Special Events: Regent Studios
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

YOU ARE INVITED to join members of the Jump Rhythm Jazz Project for an evening of inspiring dance and film.

6:00 - 7:15
Jump Rhythm Jazz Class for Adults/Teens - All Levels Welcome!
$25 - Register by contacting The Dance Inn at 781-863-5360 or e-mail office@thedanceinn.com. Class size is limited so we recommend you register today!

7:30 - 9:00
No charge - All welcome! RSVP to The Dance Inn by phone or e-mail.
"Jump Rhythm Jazz Project: Getting There" is an hour-long documentary about Jump Rhythm produced by Emmy-award winning company, HMS Media. Scott Silberstein, HMS Producer, says "This collaboration between Jump Rhythm and HMS guarantees that viewers will soar through an hour of kinetically charged television that uses dance to celebrate what it means to be exhilaratingly alive." It originally aired on WTTW11 on May 17, 2007. "Getting There" introduces television audiences to JRJP through a deft combination of dynamic rehearsal footage, insightful interviews with the dancers, and beautifully restaged excerpts from the company's repertory of dances.

And. Friday, August 17 - 5:00 - 6:00 - Informal Showcase featuring demonstrations by participants of the institute. All are welcome!

JUMP RHYTHM JAZZ PROJECT (JRJP) is a company of rhythmically explosive dancer-singer-actors based in Chicago that celebrates the timeless core of all jazz performance -- dancing and singing in high-energy bursts of swinging body rhythms to the beat-driven sounds of syncopated music.  Since its founding in New York City by Billy Siegenfeld in 1990, the company has thrilled audiences and students nationally and internationally with its rich blend of percussive musicality and story-driven dance theatre.

JRJP's affirmation of life through rhythm-based dancing and singing is shared through workshops in the JUMP RHYTHM JAZZ TECHNIQUE.  The pedagogy of this unique approach to movement learning helps transform dancing bodies and singing voices into rhythmically articulate, emotion-charged percussion instruments.  Referring to this approach, the magazine Dancer credited JRJP artistic director Siegenfeld with "inventing the first genuine jazz technique in forty years," and the magazine Dance Teacher placed him on its Twentieth Century Timeline of Choreographers and Innovators for "develop [ing] the Jump Rhythm Jazz Technique and found[ing] Jump Rhythm Jazz Project."

Based in Chicago since 1993, JRJP has continued to grow as a non-profit arts organization whose programs are supported by Illinois Arts Council, Chicago Community Trust, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation and National Performance Network.  Jump Rhythm remains grateful to these grantors as well as to presenters like Dance Center of Columbia College, Ruth Page Dance Series, Dance Chicago, Chicago Human Rhythm Project and Jazz Dance World Congress that have featured JRJP's unique approach to rhythm dancing in its annual festivals.

Senior company members teach Jump Rhythm year-round in Chicago and also at Northwestern University, where Siegenfeld is a Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence; at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, where Associate Artistic Director Jeannie Hill is on faculty; and at Randolph-Macon Women's College where Kelly Malone Dudley teaches. In addition, every summer the company leads week-long workshops in Chicago and Boston of the Jump Rhythm Jazz and Tap Intensive where students experience the diverse course offerings of the Jump Rhythm Jazz Technique. For more information, please visit us at www.jrjp.org.