Artist

At this year’s Stompology I had the honor of presenting a new solo piece. All the Sounds is a piece of thematic improvisation that journeys the audience through a series of rhythms and traditional steps (including a quote from Gregory Hines), that have been foundational in my journey as a tap dancer.

The piece begins with an invitation to the audience to close their eyes. Then the dancing is heard. West African rhythms, swing, and funk, all intertwine as traditional tap dance steps from the Shim Sham, Gregory Hines, Jimmy Slyde, and Savion Glover are reference and explored.

Check out the whole piece here.

During a week in the spring in 2018 I traveled to get together with my Holler Jake bandmate Evie Andrus to experiment with the combination of tap dancing and fiddle tunes. The videos were released weekly on Holler Jake’s facebook page, and are now available for your enjoyment on my portfolio page here.

Back in January 2017 I wrote about the TiltBrush Artist in Residence program, and some of the work I produced while there. The idea of combining tap dance and virtual reality is very new. It’s so new that when I was invited to produce a 360 video to celebrate a recent collaboration between Google Arts and Culture and Deutsche Grammophon, I wondered if anyone else had already done something similar. While many other dance companies have experimented with 360 videos, I’m so happy to have partnered with Windrider Institute to produce the first 360 video of a tap dancer. Check out the complete video in my portfolio here. Use Google’s cardboard to get the full virtual reality experience.

One of my dreams has been to be in a band, as a tap dancer. I’ve come close many times – a regular with the Cangelosi Cards, fronting my own old time jazz Quartet, and putting a number of units together for theatre and club dates. But Holler Jake is different. For the past few years this group began to develop around a few key individuals and a special affinity we all found for the appalachian region. And today we’re releasing our first album!!!!

The album will only be available at our live shows so come out to see us! Check out the band on Instagram and Facebook for news.

Artform, an incredible new arts company, has selected me as a founding artist: I am thrilled and honored! On Artform you can help fund my creative practice with small monthly subscriptions in exchange for access to exclusive content like weekly video updates and first looks.

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