All the Notes are Already Here
DATE:
April 21-24th, 2022
LOCATION:
Rollins Theatre at The Long Center
Tapestry Co-Founder Acia Gray joined interdisciplinary artist Zell Miller III and New York based Bessie Award winner Nicholas Van Young to walk a rhythmic and poetic and perhaps perilous path of questions, memories, perceptions, dreams and solutions to the human condition… the American democratic illusion…and the fragile foundation of self-awareness through rhythm.
MEET THE CAST
Zell Miller III is an interdisciplinary theater artist based out Austin, TX. He is the Artistic Director of ZM3 Productions. Zell is an award winning, playwright/director/actor and Producer. Over a 15 year span, Zell has created work speaks to the condition of black american’s holds a mirror up to the American experience and hopes to destroy negative stereotypes of black americans. He has over 9 full length plays produced, he has traveled as a touring artist with Tapestry Dance, and he has opened for legendary artist like Nikki Giovanni, Laurie Carlos, and The Last Poets. He has been a member of two national slam tours and is a published author. He is most proud of his amazing relationship with his partner over 9 years Ashley Miller, and his two greatest creations Zell Miller, IV and Blaise Marley Miller.
As a dance soloist, choreographer and master teacher, Ms. Gray has toured extensively across the U.S. and abroad as a tap dance artist since 1983 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, Acia has shared the stage with numerous tap legends and contemporaries since chosen to work with legend Charles ‘Honi’ Coles in America’s first creative residency for tap at The Colorado Dance Festival 1989 and again with Jimmy Slyde in 1990. 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 prestigious “Hoofer Award” by The American Tap Dance Foundation, and she was honored as a premiere member of the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in 2002. She was also nominated for a Princess Grace Award in the early 1990s, served on the Steering Committee of The International Tap Plan and served as Director of The International Tap Association from 2008-2018. and honored at the 2018 Dance USA Conference. 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 tap documentaries A Class Act: The Magic of Honi Coles, Tap or Die, Thinking on Their Feet - Women of the Tap Renaissance and Passing it Forward produced by PBS/Arts In Context. Acia is also proud to be a 2019 Austin Creative Alliance Honoree and a member of the Austin Arts commission.
Nicholas Van Young is a dancer, musician, choreographer, a 2014 Bessie Award recipient and the current associate artistic director of Dorrance Dance. He began his professional career at age 16 under Acia Gray and Deidre Strand with Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, Texas, eventually rising to principal dancer and resident choreographer. Since moving to New York, he has performed with Manhattan Tap, RumbaTap, Dorrance Dance, and Beat the Donkey; he has toured as a drummer for Darwin Deez; and he spent almost a decade performing with STOMP, where he performed the lead role and acted as rehearsal director. Young tours both nationally and internationally teaching and performing at various tap festivals, and founded Sound Movement dance company and IFTRA, the Institute for the Rhythmic Arts. He is thrilled to have found a home with Dorrance Dance, co-creating and developing ETM: Double Down, and the Guggenheim Rotunda Project, both collaborative efforts with Michelle Dorrance.