Tapestry Dance Company Celebrates
20 YEARS OF THE SOUL TO SOLE INTERNATIONAL TAP FESTIVAL (ONLINE)
JUNE 9TH-13TH, 2021
PRICING & REGISTRATION: www.tapestry.org/soul2sole
AUSTIN, TX -- Tapestry Dance Company, North America’s only full-time, professional repertory tap dance company, presents its 20th annual festival of rhythm, Soul to Sole International Tap Festival (Online), June 9th-13th 2021.
This one-of-a-kind festival brings alumni artists, from around the world, together for an online reunion. With guidance from leaders in the field, participants have the opportunity to discover what it is to be a tap-dance artist.
25 on demand films of archive footage that includes artist solos and Tapestry’s NEA American Masterpiece production of “The Souls of Our Feet”, 20 live panel discussions, 27 Mixed Level Master Classes and the festival premiere showing of the new documentary, American Tap - “At a time when America is struggling with its cultural identity, we are compelled to look inward to unpack what it means to be American.” (https://americantapmovie.com/about-us/)
International festival artists include Dianne Walker, Acia Gray, Sarah Petronio, Nicholas Young, Michelle Dorrance, Ayodele Casel, Anthony Morigerato, Jason Janas, Arthur Duncan, Linda Sohl Ellison, Brenda Bufalino, Jay Fagan, Nicole Hockenberry, Max Pollak, Keith Terry, Leela Petronio, Lynn Dally, Terry Brock, Heather Cornell, Jane Goldberg, Joshua Hilberman, Katherine Kramer, Mark Yonally, Roxane Butterfly, Skip Cunningham, Sam Weber, Chloe Arnold, Jeannie Hill, Fred Strickler, Monti Ellison, Siobhan Alexis, Tony Waag and Tapestry alumni including Travis Knights, Andrea Torres, Matthew Shields, Jeremy Arnold and Tony Merriwether. Special tributes to the souls and past festival artists who are “spreadin’ rhythm around” in heaven and in our hearts: Dr. Fayard Nicholas, Dr. Harold Cromer, Dr. Jeni LeGon and Austin musical artists Rich Harney and Tina Marsh. ABOUT Tapestry Dance Company
Tapestry Dance Company is a professional, non-profit dance organization founded in 1989 by rhythm tap dancer Acia Gray and ballet/jazz artist Deirdre Strand for the purpose of developing a foundation in multi-form dance performance and education. The company hosts a professional performance company of five resident artists, an administrative and production support staff and a pre-professional and adult training facility in Austin, TX that shares the unique Strand/ Gray training syllabus. Tapestry Dance Company shares the power of dance through events and programs sponsored by individual contributors, corporations, the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Austin and the Texas Commission on the Arts as well as its wonderful audiences and touring sponsors. These programs include seasonal dance concert premieres, The Annual Soul to Sole Festival, community outreach programs, master classes and workshops in modern, jazz, ballet and rhythm tap as well as touring residencies throughout the country. Over the past 27 years as a member of The Texas Commission on the Arts, The Mid- American Arts Alliance and Heartland touring programs, the choreographic works and training of Tapestry Dance Company have been lovingly woven throughout the U.S. and abroad, which includes the award winning National Endowment for the Arts: Masterpiece Dance production of Acia Gray’s The Souls of Our Feet – A Celebration of American Tap Dance that toured the US and The People’s Republic of China. The company has been honored by numerous “Best of” awards by The Austin Chronicle as well as Best Dance Company, Best Dance Production and Best Ensemble by the Austin Critics Table Awards. ABOUT The Artistic Director, Acia Gray
As a soloist, choreographer and master teacher, Ms. Gray has toured extensively across the U.S. and abroad as a tap dancer and in 1989 co-founded Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, TX with Deirdre Strand and currently serves as Producing Artistic Director & Artistic Director of The Soul to Sole Tap Festival. A graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts/NYC, Ms. Gray has shared the stage with Lon Chaney, Chuck Green, Steve Condos, Brenda Bufalino, Donald O’Connor, Fayard Nicholas, Buster Brown, Savion Glover, Gregory Hines, Jimmy Slyde, Sarah Petronio, Dianne Walker and many others in such productions as The Great Tap Reunion, Tap Do/Wop, Just Friends, Masters of Tap, Chicago on Tap and Women in Tap at UCLA. She was chosen to work with legend Charles ‘Honi’ Coles in America’s first creative residency for tap at The Colorado Dance Festival and again with Jimmy Slyde and was featured in the documentary A Class Act: The Magic of Honi Coles. She was a founding member and Managing Director of the touring company Austin on Tap, served on the Steering Committee of The International Tap Association and served as its director from 2008-2018 and was also a featured soloist in the Dance Magazine Calendar. She has also danced, choreographed and taught for Columbia College, The University of Texas, The Colorado Dance Festival, International Summer School/Cyprus, Dance Masters of America, TASIS/London, Tanzsommer/Austria, The St. Louis Tap Festival, The Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Tap City / NYC, Le Festival De Danse Encore, RIFF, OC Tap Festival and many others. Her book The Souls of Your Feet – A Tap Dance Guide for Rhythm Explorers has been translated in the Czech Republic and China and has been an Amazon.com Bestseller in its category since 1998. Her numerous awards include the “Hoofer Award” by The New York City Tap Festival and honored as a premiere member of the Austin Arts Hall of Fame. She was also nominated for a Princess Grace Award in the early 1990's and honored at the 2018 Dance USA Conference. Gray has received numerous "Best Of" awards by the Critics Table in Austin and her work The Souls of Our Feet - A Celebration of American Tap Dance was chosen as an NEA American Masterpiece production and toured throughout the US, Canada, and China from 2009-2012. She can also be seen in the documentaries Tap or Die, Thinking on Their Feet - Women of the Tap Renaissance and Passing it Forward produced by PBS. Gray is also proud to be a 2019 Austin Creative Alliance Honoree.
