago Human Rhythm Projectâ€™s BAM! and the Greg Spero Trio perform in the MUSIC + MOVEMENT FESTIVAL Thursday, April 4 at 6 p.m. at the Auditoriumâ€™s Katten/Landau Studio, 425 S. Wabash, 4th fl. Tickets are $10, $5 for students, and are available by calling 800-982-ARTS (2787) or visiting auditoriumtheatre.org.

Funding

The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt Universityâ€™s MUSIC + MOVEMENT FESTIVAL, which pairs 11 Chicago dance companies with talented musical performers, each presenting a world premiere Februaryâ€“June 2013, is made possible by grants from The Chicago Community Trust, The Boeing Company and The Joyce Foundation.

CHRP is supported by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Target, The Boeing Company, The MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, The Arlen and Elaine Cohen Rubin Charitable Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City, The Jeanette & Jerome Cohen Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City, National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development, Live Marketing, Charter One Foundation, The James S. Kemper Foundation, Dr. Scholl Foundation, Arts Midwest, The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg Family Foundation, L&L Hardwood Flooring, So Danca, Peopleâ€™s Gas, The Service Club of Chicago, The Walmart Foundation and generous individual donors.

Chicago Human Rhythm Project

Founded in 1990, Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP) builds community by presenting American tap dance and contemporary percussive arts in world-class and innovative performance, education and community outreach programs. During the last 23 years, CHRP has produced multiple community-based collaborations involving shared revenue programs, concerts and touring opportunities, including:

annual National Tap Dance Day concerts, featuring an array of tap and percussive dance artists
a shared revenue program designed to assist Chicagoâ€™s budding tap community to build capacity through audience development, created in 2001
Thanks 4 Giving, another innovative shared revenue program launched in 2005 as part of its annual Global Rhythms concerts at the Harris Theater, through which CHRP has partnered with more than 100 Chicago-based nonprofits to raise funds for a wide variety of service agencies
participation in the 5th Anniversary Beijing International Dance Festival, assembling 70 artists to represent the United States
establishment of the American Rhythm Center (ARC), providing a shared, affordable and sustainable education, rehearsal and administrative facility for several leading Chicago arts organizations in the historic Fine Arts Building
curating the first ever, full-length performance of concert tap dance on a main stage of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 7, 2012

CHRPâ€™s vision is to establish the first global center for American tap and percussive arts, which will create a complete ecosystem of education, performance, creation and community in a state-of-the-art facility uniting generations of diverse artists and the general public. For information visit chicagotap.org.

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