Siobhan Alexis
As a native of Austin, Texas, Siobhan Alexis began her multi-form dance training at the young age of 3. Her parents, Deirdre Strand and Acia Gray, co-founded Tapestry Dance Company shortly after her birth, which provided the best training in Ballet, Jazz, Tap, and Modern that Austin had to offer. Siobhan had the opportunity to learn rhythm tap from internationally renowned tap dancers, Nicholas Van Young and Acia Gray. Through her childhood, she was exposed to legends in the tap community who felt more like family, which impacted her passion for tap dance tremendously. At age 12 she was accepted into Tapestry’s pre-professional apprentice company, Visions In Rhythm (VIR). During her 6 years in VIR, under the direction of the esteemed Tasha Lawson, she performed at numerous tap festivals including Soul to Sole International Tap Festival, Third Coast Rhythm Project, Chicago Human Rhythm Project, and LA Tap Fest. Before graduating high school, Siobhan also competed in ACT-SO, a college scholarship competition hosted by the NAACP, and placed nationally.
Siobhan performed professionally with Tapestry Dance Company as a principal dancer for 12 years. She spent the last 5 years assisting world-renowned director, choreographer, and performer, Acia Gray, as the dance captain for the ensemble. Siobhan has performed over 23 original works, including the NEA American Masterpiece production of The Souls of Our Feet- A Celebration of American Tap Dance, which toured the United States, Canada, and China from 2009-2012. Throughout the early years of Souls she had the privilege of dancing alongside tap legend Dr. Arthur Duncan. She also participated in the revival of this acclaimed production in 2019 which featured her in works by Ann Miller, The Nicholas Brothers, and Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, among others. Siobhan has been on the faculty as a teacher and performer of Soul to Sole International Tap Festival(2014-2019), Toronto Rhythm Initiative (2014), Montreal Tap Festival (2014-2015), NJ Tap Fest (2015), and DansEncore International Dance Festival (2011-2019). Siobhan performed as the featured female dancer in an original work by Matthew R. Shields and Travis Knights, A Chronological Life Story of a Few Tap Dancers, at Vancouver International Tap Festival in 2012. Siobhan has worked as an assistant teacher and demonstrator for tap legend Arthur Duncan on multiple occasions throughout her festival career. In 2015, Siobhan received an Austin Critics’ Table Award as "Best Dancer In Austin." Siobhan also appeared in Thelonious in NYC, a tribute show to Thelonious Monk, under the direction of Parisian tap legend, Sarah Petronio. This production allowed Siobhan to share the stage with world-renowned dancers such as Leela Petronio, Carson Murphy, Michela Lehrman, Bakaari Wilder, and Daniel Luka. Siobhan also had the privilege of dancing and choreographing for a commissioned work for Jeremy Arnold, a University of Texas at Austin’s Master’s of Fine Arts program graduate, in his thesis performance highlighting the erasure of Black culture from the art of Tap Dance. She choreographed and performed this one-time performance at the Vortex Theater in February of 2020. More recently, Siobhan Alexis has been performing with Austin, Texas’ first Poet Laureate, Zell Miller III, in Hip Hop Theatre Explosion (2024), benefit performance for The SAFE Alliance’s program Expect Respect (2025), and Frontera Fest (2025) with Jeffrey "DaShade Moonbeam" Johnson as The Rhythm.
Although Siobhan retired as a full-time professional dancer, she continues to perform, teach, choreograph, and consult occasionally with local and national artists locally in Austin, Texas. Currently, Siobhan serves as the Drop-In Manager for CARES, a program of The SAFE Alliance in Austin, Texas. CARES serves at-risk and exploited youth between the ages of 12-25 to assist them in rebuilding their lives after experiencing human trafficking.
