Tap Dance | Artist Faculty
July 28 – August 3
Nicholas Young is an artist, choreographer, dancer, musician, and a 2014 Bessie Award recipient. He began his professional career at the age of 16 in Austin, TX with Tapestry Dance Company under the direction of Acia Gray and Deirdre Strand. As Principal Dancer and Resident Choreographer of the company, he was awarded Best Male Dancer (2001) and Best Choreography (2003) by the Austin Critics Council. In the New York City cast of STOMP from 2003-2013, he moved forward with the production playing the lead role and acting as Rehearsal Director for the American Tour. Most recently, Nicholas served as the Associate Artistic Director of Dorrance Dance and has been a choreographer and collaborator with Artistic Director Michelle Dorrance for nearly a decade. Choreographic and conceptual collaborations with Dorrance Dance include: ETM The Initial Approach, ETM Double Down, Guggenheim Rotunda Project, Elemental (BAM), and Ways to Now (Jacob’s Pillow). Nicholas’ solo choreographic contributions to the company include Elastic Time which premiered at The Joyce Theater in New York City and Untitled Waveforms which premiered at Jacob’s Pillow. His work has been performed at Jacob’s Pillow, Sadlers Wells, Fira Tarrega, The Joyce Theater, City Center, and Hong Kong Arts Festival, among others. As a musician, Nicholas has performed and toured with Cyro Baptista’s Beat the Donkey, as drummer for Darwin Deez and Dorrance Dance, was cast in the Amazon film Música, and has created two electronic music scores for the documentaries Tap or Die and Aces and Knaves, produced by Jackie Pare.
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Contemporary | Guest Choreographer
July 6 – July 13
Andrea Miller is a groundbreaking choreographer, creative director, and founder of the internationally renowned multidisciplinary organization GALLIM, represented by Opus 3 Artists. A Hispanic creator and collaborator for dance, film, fashion, and the visual arts, Andrea is known for her exploration of the essential elements of human behavior and the alchemy of movement and performance. Her dance works are presented by leading institutions and festivals around the world including Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, New York City Center, The Joyce Theater, BAM, Jacob’s Pillow, Royal Albert Hall, Sadler’s Wells, London Royal Opera House, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Teatre Grec of Barcelona, Theaterhaus Stuttgart, Canal Madrid, Teatro Nacional de Panamá, DanceHouse Vancouver, and Spoleto Festival, among others.
Andrea is a Guggenheim, Sadler’s Wells, New York City Center, and Princess Grace Fellow, and was featured in Forbes as an entrepreneur and leader in the dance world. She is the first choreographer to be named Artist in Residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, creating two large scale works for The Temple of Dendur and The Met Breuer. Her visual art collaborations include a sound, sculpture, and performance installation processing the pandemic for Lincoln Center, as well as works for London V&A, The Glass House, Art Basel, Frieze Festival, Grace Farms, and Grand Central Station.
Recent dance commissions include English National Ballet, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Bern Ballet, Noord Nederland Dans, Pennsylvania Ballet, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Rambert2, Ailey II, and The Juilliard School. Film collaborations include celebrated directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, Xavier Dolan, Ezra Hurwitz, Bat-Sheva Guez, and long time collaborator Ben Stamper. Collaborations in fashion and brands include multiple projects with Hermès, as well as Chanel, VOGUE, Bergdorf Goodman, SportsMax, KSwiss, Lacoste, Target, Calvin Klein, Crate & Barrel, SLS Hotels Miami and Las Vegas, and Beautiful Destinations.
Andrea’s repertory, creative methodology, and dance training have been taught at The Juilliard School, New York University, University of California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Harvard, Barnard, SUNY Purchase, and others. She has been an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College and Barnard, and is currently guest faculty at The Juilliard School, where she is an alumna.
In 2022, Andrea’s commitment to creativity and dance education led to the establishment of the GALLIM School of Movement, a home for the exchange of movement wisdom, artistic practice, and community building through dance. Miller created the GALLIM Moving Artist & Parent Moving Artist Residencies to provide holistic support to the large community of artists who have previously been underrepresented in the movement arts.
Miller serves on the board of Chelsea Factory and The Doris Humphrey Foundation.
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Creating in Jazz and Tap Dance | Artist Faculty
July 21 – July 27, July 28 – August 3
A proud Canadian and New Yorker, Lisa La Touche is a tap dance artist, choreographer, educator, and cultural historian. Her performance credits include being an original cast member in Broadway’s Shuffle Along, choreographed by Savion Glover and Directed by George C. Wolfe, where she received both the Fred Astaire Award and the Actor’s Equity Award for Outstanding Broadway Chorus. She is proudly an Armstrong Now Artist in Residence in collaboration and connection with the Louis Armstrong House and Museum. Additionally, Lisa focuses a portion of her research and exploration in connection with her Trinidadian ancestry and is the brainchild behind her passion project, Trinidad & Tap Dance: As Folklore.
Her TV credits include the 70th Annual Tony Awards and Amazon’s original Z: The Beginning of Everything. Previous highlights have also included touring with the Savion Glover production Stepz, performing with Dormeshia at Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club, as well as performing with both New York’s Off-Broadway and the North American touring casts of STOMP. Since 2010, Lisa has directed her own performance company, Tap Phonics, and has been commissioned to present choreographic works for institutions such as The Brooklyn Museum, 92Y, Gibney Dance, Decidedly Jazz, and Fall For Dance North.
As an educator and professor, she is currently on faculty at PACE University and Marymount Manhattan College, in addition to having taught at NYU, The School at Jacob’s Pillow, Rosie’s Theater Kids, the University of Calgary, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, and the American Tap Dance Foundation. She is also a writer and director and has enjoyed collaborating on documentary filmmaking including her film TRAX encompassing her journey back to Alberta while discovering African-American migration history to western Canada, bridging histories across borders within the African Diaspora. Above all, her proudest achievement greatest inspiration, is the gift of being a mom.
For further info, please visit www.lisalatouche.com.
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Tap Dance | Legacy in Rhythm Guest Speaker
August 7
Marshall L. Davis Jr. was born in Miami Beach, FL and began his arts training at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Liberty City, FL. By the age of 11, he was the 1989 Florida winner for the Tri-Star Pictures Tap Day contest, a promotion for the movie Tap starring Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr. At age 13, he accepted a check from Ed McMahon for winning the coveted title of 1991 Star Search Teen Dance Champion. Since winning, he has had the pleasure of performing with Harold “Stumpy” Cromer at the Guthrie Theater as Pocket in the musical Babes in Arms, directed by Garland Wright and choreographed by Liza Gennaro. Later, he joined the Tony award-winning Broadway production of Bring In ’Da Noise, Bring In ’Da Funk, choreographed by Savion Glover and directed by George C. Wolfe.
Marshall has performed and taught throughout Europe, Japan, Australia, and the United States. He is the protégé of the late Steve Condos of the “Condos Brothers.” He has also received guidance from James “Buster” Brown, Edwin Holland, Paul Kennedy, Ted Levy, Lavaughn Robinson, and Sam Weber. Named “Most Unusual Dance Soloist” by the Miami Herald for his rendition of the Morton Gould Tap Concerto, Marshall is also the recipient of Isaac Hayes’ Breaking the Barrier Award for his achievements at such an early age.
As a tap educator, he serves on the faculty of Queens College and Manhattan School of Music. Marshall can be seen through motion capture performance in the animated film Happy Feet Two, directed by George Miller. He is the tap choreographer and featured hoofer in Simply Sammy, a ballet choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultrie, set to the music of Sammy Davis Jr. Marshall worked as the Associate Choreographer to Savion Glover for the Broadway show Shuffle Along, as well for Encores Off-Center’s production of Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope! His most recent work-in-progress is Revelations In Rhythm.
To learn more about Marshall and stay up to date with his latest endeavors, please visit @marshalldavisjr on Instagram.
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Tap Dance | Artist Faculty
August 3 – August 10
Heather Cornell is literally and metaphorically a mover and a shaker in the world of dance. An ensemble founder and sought-after solo artist, she is a choreographer, director, and producer. She has learned from and performed with giants of the tap dance genre. In a career that has spanned four decades, Heather has left an indelible mark on dance stages all over the world. She is an oral history fellow at the New York City Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and is currently a full time faculty member at Hope College. The Heather Cornell Legacy Project, now in its second year, is an initiative to pass to the next generations her archives, lineage, and concepts through working to create an active shift of understanding of the artform in today’s practitioners and current pedagogy.
Arriving in New York in the early 1980s as a modern dancer from Ontario, Canada, Heather found tap dance quite quickly. She worked with and was mentored by tap artists such as Buster Brown, Cookie Cook, Chuck Green, Eddie Brown, Steve Condos, and Harriet “Quicksand” Brown, and was the only tap dancer mentored by iconic jazz bassist, Ray Brown. She toured internationally with Jazz Tap Ensemble and worked in NYC with Gail Conrad, Anita Feldman, Andrea Levine, and as clown partner to Noel Parenti. Eventually, Heather co-founded Manhattan Tap, a leading American tap and music ensemble which would go on to garner international acclaim. For close to 20 years, Heather served as the group’s choreographer, director, and soloist, collaborating on a huge body of work with her main collaborator, Keith Saunders. In 2004, she launched a successful solo career, creating a number of projects internationally, including Finding Synesthesia in collaboration with Andy Milne and commissioned by the London Jazz Festival, CanTap, an all Canadian music dance ensemble, Taps and Traps in collaboration with Jesse Stewart, Conversations, recreated in five countries with local artists, and her music ensemble, Making Music Dance, international touring and CD release in 2015.
Heather has held workshops for 35 years where she has trained free-thinking improvisational music and dance artists focused on the magic of the community. She was a co-creator, with Thanos Daskalopolous and Max Pollak, of Tap Motif in Lefkada, Greece, an eight year music and dance summit focused on creating balanced multi-disciplinary pedagogy through the freedom of improvisation.
Heather calls herself a physical percussionist—someone whose rhythmic, precise foot movement adds to or creates the musicality of a piece—and she dances using different textures of sound, including wood, leather, and sand. And always, she dances only to live music, never music that is “canned.” For more info, check out her website: www.manhattantap.org.
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Tap Dance | Legacy in Rhythm Guest Speaker
July 31
Producer, choreographer, performer, and teacher, Roxane Butterfly is a direct heir of The Original Hoofers with whom she learned all about the tap dance craft. Given the name ‘Butterfly’ by bebop tap legend, Jimmy Slyde, Roxane’s worldwide career has spanned 35 years and has featured work with renowned bands and orchestras throughout international music venues, and amongst some of the most established tap companies in the country including Lynn Dally’s Jazz Tap Ensemble (Los Angeles) and Tamangoh’s Urban Tap (New York).
Roxane has been a featured performer in major productions such as Kenneth Feld’s MADhattan (Las Vegas), toured her all women-troup BeauteeZ’n The Beat across the United States, and was a pioneer on the world-music scene with the Roxane Butterfly’s Worldbeats Ensemble, blending the jazz tap aesthetics with North-African music and flamenco. Thanks to the generous support of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, New York Foundation For the Arts, Meet The Composer Fund, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Funds, Roxane Butterfly’s Worldbeats Ensemble has performed around the world throughout France, Germany, Spain, Canada, and in New York City at venues including the Public Theater, Central Park’s Summerstage, Lincoln Center, and Symphony Space, among others.
After teaching for over two decades at prestigious universities and performing arts schools, Roxane founded the Jimmy Slyde Institute in Barcelona, Spain and continues to teach in the professional training division of the Juste Debout School, at the Conservatoire Frédéric Chopin, in addition to the Pôle Supérieur de Boulogne Billancourt. Currently, Roxane continues to develop work with her internationally-touring project, Company SmARTS, which features her daughter who has down syndrome. And since 2018, Roxane has taught at the Paris Summer Tap Intensive.
Roxane was the first woman in tap history to receive a Bessie Award and thus, she has opened the door for future generations of women present in the tap industry. Moreover, Roxane was the first immigrant dancer to be granted permanent residency in the United States as a tap dancer.
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Tap Dance | Legacy in Rhythm Guest Speaker
August 14
Kurt Albert is among the highest ranking tap dance leaders in Europe, having over 30 years of experience in international show business. Kurt was fortunate to learn the art of American Rhythm Tap from influential mentors such as Carnell Lyons, Brenda Bufalino, Josh Hilberman, and Buster Brown, while further advancing his training by attending workshops led by Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, Dianne Walker, Jimmy Slyde, Sarah Petronio, Steve Condos, Eddie Brown, Fred Kelly, Prince Spencer, Cookie Cook, Fay Ray, and Leonard Reed. He was a member of Brenda Bufalino’s International Tap Dance Orchestra, and since 1990, has shared the stage frequently with Carnell Lyons, Brenda Bufalino, and Josh Hilberman. For over 30 years, Kurt has danced alongside his partner Klaus Bleis, the two of them forming Germany’s best known tap duo, Tap and Tray. Currently, as protégés and friends of Carnell Lyons, the partners are researching the tap and jazz worlds to write a biography of Carnell. In addition to his continued work with Tap and Tray, Kurt has worked with the jazz band, Melody and Rhythm, for 15 years alongside drummer, Allen Blairman, and saxophone player, Olaf Schönborn. And since 2019, Kurt has worked with Thomas Marek in their Vienna Jazz Tap Project.
Kurt’s credits as a teacher and performer include New York City’s Tap City Festival (2001, 2003, 2006, and 2014), Rhapsody in Taps Festival (Los Angeles, CA), Rhythm Tap Dance Festival (NC), Kansas City Tap Dance Day, Rhythm at the Regent (Boston, MA), Helsinki City Beat Tap Festival, International Tap Festival Limoges (France), Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Portsmouth Percussive Dance Festival (NH), Moscow Tap Parade Festival, Festival D’Estiu Reus (Spain), Tap Breizh Festival Rennes (France), Tap Ahead Festival, Tap Festival Berlin, Heidelberg Human Rhythm Projekt, Montpellier Tap Festival, and Stockholm Tap Festival, among others.
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Creating in Jazz | Artist Faculty
July 21 – July 27
Natasha Powell is a Toronto, Canada native who has been working in the dance industry for 20 years. Her soulful approach to movement that transcends genre can be seen and felt in her dancing, choreography, and teachings.
Growing up in a Caribbean home, dancing has always been at the forefront of Natasha’s life. She has collaborated and created over 20 dance works for live performance. As Founder, Artistic Director, and Choreographer for her company, HOLLA JAZZ, Natasha created the award-winning show FLOOR’D, the company’s first full-length production, presenting historical jazz dances in a contemporary aesthetic. The production was nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards (including Outstanding Original Choreography and Outstanding Production) alongside winning the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Award and was named one of the top 10 dance shows of the past decade by NOW Magazine. Her choreographic language has led her to collaborate on theater projects on Canadian Stage productions of Choir Boy (2022) and Fall on Your Knees (2023). Natasha is also a recipient of the Johanna Metcalf Prize in the Performing Arts, presented by the Metcalf Foundation.
Inspired by social dances such as jazz, hip hop, and house dance, Natasha shares her love for movement through teaching dance classes and workshops in Toronto and across Canada. She helps individuals find their personal groove, make breakthroughs in their dancing, and ultimately experience joy in their bodies.
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Creating in Jazz | Music Director
July 21 – July 27
Based in New York City, saxophonist Christopher McBride’s work includes education, arranging, composition, and performance. He has been slowly but steadily turning heads with his ubiquitous work as an invaluable sideman since the mid-2000’s. Christopher is steadily gaining respect amongst fans, critics, and his peers as one of the most versatile saxophonists in the world. His debut album Quatuor de Force (2012) certainly establishes his ability to lead a group and write his own soulful, melodically indelible tunes. Applauded for his ability to play in all musical situations, Christopher has the ability to unleash a fiery attack and serrated tone, though on his first album he explores a more measured, mellow sound heavily influenced by contemporary R&B—with a strong shot of Cannonball Adderley’s post-bop sensuality. As a composer, Christopher was selected as the 2022 Make Jazz Fellowship Artist at The 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California.
Born in Chicago, where his professional career began in 2007, Christopher moved to New York City in 2013. His group, The Whole Proof, has played venues all over New York City. Christopher ran his Singer Meets Saxophonist series at the famed Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem from 2017-2019. The musicians he has performed with over the years span many genres. He has shared the stage with Billy Preston, Percy Gray, Roy Hargrove, Pete Rock, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Talib Kweli, Lupe Fiasco, Guy Sebastian, Solange, Ne-Yo, Jennifer Hudson, Alice Smith, Brandon Flowers, Lea DeLaria, 88 Keys, Milton Mustafa, Winard Harper, and the Marquis Hill’s Blacktet.
As a recording artist, Christopher’s February 2023 release Ramon made the Top 25 on the JazzWeek Charts and stayed on the charts for 14 weeks, as well as making the JazzWeek Top 100 albums for 2023. The sophomore release has received critical acclaim. All About Jazz called the album “a sonic marvel that showcases a robust grasp of bebop and contemporary jazz idioms.” As a performing artist, he has received a Grammy Certificate for his work as a collaborator/soloist on Steven Feifke and Bijon Watson’s 2022 album Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra.
As an educator, Christopher has served as the Director of Education for the Second Line Arts Collective, a non-profit organization based out of New Orleans, LA. His primary duties included writing curriculum for the Little Stompers Division and teacher development. He also teaches regularly at Jazz at the Lincoln Center, as well as touring nationally with various educational programs.
As a journalist and consultant, Christopher has worked with Forbes Ignite, the innovation coalition of Forbes.
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Contemporary | Guest Choreographer
July 13 – July 20
Rafi Sady (he/him) trained at Bat Dor Beer Sheva/Tel-Aviv, Israel dance school. He was a member of the Cullberg Ballet (Sweden) for 14 years, where he danced many lead roles, including Carabosse in Mats Ek’s Sleeping Beauty and Don José in Mats Ek’s Carmen. Rafi also worked with world-renowned choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Jirí Kylián, Christopher Bruce, Oscar Araiz, Rudi van Dantzig, Didy Veldman, Robert North, Kenneth Kvarnstrom, Carolyn Carlson, Örjan Andersson, and Cristina Caprioli, among others.
He was a Soloist with Bat-Dor dance company and a Principal Dancer for Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève for seven years. He made numerous guest appearances with companies, including Dutch National Ballet (Amsterdam) and the Royal Swedish Opera soloist company Stockholm 59°North (USA & Finland).
Since 2009, Rafi assists Mats Ek in teaching dance companies around the world: Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, Zurich Ballet, The Royal Swedish Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), Opera de Paris, Staatsballett Berlin, and Norwegian National Ballet. Rafi taught Mats Ek’s Carmen to Sylvie Guillem and The Tokyo Ballet and presented an Ek repertoire workshop at The Juilliard School in New York City.
Additional credits include participation in Age On Stage, a dance project created by Charlotta Öfverholm, which collaborated with European project Dance On in Berlin with former dancers from The Forsythe Company and included working with choreographers Martin Harriague, Sharon Friedman, and Johannes Wieland. Since 2106 he has taught for the Maslool School of Contemporary Dance (Israel) and Arts Umbrella (Canada).
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