Hiplet Ballerinas: Artistic Staff

Artistic Director & Founder….

Homer Hans Bryant, the creator of Hiplet™, is a former principal dancer with the Dance Theater of Harlem and a former member of Prima Ballerina Maria Tallchief's Chicago City Ballet. His professional credits include the Broadway production of Timbuktu with the Legendary Eartha Kitt and the motion picture The Wiz with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.  In 1990, he opened his own studio, Bryant Ballet, with a focus to offer all dancers, but especially low-income students and dancers of color, an entry into classical ballet. By 1997, the mayor of Chicago renamed his school the “Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center” (CMDC) in honor of the studio’s work in the community. Other teaching and training experiences include working with the original casts of Cirque Du Soleil’s Mystere, Alegria, Quidam, and Saltimbanco. Homer Bryant was also a guest instructor at the Dance Open Ballet Festival in Russia, where he taught his unique body alignment/floor barre technique at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, the Kirov Ballet Academy, and the Boris Eifman School. Over the years, Bryant has continued to incorporate hip-hop and ballet, eventually coining the term Hiplet™ in 2009. CMDC has trained many dancers who now perform with Cirque Du Soleil, Alvin Ailey, Broadway productions, and more. CMDC is the only contemporary ballet school in the world that teaches Hiplet™.