Patti Rutland Jazz is a contemporary jazz and hip hop dance company based in Dothan, Alabama.  One of the most innovative dance companies in the Southeast,  PRJ combines highly energized hip hop dance styles with contemporary and classical jazz styles to create a new vocabulary of dance that appeals to diverse audiences and dancers alike.  Coupled with this highly explosive dance company is Patti Rutland Jazz’ Outreach Program which marries their professional dancers to an outlet by which they provide free weekly dance classes to under served children.

…volatile and full of almost uncontrollable energy. – DANCE MAGAZINE

Patti Rutland Jazz (PRJ) was originally founded in 1989 by Patti Rutland as a studio-centric, amateur dance company based at what was then Oz Performing Arts Center.  Years later after retiring from the studio business, Patti Rutland and Vince Vidal Johnson drew up a plan to return PRJ to the dance world at the 2005 Jazz Dance World Congress in order to compete for the much sought after “Gold Shoe” Award in the Leo’s Dancewear Choreography Competition in Chicago, IL.  It had been a dream since the beginning to win that award, since many of the choreographers she respected most in the dance world had been to that same pinnacle… and the Bronze Award already sitting on Rutland’s mantle from the 1998 competition was getting lonely.  Patti and Vince returned to the studio together, and in just a few short rehearsals assembled a “company” of dancer friends from around the country to perform at the Congress.  From those rehearsals emerged a new style of movement that blended the historically rich jazz styles that Patti had studied throughout her career with the newest organic and explosive hip hop styles that Vince brought from his music industry career as a dancer and choreographer.  The outcome of that fateful meeting of the minds not only secured the Gold Award in Chicago, but yielded attention from the dance press at the Congress and raves from audiences throughout the Congress.  This launched a whole new direction for the “new” Patti Rutland Jazz company.  PRJ’s core mission suddenly evolved and in 2006 they became a 501C-3 Non-Profit Corporation driven by a semi-professional dance company, reinvented this time to provide dance scholarship opportunities to under-served children in Dothan, AL and surrounding “Wiregrass Area” communities through its Outreach Program. The ultimate vision of this direction is to help define Dothan as a destination for dance audiences, and a vital source for future dance professionals.  To that end, PRJ operates a well-respected performance dance company comprised of young adults from many varying and cooperative dance studios, colleges and civic organizations from all over the Southeast; and professional dancers and choreographers from around the country. The dancers in this company are the essential resource necessary to provide the teachers that make these classes possible.  Through the diverse representation of multiple studios and disciplines, we are able to offer these children a wider array of training as well as unbiased exposure to the many dance resources available to them beyond our program.  Without our dance company, there would be no outreach.

While PRJ’s creative identity has emerged as a jazz, contemporary and hip-hop company; yearly in August, auditions are held to recast for the following season which are open to any dancer and welcome all disciplines of dance.  This new multilateral approach provides the atmosphere, vision and opportunity that makes PRJ one of the most compelling and innovative civic dance companies in the Southeast.

VISION

This year, PRJ will provide over $50,000.00 in scholarship money so that hundreds of children throughout the Southeast will be touched by and grow through their experiences in dance.  Through this outreach program, we enable children to enjoy the enrichment, character development and positive benefits that come from an involvement in dance.  Dance is an extremely effective tool for the development of strong work ethics, self-determination, self-esteem, positive attitude and respect for others.  We want all of our dancers to be well-rounded, culturally aware and internally enriched individuals who will remain lovers and supporters of the arts for a lifetime.

OPPORTUNITY

1. By nurturing the needs of children who would not otherwise be introduced or afforded the opportunity to dance, we feed the pool of talent and art appreciators in the community.
2. By nurturing the needs of our audience through evolving performance, we are able to reinvest our energy, money and support back into the dancer.
3. Through our connections to the professional dance world, we are able to give back to the very studios, colleges and civic organizations from which our company dancers originate by offering master classes, workshops and seminars that would otherwise be too costly or elusive for just one organization to afford.
4. Our mission is a truly cyclical and symbiotic relationship between the dancer, their home studio and our audience.

PATTI RUTLAND has worked for the past decade as a master teacher and choreographer, and is in constant demand throughout the United States.  In 2005, Patti took the top prize gold shoe at Leo Dancewear’s Choreography Event at The Jazz Dance World Congress in Chicago.  Her modern-day urban inspired jazz and hip hop piece A.M. was not only a favorite during competition evenings, but as presented in the Closing Night program, became the guerrilla pulse of the entire Congress, garnering such notices as “…volatile and full of almost uncontrollable energy.” from Dance Magazine. Dancers from Patti Rutland Jazz are currently working with Thodos Dance Chicago; attending school on dance and theatre scholarships; working in film, music, or television; and pursuing careers as master teachers and choreographers. Patti has choreographed, staged and/or conceptually designed over 100 works for the stage. To further PRJ’s core mission, Patti volunteers all of her time and forfeits 100% of her salary as Artistic Director of PRJ and Director of the PRJ Outreach Program so that more dancers are afforded the opportunity to grow and learn through the arts.