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Cultural Chicago Interview with Lane Alexander

Interview with Lane Alexander, Founder, Chicago Human Rhythm Project

First of all, congratulations on the Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s (CHRP) 20th anniversary. How has the audience and environment for tap changed over that time?

Thank you for the well wishes. It has been quite a ride.The audience continues to grow and is more sophisticated as CHRP has presented extraordinary tap and percussive arts virtuosos for 20 years. They’ve seen and heard the best of every imaginable type of rhythm maker from sand dancers and body drummers to neo-Taiko drummers and hard core rhythm tappers. Audiences have a better understanding of tap as a form of percussion as well as dance. We are foot drummers and as such, composers as well as choreographers. I would also say that our audiences are getting younger as there are more and more young people studying tap again and realizing that they can tap to their own music … not just to swing jazz from the golden age of tap. At the same time, tap has a very long way to go before it achieves equal footing … no pun intended … among other dance and established cultural institutions. In Chicago.

For example, there are at least three theaters dedicated primarily to presenting contemporary dance … the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Dance Center of Columbia College and the Ruth Page Dance Center. In the entire United States of America, there isn’t a single theater dedicated to presenting American tap dance as its primary focus. The same can be said of academia. Most college and university dance programs are dominated by ballet and modern dance while tap is the “once every fourth semester” dance form seldom taught beyond a basic level. It’s a travesty that a great American art form has been kept out of universities. This is changing, but very slowly. As a matter of fact, with support from the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund, we are working with the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy to create a unified syllabus for teaching beginning through advanced tap for Chinese universities.

Does CHRP have its own style of tap? If so, how would you characterize it?

CHRP is a presenter. I sometimes say “CHRP is the Ravinia of Rhythm …” so part of our mission is to present as diverse of an array of tap and rhythm as possible within the contexts of tradition, innovation and excellence. CHRP does have a resident performing and teaching ensemble, BAM!, that has a growing repertory of dances including very traditional, post-modern and contemporary works. Within the history of tap, most people think of the great mainstream soloists … Fred Astaire, Bill Robinson, Shirley Temple, Gregory Hines, but very few people know anything about tap repertory companies that would be analogous to Hubbard Street or Giordano Jazz Dance. So even to say that we have a tap repertory company is a new concept for most of the general public.

Tap is often associated with jazz. Is that true for CHRP and if so, how?

The evolution of tap predates jazz music by more than 150 years. Tap is often associated with early jazz and swing jazz of the 1930’s and 40’s. Rhythm tappers influenced the evolution of jazz and some dance historians claim that tap dancers helped to create bebop. A gross over-simplification can be helpful to understand two basic genres of tap - European based and African based. Although Irish dancing is without a doubt a form of foot drumming, European-based tap evolved in a more presentational context - musical theater - Rockettes … .whereas African-based tap evolved into a music-making, syncopation-based, compositional context. After the heyday of tap in the movie musical, tap retreated into jazz clubs and small enclaves of dedicated rhythm tappers. These could be described as being on opposite sides of a circle with every imaginable variation existing between these two examples.

Tap dancers in the 21st century are more likely to identify themselves as percussionists or musicians - who move through space. Despite self-identification, old stereotypes die hard and whenever you utter the word “tap” - iconic images of our past cultural traditions continue to make it difficult to see tap for what it is today.

“Global Rhythms” kicks off your 20th anniversary year. How did “Thanks 4 Giving,” the shared-revenue aspect of the performances, develop? Particularly in these hard times it shows a strong commitment to the community. Is it an essential part of CHRP as a company?

100% of the proceeds from CHRP’s first concerts 20 years ago were donated to an organization called Open Hand/Chicago: a meals on wheels program for people impacted by HIV/AIDS. After several years of donating the proceeds of our single annual performance, CHRP began to grow and needed the revenue to pay its own bills. Many of our other annual programs developed revenue sharing models for the artists who could augment their fee by selling tickets to their own supporters and keeping half of the ticket price. Thanks 4 Giving took us back to our roots as a fundraiser for another organization, but was also designed as an audience development initiative that provided an opportunity for any Chicago-based nonprofit to be a part of a great show at a world class theater.

In terms of its relationship to our mission, it really resonates with many of our ideals. Collaboration, cooperation, sustainability, and most importantly of all, finding common ground. Tap dance’s roots are in Irish and African culture and it’s evolution parallels the development of the United States. The collision of cultures in America threw off many sparks and tap dance was one of the brightest and most positive. It is a cause for celebration of a shared legacy and a reminder of our shared primal instinct to make rhythm … we may all march to a different drummer, as the saying goes, but we all hear a beat. Our performance, education and community outreach programs are designed to highlight this fact and to build lasting relationships and genuine respect between diverse individuals and communities through the shared practice of and appreciation for rhythmic arts - especially TAP!

“Global Rhythms is featuring Step Afrika! Dance company this year. How would you describe stepping in general and Step Afrika! for someone who is new to this style of dance?

To quote Step Afrika! Founder and Executive Director: “Stepping is an art form that uses the body, hands, voice and feet to make music. It started when African-American college students would gather on college campuses - it was their way of expressing love and pride for their respective organizations. If you look at other dance forms, stepping is in a long line of percussive dance like tapping and “hambone.” People try to figure out its origin, but no one can really pinpoint who started it, or which fraternity or sorority did it first. Stepping is also similar to the South African dance “gumboot,” where performers dance with Wellington boots.”

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