Rhythmically Speaking Presents Groovers & Makers 2025, August 14-16 at Southern Theater

Groovers & Makers 2025 runs August 14-16 at Southern Theater

Rhythmically Speaking (RS) has announced their newly rebranded (and 17th annual) summer production Groovers & Makers 2025: 4 Takes on Jazz Dance (formerly The Cohort) August 14-16 at the Southern Theater. Though the format and name of this annual Summer production has shifted throughout the years, it has always delivered fresh, vibrant takes on staged works inspired by jazz and American social dance ideas from exciting movers and shakers in the field. The production continues RS's tradition of commissioning the creation of new work by local choreographers while providing opportunities for dance artists who are based outside of Minnesota to show their work here. In 2022, they added a screen works segment to this program, in collaboration with the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (Boulder, CO).

The stage component of Groovers & Makers 2025 features works by an exciting line-up of choreographers (the Makers): Hannah MacKenzie-Margulies, a local artist with a strong contemporary concert dance background who is also very well-known on the swing dance teaching and competition circuit; Brandi Coleman of Dallas, TX, a long-time company member of Jump Rhythm Jazz Project (Chicago) who is currently Assistant Professor of Jazz Dance at Southern Methodist University; and Cynthia Gutierrez, director of Company Movimiento (Eugene, OR) and Assistant Professor of Dance at Gonzaga University who initially built her career in the Twin Cities. RS Artistic and Executive Director Erinn Liebhard will also have work in the show.

From MacKenzie-Margulies’ contemporary concert dance take on swing and Coleman’s vocally-dynamic approach to grounded and driven jazz, to Gutierrez’s Latin jazz vibes and Liebhard’s groove and improvisation-forward perspective, the production will run a gamut of feelings while showing a breadth of what ‘jazz and American social dance-inspired’ can mean. The show will be danced by RS company members (the Groovers) Nieya Amezquita, Malia Craft, Doug Hooker, Amy Jones, Sara Karimi, Erinn Liebhard, Kelli Miles, Jake Nehrbass, Kathleen Pender and Betsy Schaefer-Roob. Groovers & Makers 2025 will also include a screening of to-be-selected dance films by artists from all over the world: previous screen programs have included works not only from all over the USA, but also Bulgara, the UK and Spain.

Rhythmically Speaking sparks vibrancy and connectedness through jazz and American social dance ideas. With shared roots of groove, interaction and improvisation, these approaches encourage simultaneous expression of difference and similarity as a means of creating community. RS is proud to be a local and national leader in celebrating the rich history of these forms while nurturing their innovation. Since their founding in 2008, the organization has presented 111 original and remounted works and engaged 350+ artists and thousands of audience members and outreach program participants.