HEARTBEAT STUDIOS’ NEWSLETTER

NOVEMBER 2012

Hi Heartbeat Students & Parents!

- We wanted to share with you some exciting news. As many of you know, two of our teachers, Dario and his sister Giselle Mejia (Curator for Guthrie "Drop The Mic"), are in the dance group, iLuminate, and came in 3rd place on America's Got Talent. Since then, Dario got married to our Ballet Company Director Caitlin, this past June. Dario and has been working on a show for iLuminate in NYC. Tomorrow, Thursday, iLuminate will be on Good Morning America, between 7:30-8am. Good Morning America airs on ABC, channel 5.1. Be sure to tune in! They will be performing a 2-minute dance promoting their off-Broadway show, Artist of Light that will be performed at The Duke Theater on 42nd street, November 23rd - Jan 5th.

- Just a reminder that Costume payments are due in by November 30th. After that date costumes will need to be ordered separately, so a shipping fee of $35 will be added.

- Also, Heartbeat Performing Arts Center will be closed Wednesday, November 21st - Sunday, November 25th for Thanksgiving break.

- This Saturday, November 17th, the Beat Squad and the Sweethearts will be performing at the Gopher Volleyball game in the U of MN Sports Pavilion. These are very lively and excited crowds. If you haven't been to their games before, we highly suggest you bring the family down. Tickets are $4. It was a blast last month during the Sweetheart & Beat Squad halftime performance.

- New twitter account is @HeartbeatPAC. Like us on Facebook and check out updates and photos and video that are posted from class.

- Tickets for our 15th Anniversary Celebration Gala Production, January 5th at Eastview High school Theater, will go on sale December 1st. Guest artists from NYC, Boston, Barcelona, and Tokyo will perform with Heartbeat’s teachers, and dance, choir and acting companies in scenes from our past big productions of West Side Story, Chicago, Moulin Rouge and Wedding Singer. Don't miss it! On Sunday, January 6, our guest artists will teach master tap dance classes for Jr. and Sr. Intermediate and Advance levels. More information coming.

From NYC: Jason Samuels-Smith
In less than a decade, Jason Samuels Smith (performer, choreographer, director) has emerged as a multi-talented leader in the Art form of Tap. He won both an Emmy and American Choreography Award for "Outstanding Choreography" for the Opening number of the 2003 Jerry Lewis/MDA Telethon in a tribute to the late Gregory Hines. Mr. Samuels-Smith was also awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the City of Los Angeles for creating the First Annual Los Angeles Tap Festival in 2003; a Proclamation declaring April 23rd "Jason Samuels Day" from the City of Shreveport, Louisiana; the "Ivy of Education" from Brainerd Institute; and the "President Kenny Award" from Stony Brook. He was also the recipient of an Arts International Grant and an Alpert McDowell Fellowship Award and most recently received the 2007 Gregory Hines Humanitarian Award.

In 2004, Smith co-starred in Dean Hargrove's "Tap Heat", a dynamic award-winning short film available on DVD. Jason is also a featured dancer in HBO/Universal Pictures’ motion picture "Idlewild" starring Outkast. Debbie Allen has featured his talents in several productions including the AMC television series "Cool Women", Sammy (a tribute to the life of Sammy Davis jr.), and in a leading role of Soul Possessed with Patti LaBelle, Arturo Sandoval and Carmen DeLavallade. Other performance credits include the Tony Award-winning Broadway cast of Bring in Da'Noise, Bring in Da'Funk in principal and lead roles, Imagine Tap! at the Harris Theater in Chicago in a leading role, Savion Glover's NYOTs (Not Your Ordinary Tappers), Cross Currents: Turned on Tap at the Queen Elizabeth Hall - South Bank in London, the 2002-2003 Harlem Jazz Dance Festivals, TAAP: The Art and Appreciation of Percussion , the NY Tap Committee/Town Hall's 21Below! with Jennifer Holliday, Thank You Gregory: A Tribute to the Legends of Tap, The Cotton Club Returns: A Tribute to Great Jazz Legends, the American Institute of Vernacular Jazz Dance Darktown Strutters Ball Gala, the Career Transition For Dancers 20th Anniversary Jubilee among others.

Smith has performed India Jazz Suites, a dynamic collaboration with Kathak Master Pandit Chitresh Das worldwide. He & Das were awarded the 2007 Isadora Duncan ("Issie") Award for Best Ensemble Performance and will continue this tour in addition to their latest collaboration India Jazz Progressions which incorporates their companies.

He founded tap company A.C.G.I. (Anybody Can Get It) with most recent appearances to include The Getty Museum Family Day Festival in LA, The New York City Center Fall for Dance Festival, and Sadlers Wells' Sampled in London. He also produced JaJa Productions band featuring original jazz-influenced hip hop music with appearances throughout the United States. Their first music video "You Need This" had a successful debut in California.

Smith was most recently featured as a Special Guest on Fox's hit series "So You Think You Can Dance". As a Bloch Corporate Spokesperson, Jason has worked directly on the development of a new tap shoe to offer quality and affordable options for professional tap dancers.

From Boston: Dianne Walker
She began her dance training in Boston with Mildred Kennedy-Bradic and later studied with Leon Collins, Jimmy "Sir Slyde" Mitchell and Jimmy Slyde. In 1979, she began a professional dance career. She later performed with Collins & Company and became one of the Directors of the Leon Collins Dance Studio, Inc. in Brookline, Massachusetts.
She is considered a pioneer in the resurgence of tap dancing.[1] The Boston Herald has called her "America's First Lady of Tap."[2] Prominent contemporary tap dancer Savion Glover and his peers affectionately call her “Aunt Dianne" in acknowledgment of her unique place as mentor, teacher and confidante.

She is often seen in jazz clubs (and festivals) around the US. A memorable appearance was at the Rainbow Room in New York City with Ruth Brown, Grady Tate, Al McKibbon and Sir Roland Hanna. Jazz Festival appearances include North Sea (The Hague), Pouri (throughout Europe), Chicago Jazz Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival with Gregory Hines. Dianne was featured in both the original Paris production and the two year Broadway run of Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzoli’s musical Black and Blue. She is also in the PBS production of Black and Blue directed by Robert Altman. She was the only female to dance in the famed “Hoofers Line” which included Jimmy Slyde, Ralph Brown, Buster Brown, Lon Chaney, Chuck Green, Bunny Briggs and Savion Glover.

While on Broadway, she performed “Memories of You”, a soft shoe choreographed by Cholly Atkins. She was also Assistant Choreographer and Dance Captain for the show’s Tony Award winning choreography and recreated choreography for a European tour of Black and Blue. She was featured in Fascinating Rhythms, a thirteen-city Dance Umbrella tour with Jimmy Slyde, Savion Glover and bucket drummers Drummin Too Deep. She has appeared at the Smithsonian on several occasions honoring such distinguished artists as Cholly Atkins and Jeni LeGon, and a special lecture/performance entitled "Women in Tap." She also completed a yearlong engagement of Savion Glover’s Concert Tour, entitled "Footnotes," with Jimmy Slyde, Buster Brown and Cartier Williams.

She is featured in the motion picture Tap, starring Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr.; PBS Great Performances' ”Tap Dance in America”; the documentary, Honi Coles: The Class Act of Tap; the documentary, Songs Unwritten...Leon Collins; and most recently as the principal commentator in the PBS release JUBA.

Ms. Walker holds a master’s degree in education. She has taught at numerous colleges, including Harvard, Williams College, the University of Michigan, and UCLA. She has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council Jacobs Pillow, and the New England Foundation for the arts. She was a participant in the Dance USA Task Force on Dance Education and in 1997 represented the United States as an adjudicator for the World Tap Dance Championships held in Dresden, Germany. She is on the board of several tap dance organizations and was appointed, by the governor of Massachusetts, to a seat on the board of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a post she has held since 1996.

From Barcelona: Guillem Alonso
Guillem Alonso was born in Barcelona in 1973. At the tender age of nine he owned his first pair of tap shoes. Receiving various grants from the Catalan government (Spain) he studied tap dance in New York, where he was taught by famous dancers such as Brenda Bufalino, Barbara Duffy, Savion Glover and others. In 1993 he won 1st prize at the World Tap Championship in Switzerland organized by the International Dance Organization. During Christmas 1995 Guillem appeared as tap soloist for the show Yuletide Celebration, accompanied by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Later on he toured across the USA and Europe with several of the best American tap companies, the American Tap Dance Orchestra, Manhattan Tap, Tap Collective from New York, and Steps Ahead from Los Angeles. Guillem lives in Barcelona where he has worked in various shows such as Keatoniana, New Orleans Jazz& Tap, and Sax Tap. In 1999 he was invited to perform at the Goya Spanish film awards. He also performed and created numerous works for El Nas Vermell show and the Scandal tap dance company.

Further credits include choreography for the show That's Jazz, created for the opening of the new theatre Scenic Barcelona, and he has choreographed two tap numbers in the last production of the musical Fame in Madrid. While at home, Guillem organizes and leads weekly tap improvisation sessions, which includes Tap Jam at the Cova del Drac. He is also the founder and director of Barcelona Rhythm Tap Company. During the seasons 2000-02 he was tap soloist in the successful production of Fire of Dance, touring Poland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia and Belgium. He choreographed tap solos and duets, one of those being the captivating Sand dance. This is a style of dance that he has performed with many companies and has become one of his trademarks.

Guillem is a member of Camut Band Tap and Percussion Company, where he was one of the creators of their show La Vida Es Ritme (Life Is Rhythm), which he continues to perform. The show has enjoyed success in dance festivals in Edinburgh (Scotland), Toronto (Canada), New Haven (USA), Greenwich (Great Britain) and Tirrega (Spain). For the month of September 2001 the show was on Broadway (NY) and performed at the New Victory Theatre and in October 2003 on the West End (London) at the Lyric Theatre. They just created the new show Kiting Kit (Walking with Rhythm).

From Tokyo: Yukiko Misumi
Tap dancer, Tap percussionist, choreographer, teacher and Director of Artistic Rhythm Tap Network. Yukiko is also the ITA (International Tap Association) Japan Representative. She tap dances like a fairy, yet her sharp rhythm and percussive tone creates her own "Misumi World". She studied in NY under the great tap master -Henry Le Tang in the 1980's and he named her "smilie". In the late 1980's she studied rhythm tap under Brenda Bafalino. Later she studied with many great tap masters, including Dr.Jimmy Slyde and Dianne Walker. In Japan, she was a soloist of Jam Tap Dance Company (Kuniyasu Kato /Founder and artistic director) where she was a dance captain, choreographer and assistant to the stage director.

In 1993, 1996, 2004 and 2006 she co-starred with Dr. Jimmy Slyde at the company's performance. In 1997 she left the company and started solo work. In 1999, she started "African Rhythm Tap Series", and has performed in popular venues like November Eleventh, a live-bistro owned by Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Agi, Sweet basil139, American Club, Theater Apple and more. In 2000, she made her first appearance at NATIONAL TAP DAY in Japan. In 2001-2004 she participated in St. Louis Tap Festival as a representative from Japan. In the NY Tap Festival in 2003 and 2004, she performed Ms. Buffalino's work at Duke 42nd St. She has performed and taught in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Chicago, and Hawaii. "Smilie" operated Artistic Rhythm Tap Network through the dance studios of Chacott, and opened her own studio named ARTN Tap Dance Studio in central Tokyo in 2001. She hopes to spread tap in Japan and to promote an international cultural exchange through tap dancing.


Let us know if you have any questions :)
Kristin & Deb

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