Acia Gray

As a soloist, choreographer and master teacher, Acia Gray has toured extensively across the U.S. and abroad as a tap dancer, choreographer and master teacher. 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 and shifting to tap dance in the early 80's as a principal dancer of Austin On Tap and was chosen to work with legend Charles ‘Honi’ Coles in America’s first creative residency for tap at The Colorado Dance Festival in 1989 and again with Jimmy Slyde the following year. Ms. Gray has been blessed over the years to share the stage with such tap luminaries as 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 among many others.

She 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 DanceUSA Conference.

Ms. 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 A Class Act: The Magic of Honi Coles, Gotta Move - Women In Tap, Tap or Die, Thinking on Their Feet - Women of the Tap Renaissance and Passing it Forward produced by PBS.

Ms. Gray has been on faculty of The University of Texas, Austin Community College and currently a lecturer at Texas State University. She is also proud to be an Austin Creative Alliance Honoree and is a current Austin Arts Commissioner.