The mission of the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center (CMDC) is to offer the highest quality dance instruction in an environment that celebrates the diversity of its students and the community. Artistic Director Homer Bryant has been changing lives through dance for 25 years, providing a safe and welcoming environment for students of all abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds to pursue serious dance training.

 

CMDC is the only contemporary ballet school in the world that teaches Hiplet™, a ballet class that fuses classical pointe technique with Hip-Hop and urban dance styles. Bryant created and trademarked Hiplet™ to make ballet accessible to all, by mixing it with current popular songs that will be familiar to audiences who don’t normally attend ballet performances.

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CMDC takes risks by pushing the envelope of classical technique, and creating new steps that can be danced in pointe shoes. Often these steps are misjudged by classical Ballet purists to be incorrect technique. However the steps are carefully thought out to ensure that they are done in a way that is not injurious or detrimental to the student. For example Hip Hop dance is very earthy and requires a lot of bent knees and movements low to the ground. Translated into Hiplet, dancers execute a lot of movement fully on pointe with bent knees and undulating torsos. Homer Bryant has used his years of experience in anatomy and physiology to ensure that the Hiplet technique employs the proper core muscles, strong ankles and quadriceps. Students must also master the traditional classical technique first, prior to training in Hiplet