Joel Hall Master Class & Legacy Event

 

Joel Hall has achieved an international reputation for developing a unique urban jazz dance style. Incorporating jazz, modern, funk, ballet, and street dance, Joel’s innovative and continuously evolving dance style is appealing, relevant, and approachable. ​Joel’s company, the Joel Hall Dancers (JHD) has a rich, 40-plus year history, beginning with the company’s inception in 1974. Now over 4 decades “young” — JHD continues to dazzle audiences in venues throughout Chicago, the country, and the world with its substantive sociological content and engaging aesthetic style. Over the years, Joel Hall has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including lifetime achievement awards from the Jazz Dance World Congress, the African American Arts Alliance, and The Chicago Dance & Music Alliance. He has received the Katherine Dunham Award, two Merit Awards from the Black Theater Alliance, is profiled in The History Makers series online, and has served as one of Mayor Harold Washington’s international ambassadors for the arts.

 

 

Jenai Cutcher is the founding director of Chicago Dance History Project (CDHP), and received the 2019 Ruth Page Award for her work with CDHP. Her creative practice spans the page, the stage, and the screen and includes dancing, choreographing, teaching, and researching histories of dance. She has performed with tap dance artists such as Brenda Bufalino, Michelle Dorrance, Barbara Duffy, John Giffin, Savion Glover, Derick Grant, Max Pollak, and Lynn Schwab, and her choreography has been presented throughout the country. She has written articles for several dance publications including Dance magazine and the Village Voice, three dance books for children, and Columbus Moves: A Brief History of Contemporary Dance. Her first feature-length documentary, Thinking On Their Feet: Women of the Tap Renaissance, explores the work of the women who resurrected and revolutionized the art of American tap dance and continue to pioneer the field. Jenai has a BA in English and MFA in Dance, both from The Ohio State University. In addition to directing CDHP, she teaches tap dance at Northwestern University and is an artist-in-residence with Chicago Park District.

Jacqueline Sinclair has been as a member of the Joel Hall Dancers for nearly thirty years, where she has originated roles in many of Hall’s acclaimed works and toured nationally and internationally with the company. She has also performed in the works of Sarita Smith-Childs, Lisa Johnson-Willingham, Ray Mercer, Troy Powell, James Morrow, William Gill, Joel Valentin-Martinez and Jarrett Rashad Kelly. After several years as the company’s Rehearsal Director she was promoted to Assistant Artistic Director. Today she serves the organization as Artistic Director and Executive Director. Jacqueline recently codified the Joel Hall Jazz Dance Method: Breathing Floor Barre LLC. After studying and performing the method throughout her performing career she is excited to launch a teacher’s certification program through Joel Hall University. Ms. Sinclair holds a BA in Dance from Columbia College of Chicago, a secondary teacher’s certification from Northeastern Illinois University and an MA in Theatre from Northwestern University. She is currently Director of Dance at Maine South High School.