Our Artist in Residency Program supports professional tap dancers recognized for their unique vision and personal style. Artists receive weekly studio space to support their creative process, create new work and mobilize their on-going activities and career.
The ATDF is dedicated to nurturing a creative environment for artists to connect, explore and share their talent with other artists, students, ATDF faculty and the community. The ATDF encourages artists to pass on a tradition. A tradition of teaching, learning, exploring and then passing it on to the next generation. ATDF programming is designed to connect the tap professional to our student body. Each artist contributes to the Tap Conservatory by teaching special master classes, making guest appearances in ATDF events and performances and by creating and placing new contemporary choreography on the Tap City Youth Ensemble. The ATDF steward's innovation, fosters exploration, provides support and resources and provides a forum for each artist to reach his or her full potential as a working professional in the field. To learn more about this program contact Tony Waag at: twaag@atdf.org
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Chloé Arnold Internationally sought after Choreographer and Performer, Chloé Arnold's work can be seen on film, television, and stages worldwide. Co-Founder of the DC Tap Festival and Co-Director of the LA Tap Festival, some of Chloé's most recent highlights include guest performances on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars and FOX's So You Think You Can Dance, Cobu 3D, a highly anticipated dance feature film, a sold-out NY run of her One Woman show My Life. My Diary. My Dance. at La MaMa in New York City, Global Fusion Concert in Dubai with 10 of the world's most accomplished musicians, and Jason Samuels Smith's Charlie's Angels: A tribute to Charlie Parker Off-Broadway at the Kitchen.
Choreography: Thank You Gregory: A Tribute to the Legends of Tap, the opening number for the Jerry Lewis/MDA telethon, Debbie Allen's Hit play Alex in Wonderland, Tap Dreams a Tap Docu-reality series, and on her own company Syncopated Ladies.
Film/TV: Nickelodeons Brother's Garcia, Discovery Channels Time Warp, the CW's One on One, The Parkers, Dance double for Beyonce in Upgrade You, Dean Hargrove’s Award Winning Short Film, Tap Heat and Outkast's Idlewild.
Theatre: FOCUS Dance at the Joyce Theater, Broadway Care's Easter Bonnet at the Minskoff, Theatre, Debbie Allen's Alex in Wonderland, Imagine Tap, Jazz Tap Ensemble at the Joyce Theater. Jason Samuels Smith's company Anybody Can Get It at New York City Center's Fall for Dance, and Jacob's Pillow. As a Tap Dance Soloist, Chloé has performed her own work in over 18 International Tap Festivals.
For more information: www.chloearnold.com |
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Brenda Bufalino (ATDF Artistic Mentor/Teacher) is a mixed genre artist; choreographer and tap dancer, a dancer who sings, tells stories, writes books, works clay into shapes that dance, and paints pictures. She has performed her one person shows Internationally and has appeared as a guest soloist at Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center among other major venues. In February 2009, she premiered her latest show “Primordial Memories” at the Judson Church in NYC as part of Tony Waag’s “Sound Check Series.” She mentors, lectures and teaches master classes internationally and teaches many workshop series for the American Tap Dance Foundation in New York City throughout the year. As artistic director/ choreographer of The American Tap Dance Orchestra she toured America and Europe with her company, and appeared at The Joyce Theatre, and on PBS “Great Performances…..Tap Dance in America with Gregory Hines.” For many years Ms. Bufalino collaborated and toured extensively with her mentor Charles “Honi” Coles. She has received consecutive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and is a NYFA fellow. Her critically acclaimed book “Tapping the Source…. tap dance stories, theory and practice” is published by Cod Hill Press. She has created numerous DVD’s and CD’s…. tapping, singing, teaching and telling stories, which are available from her web-site. She is the recipient of the Flobert Award, The Tapestry Award, and The Tap City Hoofers Award, all for outstanding achievement and contributions to the field of tap dance.
Visit: brendabufalino.com Visit: Brenda's Blog
Photo by Lois Greenfield |
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Michelle Dorrance is one of the most sought after tap dancers of her generation. She currently performs with the Off-Broadway production STOMP and is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center. A North Carolinian by birth and a New Yorker since 1997, Michelle has been tap dancing her whole life. She was formally trained at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill under youth tap trailblazer Gene Medler. Michelle started performing at the age of 8 with Medler's company, the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble at the early tap festivals of the 1990's and grew with them, receiving international acclaim. An incredibly diverse dancer, Michelle has since established herself as an accomplished solo artist, teaching master classes and performing from Monaco and Moscow to Tokyo and Tel Aviv. She has been honored to work with Heather Cornell's Manhattan Tap, Savion Glover's Ti Dii, Barbara Duffy & Co., Max Pollak's Rumba Tap, Tony Waag’s Tap City on Tour, Ayodele Casel's Diary of a Tap Dancer, Mable Lee's Dancing Ladies, Harold Cromer's Opus One, Derick Grant's Imagine Tap!, Lynn Daly’s Jazz Tap Ensemble and Jason Samuels-Smith's Charlie's Angels: A tribute to Charlie Parker. 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, as well as in a commercial for Toyota Taiwan. In 2007, The Brothers Timofeyevich won second place at the World Championships in Germany performing her choreography. She has been known to appear dancing on stage with underground music icons The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Bitch and Animal and Darwin Deez. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, 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 genius.
Visit: Michelle Dorrance.com |
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Derick K. Grant is a performer, choreographer,
director who has an established career that spans over three decades. Under the
direction of Tony Award winning director George C. Wolfe, he was an original
company member and Dance Captain for Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk at both The Public Theater and on Broadway and starred in the role of ‘da
beat for the first National Tour of Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk. Mr. Grant created the critically acclaimed show Imagine Tap! and
was appointed as the Co-Artistic Director of Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Rhythm World Summer Festival. His choreography was featured on Fox’s
hit series So You Think You Can Dance and he has performed and recorded with
Grammy Award winner Dan Zanes. Mr. Grant was the recipient of the Princess Grace
Award for Upcoming Young Artist, The Helen Hayes Award (Washington D.C.) for
Outstanding Featured Actor as well as two additional for his role in Bring
In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk. Mr. Grant also received two Los Angeles
Ovation Awards for choreography and for best Ensemble performance in Noise/Funk,
and was most recently recognized for Best Choreography for Imagine Tap! He is currently a corporate Tap spokesperson for SoDanca and continues to
transform and inspire dance communities around the world.
Visit: imaginetap.com
Photo by Lois Greenfield |
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Kazu Kumagai was born in Sendai City, Japan. He started tap dancing at the age of 15 and came to NY at the age of 19. As he was attending the New York University at the age of 20, he also trained in the New York Institute of Tap`s "FUNK UNIVERSITY," which was the training workshop for the big hit Broadway Musical "Bring in Da` Noise Bring in Da` Funk. He studied with Ted Levy, Buster Brown, Gregory Hines, Barbara Duffy, and Derick K. Grant. Since then, he has been performed in many NYC downtown clubs such as the Knitting Factory, Tonic, and the Puppet Jazz Club. From 2002 to 2010, he performed for in Tony Waag’s Tap City, the New York City Tap Festival nine times, and was dubbed by the Village Voice as the "Japanese Gregory Hines." In 2006, He was selected as "25 to Watch" in Dance Magazine. After Kaz went back to Japan in 2002, he made numerous solo appearances all over the country and collaborated with many artists and musicians, and appeared in several television commercials, such as SONY CYBERSHOT. He also performed in a MIHARAYASUHIRO fashion show in Milan, Italy, where he succeeded in opening up a new field of the Arts. In 2008, he opened his first tap dance studio "KAZ TAP STUDIO" in Japan, and has subsequently taught throughout Japan including in his home town of Sendai City, where there was severe damage due to the 2011 earthquake and Tsunami. Kaz dedicates his passion and love for the art of Tap Dance to the great masters such as his mentor Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines and others, as well as to his hometown Tohoku where his family and friends live.
Photo by Leslie Kee |
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Max Pollak, named one of the "25 to Watch in 2007" by Dance Magazine, was inspired by the virtuosic footwork displayed by many of the greats in American film, and most importantly, jazz music. A native of Austria, he has been tapping since the age of 11, and playing drums and percussion since the age of 14. At age 17 Max was first exposed to the African American style of rhythm tap when seventy-one-year-old Carnell Lyons became his first mentor. Lyons, a Kansas City-born childhood friend of Charlie Parker, had toured the world successfully as a member of the vaudeville acrobatic tap act "Jesse, James and Carnell". Settling in West Berlin in the 1960s, Lyons became the pioneer of rhythm tap pedagogy in Europe. While completing his theater degree at the Theater-an-der-Wien Musical Theater School in Vienna, from 1988-1990, Pollak became an accomplished professional drummer and tap improviser. After working in several large musical theater productions in Germany and Austria, including one under the direction of Broadway choreographer Michael Shawn, he moved to New York City at the invitation of Heather Cornell, artistic director of the Bebop tap quartet Manhattan Tap. His tenure with the company lasted until 1997. During the early 1990s, the most important breeding ground for emerging tap talent was the weekly tap jam session hosted by tap legends Dr. Jimmy Slyde, Dr. Buster Brown, Chuck Green, and Lon Chaney at the New York City jazz club La Cave. Pollak was a regular, taken under the wing of the masters. For three years, he also co-hosted a weekly tap jam session at the East Village club Deanna's. Pollak also furthered his musical studies in jazz at New York's prestigious New School, graduating in May 1995. It was Latin percussion master Bobby Sanabria, though, who introduced Pollak to the earth shattering power and spiritual depth of Afro-Cuban music. Pollak soon began incorporating elements of Afro-Cuban jazz and folkloric music in his performances, developing the concept he calls "RumbaTap", a melding of Afro-Cuban music and dance, American jazz, body percussion, and tap dance. One of Pollak's crowning achievements was to receive a grant from Arts International in 2001 to help establish Cuba's first tap festival in Havana. Today Pollak is recognized worldwide as the creator of "RumbaTap." So respected is Pollak for this concept that his performances, teaching schedule, university lectures, and residencies take him throughout the US, Europe, Asia, Central and South America. Pollak has published articles on tap dance in several international publications and is the 2008 recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Choreography.
Visit: Rhumba Tap
Photo by Lois Greenfield |
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Lynn Schwab is a member of Barbara Duffy and Company, RumbaTap, and The Tap Collective, has performed at such notable New York venues as The Duke on 42nd Street, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Town Hall, Off Broadway’s La MAMA, World Festival 2000, The International Street Performers Festival, The River to River Festival, Central Park’s SummerStage, Joe’s Pub, Studio 54, The Joyce and The Joyce SoHo Theatres. She has performed at Jacob’s Pillow and as a guest artist with Billy Siegenfeld and Jeannie Hill’s Jump Rhythm Jazz Project. With members of The Tap Collective, she choreographed and performed the Morton Gould Tap Dance Concerto with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with The Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, and at festivals in the U.S., Germany, Spain, France, Holland, and Estonia. She continues to tour the U.S. with Tap City on Tour and in addition to her regular classes at Steps on Broadway in New York City, teaches and performs at festivals and workshops in the U.S., Europe and Japan. |
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Cartier Williams is a Hoofer, Choreographer, Filmmaker and Performer who hails from Washington, D.C.,
and began his tap dancing career at the age of four. Cartier learned his first tap
steps from his grandmother Audrey Williams. At the age of six Cartier performed
a piece choreographed by Mýa Cartier won Apollo Kids at The prestigious Apollo
Theater Distinguished as one of The Apollo Theater's youngest "Apollo Legends".
Later that year Cartier was invited to the Kennedy Center Honors along side
Robert Downey Jr. Mr. Williams studied at The Washington School of Ballet
under the tutelage of Mary Day. When he was 10 years old, Cartier Co-Starred
with Tap Legends Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde and Dianne Walker in the
International tour of FOOTNOTES. Cartier consider it a blessing to have
danced and shared the stage with tap pioneers and masters Peg Leg Bates, The
Nicholas Brothers, and Gregory Hines. He has appeared on THE OPRAH WINFREY
SHOW, THE TONIGHT SHOW, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, and CNN. He has performed for
2 U.S. Presidents, and in 1998 Co-Starred in the PBS Special: In Performance at
The White House with President Clinton. He toured the U.S. and Japan in the Tony
Award Winning BRING IN 'da NOISE, BRING IN 'da FUNK,
Co-starring with Savion Glover.He has performed at The Joyce Theatre, New York
City Center as well as the L.A Kodak Theatre where he performed The AFI Awards:
A Tribute to Tom Hanks. Other appearances include a performance at Usher's
birthday bash in New York City performances for the FCC, The CIA, The State
Department and Department of Justice. Now 20, Cartier is currently performing
his latest production A BEAUTIFUL CHAOS which is slated to tour in
2011 created by Cartier and two New York Film Academy friends Matt Denoma and
Max Schiano. He is collaborating with Harold Cromer on a new work which will
premiere in Spring 2011. He is a student of The New York Film Academy. As a
Filmmaker Cartier has written, directed and produced: Phone Bait, The Violinist,
and My Love Awaits. He's appeared in Spike Lee's Film Bamboozled. Cartier also performed at The Opening of the Cannes Film Festival for Moulin Rouge. He released his first Instructional DVD: CARTIER
WILLIAMS' HOOFING WITH THE BASICS in March 2010. |
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