Tap Dance | Artist Faculty
August 10 – August 17
An internationally acclaimed and much sought-after educator, choreographer, and performer, Josette Wiggan, has dedicated her life to the perpetuation of African American Vernacular Jazz Dance. Josette began her dance journey with Paul and Arlene Kennedy in Los Angeles, CA. Her love for performing was fostered by the Kennedys and then refined as an adult performing with the Jazz Tap Ensemble until 2007.
A graduate of UCLA, Josette’s career highlights include the 2001 Spotlight Award (Non-Classical Dance Category), the first National Broadway Tour of 42nd Street, a 2008 Bessie Award Nominee for Outstanding Performance in the Baker & Tarpaga Project, movies such as Idlewild and Princess and the Frog, and studying with Germaine Acogny at L’ecole les Sables in Senegal, Africa. Alongside her brother, Joseph Wiggan, she was a part of two original casts of Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel and Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour from 2009-2013. The duo performed in Tireless, a show curated by Michelle Dorrance that debuted at Jacob’s Pillow in 2017. Josette was part of Dorrance’s all woman quartet that created works Until the Real Comes Along and All Good Things Must Come and End. In 2019, she was a co-creator with Dorrance and Hannah Heller for the Christmas work, …The Nutcracker Suite…, which made its tour debut at the Kennedy Center and performed at the White House in 2023 at the invitation of First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
In 2021, Josette created her first evening length work, Praise: The Inevitable Fruit of Gratitude, in collaboration with Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold and the cast of Dorrance Dance. This work debuted at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and the Queens Theatre in the Park. In 2023, Josette began her own tap company, Josette Wiggan Presents, and developed new works entitled On Solid Ground: A Celebration of Black Joy and Freedom In Our America, featuring improvisation by the dancers and musicians, and her first solo work, Threshing Floor: A Place of Meditation and Melody for the American Dance Platform at the Joyce Theater.
Josette is currently on faculty at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, where she teaches vernacular jazz and tap dance.
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