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Jumaane Taylor, Rhythmic Fever.

Today, we honor the life and legacy of an artist whose work continues to echo through floors, hearts, and histories.

Jumaane Taylor is a vessel. A master of rhythm, a hoofer, student of the ancestors, a faithful steward and leader of tap dance in its truest, most unfiltered form.

He has taught so many of us not just to dance, but to listen. His body of work reflects an expansive spiritual calling to protect the rhythm, reframe the narrative, and restore tap dance to its place in the Black cultural continuum.

Whether he's shedding with the force of Coltrane in his veins, or speaking on legacy with the humility of a servant-leader, Jumaane walks in divinity that is both inherited and earned.

He dances like God is watching.

And in many ways, that's what makes his work sacred.

A native of Chicago, Jumaane began dancing at the age of seven at the historic Sammy Dyer School of the Theatre. He trained under powerful educators and culture-bearers absorbing legacy early on and carrying it forward with intention.

His performance credits include Imagine Tap! (2006), Tap Into Peace (2009), and Tap Stars in Hamburg. He has collaborated with live bands like Corey Wilkes’ Abstrakt Pulse and Sidewalk Chalk, bridging live music and tap dance as sonic, embodied fine art.

In 2015, Jumaane created Supreme Love, honoring John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. This work has premiered at major festivals and venues including Jacob’s Pillow, Toronto International Tap Dance Festival, The Harris Theater, and the Dance Center at Columbia College.

Through Heel and Toe Productions and the Jazz Hoofing Quartet, his work has redefined tap’s relationship to music, space, and spiritual memory. From Ugly Flavors to Cheap Suites and Hotels, his choreography has earned the Black Excellence 2024 Outstanding Choreographer Award, honoring his visionary work.

He is a 3Arts Awardee, a Chicago Dancemakers Lab Artist, and serves as Artistic Director of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project. His work has been presented by MCA Chicago, the Jazz Institute, and internationally.

I’ve had the honor of witnessing his process, his devotion, his absolute fearlessness, his tenderness, his precision. He is light years beyond us all.

To be seen by him, to create with him, to laugh with him, to be challenged by him has been part of my own unfolding. I carry that with gratitude, always.

A practitioner of the truth. He is the echo and the future. The dancer and the source, and rhythm made flesh.

Happy Birthday, Jumaane. Thankful for you!

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Camille A. Brown: Giant Steps

I’ve been sitting with the 15-minute documentary: Giant Steps, which follows Camille A. Brown - 5-time Tony-nominated director and choreographer of Broadway’s Gypsy and Hell’s Kitchen - through her process as a choreographer and director.

Watching it was both affirming and emotional. Her work isn’t tap dance, but it is deeply rooted in the Afro Diaspora which is why it feels like home.

Camille fills space in ways that feel familiar. Her commitment to telling our stories with full-bodied urgency reflects something I think a lot of us in this line of work carry. There’s a rigor in her process, but also a tenderness. It’s the balance that inspires me.

She says something in the film about what it costs to be the first or only. About how shattering glass ceilings also means the glass falls on you. We don’t always talk about the weight that comes with being “the first” or “the only” especially as Black women navigating historically codified or gatekept spaces.

It’s revolutionary that she was the first Black woman in more than 60 years to both direct and choreograph a Broadway production. Sixty-seven years. (Since Katherine Dunham). So when I see her walking into those spaces bringing her full self, it reminds me why any of this matters.

I’m sharing because I believe in what Camille is doing, and I think more of us need to see ourselves reflected not just on stage but behind the scenes, in the process, and in the blueprint.

This documentary is one of those reflections.

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Jimmy Slyde.

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Salt in the Soil. (forthcoming)

Thankful everyday!

Happy Tap Dance Day.

Set to Madlib's "Montara".

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Why are they laughing; we are on the verge of the last war in the world. — Bill T. Jones

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Rhythm in Season: Tap Day, Community, and What’s Next

In this third edition of the Mindful Movement with Shanzell newsletter, we reflect on what it means to honor rhythm as inheritance and movement as offering.

From celebrating Tap Dance Day to spotlighting artists like Dulé Hill and Maurice Chestnut, this issue holds space for both legacy and what’s next.

It’s a meditation on obedience, artistic process, and the communal pulse that continues to guide our steps.

🌱 What’s blooming this season:

✨ Features include:

Tap Dance Birthdays: April + May

Spotlight on Dulé Hill

National Tap Dance Day Tribute to Bill “Bojangles” Robinson

Spotlight on Maurice Chestnut

Upcoming Events: Chicago, NYC, LA, and Online

Support Opportunities: Become a Sponsor or Partner

New Work in Process: Invitation to Dancers & Musicians

Weekly Classes & Sign-Up Info

Closing Reflection + Scripture

📖 Read the Full Newsletter Here »

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VIA IG; @tyedric_hill 👉🏾 All these forms of music and movement rotate on the same axis: the cultural experience of the Afro Diaspora. The past and future intersect at the now.

We are connected to all that came before us and everything that comes after.

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Did y'all know the dancers in Sinners weren't credited?

They gave us ancestral spirits, cultural memory, and cinematic history-and didn't get a single line in the credits. This isn't on Coogler or MBJ. This is an industry-wide issue. Dancers are not extras. They are the movement, the texture, the symbolism.

So @melanymovez via IG did the research & found out who they were, what they danced, and who they represented. From West African tradition to modern ballet, twerking, Memphis Jookin, Crip Walking and Chinese opera-they carried the emotional weight and historical heartbeat of the film.

(TIMESTAMP) 14:36 - Dancer Credits

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What a journey.

Mindful Movement with Shanzell was chosen as a recipient of the FedEx Entrepreneur Fund, and the support has been next-level. From mentorship to financial strategy to branding gems, it’s been a full-circle reminder that our stories matter and deserve to be resourced.

Now and over these past few months, I continue teaching, creating, dreaming up new work, building partnerships from the ground up, and dancing in my living room just to keep the rhythm alive.

Thank you @FedEx and @HelloAlice for seeing me. I am so moved and so ready for what’s to come.

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Toni Morrison.

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The body as oracle.

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Langston Hughes, The First Book of Rhythm, Illustration by Robin King, Franklin Watts, New York, NY, 1954, pp. 6-7

Had to collect more of these in one place. First seen at @garadinervi. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5974919-the-first-book-of-rhythms

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✨ A Celebration of Women, A Year in Rhythm, A New Generation Rising ✨

March marked more than Women’s History Month for me, it marks one full year since I launched Mindful Movement with Shanzell, a space rooted in tradition, purpose, and the art of honoring what often goes unnamed.

This special anniversary newsletter is both reflection and offering honoring those who came before us, recognizing those walking with us, and investing in those still on their way.

To the women who’ve shaped the sound and soul of tap. To jazz women whose instruments carried us across time. To mentors and elders, unsung heroes, and future icons. To every dancer, dreamer, and rhythm keeper.

This issue also celebrates:

The 2025 Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant (featuring mentee Justin Strozier)

The launch of The Billie J. Legacy Scholarship and The Shepherd’s Steps Fund

A tribute to educator, artist, and community matriarch, Sheila Miller-Graham 💐

Tap dancer birthdays, community shout-outs, and a spotlight on visionary women like Pamela Yasutake, Josette Wiggan, Quynn Johnson, and Chloe Arnold

📖 Click below to read the full newsletter, and tap into what it means to build something from love, with love:

👉🏾 Read the March Newsletter »