Michelle Dorrance and Nicholas Young to Receive JUBA! Awards This Fall

The Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP), which creates community through American tap and contemporary percussive arts in world-class, innovative performance, education and outreach programs, hosts its 26th Jubalee Gala.

CHRP honors MacArthur Fellowship (Genius) and Princess Grace Award-winning choreographer-performer Michelle Dorrance and STOMP star, Bessie Award winner and master teacher-choreographer Nicholas Young with the JUBA! Award for Extraordinary Contributions to the Field for their groundbreaking collaboration on Dorrance Dance's ETM: Double Down.

The event takes place November 4, featuring a sneak peek of the Chicago premiere of ETM: Double Down at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago.

The Jubalee offers patrons several options to experience the work of Dorrance and Young and meet the artists on November 4. Supporters may attend one or all of the day's events, including: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. VIP Lunch and Rehearsal Preview 7 p.m. Pre-performance cocktail reception 7:30 p.m. Sneak peek of the Chicago premiere of ETM: Double Down 9:30 p.m. VIP post-performance dessert reception with Dorrance, Young and the company.

Proceeds from this event support CHRP's summer Tap Scholar program, which provides scholarships to deserving, talented teens and enables them to study tap and percussive arts with world-class artists, as well as year-round, free, rhythm-based arts education programs in Chicago Public Schools more than ten thousand children every year.

Founder and artistic director of Dorrance Dance, Michelle Dorrance is one of the most sought-after tap dancers of her generation. A 2015 MacArthur Fellow, 2014 Alpert Award Winner and 2013 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award Winner, Dorrance performs, teaches and choreographs throughout the world. Mentored by Gene Medler, she grew up performing with the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble and has since performed with STOMP, Savion Glover's ti dii, Manhattan Tap, Barbara Duffy & Co, JazzTap Ensemble, Rumba Tap, Ayodele Casel's Diary of a Tap Dancer, Mable Lee's Dancing Ladies, Harold Cromer's original Opus One, Derick Grant's Imagine Tap and Jason Samuels Smith's Charlie's Angels/Chasing the Bird.

Nicholas Young, New York-based dancer, musician and choreographer, spent nine years as a lead in the cast of the off-Broadway sensation STOMP. Young began his professional career at age 16 with Tapestry Dance Company of Austin, Texas. Under the direction of Acia Gray and Deirdre Strand, he eventually rose to principal dancer and resident choreographer. The Austin Critics Council named him "Best Male Dancer" in 2001 and honored him for "Best Choreography" in 2003. Since moving to New York, Young has performed with Manhattan Tap, Rumba Tap, Hoofing to Hitting with Jared Grimes, "Jazz in Motion" with Sarah and Leela Petronio in Paris and most recently with Dorrance Dance. He has been a master teacher for festivals worldwide, including CHRP's Rhythm World, where he has expanded his Institute For The Rhythmic Arts, a groundbreaking, integrated approach to foot, hand, body and vocal percussion.

Past JUBA! Award recipients include Tommy Tune, Gregory Hines, Bill Irwin, Savion Glover, Fayard Nicholas, Maurice Hines, Luke Cresswell, American Airlines, TARGET, Richard G. Weinberg, Elaine Cohen, Mayor and Mrs. Richard M. Daley, Ted and Susan Oppenheimer, Bill Kurtis and Donna LaPietra, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Patti Eylar and Charles Gardner and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

For the November 4 Jubalee, as well as November 5 and 6, Dorrance Dance performs ETM: Double Down, co-presented by CHRP, the Chicago Humanities Festival and the MCA and supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as a part of the 35th anniversary of its renowned Fellowship Program. ETM--electronic tap music--is a nod to electronic dance music; in this project, three musicians, the B-girl Ephrat "Bounce" Asherie and eight tap dancers of Dorrance Dance perform on handmade electronic tap dance instruments. Dorrance has a contemporary physicality unique in tap, and the sound from the electronic tap instruments, which collaborator Nicholas Young created inspired by drum triggers, transforms the stage.

Tickets to CHRP's Jubalee Gala, including the sneak peek full-length performance of ETM: Double Down by Dorrance Dance, are $150 (concert only), $250 (concert and either lunch or dessert reception) and $500 (lunch, concert and dessert reception). To purchase tickets or tables, or for information about sponsorships, call 312-542-2477, write toinfo@chicagotap.org or visit chicagotap.org. Tickets also are available by visiting Eventbrite.com and entering Michelle Dorrance in the Search field.

For 26 years, Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP) has helped to foster the revival of American tap dance throughout North and South America, Australia, Europe and Asia. CHRP presents the oldest and largest annual festival of American tap and percussive dance in the world-Rhythm World-and has expanded through community outreach, ongoing education programs in public elementary and high schools, commissions of new work, innovative conferences for the field and a commitment to social reconciliation and local investment. CHRP led the development of Chicago's shared dance/arts space, the American Rhythm Center, which offers daily dance classes for children, teens, adults and seniors.

During the last 26 years, CHRP has educated and performed globally for millions of people; received an Emmy Award nomination, as well as national airings, for JUBA! Masters of Tap and Percussive Dance, which was co-produced with ITVS and WTTW/Channel 11; earned an NEA American Masterpieces grant administered by the Illinois Arts Council Agency; curated the first full-length tap concert in any of the Kennedy Center's three largest theaters for a sold-out audience of 1,100 in the Eisenhower Theater; provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in tap dance scholarships to more than 300 deserving, talented teens; and, most recently, led a collaborative effort to establish a shared dance/arts space in the center of the Chicago Cultural Mile: the American Rhythm Center (ARC). CHRP'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.

Pictured: Nicholas Young and Michelle Dorrance by Matthew Murphy.

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