South Side Tap Dancer To Receive $25,000 Grant From 3Arts

Jumaane Taylor (pictured) is one of 10 Chicago artists who will soon be accepting a $25,000 grant to support his professional tap dancing endeavors. Photo Credit: William Frederking.
Jumaane Taylor (pictured) is one of 10 Chicago artists who will soon be accepting a $25,000 grant to support his professional tap dancing endeavors. Photo Credit: William Frederking.

South Side Tap Dancer To Receive $25,000 Grant From 3Arts

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

3Arts, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization, will soon give 10 Chicago artists $25,000 each in unrestricted grants during the 12th Annual 3Arts Awards Celebration. The event will take place on Nov. 4 at the Museum of Contemporary Art and among the artists receiving awards that night, Jumaane Taylor, a professional tap dance artist, will be one of five African American artists to accept the award.

Growing up on the south side of Chicago in Hyde Park and in the south suburbs, Taylor feels lucky to have been exposed to tap dance at a young age and said that he instantly felt passionate about tap dance as an art form. He went to primary school in the Hyde Park area and attended Kenwood Academy briefly before transferring to Sammy Dyer School of the Theatre where he was connected with teachers and peers who helped him hone his craft.

“My mom had me and my sisters at a school called the Sammy Dyer School of the Theater. They had me doing tap dancing and acrobatics but I would say really, as soon as I started tap dancing at the Sammy Dyer School, I was pretty addicted to the art form. I started tap dancing at seven years old and by 10, just three years in, I was pretty serious about tap dancing,” said Taylor.

During that time, Taylor did everything he could to learn how to tap dance to the best of his ability. His perseverance led to several notable accolades including receiving a Chicago Dancemakers Forum 2017 Lab Artist Award, performing at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Jazz Institute of Chicago, creating his own tap dance production, and becoming a tap dance teacher at several institutions including the Sammy Dyer School of the Theatre and the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

“Teaching has played a big role for me as far as being able to make a living tap dancing in Chicago and that kind of all expanded about five years ago,” said Taylor. “These teaching opportunities that I have were kind of unknown as far as tap dancing is concerned, a tap dancer teaching in a ballet school, a tap dancer teaching in a modern dance-based school, or even a tap dancer teaching at Roosevelt University without a degree for the musical theater majors was unknown to me so it’s just been a blessing,” said Taylor.

The $25,000 that Taylor is receiving from 3Arts is unrestricted and he said that being awarded this grant means that it’s time for him to start creating. He plans on using the money to collaborate with other artists, host tap dance performances, create original artwork, and overall, just uplift tap dance as an art form in Chicago and increase people’s exposure to tap dance.

“When I see that $25,000, I’m thinking that I just gotta get to work, I gotta do some things and I have to create,” said Taylor. “I’m looking forward to going to work and seeing who’s willing to accept more from this art form.”

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