Riffin': A Jazz-Danced Celebration of Human Interaction

Rhythmically Speaking is thrilled to return to indoor live performance this November with Riffin’: A Jazz-Danced Celebration of Human Interaction. We are glad to be back home at the Amsterdam Bar & Hall, the same space that has hosted all three of our CHILL Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack productions. This time around, we’ll be celebrating our shared human status as social animals: creatures that thrive off interacting with not only one another, but also complex rhythms and grooves! RS will use their signature groove, interaction and improvisation-based approach to jazz dance to enlivening this concept, along with a combo of live jazz musicians led by guitarist and composer Mike Lauer. Come share in live music and movement and the moment (and a pint and a meal while you are at it) with us and each other in a beloved physical, social space (remember those?)!

WHAT: Riffin’: A Jazz-Danced Celebration of Human Interaction
WHEN: Wednesday, 11/3 & Thursday, 11/4 @ 7:30pm
WHERE: Amsterdam Bar & Hall in downtown St. Paul, MN
TICKETS: visit our website at www.rhythmicallyspeakingdance.org

A ‘riff’ is an ‘energetic, often improvised (verbal) outpouring,’ ‘a succinct or witty comment,’ or a distinct variation or “take” on something’ (Merriam Webster). Playing off this and a counterpoint to the idea of ‘ripping off’ or stealing, ‘riffing off’ is a jazz term meaning ‘to borrow and elaborate on.’ This is how we humans navigate our lives – improvising our way from one interaction with one another to the next as we weave our way through our life experiences. Consequently, ‘riffing off one another’ is also a major component of how RS approaches jazz dance – creating improvised interactions off each other, complex jazz music, word prompts, the environments in which we are dancing, etc.

At Riffin’, audiences will be able to experience a taste of each of these ways of riffing, along with others! This concept will also be riffed off in the creation of a special tap beer created by music director Mike Lauer in collaboration with Hutchinson’s Bobbing Bobber Brewery and hosted by Amsterdam. Company dancers performing in this production include Doug Hooker, Amy Jones, Sara Karimi, RS Artistic Director Erinn Liebhard, Kathleen Pender, John Surber and Crissy Tolson. This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.