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When I was coming up,” says Bril Barrett, “you could count the number of professional Black tap dancers in this city on one hand and have fingers left over.” Which is why he and fellow Chicago dancer-choreographer Martin “Tré” Dumas III created a pipeline to propel kids toward professional dance careers. In 2001, fresh from touring with Riverdance, the pair founded M.A.D.D. Rhythms, a Bronzeville-based tap academy and professional troupe.
The mission was a success, but the partnership didn’t last: Dumas stepped away in 2007, citing a difference of opinion about how to run the company. He remained distant until about five years ago, when the two men reconciled. “Both of us grew up,” says Barrett. “Mending the fences started with coming together and having conversations we’d never had. We went through some things emotionally to reconnect as brothers.” Now they’re celebrating the 25th anniversary of M.A.D.D. (an acronym for Making a Difference Dancing) by each performing a personal dream show for a double bill at the company’s annual Chicago Tap Summit.
With Oscar Plays Gerswhin, Barrett, 51, revisits jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, whose version of George Gershwin’s “Summertime” has been a frequent track for improvised dance solos over the years. For this performance, Barrett tackles not only that song but Peterson’s full 1959 album interpreting Gershwin’s catalog. (As a young dancer, Barrett played the CD until it was so worn out, he had to buy a new one.) Dumas’s My Personal Stash takes cues from his late father, a session musician who formed the Chicago funk-soul band Rasputin Stash in the early ’70s. “This show is a love letter to my dad, his bandmates, and the music I grew up with — really, my musical and rhythmic foundation,” says Dumas, 56. Beyond that, the dual performance also symbolizes the rekindling of two men’s friendship as they share the same stage equally for the first time in nearly two decades.
Barrett and Dumas perform October 3 at the Harold Washington Cultural Center.
Lauren Warnecke is a freelance writer for Chicago magazine.
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