IFTRA or Institute for the Rhythmic Arts, is a multidisciplinary training program and workshop series for tap dancers, percussive artist and musicians.
Its primary goal is to bring these worlds together through classes, performances, workshops, and events. To educate on the history and legacy of percussive arts and dance, and to expose the students and participants to a varied and expansive pallet of experiences and knowledge. To create spaces that spark conversation and sharing.
To allow each participant to experience how these disciplines may influence their own craft. To inspire dancers to play music, and musicians to dance.
This Summer we are excited to present a weekend workshop at the esteemed 92nd Street Y in New York City. Our faculty for this intensive is Nicholas Young, Derick Grant, Joseph Webb, Leonardo Sandoval and Greg Richardson with additional guest teachers and musicians. There will be classes in Tap Dance, Body Percussion, Music Studies and more. This workshop is geared towards advanced and professional dancers. Participants will be able to choose a single day of classes or sign up for the entire 6 day workshop.
Monday: 10-11 am: Check in/Meet and Greet/Registration 11 am-12 pm: Warm up/Technique with Nicholas Van Young 12-1:30 pm: Master Class with Derick Grant 1:30-2:30 pm: Lunch 2:30-4 pm: Master Class with Joseph Webb 4-5 pm: Lecture/Clinic with Guest Teacher
Tuesday: 10-10:30 am: Warm up/Technique with Nicholas Van Young 10:30 am-12 pm: Body Percussion with Nicholas Van Young 12-1:30 pm: Master Class with Derick Grant 1:30-2:30 pm: Lunch 2:30-4 pm: Choreography and Performance – Choreographed by Nicholas Van Young with Improvisation by participants 4-5 pm: Lecture/Clinic with Guest
Wednesday: 10-10:30 am: Warm up/Technique with Nicholas Van Young 10:30 am-12 pm: Master Class with Leonardo Sandoval and Greg Richardson 12-1:30 pm: Improvisation with Derick Grant 1:30-2:30 pm: Lunch 2:30-5 pm: Choreography and Performance – Choreographed by Nicholas Van Young with Improvisation by participants
Thursday: 10-10:30 am: Warm up/Technique with Nicholas Van Young 10:30 am-12 pm: Master Class with Leonardo Sandoval and Greg Richardson 12-1:30 pm: Improvisation with Derick Grant 1:30-2:30 pm: Lunch 2:30-5 pm: Choreography and Performance – Choreographed by Nicholas Van Young with Improvisation by participants
Friday: 10-11:30 am: Community Body Percussion class with Nicholas Young (Open Level, all Welcome) 12-1:30 pm: Choreography and Performance – Choreographed by Nicholas Van Young with Improvisation by participants 1:30-2 pm: Break 2-5 pm: Choreography and Performance – Choreographed by Nicholas Van Young with Improvisation by participants 5:30-7:30 pm: Live Music Jam Session, Informal and open to the public
Saturday: 10-11:30 am: Community Class Open to the Public 12-5 pm: Rehearsal/Tech/Prep for performance 7 pm: Performance (Ticketed and Open to the public)
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Nicholas Van Young is a dancer, musician, choreographer, and a 2014 Bessie Award recipient. He began his professional career at age 16 under Acia Gray and Deirdre 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 internationa ...
Nicholas Van Young is a dancer, musician, choreographer, and a 2014 Bessie Award recipient. He began his professional career at age 16 under Acia Gray and Deirdre 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. Nicholas is the Associate Artistic Director of Dorrance Dance and is thrilled to have found a home co-creating and developing ETM: Double Down, and the Guggenheim Rotunda Project, both collaborative efforts with Michelle Dorrance the company’s founder and Artistic Director.
Tap (Intermediate)
Tap (Beginner)
Tap (Advanced)
Institute for the Rhythmic Arts Summer Intensive
Derick K. Grant is a native of Boston, where he trained with his aunt Andrea Herbert Major at The Roxbury Center For the Performing Arts. At age 8 that training led to a mentorship by tap greats Dianne Walker and Jimmy Slide …
Derick K. Grant is a native of Boston, where he trained with his aunt Andrea Herbert Major at The Roxbury Center For the Performing Arts. At age 8 that training led to a mentorship by tap greats Dianne Walker and Jimmy Slide.
At 18 he joined The Jazz Tap Ensemble, directed by Lynn Dally, where he won the Princess Grace award for outstanding young performer. He was an original member of Bring In Da Noise Bring In Da Funk, created and directed by George C. Wolf, and choreographed by Savion Glover, where he became dance captain and later the lead for the first national tour. Mr. Grant is also the creator, director, and choreographer of Imagine Tap, a show that featured the world's best tap dancers, co-creator of The Blues Project, winner of the Bessie award with Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Michelle Dorrance, and Toshi Reagan. He was also choreographer and featured performer in And Still You Must Swing, featured at Jacob's Pillow and the Joyce Theater. Mr. Grant is a highly sought after teacher who taught at Steps on Broadway for 18 years and continues to teach at festivals and workshops.
Joseph Webb is an interdisciplinary artist rooted in African diasporic vernacular dance, music, and AAV poetics. He expresses these mediums in the lineage of the African griot who serves as a vessel for messages to come through. He's an award-winning artist and educator who has showcased his talents in a number of performances throughout the years …
Joseph Webb is an interdisciplinary artist rooted in African diasporic vernacular dance, music, and AAV poetics. He expresses these mediums in the lineage of the African griot who serves as a vessel for messages to come through. He's an award-winning artist and educator who has showcased his talents in a number of performances throughout the years. His credits include Tony Award-winning Broadway production Bring in ‘da Noise Bring in ‘da Funk, Martin Scorsese’s film Bringing Out the Dead, as well as a Helen Hayes, and a Mertz Gilmore Foundation awardee. Joseph also directed and premiered Lotus at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the grand re-opening of the Terrace Theater to critical acclaim. His current interests are in the lovers rock reggae and its role in the liberation and resilience of black love. The New York Times dance and cultural critic Roslyn Sulcas regards joseph “a natural star: a fabulous tap dancer …”
Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval is renowned for blending America’s great tap tradition with Brazil’s rich rhythmic and musical heritage. A member of Dorrance Dance since 2014, he also directs Music From The Sole, a tap and live music company, with composer Gregory Richardson …
Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval is renowned for blending America’s great tap tradition with Brazil’s rich rhythmic and musical heritage. A member of Dorrance Dance since 2014, he also directs Music From The Sole, a tap and live music company, with composer Gregory Richardson. Leonardo is a 2021 Dance Magazine “25 To Watch”, received a 2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise, and is a 2022 NYSCA/ NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography.
Gregory Richardson is a composer, performer, and multi-instrumentalist focusing on upright and electric bass, as well as a member of the award winning tap dance company, Dorrance Dance, the indie band Darwin Deez, and co-creator of Music From The Sole, an afro-Brazilian tap dance and live band show …
Gregory Richardson is a composer, performer, and multi-instrumentalist focusing on upright and electric bass, as well as a member of the award winning tap dance company, Dorrance Dance, the indie band Darwin Deez, and co-creator of Music From The Sole, an afro-Brazilian tap dance and live band show. I learned rhythm and blues at an early age from a family of musicians where everyone could play at least a little piano and everyone was expected to sing. A Tucson, AZ native, I studied at Bard College and have been working as a professional musician in New York City for nearly two decades.
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