Jump Rhythm®
Technique is a rhythmically driven, vocally accompanied system
of dance and theater-movement education created by Billy
Siegenfeld. It is taught on a regular basis in the Chicago area at
Northwestern University, Joel Hall
Dancers and Center, and area-wide dance studios; nationally at the
University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and Randolph College;
internationally at
the Arts Academy of Turku University of Applied Sciences in Finland; and
in JUMP RHYTHM's performance-teaching residencies at festivals
throughout the United States and abroad. A one-week Jump Rhythm Summer
Intensive for both adults and teens is offered every year at
Northwestern.
Jump Rhythm®
Technique teaches
“full-bodied
rhythm-making” – transforming the moving body accompanied by the
scat-singing
voice into a dynamically charged, rhythm-accurate percussion
instrument. Students learn to perform energy-rich, offbeat-based rhythms
by turning hands, heads, feet, and other body parts into "drumbeaters"
that play accents against the “drumheads” of the space.
The technique also teaches an energy-efficient, body-healthy approach to movement
study. Using the innovative alignment concept of Standing Down
Straight ®, it anchors all technical exercises, group improvisations, and
choreography in the gravity-directed relationship of the human skeleton
to the
earth. At a time when cultures seek to produce energy without inflicting
damage
on the environmental house (ecos) they inhabit, Jump Rhythm's "green" approach proposes an ecology of motion: The ability to send powerful energies, both physical and emotional, through the
"house" of the human body free of the hypertensions and
strains often associated with serious dance practice. By guiding the
skeleton to
stand down, not up, straight; by guiding body movement to harness, not
resist, gravity;
and by guiding students to motivate dancing “from the inside out” by
focusing on expressing time-articulated energy rather than
shape-articulated space, Jump Rhythm® Technique connects individuals to the earth, to themselves, and to other people.
All
technique classes are taught to the swinging rhythms of jazz and the
blues as well as to the percussive rhythms of funk, hip-hop, and world
music. Inspired by these soulful, joy-giving sounds, Jump Rhythm both
honors and expands upon the tradition of American Rhythm Dancing - those
dances and songs featured in the work of legendary rhythmicists like
Bill Robinson, Fred Astaire, Jeni LeGon, John Bubbles, Fayard and Harold
Nicholas, Michael Kidd, Carol Haney, Bob Fosse, Gwen Verdon, Tommy
Rall, Chita Rivera, Sammy Davis, Jr., Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, Gregory
Hines, Tina Turner, and Michael Jackson.
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