Jared Grimes to choreograph Signature Theatre's “Jelly's Last Jam”

Jared Grimes, choreographer

2014 Astaire Award winner for Outstanding Male Performer in a Broadway show

Jared Grimes, 2001 Donna Reed Foundation national scholarship recipient in dance, will bring a dazzling, high-energy choreography to the Arlington, Virginia's Signature Theatre in its upcoming production of Jelly's Last Jam.

Jelly’s Last Jam, according to the Signature, “tells the story of one of jazz music’s pioneers with a jazz, blues, and ragtime score based on Jelly Roll Morton’s original music. Journey from the back alleys of New Orleans to the dance halls of Chicago to the stages of New York with ’he who drinks from the vine of syncopation’ in a sizzling memoir of pride, lust and a past denied.”

Grimes has danced alongside legends such as Wynton Marsalis Gregory Hines, Ben Vereen, Jerry Lewis, Fayard Nicholas and also performed for Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy at the Kennedy Center.

At age 30, he was named outstanding male dancer in a Broadway show at the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards in New York. He won for his tap dancing in the Cotton Club-era musical revue, After Midnight.

Grimes made his choreography debut in Cirque Du Soleil's, Banana Shpeel off-broadway, choreographed commercials for Chilis and also assisted choreography with Kristin Denehy for Macy's popular Kids Bop commercial.

"Shuffle Along" Tony nominee Brandon Victor Dixon joins Broadway's "Hamilton"

Brandon Victor Dixon

1999 Donna Reed scholarship finalist in musical theater cast as new Aaron Burr

Two-time Tony Award nominee Brandon Victor Dixon (Shuffle Along) will join the cast of Broadway's Hamilton in mid-August, replacing Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr.

Dixon was nominated last season for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Shuffle Along, and was previously nominated for Best Featured Actor for the original production of the The Color Purple. The stage star previously acted in Motown and the Off Broadway production of The Scottsboro Boys.

In addition to winning the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Hamilton won 11 Tony Awards this year, including the evening's biggest prize, Best Musical. The show's creator Lin-Manuel Miranda took home two prizes himself for both Book and Score, while his costar Leslie Odom Jr. bested him in the Leading Actor category.