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Learn more about the NCRTF 2025 Faculty...

Brenda Bufalino 

       Ms. Bufalino is a mixed genre artist: dancer, choreographer, author, and ceramicist. As a soloist, and choreographer/director of The American Tap Dance Orchestra, Ms Bufalino has performed and taught Internationally for over 30 years. Her collaborations with her partner and mentor the great Charles ‘Honi’ Coles, and her many performances with Gregory Hines, The Nicholas Brothers, and the many giants of tap dance has infused her with the essence of the form that she now shares with her stories, teaching, and dances. Her own experimental work, with taps, electronics and poetry has influenced the next two generations of tap artists, and she is still creating new experimental and traditional tap works and performances. 

       She has performed solo and with her company “The American Tap Dance Orchestra” at all the major venues; Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, The Kennedy center and major theaters across America and Europe.  For the State Department the ATDO toured Eastern Europe introducing the newly democratic theaters to the world of Tap Dance.  With her company she appeared in the PBS special Tap Dance in America...with Gregory Hines.  

​       Ms. Bufalino has been awarded several awards from the National Endowment for The Arts.  The NEA deemed two of her choreographies for the ATDO, American Masterpieces.   Her choreography has been performed by several noted companies, most recently her piece "Jump Monk," was performed by Dorrance Dance at City Center, n\NYC.

       As an author Ms Bufalino has written many articles and wrote the foreword and afterward for the book Jazz Dance by Marshall and Jean Stearns. Her memoir "Tapping the Source...Tap dance, stories, theory and practice" and a book of poems "Circular Migrations" have both been published by Codhill Press. and her recent novella "Song of the Split Elm", is published by Outskirts Press.

​ She has been awarded: The Flobert Award, The Tapestry Award, The Tap City Hall of Fame Award, The Dance Magazine, and the prestigious Bessie Award, all for outstanding achievement and contributions to the field of tap dance. 



Elizabeth Burke

       Elizabeth Burke is a proud Chapel Hill, North Carolina native and Tar Heel. She is the Co-Dance Captain of MacArthur Fellow Michelle Dorrance's award winning dance company, Dorrance Dance, and she has performed and worked with the company full time since its inaugural 2010-2011 season. Before Dorrance Dance became her artistic focus, Burke spent 11 years under the mentorship of Director Emeritus Gene Medler in the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble. She’s also an alumna of the School at Jacob’s Pillow and Marymount Manhattan College. Aside from her work with Dorrance Dance, Elizabeth teaches, choreographs, and performs, primarily at tap dance festivals across the United States. She also works consistently with fellow North Carolinian, NCYTE alumnus, tap dancer, choreographer, and Tar Heel Luke Hickey.

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Michelle Dorrance

       Michelle Dorrance is a tap dancer and choreographer breathing new life into a uniquely American art form in works that combine the musicality of tap with the choreographic intricacies of contemporary dance. Dorrance uses her deep understanding of the technique and history of tap dancing to deconstruct and reimagine its artistic possibilities.

​ Michelle Dorrance received a B.A. (2001) from the Gallatin School at New York University. A member of the faculty of the Broadway Dance Center since 2002, Dorrance has performed with preeminent tap companies and has taught and choreographed for institutions and groups across the United States and abroad. She toured with the Off-Broadway production of STOMP (2007–2011) before founding Dorrance Dance/New York. The troupe has performed Dorrance’s choreographic works at such venues as Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Joyce Theatre, and Danspace Project, as well as at numerous festivals throughout North America and Europe.

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Derrick Grant

       Derick K. Grant is a native of Boston, MA and an award-winning tap performer and choreographer. He began his training at the Roxbury Center for the Performing Arts and studied “hoofin” style from master tap dancer, Dianne Walker. He went on to train at Universal Dance Design Studio with Paul Kennedy and spent three years with the Jazz Tap Ensemble touring the world. He was given the Princess Grace Award for Upcoming Young Artist and The Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Featured Actor for his role in Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk. Recently returning from his three-month tour of A Night Out: Tap!, Grant’s newest choreography and performance with Jazz Tap Ensemble, held at the Joyce Theater, has been praised by the The New York Times stating, “Mr. Grant let gusts of rhythm propel him with remarkable velocity!”



Josh Hilberman

       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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Luke Hickey

       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 seven. 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). 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, Battery Dance Festival, Chelsea Factory and the American 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." In addition to his choreographic pursuits, Luke is honored to be a company member of MacArthur Fellow, Michelle Dorrance's acclaimed company, Dorrance Dance. Stage credits include Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room, The Kennedy Center, the Guggenheim Museum, Oslo Jazz Festival, Joyce Theater, MGM National Harbor, and New York City Center.

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Lisa La Touche

       As a proud Canadian and New Yorker, Lisa’s credits include being an original cast member in Broadway’s Shuffle Along, choreographed by Savion Glover and Directed by George C. Wolfe, where she received both the Fred Astaire Award and the Actor’s Equity Award for Outstanding Broadway Chorus. She is also currently a Dora Award nominee for her performance, choreography and co-direction of the Tap Dance Legacy Concert c/o dance Immersion and Canadian Stage in Toronto with Travis Knights.  Her TV credits include the 70th Annual Tony Awards and Amazon’s Original “Z, The beginning of everything”. Previous highlights have also included touring with the Savion Glover production, Stepz, performing with Dormeshia at Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club as well as performing with both New York's Off-Broadway and the North American touring casts of STOMP. Since 2010 she has run her own performance company Tap Phonics and has been commissioned to present for organizations such as The Brooklyn Museum, 92Y, Gibney Dance and Fall For Dance North. 

       As an educator and professor, she is on faculty at PACE University, Marymount Manhattan College and the University of Calgary.  She has also taught at NYU, The School of Jacob’s Pillow, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Rosie’s Theater Kids and member of the creative council for the American Tap Dance Foundation. Her recent endeavor includes co-curating the Tap Dance Legacy Series along with Travis Knights in partnership with dance Immersion providing the local black community free access to their cultural history.  She also has written and directed her debut documentary film TRAX encompassing her journey back to Alberta while discovering important local black history. Above all, her proudest achievement greatest inspiration, is the gift of being a mom. For further info please visit www.lisalatouche.com.

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Max Pollak

       Max Pollak, a 2008 fellow in Choreography from the New York Foundation of the Arts, is one of the most prestigious names on the international tap scene today. He is recognized worldwide for his highly individual style as the first person to merge authentic Afro-Cuban music and dance with American rhythm tap and body music to create RumbaTap.
       Originator of Cuba's first tap festival (Arts International Grant 2001), he has been teaching and performing there since 1998, and has worked with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Cuba's top-ranked Rumba group, Chucho Valdés, Lila Downs and jazz legends Ray Brown, Phil Woods, Paquito D'Rivera, Slide Hampton and Danilo Perez. He released his first music CD: RumbaTap in 2015 and currently travels the world teaching and performing.

​       His original a-cappella vocal arrangements have been hailed by the NY Times, his work with classical composers, symphonic and chamber orchestras is unique in the world. He is also recognized for making European and South American classical music more accessible by playing with classical ensembles in prestigious venues like Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Musikverein, Schleswig Holstein Musik Fest, Orford Festival, Musique de Chambre a Giverny, Havana’s Teatro Nacional and Teatro Amadeo Roldan. He has performed with members of the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra of NYC, Les Violons du Roy as well as the Duluth Superior and Plano Symphony Orchestras.

Education

2015-2017

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2011-2014

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2007-2010

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Produced by NCYTE at
The Ballet School of Chapel Hill

1603 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill NC 27514

ncrtf@ncyte.org

©2023 North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble

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