Groovers & Makers 2026: 4 Takes on Jazz Dance

A group of movers and shakers in jazz dance - the Rhythmically Speaking company dancers (the Groovers) and four select local and visiting choreographers (the Makers) - unite to offer four inspiring takes on and via this vibrant art form. This 18th RS Summer production continues our annual tradition of commissioning new work by local choreographers while providing opportunities for dance artists based outside of Minnesota to show their work here. The Groovers & Makers 2026 line-up features:

• Karla Grotting (Twin Cities-local): Karla is a celebrated dance artist with McKnight Fellowship and Citypages ‘Artist of the Year’ awards to prove it and a unique approach to jazz that is a sum of her deep and varied experiences. Grotting’s new work uses the hard swinging, emotionally wide-ranging, irresistible grooves of Danish group The Saxopaths and inter-Scandinavian composer Snorre Kirk to drive exploration of how we dialogue with our own thoughts. 
• Erinn Liebhard (RS Artistic & Executive Director): Erinn is a leading force in jazz dance performance and education locally, nationally and internationally, through her work on RS, creation for other companies and college programs, her collegiate teaching, and academic writing. Her new work for the show considers human fascination with time travel, exploring the rub between how we fallible are and time is not - at least not right now. 
• Maiya Redding (New York, NY): Maiya is an Assistant Professor in the Hofstra University dance program who was recently commissioned to create a new work for the Joel Hall Dancers (Chicago). Redding will be creating a work that reflects the music she was raised listening to while growing up in Chicago - classic jazz and house - exploring the duality and the similarities between them through jazz movement.
• Alexis Robbins (New Haven, CT): Alexis is the director of kamrDANCE tap company and a recent New England Dance Fund awardee. Robbins will be creating a tap dance piece through the lens of contemporary jazz that explores how we can collectively communicate through rhythm and learn more about ourselves in the process.

Learn more about this year's choreographers here. The production will run a gamut of feelings and concepts while showing a breadth of what ‘jazz and American social dance-inspired’ can mean, and will be danced by RS company members Malia Craft, Jayde Grass, Doug Hooker, Amy Jones, Sara Karimi, Erinn Liebhard, Kelli Miles, Shannon Mulcahy, Jake Nehrbass, Kathleen Pender and Betsy Schaefer-Roob. 

 

Though the format and name of our annual Summer production has shifted throughout the years, it has always delivered innovative, vibrant and thought-provoking takes on jazz and American social dance ideas. We take great care to engage artists that share our appreciation of jazz - and related styles - as forms that encourage simultaneous expression of difference and similarity, creating community through their common roots of groove, interaction and improvisation. Come catch the vibes!

Tickets
Tickets are priced at $25.00, $40.00 and $60.00, with a Pay As Able (i.e. any amount above $10.00) performance on 8/1 at 2pm. Please choose the option that feels most appropriate for your situation. If you’re able to pay beyond the price of the standard general admission ticket of $25.00, please consider selecting the $40.00 or $60.00 ticket cost, as these pricings are more reflective and supportive of the true cost of staging an original production like this.