Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s STONE SOUP RHYTHMS

Description

Stone Soup Rhythms (SSR), the resident ensemble of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, is a collective of emerging and established tap dance artists and musicians who honor tradition, but also bring art form firmly into the 21st Century. The name, Stone Soup Rhythms, refers to a fable in which an outsider brings a small, fearful village together to work for the communal good. Our work parallels this story as we use rhythm as a universal language through which people find affinity with what they recognize and respect for that which they see as different.
 
Now led by one the most celebrated tap dance choreographers, dancers and visionaries in the United States, Jumaane Taylor, Stone Soup Rhythms will expand upon its large and eclectic repertoire with new works being premiered throughout 2023 and 2024. SSR connects the ancient and sacred roots of percussive dance to the urban vibe of personal expression and innovation to create a feast of sound and movement. Current  Repertory includes works by World Champion Dani Borak, MacArthur Genius Michelle Dorrance, Emmy Award winner Ted Louis Levy, CHRP Founder and Director Lane Alexander, sand master Guillem Alonso, Step Afrika! Artistic Director Jakari JcKo Sherman, Jumaane Taylor and others.

Work Sample

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/353921855

July 2019, Columbia College, 55 minutes, view 42:32
Choreography: Dani Borak
Dancers: Jessica Tenbusch, KJ Sheldon, Megan Davis, Tristan Bruns, Time Brickey, Davon Suttles, Matt Pospeshil, Daniel Borak
“When I Look In Your Eyes”
Music: Outkast
Dancers: Full Cast
“PJ & Rooster”
Music: Outkast
Dancers: Full Cast and special guest Aleksandr Ostanin
“Don’t”
Music: Ed Sheeran
Dancers: Full cast and special guest Donnetta Jackson
“Funknroll”
Music: Prince
Dancers: Full Cast, Davon Suttles
“Sound & Color”
Music: Alabama Shakes
Dancers: Full Cast
“Paradise Circus”
Music: Massive Attack
Dancers: Jessica Tenbusch and Daniel Borak
“Fragile”
Music: Tech N9ne ft. Kendrick Lamar, !MAYDAY! & Kendall Morgan
Dancers: Full Cast
“Movement 11”
Music: Bugge Wesseltoft, Henrik Schwarz, and Dan Berglund
Dancers: Jessica Tenbusch, KJ Sheldon, Megan Davis, Daniel Borak
“Escualo”
Music: A. Piazzolla and Cinzia Merlin
Dancers: Daniel Borak
“Unsquare Dance”
Music: Dave Brubeck and The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Dancers: Full Cast
“Yoyk”
Music: Bugge Wessletoft
Dancers: Full Cast, Megan Davis and Tristan Bruns (soloists)
“Alien”
Music Modul 18 by Nik Barscht
Dancers: Full Cast
“Rytme”
Music: Bugge Wesseltoft
Full Cast
“Fusion”
Music: Take a Quick Break by Bugge Wesseltoft, Henrik Schwarz, and Dan Berglund
Dancers: Full Cast, with Sam Crouch

‘Ugly Flavors’ work in progress presented in 2020, by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum and Dance Center at Columbia College. Sample running time 24 minutes. Ugly Flavors, covers Ornette Coleman's 'The Shape of Jazz To Come’, then Igor Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'. Choreographing a new layer of rhythmical dynamics for the two legendary compositions, as the tap dancers celebrate their relationship to the earth.
 
This tap dance offering uses a combination of these masterful music recordings built for challenging the ear. The two compositions, ‘The Shape of Jazz to Come’ and ‘Rite of Spring’ present an everlasting display of sound progression within both. Those ideas they composed in the early 1900s sonically express the human experience. Choreographing to both genre shifting works, I hope to deliver a tap interpretation inspired by those originals. As in Vaslav Nijinsky’s 1913 choreography that perfectly complimented Stravinsky. Resurrecting these works with characters of humanity in tap dancing, and narrating percussive movements that can present another profound level of understanding tap. With Coleman’s 1959 classic entitlement to shape a genre for the future, the art form of tap is past due of a response.

I have a strong belief that jazz music, or groundbreaking musical compositions and tap dance should religiously be worshiping and creating with one another. These proclaimed masterful compositions set a standard that I live by, the melody, the improvisation, the expressions. All these notes being played can be understood and played back by a tap dancer, some call them hoofers. I am an extension of the hoofers, representing these originals and parallels to timelessness. Telling rhythmical stories to be effective no matter how ugly it may seem.

History

Stone Soup Rhythms started as a project based ensemble in 2004 with funding from Lane Alexander’s Illinois Arts Council Choreography Fellowship and his Chicago Dancemakers Forum Award. Its repertory has always included a wide range of works representing; traditional works by American hoofers, eg Buster Brown, Eddie Brown, Honi Coles; contemporary works by Lane Alexander and Dani Borak as well as guest artists MacArthur Genius Michelle Dorrance, Guillem Alonso, Jakari Sherman, Ted Louis Levy; and new works by CHRP’s new Artistic Director, Jumaane Taylor. The company has appeared at: the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater; Beijing’s Festival Hall as a part of the 5th Anniversary International Dance Festival; the Floripa Festival in Florianopolis, Brazil; Encontro Ritmo in Barcelona, Spain; as well as Chicago venues like the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, the Auditorium Theater, the MCA/Chicago, Dance Center of Columbia College. Stone Soup Rhythms has received critical acclaim for the breadth and quality of its performances, education programs and community outreach. The ensemble is now under the leadership of renowned and visionary choreographer Jumaane Taylor who is creating a new full length show for Stone Soup Rhythms - Cheap Suites and Hotels -  to be premiered in 2023.

Artistic Vision

I hope to continue to resurrect the standard for tap dance culture and acknowledge the importance of musicality in the movement, a kind of musicality that only tap dance can contribute to. Then to build on the masterful principles of this form, I am aspiring to create amongst the legacy of revolutionary art. My goal is to play the most beautiful but most progressive rhythms possible as a hoofer, sending vibrations of syncopation that span the galaxy with levels of divinity. While incorporating theatrics to invite room for life-changing moments of meditation derived from the dance. Either in stillness or tap dance steps, I am tapping into a clearer understanding of life. Giving thanks through tap for audiences to have their lives changed by the rhythmical work.

Programs for Specific Audience(s) Expertise

Stone Soup Rhythms repertory spans 100 years of American dance and music traditions and can be tailored to reach young, middle aged and elders members of the community. We enjoy collaborating with presenters and communities to design a program that will appeal to their audience and then introduce them to something they may have never seen or heard before. We believe that it is important to provide an experience that makes audiences comfortable and then - potentially - makes their eyes open a little wider. The venue and nature of the performance also influence the content. If it is in a school setting, there will almost certainly be a participatory moment in the program.

Traditional Folk/Ethnic Artform Statement

This question shines a light on the special place that American tap dance occupies in the American dance community. With roots in African and Irish cultural traditions, theatrical and jazz music venues, in popular culture and on the concert stage, American tap dance is sometimes considered a traditional or ethnic dance, but that can also be limiting in the way that presenters look at the art form and the way they think their audiences may receive the art form. The tap dance community is extremely diverse aesthetically and ethnically and belongs in contemporary society beside the “high” art forms of French ballet and German modern dance.