Jump Rhythm Jazz Project to Perform as Part of UB's M&T Bank Dance Series

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Jump Rhythm Jazz Project on March 19 at 8 p.m. in the Mainstage Theatre, Center for the Arts, North Campus. The performance is sponsored by M&T Bank. There will be a pre-performance talk at 7 p.m.

Jump Rhythm Jazz Project (JRJP) is a company of rhythmically explosive, emotion-driven dancers that performs and teaches nationally and internationally.

JRJP was founded in 1990 in New York City by Billy Siegenfeld. His initial work with longtime associate Jeannie Hill made dancers, educators and critics aware of Siegenfeld and Hill's fresh take on the tradition of American rhythm dancing (Dance Magazine cited them as "a delightful latter-day Fred and Ginger"). Siegenfeld is credited with generating a style of dance built upon the rhythmic and dynamic foundations of swinging jazz music. In the fall of 1997, Siegenfeld organized JRJP into an ensemble of eight dancers to train in the technique and rehearse repertory and new works on a regular basis.

Now based in Chicago, JRJP continues to grow as a company whose concerts, workshops and classes both honor and expand upon the art of classic jazz performance -- dancing and singing in joyous, high-energy bursts of body rhythms to the syncopated sounds of swinging jazz music, the blues, Latin jazz and blues-tinged funk.

The Center for the Arts hosts JRJP for a one-week residency March 15-19.

In addition to providing master classes for UB dance students, the company will give lecture demonstrations in several schools, including Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts and Amherst Middle School. Additional activities are being planned at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, as well as Women and Children's Hospital, as part of the Center for the Art's Arts In Healthcare Initiative. The activities are provided at no cost as part of the center's community outreach initiatives. This residency is supported in part by a grant from the Amherst Arts and Culture in Public Places Board.

As Western New York's premier presenter of dance, the UB Center for the Arts places great emphasis on developing dance in our community as well as introducing children to professional dance. Since 1997, the center has conducted more than a dozen professional dance outreach projects to provide arts education for more than 23,000 students at schools primarily in the City of Buffalo.

Tickets for Jump Rhythm Jazz Project are $23.50 general admission and $13 for students (any school). Tickets are available at the Center for the Arts Box Office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and at all Ticketmaster locations, including ticketmaster.com. To charge tickets, call 1-800-745-3000; in Canada, call 416-870-8000. For group sales, call 716-645-6771. For more information, call 716-645-2787. Students (of any school) must present valid student ID at the Center for the Arts Box Office to receive discount.