Chloe Arnold was the Managing Producer of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy (DADA) for 3 years and was awarded recognition from the City of Los Angeles for co-directing the Los Angeles Tap Festival. She was the Associate Choreographer for Pearl (Geffen Playhouse) and appeared in Debbie Allen’s Brothers of the Knight, Soul Possessed, and Sammy (the life and times of Sammy Davis Jr.). Performances include Savion Glover’s All Star Tap Revue, The Oneness Awards honoring Michael Jackson, The Legacy of Cab Calloway tour, Bill Gates’ Annual Meeting (Seattle), and Jason Samuels Smith’s A.C.G.I.. Film and television appearances include UPN’s “The Parkers”, “One on One”, Nickelodeon’s “Brothers Garcia”, The Jerry Lewis Telethon (Emmy Award Winning number), Dean Hargrove’s short film “Tap Heat”, the AMC documentary “Cool Women”, and “My Life In Idlewild” starring Outkast (Universal Pictures). Ms. Arnold directed and wrote a short film and an independent music video, and graduated Dean's List with a degree in Film from Columbia University.

Photo by Carl McClarty

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Sharon Arslanian first met and studied with legendary tap dancer Eddie Brown in Oakland, California during the 1980s. Her video documentary Eddie Brown’s “Scientifc Rhythm” was filmed in 1984 in Riverside, California, and in 1991 was  awarded the silver medal in the Dance on Camera Film Festival in NYC. Arslanian has also produced and directed: Two Takes on Tap, Choreographers Brenda Bufalino and Lynn Dally, and The Enduring Essence, the Choreography of Isadora Duncan as Remembered and Reconstructed by Gemze de Lappe.  With Dr. Yvonne Daniel, she co-produced Sacred Choreographies of Cuba and Haiti.                               

Professor Arslanian is currently the chair of the Dance Department at Greenfield Community College in Massachusetts. She holds three graduate degrees in dance, an Ed.D. in Dance Education from Temple University, an M.A. in Dance History from U.C Riverside, and an M.A in Choreography and Performance from Mills College. 

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Bob Audy has worked in every aspect of show business as director-choreographer, for Broadway, television, movies, and summer theatres across the country. He has coached or taught numerous stars, including Shirley MacLaine, John Travolta, Cybil Shepard, Joel Grey and Ben Vereen, and has trained several generations of New York City tap dancers. His focus is on crystal clear taps, breaking manipulations down to their essential sounds and strong use of arms. His pull-back and wing technique is a must for all tap dancers. He wrote two best sellers published by Random House, "Teach Yourself How To Tap", and "Jazz Dancing" and has taught for every major dance organization in the United States, as well as in Paris, France and Helsinki, Finland. Bob was delighted to accept The Dance Masters of America President's Award for 2001. He was honored for his contributions to tap dance at last year’s Tap City 2003.

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Terry Brock’s diverse background includes multiple choreographic works and an international performing career.   As a rhythm tap dancer she has performed and taught at Tap City -- The New York City Tap City, and international tap festivals in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and Prague.  Terry is currently an artistic advisor for the Vancouver tap festival.  She has shared the stage with the late great legendary tappers, Gregory Hines, Steve Condos, Eddie Brown, Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, the Copasetics, the Nicolas Brothers, LaVaughn Robinson, Jimmy Slyde and TV’s Arthur Duncan.  As a member of the Jazz Tap Ensemble, Terry performed with artistic director Lynn Dally and Sam Weber at the acclaimed N.Y.C Capezio Life Achievements Awards, the Joyce Theatre, and toured nationally and internationally.  Her early performances include touring with 50’s crooning star Tommy Sands, Big Band leaders Ray Anthony and Tex Beneke.  She has worked with recording artists The Platters, Little Anthony & the Imperials and Tony Orlando & Dawn.  Terry’s versatility led her to appear with many show business personalities including Shirley MacLaine, Ben Vereen, Rosie O’Donnell, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lou Rawls, Bob Hope, Don Rickles, Rip Taylor, Alan King, Carol Channing, and Frank Sinatra, Jr.  She collaborated with Mercer Ellington in a tribute to his father, held in Oregon’s Schnitzer  Concert Hall; her choreography highlighted the jazz event. Terry has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, and created repertoire for the Oregon Symphony.  In addition to performance and choreographic projects, Terry conducts her own dance school in Lake Oswego, Oregon, at the Lakewood Center for the Arts, where her passion to train and inspire the next generation of dancers thrives.

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Bernice Brooks (drums) is without a doubt, one of the foremost female drummers in the United States as well as abroad. Ms. Brooks studied at the Conservatory of Music in Chicago, her birthplace, and has concretized at The Great American Music Hall, San Francisco and Radio City Music Hall, New York, and has played in notable clubs such as New York’s Blue Note, The Ritz and Cotton Clubs, Blues Alley, Washington, D. C. and at the popular Chicago Festival.

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Brenda Bufalino , a trailblazer in the renaissance of tap dance, performs and teaches throughout the U.S. and the world. She has been one of the guiding forces in the creation of the numerous tap festivals, summits, reunions and workshops presented worldwide. As a master teacher, historian, author, lecturer, and choreographer she is recognized as a resource authority on the evolution and development of tap dance, one of America's few indigenous art forms. She produced and directed the award winning documentary film, "Great Feats of Feet" in 1975, featuring Charles "Honi" Coles and the Copasetics. She has appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Apollo Theater, the Smithsonian Institute, the Kennedy Center, and in concert halls around the globe. She has also appeared Off Broadway in "The Courtroom,” directed by Bill Irwin. She collaborated and performed in concert with the late Charles "Honi" Coles, touring America and Europe. They co-choreographed the Morton Gould "Tap Concerto" and performed it with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Norwalk Symphony. In 1986 Ms. Bufalino formed the American Tap Dance Orchestra with Tony Waag and in 1993 they founded a sister company, the International Tap Dance Orchestra. The ATDO has performed throughout the world and appeared on the PBS-TV special "Tap Dance in America.” Ms. Bufalino continues to break new ground with her vision of concert tap dance in orchestral form. She has created many instructional video tapes, and her new book "Tapping the Source...tap dance stories, theory and practice"  has been published by Cod Hill press and is available at both www.Amazon.com and BrendaBufalino.com.

Photo by Toe Knee

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Robin Burdulis is a multi-dimensional percussionist who was a child prodigy of pots, pans, alarm clocks and garbage cans.  Now she does this for a living!  The New York Times says that, "Robin...makes her percussion instruments sing like a symphony."  As an artist-in-residence in the New York City school sytem, she has taught kids how to make instruments and play percussion on recycled stuff, as well as on conventional instruments.  She is a founding member of Terry Dame's Electric Junkyard Gamelan, playing original music on invented instruments and junk.  You can see and hear these amazing instruments at www.terrydame.com.

Photo by Brad Fowler

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Ayodele Casel, a native New Yorker, began her professional training at New York University. Currently studying acting under William Esper at The William Esper Studio in NYC. Ayodele was a student at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute for six years. Television credits include Third Watch and Law and Order. In the summer of 2000 she completed filming BOJANGLES for ShowTime Television with Gregory Hines. Ayodele has appeared on the cover of The Village Voice, American Theater Magazine and has been featured in Dance Spirit, In Theater, B. Smith Style and most recently Paper Magazine named her one of "50 Beautiful People". Ayodele was seen tap dancing for seven years as a member of Savion Glover's N.Y.O.T.s (Not Your Ordinary Tappers). The group has appeared on television in The Jamie Foxx Show, In Performance at the White House, Savion Glover's Nu York, Monday Night Football '97, and on an Off Broadway stage in Savion Glover Downtown: Live Communication. In 1998 Ayodele co-choreographed and performed a tribute to Rogers and Hart for PBS Great Performances, as well as recording a tribute album to Duke Ellington with members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

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Harold Cromer was born in New York City, and began his 50 year career as a tap dancer on roller skates at the Hudson Guild in Hell’s Kitchen. He made his Broadway debut with Bert Lahr, Ethel Merman (later replaced by Gypsy Rose Lee), and Betty Grable in Du Barry Was A Lady. Mr. Cromer later performed around the world as a member of the well-known song and dance comedy team, Stump and Stumpy, with James Cross. They appeared in leading theaters and night clubs with Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Count Basie. Stump and Stumpy also toured with Nat Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, the Ink Spots, Stan Kenton, and Sophie Tucker, among others. In the late 1950’s, Harold became the Master of Ceremonies to Rock and Roll’s The Biggest Show of Stars, introducing such talents as Buddy Holly, Paul Anka, Bobby Darin, Fats Domino, Chubby Checker, Frankie Avalon, Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, and Marvin Gaye. Mr. Cromer returned to Broadway in 1978 in The American Dance Machine as a guest soloist, which later toured many cities in the U.S., Japan, and Europe.

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Andrea Del Conte is an internationally recognized performer, choreographer and teacher and Artistic Director of Andrea Del Conte Danza Espana. Over the past 30 years, Ms. Del Conte has spent an extensive amount of time living and studying in Spain. She teaches in New York City at Lotus Music & Dance Studios and Steps on Broadway and is recognized as one of New York City’s most important flamenco teachers. Her teaching is based on giving students a solid background in technique and structure of the dance form.  Ms. Del Conte is a recipient of Attitude Magazine's Ethnic Dance Award for 1996, the 1997 National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2004 ACE Award for Outstanding Life Achievement in Dance.  She has been on the dance faculty of Long Island University, Manhattanville College, Penn State University, University of Richmond, University of East Carolina and guest teacher for the Nevada Ballet and Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas.

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Nicki Denner Pianist/composer/arranger Nicki Denner has been a part of the New York Latin and jazz music scene since 1999United States and Europe.  Nicki is also a devoted teacher, maintaining a private teaching studio, and serving on the piano faculty of the Stanford University Summer Jazz Workshop and the Montclair State University Jazz Prep Summer Program.  Since 2001, she has led her own trio which features Jennifer Vincent on bass, and Willie Martinez on drums. In 2006, the trio released their debut recording, Moliendo Café, which was named one of the "Top Ten Picks of 2006" in Latin Beat Magazine.  Ms. Denner has released two other Latin jazz CD’s as a leader, Don’t Just Stand There and El Médico de Coquí (featuring Julian Llanos, former singer with Latin music legend Arsenio Rodriguez) which spent six months in Latin Beat magazine's Top 20 Hit Parade. You can hear her music at www.nickidenner.com.

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Michelle Dorrance has been tap dancing since the age of three and performing since the age of eight under youth tap trailblazer Gene Medler at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill. She performed and toured extensively with Medler's North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble from festivals in St. Louis and Chicago to Vienna and Berlin. Michelle has since worked with Heather Cornell's Manhattan Tap, Barbara Duffy and Company, Max Pollak's Rumba Tap, Tap City on Tour and was a founding member of Savion Glover's Ti Dii including performances at The Cannes Film Festival, The 2002 Winter Olympics and debut of Improvography at the Joyce Theater in New York. She has taught and performed as a solo artist at the North Carolina Rhythm Tap Festival, the International FeetBeat Festival in Helsinki, both the Dusseldorf and the Heidelberg Stepptanz Festivals in Germany, Tap Encontro in Rio de Janeiro, as well as workshops and performances in Moscow and Tokyo. Michelle's choreography has been performed throughout the country and internationally, and has been featured at Jacob's Pillow with Cintia Chameki's Ritmico, at Birdland with members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, at the Joyce Theater & the Duke on 42nd Street Theater as a part of New York City Tap Festival's Gala performances, as well as in a commercial for Toyota Taiwan. She has been known to appear dancing on stage with underground music icons The Squirrel Nut Zippers and Bitch and Animal. Most recently Michelle has been honored to be a part of Ayodele Casel's Diary of a Tap Dancer, Mable Lee's Dancing Ladies, Harold Cromer's Opus One and was critically acclaimed in the premiere of Derick Grant's Imagine Tap! in Chicago. She is part of a life-collaboration known as deez and deez, and thrilled to be a part of her mother, ballet dancer M'Liss Gary Dorrance's T-Bone Burnette Suite at Duke University. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts from New York University's Gallatin School, and is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center. She would like to thank all the Masters of the art form whom she's had the opportunity to study with for their indefatigable love and inspiration and their technical and artistic genius.

Photo by Lois Greenfield

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Barbara Duffy According to Gregory Hines, “Barbara Duffy is one of the most inventive tappers around today.” Barbara’s performance highlights include THE GREGORY HINES SHOW, where she was a featured dancer, actress and choreographer, GALA FOR THE PRESIDENT, performing with Gregory Hines before President and Mrs. Bill Clinton and as dance captain and featured dancer in Brenda Bufalino’s AMERICAN TAP DANCE ORCHESTRA. Barbara performs as a featured soloist across the United States and overseas, including London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, where she was hailed as “a riveting performer” by the Independent. BARBARA DUFFY & COMPANY, her own company of all women tappers, “brought down the house with their musical sensitivity” (Star Ledger, NJ) at the Duke Theatre for Tap City 2002. They have also performed at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and at The Duke for Tap City 2001 and 2003. A highly sought after teacher, Barbara has taught at numerous workshops and festivals in 14 countries around the world. When not on the road, Barbara holds classes in New York City at Broadway Dance Center. Her greatest inspirations are BRENDA BUFALINO, the late LEON COLLINS and the late GREGORY HINES.

Photo by Lois Greenfield

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Barbara Duffy & Company Inspired by Gregory Hines to create a women’s tap group, Barbara Duffy started working with some of her best friends and fellow tappers, Lynn Schwab, Cintia Chamecki and Pia Neises in the year 2000. Barbara Duffy & Company has performed at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Tap City 2001 and 2002 (Duke Theatre, NYC), where they “brought down the house with their musical sensitivity”, (Star Ledger, NJ). Tap City 2003 marked the debut of the expanded company, which now includes Michelle Dorrance and Jenai Cutcher. Barbara Duffy & Company continues to make appearances throughout New York City, including a recent tribute to Gregory Hines at Studio 54. They are also touring their evening length concert, Stages which is being developed into a full-length theatrical production.

Photo by Lois Greenfield

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Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards was elected to the Advisory Board as the Tap Advisor for Dance Magazine and the official Tap Spokesperson for Capezio along with her family, currently featured in their international advertising campaign. She was featured on Broadway in Black and Blue, the Tony Award Winning Bring In Da’Noise, Bring In Da’Funk, International Tour of Bring in Da’Noise, Bring in Da’Funk (dance captain/principal dancer/understudy to the lead role). Other performances include the national tour of Wild Woman Blues and Debbie Allen’s SAMMY (the life and times of Sammy Davis Jr.). Film credits include “TAP” with Gregory Hines, Spike Lee's “Bamboozled” (Assistant Choreographer), and “The Rodgers and Hart Story: Thou Swell, Thou Witty”. Mrs. Sumbry-Edwards’ choreography has been featured in TAAP:The Art & Appreciation of Percussion and was also utilized in Michael Jackson's music video “Rock Your World”. She was also spotlighted in a commercial for Tops.

Photo by Eduardo Patino

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Mercedes Ellington Juilliard graduate; choreographed ten companies of Play On!, from San Diego's Old Globe Theater to Broadway, and PBS's Great Performances; Choreographed Ambassador Satch, starring André De Shields, Prince Theater, Philadelphia, Helen Hayes Theater, Nyack, New York and The Performing Arts Center, White Plains; choreographer of segments of CTFD Galas 2004 and 2002, at City Center. Directed/staged/produced, Society of Singers-East, Louis Armstrong Award to Bobby Short at The Pierre; directed and staged 2001 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Tribute to the Spirit of Harlem; directed: Four Women and Cotton Club Rhapsody at Club La Mama; choreographed/directed Mood Ellington featuring André De Shields; appeared in several segments of Ken Burns' TV documentary, Jazz ; profiled by Dr. Billy Taylor on CBS Sunday Morning; choreographed sixteen productions at the St. Louis MUNY; artistic director, BalleTap,USA, aka DancEllington, Inc.(1982-1992); directed/choreographed Cotton Club Rhapsody at Club La MaMa; hostess of the Swedish Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall and Sweden; workshop program: Home To Harlem, for Radio City Music Hall Rockettes; choreographer/performer: Lincoln Center's Reel To Real Series: Story T'Ellington; choreographer: Yankee Doodle Boys; Carnegie Hall debut: 1999; Metropolitan Opera House debut: 2002; New York City Opera debut: 1977; choreographer: George M, for Gay Pride Series; choreographer: Queen Esther Morrow's Walk Tall Gospel Show- European Tour 2002-2003; Harlem Gospel Singers European Tour 2003-2004; director/choreographer for In Mahalia's Light, Passage Theater, Trenton, NJ; director/musical staging, In A Miller/ Basie Mood, at the Lucille Lortel Theater, NYC; choreographer: Talk of The Town, Bank Street Theater, NYC; choreographer: Crowns, St. Louis Rep and Cincinnati Playhouse In The Park; Crowns, for Arizona Theater Company etc.;serves on the Boards of Career Transition For Dancers, The American Tap Dance Foundation, The New Jersey Tap Ensemble, Board of Governors Friars Club. April 2003, awarded an honorary citizenship of Paris. Currently serving on the TONY nominating committee.

Photo by Sean Kahlil

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DeWitt Fleming Jr. graduated at Marymount Manhattan College with a BA in Acting. His stage credits include: (Off- Bwy) Dutchman, Highlights in Jazz, Tribute to Tap Legends, Richard III, Finnegan's Farewell, and  the Equity Showcase production of Dance Bojangles Dance, in which he played the lead. He is an acclaimed tap dancer, and has performed throughout the United States and abroad. He is the host, and also co-creator of the new Off-Bwy hit Broadway Underground.  DeWitt has danced with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and with artist such as Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Victor Goings, and Suzanne Douglas. DeWitt is also a Percussionist. He plays the drum set weekly for numerous artists throughout the tri-state area. He is dance captain for The New Jersey Tap Ensemble, a member of The Young Hoofers, Rumba Tap, and Theater for a New Generation.

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Joe Fonda (bass) is a composer, bassist, recording artist, performer and producer.  He has performed as leader of his own ensembles throughout the United States and Europe and as sideman with Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, Bill and Kenny Barron, Ken McIntyre/Charlie Persip, Lou Donaldson, Leo Smith, Mark Whitecage, Curtis Fuller and others. As a composer he has been the recipient of numerous grants and commissions and has released many recordings.  He was bassist with the American Tap Dance Orchestra in New York City from 1995 - 1997.  An independent producer since 1978, Fonda is Founding Director of Kaleidoscope Arts and Musical Director of the interdisciplinary Kaleidoscope Performance Ensemble. 

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Yvette Glover is fast becoming one of the most sought after jazz vocalists and song stylists in the United States today. As mother of tap dance sensation Savion Glover, Yvette is a guest vocalist in many of his shows, and is often Mistress of Ceremonies at major U.S. tap festivals. She has also appeared in Germany and Brazil. Like many, she began her music career in the church, where she sang gospel under the tutelage of her mother, who was a minister of music. She has given a command performance for King Hassan in Morocco, and now, along with her trio, is making appearances throughout the United States. Her love of tap dancing has allowed her to travel around the country as guest vocal artist with tap legends. Yvette has just completed her soon-to-be-released CD, Dreams Do Come True.

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Charles Goddertz has been on staff at Steps On Broadway teaching tap dancing since 1986.  In the interim, he has also taught at Broadway Dance Center, Cap21, NYU, Alvin Ailey, Tap City and internationally in Switzerland, Germany, Canada,  Panama and Mexico.  Before returning to his first love, TAP DANCING, Charles danced on Broadway in “Hello Dolly,’’ “On The Town” and “Ambassador.”  He has directed and choreographed shows for universities, dinner theatre, summer stock, regional theatre and off-Broadway.  Most recent efforts being “Cinderella” and the tap dancing musical of “Dames At Sea” at the Alverson Center Theatre in South Carolina.  For Dames At Sea, Charles cast Tap City’s own David Rider in the role of  Lucky, the happy go lucky tap dancing comedic lead.  Recent performing credits include Tap City Shows at the Duke on 42nd Street with dancing partner Michele  Ribble and a dance feature in the upcoming Disney movie “Enchanted,” scheduled for release in November 2007.  In his spare time Charles attends tap happenings, Broadway shows, some in which  students and/or friends are performing, and serves on and supports committees, students  and artists in the ongoing advancement and presentation of the “indigenous American art form,”  TAP!  A few years ago, he was honored to receive The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day, presented to him by the late, great Buster Brown.              

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Thelma Goldberg recently celebrated her 20th anniversary as founder and director of The Dance Inn in Lexington, one of New England's largest and most innovative schools, serving 700 students weekly. She is also on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory of Dance, Music, and Theater. Combining her love of dance with her experience as a special education teacher in Boston, Thelma created a dance education curriculum that emphasizes musicality, fun, and excellence. Her dance team, the Legacy Dancers, featuring performers aged 10 - 81, performs an extensive tap and jazz repertoire at regional festivals and charitable events. Thelma is also Executive Director of Dance Inn Productions, a non-profit organization that produces both an annual youth ballroom program as well as New England's National Tap Dance Day celebration. She continues to actively study and pursue new opportunities for herself and her students by participating in festivals and sponsoring workshops with master teachers.

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Susan Goldbetter is the founder and Executive Director of Circuit Productions, Inc. (CPI). Created in 1986 Circuit’s mission is to inspire, entertain, and educate  audiences through performances, workshops and arts education programs, featuring senior and emerging artists, of color.  Annually, CPI presents events like the “Tap and Jazz Masters Series”  while promoting over 20 different artists in tap, blues, jazz and world music and dance.

As a performer, Ms. Goldbetter studied dance in “the streets and basement parties of Brooklyn” - then professionally with her mentor, Charles Cookie Cook after seeing him and the Copasetics at BAM 1979. By 1981 as a young producer and member of  “Cookie & Friends” Susan performed with America’s first generation of tap legends – Dr. Buster Brown and Harriet Quicksand Browne at Alice Tully Hall , the Smithsonian Institute, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. 

Currently, as an agent/presenter,  Susan has been awarded a Fellowship from the NEA for her documentary “Cookie’s Scrapbook,” from New York State Council on the Arts, for the video short, “Essentials of Tap Technique” and in 2005 a grant for Tina Pratt and Sarah McLawler  for their work on “Jazzing Women”.  Her most recent project is “Rhythm Journeys:  Masters of Jazz and World Music” funded, in part, by the NYS Music Fund. This summer she will produce Beat Street  4 – the fourth celebration of young tap dancers and companies in collaboration with Circuit Productions, Tony Waag’s NYC Tap Festival, and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

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Derick K. Grant A native of Boston, has been tapping for 28 years. He was an original company member and Dance Captain for Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk at both The Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival and on Broadway. Derick recreated Savion Glover's choreography and starred in the role of 'da beat for the first National Tour.  Derick began his training at the age of two at The Roxbury Center for the Performing Arts, and by the time he was eight years old, he has learned the "hoofin" style of tap from the master tap dancer Diane Walker. Derick furthered his training in Los Angeles at Universal Dance Design Studio under the tutelage of Paul Kennedy. Derick spent three years with the Jazz Tap Ensemble touring the world. He is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Upcoming Young Artists as well as The Helen Hayes Award (Washington D.C.) for Outstanding featured Actor for his role in Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk. Derick was featured at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts African Odyssey program, part of the Expresiones Latinas Festival. He collaborated on a piece that incorporated tap and capoeira with renowned Brazilian artist Nego Gato, which opened the festivities for singer Daniella Mercury. He also choreographed and performed in a piece on the history of tap that launched the Black History Month 2001 celebration at Aaron Davis Hall. Recent compositions were featured in The Queens Symphony Opera's Duke Ellington Concert in Ann Arbor's Arts Festival.

Most recently Derick's own creation A Night Out: Tap! toured the country for three months. Of his latest choreography and performance with Jazz Tap Ensemble at the Joyce Theater in NYC the New York Times said "Mr. Grant let gusts of rhythm propel him with remarkable velocity!"

Photo by Lois Greenfield

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Susan Hebach considers herself a graduate of “Woodpeckers Tap Dance Center” where she was fortunate to study with a diverse group of master tap artists such as her mentor, Brenda Bufalino, and other inspirational teachers such as Barbara Duffy, Robin Tribble, Margaret Morrison, Josh Hilberman, Lynn Dally, and Diane Walker to name a few. As a choreographer, she enjoys developing new works and collaborating with fellow dancers of “The Tap Collective”, a tap company she founded in 1996. Her choreography has been featured in events such as “VII Nit de Claque” in Barcelona, Spain, to the offbeat “Vaudeville 2000” at LaMama ETC Theater and “The Elegance of Comedy of Tap”, hosted by Bill Irwin at NYC Town Hall. Susan directs her own children’s tap program, “Tap Dance for Young People” in NYC. She has also served on the dance faculty for Oklahoma City University and Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri as visiting guest artist. Susan is honored to have been part of Tap City since 2001.

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Theo Hill (piano) is among a group of young and versatile jazz pianists rapidly emerging onto the New York jazz scene. A four-year-member of the Empire State Jazz Orchestra and College of Saint Rose Jazz Ensemble, and a two-year member of the New York Youth Symphony Jazz Band Classic, he has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Knitting Factory with Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Lew Soloff and Joe Locke, receiving the Directors Award for Commitment and Achievement in 2004. After graduating from the Jazz Music Conservatory at SUNY Purchase, he has been playing in and around New York City performing at venues such as Sweet Rhythm, Zinc Bar, Tonic, and Blue Note with his trio and as a sideman. He toured South Korea as member of Victor Jones' Culture Versey and has toured France with Groove Collective. He has worked with jazz tap dancers Omar Edwards, Josef Webb, George Patterson, and Jason Samuels Smith, and in the summer of 2005 played The New York City Tap Festival and Los Angeles Tap Festival. He is currently working with drummer Dennis Davis and recording his first album as a leader. 

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Constance Valis Hill is a jazz dancer and choreographer dedicated to writing about and historicizing jazz tap dance. She has studied with Pepsi Bethel, Matt Mattox, Nat Horne, Charles ‘Cookie’ Cook and members of the Copasetics. After creating and performing The Doilie Sisters at La Mama, and directing Sole Sisters for the Changing Times Tap Company, she earned an M.A. in Dance Research and Reconstruction from City College of the University of New York, and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU. Her articles and reviews have appeared in Dance Magazine, Village Voice, Studies in Dance History, International Tap Association, and Dance Research Journals. Her book, Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers, won the 2001 ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. She is currently an Associate Professor of Dance at Hampshire College in Massachusetts.

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Jess Jurkovic A native of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Jess Jurkovic started his musical life as a drummer and percussionist, but at age fourteen, began to compose and teach himself jazz piano. Today he is an exciting and
eclectic voice as a pianist and composer. He has written over 100 pieces and arranged dozens of standards and not-so-standards for his groups. In addition, he has arranged and composed music for jazz big band, jazz vocal ensemble, string orchestra, and even classical chamber ensembles—as well as worked in and composed for pop, rock, and funk genres. Jess attended the University of Minnesota, receiving his Bachelor of
Music degree in 1996. That year he moved to New York City to study at Manhattan School of Music, where he received his Master's degree in Jazz and Commercial Music in 1998. In addition to his jazz work, Jess has served as musical director to several New York cabaret artists. He is on the piano faculty at Larchmont Music Academy, teaching private piano lessons to all ages. He has also worked with Cherry Lane Music Co. as a freelance writer and editor; his book Keyboard Warm-up Techniques was published in 2006. Jess’s first recording was The Art Department (2000), a jazz quartet he formed with percussionist Greg Beyer. He quickly followed that with Blue and Violet (2001), a duo recording with Pedro Giraudo. In addition to his own recordings, Jess is an integral member of the Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra (found on CDs Mr. Vivo and Desconsuelo), and Justin Hines and the Headphones's debut CD, ...As Advertised.Jess's newest recording is a solo piano effort, Two Hands, Vol. 1.

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Ann Kilkelly is Professor of Theatre Arts and Women’s Studies at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she is a teacher, performer, and scholar of tap dancing. She is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant for her project Tapping the Margins, a past Senior Fellow at the Smithsonian, a published author of creative and scholarly work, a theater director and designer of community based arts events. Most illustriously, Ann is the pink half of the Lloyd and Bunny ukulele playing, tap dancing, and singing act immortalized in the New York Times, which reported, simply, that “she brought down the house.”

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Frank Kimbrough is a New York City based pianist and composer, and a founding member and composer-in-residence of the Jazz Composers Collective. Frank’s latest CD, Lullabluebye is on the Palmetto label.  He has also made over a dozen recordings as a leader for OmniTone, Soul Note, and Mapleshade.  He is highly in demand as a sideman, recording and touring internationally with Ben Allison, Ted Nash, Michael Blake, Ron Horton, Joe Locke and others, and also appears on the Maria Schneider Orchestra’s Grammy winning CD Concert in the Garden  As a composer, his work has received support from the Chamber Music America’s Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project and Meet the Composer, among others  He was awarded a Fellowship by the National Endowment For The Arts for his work on the Herbie Nichols Project.  He served as musical director of the American Tap Dance Orchestra, and has worked with Tony Waag, Brenda Bufalino, and many other tappers for nearly twenty years.    

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Kazu Kumagai was born in Sendai City, Japan. He started studying tap dancing when he was 15 with Masaru Satou. He went to New York at 19 to study with master teachers, including Charles Goddertz and Barbara Duffy. In June 1997, he studied with Ted Levy and graduated from the New York Institute of Tap's "Funk University", where he learned tap style created by Savion Glover. Early 1998, he toured Japan with British Royal Ballet principal, Tetsuya Kumakawa, and later, returned to the United States to perform in the tap celebration, Tap Extravaganza, where he shared the stage with Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. Currently Kazu appears in hip-hop, jazz, and funk clubs in New York and Japan, and has earned a solid reputation for his sensational tap.

Photo by Debi Field

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Mable Lee began performing at age four in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Known for her classy potpourri of snake hips, boogie, and jive dancing in the ‘30s and ‘40s, she was featured at New York’s most popular nightclubs, including the Ubangi and Club Sultan. She toured Europe with the Cab Calloway band in the first all-black USO shows, and earned the title “Queen of the Soundies” by appearing in more than 100 films with Fats Waller, Noble Sissle, Pigmeat Markham, the Lucky Millinder Orchestra, and Sister Rosetta Thorpe. She appeared on the March 1947 cover of Ebony magazine. Her Broadway shows include Shuffle Along, Brown-Skinned Models and The Hoofers, and Bubblin’ Brown Sugar, and she has been awarded an Audelco Award for Outstanding Musical Performance. In June 2001, she received the Lionel Hampton Legacy Award from the NY State Black Film & Video Archives.

Photo by Debi Field

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Hjördis Linn (festival manager) is a performer, mask maker and stage manager who is grateful to Tony Waag for recognizing that being part of the big picture at the New York City Tap Festival is an obvious, natural progression.  She has stage managed her way through the Off Broadway circuit and into the rhythmic world of tap dance where she is thrilled to be working with all of the amazing, talented performers, teachers, designers, tech staff, students and volunteers who make Tap City what it is.

Photo by Toe Knee

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Lloyd and Bunny first met while at college in one of their very first tap classes, many, many, moons ago, in a far away, far out and farfetched place, Utah! After an incredible partnership receiving incredibly reviews, awards, great acclaim, and usually dinner, Lloyd eventually moved west, and bunny went east and they never crossed paths again till 1990, or something. After various flings around the country, and various gigs, love affairs, marriages and even kids, they finally reunite, once again, on stage (where they belong of course), ready to receive your continued love, praises and fried calamari.

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Billie Mahoney Gregory Hines called Billie Mahoney a “legend in tap dance”.   Her career began in the late 1950s with her solo tap night-club act and she was one of the few who kept tap dance alive in the New York City studios during the 1960’s and ‘70’s.  During her long performing career she has been featured in Musical Theater with Bob Fosse, and as a single variety act on major television shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, Jackie Gleason Hour, Caesar’s Hour, to name only a few.  Personal appearance tours with Bob Hope included theaters and colleges, and with Lionel Hampton and his Band, the Apollo Theater.  In 2003 she was featured in the twelfth edition of The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies in California.  As a teacher she was on the Dance Faculty of The Julliard School for fifteen years, and is invited to teach at Universities throughout the world.  Her jazz and tap classes were popular in the Broadway studios for more than twenty-five years. From 1980-95, she produced and hosted DANCE ON: with Billie Mahoney, “a show about people, people who dance”, on cable TV.  The more than 250 half hour television interviews (which included many notable tap dancers) may be viewed in The Dance Collection of the New York Public Library in Lincoln Center. Back home in Kansas City, she jams as a tap dancer with K.C.’s leading jazz musicians and was inducted into Kansas City’s Elder Statesmen of Jazz which numbers Count Basie among other notable jazz musicians.  She continues to teach and is an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  The dancers of her “50+” tap classes make up the Billie Mahoney Dance Troupe which she directs and choreographs, and is in demand at various venues.

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Christiane Matallo is the director of International Campinas Tap Festival, Sapateia São Paulo, and she is the director of Studio de Dança, in Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil.  As a performer she participates in festivals throughout the world and teaches workshops all around Brazil.   Matallo is a unique woman who plays saxophone tenor and dances tap at the same time.  When she is dancing, you can feel the essence of Brazil.  In 2005 she presented in New York City, with the musician Gilbert de Syllos, "Da Corda pro Pé", an interaction of dance and music. On that occasion, because her Brazilian style of tap dance and versatility she received the nickname of "the Carmen Miranda of Tap Dance".  In 2001, she taught and performed at the St. Louis Tap Festival, in 1996, she developed a performance called "The AtoConTato Design" with an electronic pair of shoes and technological effects.  She has taught workshops in Austria, the US and England, appeared on Brazilian TV and recorded two DVDs.  She is a representative for Só Dança dancewear.

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Deborah Mitchell is Founder and Artistic Director of New Jersey Tap Ensemble. She is a protégé of Leslie ‘Bubba’ Gaines of the Copasetics and a student of many tap masters, including Broadway Choreographer Henry LeTang. Her credits include the film, THE COTTON CLUB, Broadway and Paris Productions of Black and Blue, PBS GREAT PERFORMANCES, 5 international tours with the legendary Cab Calloway, and a partnership with Germain Goodson as The Rhythm Queens. She is on the faculty of Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts, has been a Principle Affiliate with New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and taught in the NJPAC Dance Academy residency. She conducts Professional Development Workshops and provides In-Service Training to dance educators throughout the state. She is author and director of the Doll Shop, an Arts-in-Education musical specifically developed for school-age children, grades K-5, and is currently collaborating with Human Kinetics Publishing in Champagne, Ill. on an instructional text book for tap. Ms. Mitchell is Assistant Director/Choreographer for Theater Workshop/Peppermint Players and a Board Member for Alliance for Arts Education/New Jersey.

Photo by Peter Petronio

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Margaret Morrison -- Director of Adult Programs -- is a rhythm tap soloist, choreographer and producer who has taught and performed at tap dance festivals across the United States, Brazil and Germany. In 2003 she premiered her new tap show "Body of Rhythm" and was hailed as a "consummate artist who breaks the mold." She is a founding member, since 1986, of the American Tap Dance Orchestra, directed by Brenda Bufalino. She toured internationally with the ATDO for 15 years and appeared on the acclaimed PBS Special, Tap Dance in America with Gregory Hines. Margaret also tapped in a national commercial for Seagrams and is a co-creator of Pulsation and Wombapusi, all-women ensembles of tap, percussion, and poetry that performed at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, NYC’s PS 122 and the Nuyorican Poets Café. Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times called Margaret an "exciting virtuoso dancer," and her choreography "a tour de force" and "the witty highlight of the evening." Margaret’s choreography is performed by ensembles around the US and was featured at Avery Fisher Hall in 2000. Margaret is part of the ATDF team that is developing the Gregory Hines Collection of American Tap Dance with the New York Public Library of Performing Arts. She is a graduate of Barnard College, where she is currently on the faculty of the Dance Department, teaching both tap technique and a history course "Tap as an American Art Form."

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Carson Murphy has been performing for most of her life. A prominent tap dancer throughout the northwest United States, she has been heavily influenced by Mable Lee, Ted Levy, Dianne Walker, Steve and Carol Zee, Jeannie Hill, and Linda Murphy. She has performed in concert with Ted Levy, Los Angeles' Tongue Contemporary Dance Company, Miller and Ben's "Tap Giants", was a part of Harold Cromer's Original "Opus One" and joined the first National Tour of Broadway's "42nd Street". She has most recently performed in Tap City 2005 at the Joyce Theater with Michelle Dorrance, in Tap City 2006 with "Mable Lee's Dancing Ladies" and "The Tap Collective", in "Tappy Holidays" at Symphony Space alongside Ayodele Casel, Sarah Savelli and Derick Grant , and is currently working with Barbara Duffy and Company. Carson is also a certified and heavily sought after Pilates and Gyrotonic instructor as well as an aspiring Physical Therapist. She holds Bachelors of Arts in both Dance and Philosophy graduating with honors from Loyola Marymount University.

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Toni Noblett is on the faculty of the ATDF Youth Program and brings to her classes almost 30 years of experience teaching dancers of all ages.  Her style has been heavily influenced by Barbara Duffy and Brenda Bufalino.  In addition to her love of teaching adults, Toni has devoted her career to improving tap training for young dancers.  She has taught dance teacher seminars through the ATDF and Broadway Dance Center and created a video, “Creative Movement for 3 and 4 Year Olds.”  She is presently developing a tap syllabus for primary students emphasizing the importance of musicality and musicianship in those very important beginning classes.  Since 2005 she has worked with Rosie’s Broadway Kids where she is the Director of Faculty for all programs. Prior to joining Rosie’s Broadway Kids, Toni was the artistic director and owner of a private studio for twenty-five years.  Her background includes extensive work as a choreographer in local theatre high school and, and she currently freelances as a teacher, choreographer, and consultant.  Years of experience with exceptional children, average children, as well as gifted children has prepared her for the challenging work of teaching in the NYC public schools. For the past seventeen years, she has served as an assistant and lead tap teacher for the National Dance Institute’s summer program, under the direction and mentoring of RBKids present Artistic Director, Lori Klinger.  She has been a personal assistant to NDI’s Jacques d’Amboise and  produced a segment aired on “CBS Sunday Morning with Bill Geist”.  Toni Noblett’s formal training in drama and dance has included work at East Carolina University and The American Dance Festival in North Carolina, as well as many years in attendance at Tap City and American Tap Dance Orchestra workshops. 

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Parallel Exit is a dance-theatre company based in New York City.  We create original works of narrative dance in which we convey character, story, and emotion entirely through physical and visual means.  Although we have featured tap in previous works, TIME STEP is our first production made up entirely of tap choreography.  Parallel Exit’s work includes THIS WAY THAT WAY, POWERHOUSE, and VELOCITY, and has been presented in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia.  In New York City, we have appeared at the Guggenheim Museum, the Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space, 59E59 Theaters, Ars Nova, and PS 122.  Please look for the full-length TIME STEP later this year, as well as our new production CUT TO THE CHASE at 59E59 Theaters this fall.  For more information please log onto www.parallelexit.net.

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Max Pollak, a native Austrian, received his most important training in the conservatories, clubs, and streets of New York City and Havana. He is an experienced musician who performs, teaches, and choreographs worldwide. Mr. Pollak is the first artist ever to merge authentic Afro-Cuban dance and music with tap and have it recorded on CD. He has established the first ever tap venture in Havana, Cuba called “RumbaTap”, and has worked with Ray Brown, Danilo Perez, Muñequitos de Matanzas, Chucho Valdez, Gregory Hines, and Jimmy Slyde, among others. He has appeared on Broadway in Tamango’s Urban Tap, and toured the globe with Manhattan Tap, Feet 2 The Beat, Cool Heat-Urban Beat, Tap City on Tour and Beat The Donkey.

Photo by Lois Greenfield

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Pamela Raff, jazz tap dance choreographer, performer, educator and recording artist, protégé of the late and legendary Leon Collins, also studied with Myra Witt, Norman Wallace, Brenda Bufalino, LaVaughn Robinson and Joe Stirling Beath. A critically acclaimed innovator and master technician, Raff has collaborated with jazz greats Tierney Sutton, Alan Dawson, Larry Kopp, John Lockwood, Yuki Arimasa and Patrice Williamson, working throughout the USA, in Europe and in Asia. In a career spanning two and a half decades she also created “Jazz Youth Project” for Boston’s Public Schools, directed the Leon Collins Dance Studio for eleven years, released the hailed “Feet First” performance recording, received choreography awards from the Boston Center for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and was nominated “Jazz Artist of the Year” by the New England Foundation for the Arts in 1996. Currently, Raff works privately in Brookline, MA, is a Visiting Artist at Mount Holyoke College in the Five College Dance Department, and is Adjunct Faculty at Roger Williams University. Pamela performed at Tap City 2004.

Photo by Debi Field

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Sarah Reich was born in Culver City, California and began dancing at age 5. At age 7, she started training in tap with Alfred Desio and Cyd Glover.  She continued her studies under the late Paul Kennedy and Arlene Kennedy at the age of 10, and soon joined the Kennedy Tap Company. After Paul Kennedy passed away in 2002, Sarah started training with Jason Samuels Smith at Debbie Allen’s Dance Academy. Sarah is currently in Jason’s tap group “Anybody Can Get It”, and Steve Zee’s LA Iron Works. She was also a part of Jazz Tap Ensemble’s Caravan Project for gifted teenage tap dancers. In 2004 and 2006, Sarah was featured in Mike Wittmer’s instructional tap videos, “The World is my Drum”. Sarah was featured in an article titled “20 Hot Tappers Under 20” in Dance Spirit Magazine. She received an award for Performing Artist of The Year at the 2005 OMNI Awards. Along with other LA tappers, Sarah has been a promotional tap dancer for the movie Happy Feet. Sarah has performed at many venues around Los Angeles including the Getty Museum, the Ford Amphitheatre, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Madrid Theatre, Temple Bar, African Market Place, the Nosotros’ Golden Eagle Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, as well as the NYC, Twin Cities, Chicago, St. Louis, and Los Angeles Tap Festivals. Sarah has been teaching for four years at her home studio to share the art form that she loves with others. Sarah has a deep passion for tap dancing and aspires to be a headliner in the tap world in the effort to keep tap dancing alive.

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Michele Ribble - Director of Youth Programs and Award winning choreographer, Master instructor, producer, dancer, and coach, Michele Ribble has spent a lifetime working in classical ballet, tap dance, musical theater, and jazz. She has choreographed for both stage and screen including: assistant choreographer for the film "Beetlejuice", several Off Broadway shows, and has choreographed numerous "gag" acts for the Garden Brothers, Right Bros. and Bentley Bros. Circuses. Other credits include work for Jacob's Pillow, HBO, Miramax, Circuit Productions, Hanna-Barbera and MTV. As lead dancer and choreographer for the Tommy Sands Revue she has played every town from NY to WA and has had the privilege of sharing the stage with an amazing roster of talented individuals. Michele has danced as a member of the NYC Company, Ronn Forella and the Second Century Dancers, is a featured soloist at Tap City, the New York City Tap Festival, and is known as dance partner to Charles Goddertz and Harold Cromer. Most recently Michele performed in the star-studded performance of "From the Horses Mouth" with Jamie Cunningham, Tina Croll, Martine Van Hamel and Brenda Bufalino. Michele is a faculty member of the American Tap Dance Foundation, a guest instructor at Steps on Broadway, a columnist for the ITA newsletter, director of the Metro-Gnomes Youth Tap Company, Director of the Rhinebeck Dance Centre, and founder of the Roya Curie Dance Scholarship Foundation.

Photo by Peter Petronio

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RumbaTap is TAP in CLAVE.  A unique new way of expression created by Max Pollak, that fuses the ancient music and dance traditions of Afro-Cuban Folklore with Afro-American Rhythm Tap and Body Percussion. Together with a powerful group of international artists he combines these elements in new ways, always paying respect to the tradition. RumbaTap unleashes the forces of nature, never failing to touch the audience’s spirit. The ancient thrill of releasing the beat of your soul by playing the Groove on the oldest instrument known to man, the body, we let the music play us -- hips, shoulders, arms etching pictures in space which, passed through the spirit of the player, turn back into music. 

Photo by Lois Greenfield

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Courtney Runft, a native of Wichita, Kansas, received her early ballet, tap, and jazz training under the tutelage of Sharon Rogers at Rogers’ Ballet, Inc. During her tenure, she was a founding member of RBI’s performing company, “PointeCounterpointe.” While working toward her BFA in Ballet at Friends University, Courtney had the honor of working with such artists as Stan K. Rogers, Francisco Martinez (Francisco Martinez Dance Theatre), Melonie Buchanan, Shawn Stevens (formerly of Twyla Tharp Dancers), and Dominic Walsh (formerly of Houston Ballet). Since moving to New York City in 2005, she has been influenced by and currently has the privilege of studying with Bob Audy, Brenda Bufalino, Michelle Dorrance, and Lynn Schwab. As the Education Assistant of the ATDF, Courtney assists in coordinating the training programs and workshops while also serving on the faculty. In addition to her duties at the ATDF, Courtney is also an instructor at Progressive Dance Studio in New Jersey.

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Germaine Salsberg is one of the most popular and influential tap dance teachers in New York today. She has been on the faculty of Broadway Dance Center for over 15 years teaching professionals as well as people who "just love to tap." She has privately coached many actors including Liza Minnelli for the movie "Steppin Out." In addition she teaches tap for Musical Theatre Majors at NYU and is a frequent guest teacher throughout the US and internationally. She assisted Tony Award Winner Danny Daniels for Broadway and National tours of "Tap Dance Kid" and has choreographed many musical theater productions. Last summer Germaine performed in Edmonton's Fringe Festival with an hour long tap show called Toe Jamm, which delighted audiences for the run of the Festival. In New York she and her husband created and performed in "Not Fade Away: Dancing Over 40."

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Lynn Schwab was a founding member and Dance Captain of California’s Taps, Ltd., “a homegrown, kinetic, innovative ensemble [that] has created a thriving rhythm tap scene that is known throughout the nation”, (Santa Barbara Jazz Society Jazzette). With Taps Ltd, Lynn performed throughout California including Los Angeles’ National Tap Dance Day festivities and in Santa Barbara’s well known “Summer Solstice Celebration”. In addition to performing in, Lynn and members of Taps Ltd., choreographed for and produced the first through fifth of Santa Barbara’s “Annual National Tap Dance Day Celebration” concerts at University of California Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall. Lynn is currently a member of Barbara Duffy & Company and Susan Hebach’s The Tap Collective. She previously was a member of Feraba – African Rhythm Tap. With these groups, Lynn has had the opportunity to perform at such notable venues as The Duke on 42nd Street (Tap City 2001, 2002, 2003), Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Town Hall, Off Broadway’s LaMAMA, World Festival 2000, The International Street Performers Festival and at New York’s Studio 54 Theatre in a tribute to Gregory Hines. Recently, Lynn, with members of the Tap Collective, choreographed and performed the Morton Gould Tap Dance Concerto with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra. Lynn’s rich dance experience includes studying Tap, Jazz, Modern, Ballet and African. She has shared that knowledge with students at Broadway Dance Center, NYU’s Collaborative Arts Project 21, Manhattan Motion, New Jersey’s Theatre Arts Dance Academy, and workshops and festivals in Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, and New York including The New York City Tap Festival. She currently teaches regularly at Ballet Arts and Steps in New York City.

Photo by Lois Greenfield

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Randy Skinner is an award-winning director, choreographer, and performer whose work has been seen on Broadway, National and International tours, and Regional theatres. He received Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and Astaire nominations for his choreography for 42ND STREET . He also choreographed the opening number for the 2001 Tony Awards television broadcast. Other shows include STATE FAIR (Outer Critics nomination), AIN'T BROADWAY GRAND (Tony and Outer Critics nominations), DO RE MI (City Center Encores), GOTTA DANCE! (City Center), ABBY'S SONG (City Center), LUCKY IN THE RAIN, GEORGE M, BABES IN ARMS (all three at Goodspeed), HELLO DOLLY, STRIKE UP THE BAND, PAL JOEY, and LONE STAR LOVE. He has received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award, the Los Angeles Dramalogue Award, the Connecticut Critics Award, and the Cleveland Times Theatre Award. Among Mr. Skinner's performances are roles in A CHORUS LINE, GYPSY, DAMES AT SEA, HELLO DOLLY, PAL JOEY, ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, HIGH SPIRITS, WALKING HAPPY, and BABES IN ARMS, directed by the legendary Ginger Rogers.

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Dr. Jimmy Slyde is one of the world's great tap masters whose career spans almost six decades. His remarkable trademark style was developed in the duo the Slyde Brothers, with his former partner, Jimmy ‘Sir Slyde’ Mitchell. In addition to his Tony-Nominated role in Black and Blue, he has appeared with the Original Hoofers in 1000 Years of Jazz and the films The Cotton Club, Round Midnight, About Tap, and Tap. He has performed in major tap festivals, concert halls, and clubs throughout Europe and the U.S. He was the originator and host of weekly tap shows at New York's jazz clubs, La Cave and La Place. He was a featured performer at a special White House performance on American dance, hosted by Savion Glover, and at Carnegie Hall's Tribute to the Nicholas Brothers. Tribute was paid to him in 1993 at the Miller Theatre, where the New York Tap Dance Community gathered to celebrate his 45 Years of Foot Poetry-In-Motion. Most recently, he received a historic honorary degree of Doctor of Performing Arts in American Dance from Oklahoma City University.

Photo by Debi Field

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Jason Samuels-Smith won both an Emmy and American Choreography Award for the Opening number of the“ Jerry Lewis/MDA Telethon” in a tribute to Gregory Hines. He was recognized by the City of Los Angeles for creating the Los Angeles Tap Festival, and awarded a Proclamation declaring April 23rd “Jason Samuels Day” (City of Shreveport, LA), the “Ivy of Education” (Brainerd Institute), the “President Kenny Award” (Stony Brook University), and an Arts International Grant.

Mr. Samuels-Smith starred in Dean Hargrove’s short film “Tap Heat” (2004), and is featured in the feature film “Idlewild” starring Outkast (Universal Pictures/August 2006).  Credits include Debbie Allen’s Soul Possessed,  AMC series “Cool Women”, Sammy (a tribute to the life of Sammy Davis jr.), Broadway’s Bring in Da’Noise, Bring in Da’Funk, Savion Glover’s NYOTs, Cross Currents:Turned on Tap (Queen Elizabeth Hall/London), The Cotton Club Returns: A Tribute to Great Jazz Legends among others. He also founded tap company A.C.G.I.  which most recently performed at the New York City Fall for Dance Festival and JaJa Productions band featuring original jazz-influenced hip hop music (2004).

Photo by Michael Higgins

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Tap City Youth Ensemble In celebration of our 20th Anniversary Year, the America Tap Dance Foundation is proud to announce the founding of two new exciting performing groups for young dancers:  The Tap City Youth Ensemble and Junior Repertory Ensemble. These new performing groups for advanced tap dancers ages 9 to 19 give serious tap students the opportunity to work with professional choreographers to learn classic and contemporary tap repertory.  The Ensemble meets weekly for a three hour rehearsal/company class directed by Susan Hebach and will hone skills through special master classes and regular performances at New York City venues, including Tap City 2006 – The New York City Tap Festival. 

Photo by Debi Field

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Tony Waag - Producer/Director of Tap City, the New York City Tap Festival. In 1986, he founded the American Tap Dance Foundation (formerly the American Tap Dance Orchestra) with Brenda Bufalino and the late Charles ‘Honi’ Coles. As Executive Director and a featured dancer, he toured with the ATDO extensively throughout the United States and around the world. From 1989-1995, he co-created and operated, with Brenda Bufalino, Woodpeckers Tap Dance Center. As a soloist, he has performed internationally, making guest appearances at the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Rio de Janeiro’s Tap Encontro 99, The Moscow International Tap Festival, several National Tap Dance Day Extravaganzas in NYC, and numerous other concert events throughout the country. In 2000 and 2001, he performed as Master of Ceremonies to sold-out audiences across the country in Hoagy Carmichael's Centennial Celebration Tour! He has also performed on PBS's Great Performances – Tap Dance In America, WNEW's P.M. Magazine, Good Day New York, and The Regis & Kathie Lee Show, and has been featured in national television commercials for both Seagram's and Renault. Tony teaches master classes internationally, and is currently working on a musical film project entitled “Footage” based on his 25 odd years in the field.

Photo by Lois Greenfield

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Baakari Wilder is a young man who has had an astounding career. Savion Glover's replacement in the Broadway production of "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk," Baakari is a native Washingtonian and got his beginning right here in the D. C. Metro area. His dancing has delighted audiences at the Kennedy Center, Smithsonian, National Theater, Corcoran Gallery of Art's, Levin School of Music, Dance Place, and a list of regional musical theater performances. He studied tap under Savion Glover, Gregory Hines, Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, Harold Nicholas, LaVaughn Robinson, and Maurice Hines. He has appeared in the Memorial Tribute for Charles “Honi” Coles, "Jazz Tap”, "Savion Glover & Friends," to name but a few. He has shown his versatility as an actor with performances at Folgers’ Shakespeare Theater and Bowie State University. Baakari has a list of television appearances to his credit, as a dancer (Jazz Central on BET, Savion Glover on BRAVO), an actor (Homicide on NBC), and guest (The Today Show, Rosie O'Donnell, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The 1996 and 1997 Tony Awards).

Photo by Debi Field

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Karen Callaway Williams recently completed a three year run with Riverdance, as the only female tap dancer and dance captain in Riverdance – On Broadway. Other Broadway credits include Duke Ellington’s Play On. Karen was also featured in Essence, interviewed on Showtime’s Bojangles, The Legacy. As well, she has been a special guest on Sesame Street. A graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, she is also an alumna of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center Certificate Program in NYC. Upon arriving in NYC, Karen became a member of DancEllington Dance Company, and worked with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. She was also the lone female tap artist at Lincoln Center’s The Majesty of Tap, with tap legends Bunny Briggs, Jimmy Slyde, Chuck Green, and Lon Chaney. Dance Magazine heralded her as “a graceful dream with taps as happy as a song.” In addition to performing, Ms. Williams has established herself as a prominent tap instructor in schools such as The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and the Professional Performing Arts.

Photo by Debi Field

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