2025 Faculty
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Jeffrey Bird, Jr. is a Boston based tap dancer, choreographer, actor, and historian. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Theatre and History from Butler University and a Masters Degree in US History from IUPUI. Jeffrey began dancing at 8 years old and trained with Gregg Russell, Ryan Lohoff, Mark Goodman, Cory Finn, and Julie Sizemore. Since graduating from high school, Jeffrey has had the opportunity to train closely with Jenefer Miller, Suzy Guarino-Hall, and Cindy Hsu, and has benefitted from classes with Sarah Reich, Ryan Johnson, Barbara Duffy, Ray Heselink, and many others. Jeffrey joined the Circle City Tap Company in 2015 and served as the Artistic Director and Pre-Professional Company Director from 2018-2022. He performed in various shows with the company and directed several of the company's shows, including the highly praised "Dear Diary" in 2019. Jeffrey joined Tap24.7 out of Phoenix, Arizona in 2018 and has toured the country performing as a main character in "TAPspeak," "Murder at the TAP'ocho," "Tap Side Story," and "The Tapdemic Dozen." In 2022, Jeffrey co-founded Fourth Dimension Tap Company in Boston alongside Isla Niezgoda. Jeffrey is also a professional freelance actor and is a founding member of Character House Theatre Company. His acting credits include: Crean on Antigone, Otto Frank in We Said NEVER AGAIN, Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sorin in The Seagull, and many more!
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Christopher Broughton is from Los Angeles and began dancing at age 11. Under Paul and Arlene Kennedy at Universal Dance Design, he was a member of the Kennedy Tap Company and received the national NAACP ACTSO Award twice. He is a current member of nationally proclaimed New York-based tap dance company Dorrance Dance, under the direction of MacArthur Genius Grant award winner Michelle Dorrance. His noteworthy performances include Capezio’s 130th Anniversary, New York City Center’s Cotton Club Parade; Juba! Master’s of Tap and Percussive Dance at the Kennedy Center; #1 Apple TV+ Movie of all time “ SPIRITED” and Broadway’s Tony and Astaire Award–winning production After Midnight and Jelly’s Last Jam.
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Elizabeth Burke is the Co-Dance Captain of Dorrance Dance, the acclaimed company of 2015 MacArthur Fellow Michelle Dorrance. Burke has been a performer with the company for 10 years. Prior to her work with Dorrance Dance, Elizabeth spent 11 years under the direction of her mentor, Gene Medler, in the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble. She is a proud alumna of The School at Jacob’s Pillow 2014 Tap Program and Marymount Manhattan College in 2014. Aside from teaching and personal choreographic pursuits, her other performance credits include work with Bessie Award winner Nicholas Van Young’s SoundMovement and the American Dance Festival alongside Luke Hickey. She has been described as “sinuous and sizzling” and a “deft and impassioned” dancer in Indy Week and The New York Times.
Sydney Burtis, born and raised in Central Florida, is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. She has had the honor of training under Michelle Dorrance, Derick Grant, Sarah Reich, Danny Wallace, and more.​ In 2017, Sydney was recognized as one of "Tap's Next Generation" in Dance Spirit Magazine, and was later featured on the October 2018 cover. Some of her credits include The Billy Elliot National Broadway Tour, SYTYCD, Little Island, Rhythm in Motion, and Dorrance Dance's “Nutcracker Suite” (understudy). Sydney dances for artists Max Pollak, Derick Grant, Demi Remick, and Anthony Morigerato. Her passion for choreography led her to develop the tap company, "Elements of Sound," which she presented at OC Tap Festival, Battery Dance Festival, Steps Beyond Foundation, and most recently Arts on Site for her first full length show entitled, "The Difference." Sydney is a 2017 YoungArts Silver award winner, a 2018 Presidential Scholar in the Arts semi-finalist, an alumnus of the Jacob's Pillow Tap Program, and co-founder of the Orlando Tap Festival. Sydney loves mentoring young dancers and travels throughout the country teaching and choreographing for various dance studios, tap companies, and tap festivals. She is on faculty at Steps on Broadway, tours with Adrenaline and Revive Dance Conventions, teaches at Broadway Dance Center, and is a guest teacher for Sarah Reich’s Tap Music Project. Sydney graduated Summa Cum Laude from Pace University's Pforzheimer Honors College and she is honored to be teaching at Boston Tap Party!
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Michael Dascomb, a tap dancer from New Hampshire, is a 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholar Semifinalist, a 2023 Jacob's Pillow alum, and a 2022 YoungArts Winner with Distinction in Dance. He loves performing, improvisation, and everything in between. He is a current member of two professional dance companies: Fourth Dimension Tap Co. and NSquared Dance. He also belonged to Speaking in Taps (Aaron Tolson) and Touché Taps (Shaina Schwartz) for years. Michael is inquisitive, insightful, and creative as seen in his body of work at a young age. He has developed two full-length solo tap shows; many videos (one of which he solved a Rubik’s cube while tap dancing); pieces for professional dancers in NYC and pre-professional dancers; and choreography for himself, Fourth Dimension Tap Co., and dance studios. He teaches dance in local studios and at conventions, festivals, and workshops. Michael loves performing with a live band in addition to exploring polyrhythms, complex rhythms, odd meters, and intricate patterns in tap dance. Outside of tap and other styles of dance, Michael is an accomplished martial artist. He has taught karate classes for over 8 years and has earned his 2nd-degree international black belt in American Kenpo.
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Luke Hickey is a NYC based tap dancer, choreographer, and actor hailing from Chapel Hill, NC. Named by Dance Magazine among their "25 To Watch" in 2020, Hickey began studying with his lifelong mentor, JUBA Award recipient Gene Medler, at the age of eight. Under the tutelage of Mr. Medler, Hickey completed 10 consecutive seasons studying and touring with the internationally acclaimed North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble (NCYTE). Hickey is an alumna of the School at Jacob's Pillow and Pace University NYC (BA Film & Screen Studies, BA Communications Studies, cum laude). Luke is honored to be a company member of MacArthur Genius Recipient, Michelle Dorrance's company, Dorrance Dance. In the Fall of 2018, Hickey made his choreographic and directorial debut with his work "A Little Old, A Little New" at the world famous Birdland Jazz Club in NYC. The show has since traveled across the country, including to Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and Battery Dance Festival. Hickey's choreography is also seen in Patrick Wang's feature film "A Bread Factory," which was listed on The New Yorker's "The Best Movies of 2018." Stage credits include Jazz at Lincoln Center's Appel Room, The Kennedy Center, the Guggenheim Museum, Oslo Jazz Festival, the Joyce Theater, MGM National Harbor, and New York City Center.
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Trained by tap and vaudeville stars of the 1930’s, tap dance artist Joshua Hilberman has shared the stage with Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, Jimmy Slyde, Brenda Bufalino, and most every tap dancer of note. Long-time artistic collaborations include mentors Bufalino and tap’s great pianist Paul Arslanian. Together with dancer/producer Drika Overton, and the German duo Tap and Tray, Josh has been creating and performing original ensemble and solo theatrical productions for over 25 years. Josh has taught hundreds of workshops and tap festivals, including New York, Chicago, Vancouver, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Stockholm, etc. His deep understanding of tap dance in performance combined with a healthy sense of humor make him a fun, patient, enlightening instructor. Hilberman’s contributions to the evolution of tap dance receive mention in the 2010 book Tap Dance America, and he has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the US Presidential Scholars Teachers Recognition Award, and the Premi Claqueta from the dancers of Barcelona, Spain for significant contributions to the tap community. Since 2013, he has been living in Liege, Belgium with his wife Stéphanie and vibrant baby boy, Félix. Together they run the Claquettes Club, a center for tap dance in Belgium.
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Jason Janas is originally from New Jersey. He began his tap dance instruction under Ms. Deborah Mitchell and was the first charter member of the New Jersey Tap Ensemble. He then found a love for the dance and continued to learn and study the art form. He also trained and was a member of the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble under the direction of Gene Medler. Jason's first professional company after high school was Tapestry Dance Company in Austin TX, under the direction of Acia Gray. He was a principal dancer there for 5 years. His hard work ethic began to take notice and Derick Grant invited Jason to be in his show Imagine Tap! which ran for 6 weeks in Chicago, and changed his life. His other show credits include Souls of our Feet with Tapestry Dance Company, Wonderland with Sara Savelli and Ayodele Casel, and most recently co-choreographed and was featured in Tap Stars with Rasta Thomas. He currently teaches for Wild Dance Convention and West Coast Dance Explosion, and has taught at tap festivals in New Jersey, Chicago, New York, L.A., Charlotte, Austin, San Antonio, Vancouver, Zürich, Curitiba (Brazil), Moscow, and Barcelona! Jason loves to tap dance. He loves to learn from other dancers and about those tappers who came before him. Tap dance does a body good.
Growing up in Easthampton, MA, Kelly Kaleta began her training at the Hackworth’s School of Performing Arts and started teaching while she was attending Boston University. Focusing in tap, she has taught up and down the east coast and Canada for almost 20 years, choreographing, judging, and performing in many different venues. She is a founding member of “Off Beat,” a company created and directed by her former student Ryan P. Casey, as well as starting her own company “CounterpoinT,” a small group based out of Norwalk, CT. You can also see her and her choreography in the award-winning movie “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench” directed by Damien Chazelle (La La Land). In 2006, she was a cast member of “Imagine Tap,” created and choreographed by Derick Grant and Aaron Tolson. She has been a faculty member and judge for Tap 2 You, Dance Masters of America, American Dance Awards, Tapademics and Kids for Kids. She has taught at Steps on Broadway, Broadway Dance Center, and Peridance in NYC. Other past performances include the Cape Dance Fest, Inside Out at Jacob’s Pillow, NYC Tap Festival, Break the Floor, Clara’s Dream: A Jazz Tap Nutcracker - performing with Drika Overton, Josh Hilberman, and Brenda Buffalino, Tapestry - produced by Dance Inn Productions, and others. Her own annual event, Tap it Up, is a one day workshop held every October in Stratford, CT. Believing that you never stop being a student, she continues to take classes and workshops to improve both her dancing and her teaching.
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Anthony Morigerato is a tap dancer, producer, director, content creator, writer, and Emmy nominated choreographer. Anthony is the executive producer and artistic director for AM Dance Productions. AM Dance Productions, short films include The Text (2015), The Subtext (2018), and the award winning When Snow Falls (2020). AM Dance Productions live theatrical shows include AM Dance Project (2006-2008), Matt and Anthony (2009), flood (in the dark corner) (2017), flood (redux) (2020), and Alternate Spaces (2021). In 2014, Anthony founded and is currently the co-director and managing partner of Operation: Tap, an online forum that is dedicated to immersing tap dancing into the public’s consciousness. In 2019, Anthony created CODA, Break The Floor’s online dance competition scoring system that provides dancers with genre specific score sheets, homework video content to improve their performance, and data analytics. Anthony worked as a tap dance teacher, performer, and adjudicator for NUVO Dance Convention from 2010-2020. As a performer, Anthony was a soloist and member of Michael Minery’s Tapaholics (2002-2012), a soloist and associate choreographer for Stacey Tookey’s Still Motion, and a soloist for various tap dance festivals, benefits, industrials, seminars, and performances since 1999. He has appeared as a choreographer and/or a performer on television shows including The Tony Danza Show (2005), America’s Got Talent (2009), The Arsenio Hall Show (2013), So You Think You Can Dance (2013-2018- Emmy Nomination 2016). Anthony holds the world record for “most tap sounds in one minute” having made 1,163 sounds. Anthony is an accomplished dancer in multiple disciplines, having trained at Marymount Manhattan College, where he performed the works of Robert Battle, Elizabeth Higgins, Jiri Kylian, David Parsons, Katie Langan and William Soleu. He has recently done choreographic residencies at Marymount Manhattan College (2014, 2016, and 2019), Pace University (2019), and is an artist in residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation (2020). Most recently Anthony performed and had choreography featured in Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic (2021), presented by the Joyce Theater in NYC. Anthony continues to travel as a teacher and choreographer for dance organizations, festivals, competitions, theater schools, and dance studios all over the world.
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Demi Remick is a NYC-based dancer, choreographer and company director creating works across musical genres and dance styles. She is a YoungArts Gold winner, Dance Magazine’s Top-25-To-Watch 2014, a Presidential Scholar in the Arts nominee and a Capezio Athlete. Demi tours worldwide as the tap dance soloist with Postmodern Jukebox and was recently a featured soloist at Company XIV, an Off-Broadway production in Brooklyn. Demi has danced for Caleb Teicher & Co, Dorrance Dance, Jason Samuels Smith, Susanne Bartsch, Bill T. Jones, Lisa LaTouche and alongside American Ballet Theatre dancers at venues such as The Sydney Opera House, NY City Center, Radio City Music Hall, The Kennedy Center, and Hollywood’s Greek Theatre. Demi teaches advanced tap at CommonGround, is a certified personal trainer at The Limit Fit and earned her BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. Demi's work is presented worldwide as a soloist and with her tap company, Demi Remick & Dancers. Recognized by Jennifer Garner, Chrissy Teigan and more, she maintains her virtual presence to connect with young dancers
and artists worldwide.
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