Praize Productions

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Serving Our Communities

Praize Productions, Inc., (PPI) is a 501c3 that has served Chicagoland area communities through high quality outreach programming for over fifteen years. As a vendor for both Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the Chicago Park District, PPI currently has provided arts enrichment courses to CPS schools and park partners to supplement the lack of access to arts education across the city. PPI also collaborates and contracts with local community organizations, churches, daycares, and educational facilities to offer youth and adult-level arts-based classes including  dance, tumbling, creative writing, acting, and more . PPI’s performing arts classes complement its partner organizations’ existing programming, enhancing the overall experience for students. PPI creatively customizes curriculums and crafts lessons to meet the specific needs of its various partners and their participants with licensed and trained teachers on staff. We also design entirely new curriculums for schools that integrate the arts and required state standards.

Dance Exchange

Through Praize Productions’ Dance Exchange Program, PPI brings students to other studios and dance/arts programs across the region for cross-training and other hands-on learning opportunities; integrating students of different races, ethnicities, and demographic backgrounds. Through meeting and training with other youth that also love the arts, PPI students are  exposed to new arts environments and practices beyond their own neighborhoods. These learning moments are incredibly beneficial to students’ long-term growth because of how they develop more tolerance and  a deeper appreciation for diversity and equity. Since 2016, PPI has led  successful dance & arts exchange programs  with studios and programs in Hyde Park/Kenwood, IL; Glencoe, IL; Edgewater/Andersonville, IL; Chatham, IL; and Gary, IN.

In 2018, PPI partnered  with Cerqua Rivera Dance Theater (CRDT), one of Chicago’s renown contemporary dance companies,  to further immerse its students in Chicago’s performing arts world. CRDT sponsored PPI youth to attend their fall dance concert, allowing them to see various genres of dance on a professional platform. PPI has since  worked with other professional dance companies, like Joel Hall Dancers and Center, where students cross-trained and performed in their professional production, Nuts & Bolts, alongside youth from the Beverly Arts Center. Several of PPI’s dancers were also invited to perform in Deeply Rooted Dance Theater’s 2017 Winter Concert, during which students learned  from master choreographers and shared the stage with other dancers from the Chicagoland area in a professional performance. Dancers were selected from an audition and attended regular rehearsals leading up to the production, giving them a firsthand look into working in the professional dance world.

Most recently, PPI has collaborated with additional South Side studios including Mayfair Performing Arts Center, Dance With Me Productions, and Movement Strengthens Balance youth programs. Through each of these relationships, our students were able to dance and work alongside other area youth of color and perform together on stage. These transformative moments not only help students create and network with other young, passionate artists; but also achieve our goals of maintaining and promoting community connectedness. 

"We believe in providing our youth with experience, exposure, and expertise. Through our field experience offerings and the Dance Exchange Program, our youth are given opportunities outside of their everyday neighborhoods, which allows them to dream bigger and see themselves outside the confines of their communities. This strengthens their understanding about the collective need for collaboration and sharing resources."
–Tashielle TamulewiczArtistic Director of PPI’s Performing Arts Academy
–Tashielle Tamulewicz
"We believe in providing our youth with experience, exposure, and expertise. Through our field experience offerings and the Dance Exchange Program, our youth are given opportunities outside of their everyday neighborhoods, which allows them to dream bigger and see themselves outside the confines of their communities. This strengthens their understanding about the collective need for collaboration and sharing resources."
–Tashielle TamulewiczArtistic Director of PPI’s Performing Arts Academy
–Tashielle Tamulewicz

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Summer Camps

LEVELS:
BEGINNING | INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED
AGE: 3-17 YEARS

Typically Scheduled June/July
Students take over 15 activities in performing arts on a rotating, blocked schedule. Professional instructors and artists teach classes. These curriculum-based classes are both educational and fun. Camp lasts 4 – 6 weeks and runs Monday-Friday. Students are served breakfast, lunch, and snacks, and all supplies are included. Each camp concludes with a showcase, where students perform and display their acquired skills for family and friends! Check Back in Spring for Summer Registration Information

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Modern Fusion

LEVELS:
BEGINNING | INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED
AGE: 5 & Up

This class infuses Horton and Graham techniques with contemporary African styles. Modern Fusion helps students increase their strength and placement in dance. Movement is rhythmically complex, while challenging students to move through the full extent of their lines.

Each level increases in skill/technique/movement as students progress from beginning to intermediate, and advanced.

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Tap

LEVELS:
BEGINNING | INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED
AGE: 5 & Up

Tap is a percussive dance that is uniquely American. The roots of tap dance trace back to 19th century America, with primary influences from African and Irish dances and rhythms. Tap dancers strike the ground, using their feet and the flooring surface as a percussive instrument.

Beginning tap students explore their instrument while learning basic steps, exercises, combinations, and music theory. Higher levels will learn additional techniques and more complex exercises and combinations.

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Beginning Combination

LEVELS:
BEGINNING
AGE: Up to 7

Beginning combination class allows dancers to grow their understanding of rhythm and motion through the use of playful imagery, while learning both ballet and tap vocabulary/technique. Students will learn skills that will help provide movement and musical awareness that may assist in training in other styles of dance.

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Comtemporary

LEVELS:
BEGINNING | INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED
AGE: 5 & Up

Contemporary combines modern and classical ballet styles. This class helps students to connect the mind and body through fluid movement with changes in rhythm, speed, and direction.

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ACRO/Tumbling

LEVELS:
BEGINNING | INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED
AGE: 5 & Up

This class infuses both acrobatics and tumbling. It focuses on strength, flexibility, limbering, balancing and tumbling. This uniquely designed class makes tumbling practical for dancers. Each progression allows the students to progress through  various difficulty levels.

PPI is a certified Acrobatic Arts School, which provides the highest standard in Acrobatic training. 

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Hip-Hop / Majorette

LEVELS:
BEGINNING | INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED
AGE: 5 & Up

This upbeat and fun class helps students to learn rhythm, while learning urban dance styles with a focus on hip-hop music and culture. In this class, hip-hop is fused with majorette dancing, which has a deep history in historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Students learn the latest hip-hop dances and trends from music videos and social media, while conditioning their bodies.

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Jazz

LEVELS:
BEGINNING | INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED
AGE: 5 & Up

PPI’s unique urban jazz, infuses the flavor and spunk of hip-hop, while teaching the fundamentals and technique of traditional jazz dance. Students engage in this high energy class that is sure to keep their bodies conditioned and moving to upbeat rhythms and grooves.

Each level increases in skill/technique/movement as students progress from beginning to intermediate, and advanced.

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Ballet

LEVELS:
BEGINNING | INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED
AGE: 5 & Up

Students learn classical ballet technique that emphasizes correct placement and movement, along with a powerful command of the fundamentals from which elaborate works are built.

Each level increases in skill/technique/movement as students progress from beginning to intermediate, and advanced.

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Enneréssa LaNette is an award-winning, multi-hyphenated artist. She currently serves as the Creative Executive Director and founder of Praize Productions, Inc. (PPI), as well as the artistic director of PPI’s RIZE professional dance company. Since founding PPI in 2010, Enneréssa continues collaborating with its board and staff to help the organization achieve its mission – providing arts education and opportunities to youth and adults through a holistic approach that allows participants to excel in the arts and their everyday lives. Under LaNette’s direction, PPI brings professional arts-based programming and events that amplify the voices and narratives of Black artists and communities to classrooms and stages across Chicago and beyond. 

Prior to founding PPI and running her own arts nonprofit full-time, LaNette studied at Indiana University Northwest, where she completed both her bachelor’s degree in secondary education as well as her master’s in educational leadership. She also taught secondary-level social studies for five years, performed as a first company member with Joel Hall Dancers & Center for nine years, and trained under dance legends Joel Hall, Kim Tyler, Larry Brewer, and Dr. Dionne Champion. 

An accomplished artist and director, Enneréssa has used her various professional experiences over the last decade as the foundation for writing, producing, and choreographing ten full-length stage productions along with “Nine-The Motion Picture.” Seven of these stage productions as well as her motion picture received the coveted Black Excellence Award from the African-American Arts Alliance of Chicago; while “Smells Like Freedom” received the Black Theater Alliance Award for Outstanding Choreography in 2019. 

Enneréssa consistently expands the reach of her artistry through residencies and retreats, traveling to California in 2024 and Italy in 2025 for the Creekside and Essere Artist Residencies, respectively; as well as Accra, Ghana in 2022 to engage in professional development. She was a 2023 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Awardee, and led PPI to secure membership in the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project’s second cohort. She has also choreographed work for other dance companies and studios nationwide, including Harris Theater Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, and Folks Operetta’s American premier of the critically acclaimed production, “The Flower of Hawaii.” 

Enneréssa has been recognized as a national change agent as well. In 2019, she received the CMS Merit Award, the America’s Big Sisters Award, and was named to the Young Women’s Professional League’s “40 under 40” for her work with young girls and women in the arts. Because of her commitment to community engagement and improving arts education for Chicago’s youth, PPI was invited to join the Obama Foundation’s “Girls’ Opportunity Alliance” in 2022. A dedicated community activist, Enneréssa has also supported economic development initiatives like WeWill Chicago and Ingenuity, Inc.’s Public Affairs Collective Impact Panel, where she developed programming that was both equitable and accessible for underserved populations. 

Enneréssa has devoted her professional career to using her artistic gifts for inspiring and enriching the lives of others. Simultaneously, she increases access to arts programming for individuals from divested communities. She uses her extensive background in the arts and education to curate one-of-a-kind artistic experiences that uplift the voices of people and communities of color; not only providing platforms and resources for young Black artists but working diligently to ensure that high-quality arts-based programming and resources reach as many communities as possible. Enneréssa’s faithful stewardship allows PPI to artfully provide tangible examples of Black Excellence for the world to experience, grow from, and enjoy.

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Donielle Logan (she/her), Rize Pro Elite rehearsal director, is a professional dancer and choreographer currently under contract with Praize Productions, Inc.. Donielle holds a BFA in Dance Performance from NIU, and was also a three-time scholarship recipient in Musical Theatre/Dance while completing her studies at Elgin Community College. Her  former company contract credits include Ascension Performing Arts Hip Hop Company, Outlet Contemporary Dance Company, and DLD Professional Hip Hop Company. 

Donielle is the owner and CEO of ACTIVATE YOUR ARTISTRY, a touring National Dance Convention currently in its fifth  season. Donielle has over 19 years of teaching experience both recreationally and competitively. She is a certified dance competition judge with Impact Adjudicators, Shine Your Light Dance Competition, and Inferno Dance Competition. Some of Donielle’s proudest performance and choreographic achievements include Dance Chicago: Urban Movement, Prelude Midwest, Freespace Dance Festival, Elgin Fringe Festival, ABC’s Extreme Make-Over, Tales of Horror Art Festival, Charles Jenkins recording artist, Chicago AutoShow, and choreographing the Calvin Harris Concert Opener for KISS FM radio with recording artist Alina Renae. Donielle’s professional achievements have been featured in VoyageSTL magazine and on the Making The Impact podcast.

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Dominique Hamilton (she/her) is a visionary performer, choreographer, and arts leader currently serving as Company Manager for RIZE Pro-Elite. A graduate of Howard University and co-founder of its first contemporary dance company, she has performed with global icons like Mary Mary, J. Cole, and Dionne Warwick, and toured as a principal dancer with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater.

Her award-winning choreography has been featured on major stages including the Kennedy Center and Harris Theater, with teaching credits at institutions such as Howard, Georgetown, and Loyola. Dominique’s leadership in arts advocacy earned her recognition by former First Lady Michelle Obama and a commission from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Now Founder and CEO of Dance Connect Worldwide, Dominique connects artists to career opportunities while continuing to uplift communities through her faith, family, and deep passion for the arts.

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Pre-Pointe/Pointe

LEVELS:
INTERMEDIATE | ADVANCED
AGE: Pre-teen - Teen

Ballet Pointe/Pre Pointe is the art of dancing on the tips of the toes, showcasing grace, strength, and precision. This advanced ballet technique builds upon a solid foundation of classical training and requires strong ankles, a strong core, and proper alignment. Students work in pointe shoes to develop balance, control, and elegance while performing intricate movements and choreography with fluidity and poise. This class is offered for advanced students who have demonstrated the necessary strength, technique, and readiness for pointe work.

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