Chicago Human Rhythm Project turns 20.
It’s National Tap Dance Day this month. Do you know where our largest tap-dance organization is?
In terms of year-round presenting and one huge festival, it’s in Chicago and celebrating its 20th anniversary this year—though the Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s longevity hasn’t come easy. Director and cofounder Lane Alexander says that establishing a stable percussive-dance organization “is like scaling Mount Everest. You can get close, but most don’t make it to the top.” He has a few theories about that. A tap dancer himself, he notes that the form is all about improvisation. “So it’s hard to focus on planning. Also, tap is primarily thought of for soloists—and you don’t need an organization for soloists.”
CHRP is perhaps best known for Rhythm World, a summer festival of workshops and performances that has presented Savion Glover, Jimmy Slyde, and Gregory Hines as well as Jason Samuels Smith, Derick K. Grant, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and Jason Janas. Global Rhythms, an international showcase now annually staged in November at Chicago’s Harris Theater for Music and Dance, is also high profile, with past guests such as Barbatuques of São Paulo and Tapeplas of Barcelona. More local events include a student Winter Tap Jamboree and Windy City Rhythms, a performance on or around May 25 in celebration of National Tap Dance Day. This year, however, CHRP hosts 20 small events (in honor of its anniversary) in Chicago throughout May. Then, from May 27 to May 29, its resident ensemble BAM! performs at Dance St. Louis’ regional Spring to Dance Festival.
Though CHRP is now a national—and even international—presenting and advocacy institution, it started small. Back in the day, Alexander says, he and cofounder Kelly Michaels (who died in 1995) had to do “a lot of breaking doors down. But now dance presenters think that if you’re representing the spectrum of dance, it’s not complete without tap.”
Tapper Dianne (“Lady Di”) Walker can appreciate the hard work it’s taken to get to this point, having been involved with CHRP since its inception. She says that after the very first performance “we all went to a fast-food chain, and we sat around in that booth, so excited about the project. Lane laid his hopes and dreams out that day.
“What he’s created is like an empire, but he didn’t build it for himself.” From day one, Walker says, “Lane has focused on building the community through education.”
Peter Taub, director of performance programs at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, calls Alexander “an ambassador of tap and rhythm.” Their work together since 2001 has resulted in Rhythm Asia in 2004 and the first two Global Rhythms shows, in 2005 and 2006—and the museum is still home to some CHRP shows. Taub adds that when CHRP wanted to stretch to a larger venue (the Harris), “Lane’s creativity, gumption, and energy enabled him to pull that off.” In part, Alexander’s creation of an innovative revenue-sharing sales program, Thanks4Giving, made the move possible.
Alexander is currently working on a tap curriculum for the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy, enabling students at the Chinese university to get a degree in American tap dance (called ti ta wu in Chinese). Dancers there, he says, love Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson but don’t know a thing about Fred Astaire.
But Alexander’s big dream is less global: He’d like to create an American Rhythm Center, a permanent facility with classrooms for percussive dance, a performance space, and administrative offices. Dreaming big has worked for him before, and maybe it will again.
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