In my group choreography, I advance the scope of American tap dance and jazz music traditions through jazz stories, fresh approaches to composition and arrangement in my concert work, and community tap dances that bring people together.
-
Jazz stories weave together tap dance, original music and written text to tell a narrative tale. The subject matter can range from musicians to periods of jazz history to abstract themes, told through jazz music. The stories can be factual, fictional, wildly imaginary, boldly futuristic or a mix of all these things.What I aim to do with my jazz stories is not make them straight biographies and instead enrich relevant themes with my own voice. This work of telling other people’s stories inevitably reveals facets of my own journey in dance and music. I start researching, and the stuff I find is just a portal into my own experiences; perhaps that is why I am drawn to them, or why they are drawn to me.
Tyner and Timmons (TNT)
Trouble the Water
Terry Pollard: A Jazz Epistolary
Beryl Booker
-
The Sound of Philadelphia (2015)
Nothing to Do But Waltz (2016)
Jill Jawn/Down to the Wire (2016)
Rhythm and Blues and Shoes (2019)
Freedom Jazz Dance (2020)
Blue Rondo a la Turk (2021)
On A Clear Day/Rolling Down a Hill (202)
-
It’s Love (2018)
Pam Funk (2023)
Up Jumped Spring (2024)