Michael J. Love
Guest Choreographer
Photo by: Uli Garcia Vela
|
Michael J. Love is an interdisciplinary tap dance artist, scholar, and educator. He is a 2021-2023 Princeton University Arts Fellow and Lecturer in the Program in Dance at Princeton's Lewis Center for the Arts. His work has been supported and presented by Fusebox Festival and ARCOS Dance and he and frequent collaborator Ariel René Jackson were co-recipients of the 2021 Tito’s Prize. His embodied research intermixes Black queer feminist theory and aesthetics with a rigorous practice that critically engages the Black cultural past as it imagines Black futurity. Love holds an M.F.A. in Performance as Public Practice from University of Texas at Austin.
|
|
Michael J. Love visited The Lady Hoofers in 2023 for a series of rehearsals, during which he set an original piece of choreography on the ensemble as part of his ongoing #sampledmixedandremixed series. "See-Line Woman” premiered at The Lady Hoofers On Tap in May 2023. This project was supported in part by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. |
Photo by: Brian Mengini
|
Michele Dunleavy
Guest Choreographer
Michele Dunleavy has choreographed and performed extensively throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. She works in a variety of dance forms including tap, jazz, and modern, and her choreography has been presented by arts organizations in NYC, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, and others. Michele's work has been supported through grants from Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, and the Galaxy Arts in Education program. Michele is currently an Associate Professor of Dance in the musical theatre department at Penn State for which she has choreographed numerous musicals including: A New Brain, Bat Boy: The Musical, Parade, Babes in Arms, The Wiz, Rent, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Good Kids, and American Idiot. Michele has been an invited guest artist or faculty member at Shenandoah University, Point Park University, George Mason University, and the Catholic University of America. She is a member of SDC, the International Tap Association, and served two terms as the Northeast Regional Director of the American College Dance Association.
|
Michele Dunleavy visited Philadelphia in 2019 for a series of master classes and rehearsals, during which she set an original piece of choreography on the ensemble. “Past, Presence, Future” premiered in The Lady Hoofers On Tap in May 2019. This project was supported in part by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. |
Photo by: Sa'Mantha Sayten
|
Lisa LaTouche
Guest Choreographer
|
Lisa LaTouche, both Canadian and a New Yorker, has performed, choreographed and taught worldwide. Lisa’s credits include Broadway’s 2016 revival of Shuffle Along, choreographed by Savion Glover and directed by George C. Wolfe. With the cast, she performed live at the 70th Annual TONY Awards and she was a recipient of the Fred Astaire award for “Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway show” and the A.C.C.A. Actor’s Equity Award for “Outstanding Broadway Chorus.” Lisa has appeared on Amazon’s Original Z, The beginning of everything, toured with Savion Glover in Stepz, and was in both the New York and North American touring casts of STOMP. She currently runs her own performance company Tap Phonics and has been commissioned to present for such organizations such as The Brooklyn Museum, 92Y and Fall For Dance North. As an educator and professor, Lisa has taught for PACE University, NYU, The School of Jacob’s Pillow, University of Calgary, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, and serves on the creative council for the American Tap Dance Foundation. Above all, her proudest achievement is the gift of being a mom.
|
|
Lisa LaTouche worked with the ensemble in April and May 2021 through a series of tutorial videos and Zoom coaching session to set a new, original work "Honey Somethin' Blues" on the ensemble including a new musical arrangement created with the help of jazz great Tommy Campbell. "Honey Somethin' Blues" premiered at The Lady Hoofers' 10th Anniversary Gala in May 2022.
This project was supported in part by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. |
|
Dolores Sanchez
Guest Choreographer
Photo by: Raydene Salinas
Dolores Sanchez affectionately known as “Dolo,” is a strong versatile mover well versed in tap dance, street jazz, contact improv, and capoeira. She has served as faculty at Peridance Capezio Center, Steps On Broadway, and Broadway Dance Center, as well as adjunct faculty at Pace University for the commercial arts dance program and as a guest teaching artist for the Hope College dance department. Dolores has had the pleasure of studying under Michelle Dorrance and Nicolas Van Young at Jacobs Pillow Summer Tap Program and of performing alongside artists such as Ali Bradley for the debut of “Black Matter,” Joseph Webb’s NYC Company debut, Dancing Buddhas, Michelle Dorrance, Jason Samuels Smith, Sam Weber, Dianne Walker, Chloe Arnold for “Rhythm in Motion,” Maud Arnold, and Derick K. Grant. She is a current member of Chloe Arnold’s company Apartment 33 and has performed at the Harlem Stages, Thalia Theater, Symphony Space, The Producers Club, Playhouse Square, Bitter End, and for Queretaro, Mexico’s Cultural Exchange Program.
|
Dolores Sanchez visited Philadelphia in 2017 for a series of master classes and rehearsals, during which she set “CMYK” on the ensemble, the company’s first commissioned choreographic work. This project was supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
|
PHOTO BY: BICKING PHOTOGRAPHY
|
Caleb Teicher
Guest Choreographer
Caleb Teicher, a 2011 Bessie Award Winner for Outstanding Individual Performance, one of Dance Magazine’s 2012 “25 to Watch,” and the 2016 winner of Dance Magazine’s “Best Emerging Choreographer” Reader’s Choice Award, has garnered acclaim for their work as a performer, choreographer, and teacher. Favorite credits include: dancing with Dorrance Dance, The Chase Brock Experience, The Bang Group, and Sally Silvers; choreographing Ga(y)ze for NYU’s Site-Specific Festival; and directing A Brief History of the Unites States at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Currently an artist-in-residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation, Caleb makes concert dance work as the Artistic Director of Caleb Teicher & Company. CT&Co has been presented by Works & Process at Guggenheim Bilbao, The Yard on Martha's Vineyard, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Inside/Out Series, Queens College, LaMaMa E.T.C., Jersey Tap Festival, The 92nd Street Y, Gibney Dance, Paris Jazz Roots Dance Festival, and many others. Caleb also travels internationally to teach tap dance, solo jazz, and musical theater dance. They are a proud alum of the School at Jacob's Pillow and the National YoungArts Foundation.
|
Caleb Teicher visited Philadelphia in 2018 for a series of master classes and rehearsals, during which they set “...and Away.” on the ensemble. This project was supported in part by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. |
Photo by: Joe Matzerath
|
Robyn Watson
Guest Choreographer
Robyn Watson, a Philadelphia native, began dancing at the age of five, training at La-Cher-Tari Dance Studio and later at Wissahickon Dance Academy. At the age of ten, Robyn was asked to join the Philadelphia based Tap Team Two and Company where she served as member and choreographer until 2002. In 2005, Dance Spirit Magazine listed Robyn as one of the “20 Hot Tappers, 20 and Under.” In 2016, Robyn served as the tap instructor for the Broadway sensation Shuffle Along. She has collaborated and performed with the wonderful singer/musician Rhiannon Giddens, in addition to working, studying, and performing under the direction of tap dancer Savion Glover for the past eight years. Robyn has also performed with noted artists in the discipline including, Dianne Walker, Germaine Ingram, and the legendary Mabel Lee. Robyn received her B.A. in Theater from Temple University and is currently a resident artist at the Painted Bride Art Center, where she is creating “The Blackbirds’ Suites,” a trilogy of tap dance narratives that address Black women’s identity throughout American History. In addition to being a professional dancer, Robyn Watson is a theatre and dance educator and costume designer, designing for several high schools and production companies in the Philadelphia region.
|
Robyn Watson worked with the ensemble in January and February 2020 during which she taught a series of master classes and set a new work on the ensemble. "Songs from the Sole" premiered at On Tap in May 2023. This project was supported in part by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
|
Photo by: Brian Mengini
|
Becky Mastin
Choreographer | First Company Emeritus
Photo by: Bicking Photography
Becky Mastin, native from State College, Pennsylvania, is a multiform dancer with additional training in jazz, ballet, and modern. Becky studied at the Central Pennsylvania Dance Workshop, and under Sarah Mason at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts. She has been a member of the Fraser Street Dancers, Crunch! Productions, and Jade Dance Project. Becky has taken master classes and workshops with a broad range of artists, including Dianne Walker, Jimmy Slyde, Jason Samuels Smith, Roxanne Butterfly, and Heather Cornell. In Philadelphia, Becky has appeared in Too Darn Hot, a Philadelphia Fringe production, and Cross-Rhythms - An Evening of Tap Dance. She teaches students of all levels and ages throughout the Philadelphia area and is available for private lessons.
|
Becky Mastin was a First Company Dancer, Rehearsal Assistant, and Choreographer for The Lady Hoofers from its founding in 2011 until 2016. She continues to choreograph for the ensemble. Her most recent commission, “Love Me or Leave Me” premiered in The Lady Hoofers On Tap in May 2019. |
Photo by: Sa'Mantha Sayten
|
