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About Us

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Artist Statement

In my world, everything is movement and music. Silence and stillness are rare moments because every sound is a song and every silence is nothing but a ghost note. I’m living in a rhythmic odyssey, a musical gateway that serves as an invitation to explore the human body as the original instrument of the world through Tap Dance improvisation and Body Percussion.
 
When asked to describe what I do, I say that I’m a Tap Dance Artist, a visual music maker who tells vivid stories through the universal languages of music dance. 
 
The stories I share span from introspective exploration to explosive energetic release, each one seeded in reality then brought to life by imagination.
 
These adventures are performed by three characters that I step into.
 
One is inspired by my studies of Buddhism and Stoicism, with themes ranging from impermanence to meditation. Another is shaped by my upbringing as a native Jersey Girl with a colorful vocabulary, and a flair for speaking the hard truth. The third is a magician who pulls the entire audience into the act before they’ve realized it even happened, a bit of a trickster with a secret in her pocket who loves to make people laugh.
 
The fourth wall doesn’t exist in my work because I like to speak directly to the audience. We see, hear and feel each other, we acknowledge each other, and little do they know (until they do know) that they too are a part of this performance. 
 
All of my work is performed with live music collaboration. Pianist, Bassist, Drummer, Ukulele Singer-Songwriter, Trombonist, Percussionist, Gumboots Dancer… the list of amazing collaborators that I’ve had the great joy to work with is long and I give thanks for having had the opportunity to make music with amazing artists who have opened my eyes, ears, and heart.
 
With performances ranging from a 10-minute set on the proscenium stage, to a 75-minute touring theatre show with a Jazz rhythm section, to a 2-hour folk music house-concert on the rooftop of the penthouse suite, I improvise and adapt.

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Biography

Hillary-Marie is a Tap Dance Artist, a visual music maker who tells vivid stories through the universal languages of music and dance. She is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed soloist and collaborator, as well as the Founder of iTapOnline.com, the go-to online tap dance resource for tap dancers and tap teachers since 2016, also home to the iTap Teacher Certificate Program. At age 17, she founded Jersey Tap Fest, named the Best Place to See Live Dance Performances in New Jersey by New Jersey Stage, and was the Founder and Co-owner of Grooves Unlimited Dance Studio (2012-2023), the only dance studio in the U.S. dedicated entirely to hip hop and tap dance, home of FutureSTEP Tap Company

 

Hillary-Marie’s dancing has been described as ‘like feathers with steel bones’ due to her combination of strength and grace as she has shared the stage with music greats like grammy-award winning accapella group Take 6, grammy-nominated group Big Bad VooDoo Daddy and trombone-legend Wycliffe Gordon. She has served as Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University and guest faculty at Alvin Ailey and STEPS, and was a Jersey (New) Moves Fellow at NJPAC from 2019-2022. She has also received multiple Individual Artist Fellowships from the NJ State Council on the Arts, one of their most competitive awards, as a 2017 recipient in Choreography, a 2023 funded finalist in Choreography, and a 2024 recipient in Interdisciplinary Arts. 

 

A native of New Jersey, Hillary-Marie has been recognized by and featured in the New York Times, Star Ledger, Dance Studio Life Magazine, Dance Spirit Magazine and Dance Teacher Magazine. She has given a TedxTalk about her artist-entrepreneur experience and has traveled the world as a featured soloist at the Apollo Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Highline Ballroom, Copacabana, NJ State Theater, NJPAC, SOPAC, Symphony Space, Westobou Festival as well as Tap and Jazz festivals in Europe, Central America, South America, Asia and throughout the U.S. For many years, she performed weekly at Harlem’s Cotton Club as a part of Bessie-award winner Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards’ group “Sophisticated Ladies”, and previously worked with Emmy-award winning artist Jason Samuels Smith (A.C.G.I.) as well as Derick K. Grant (Rhythm Is Our Business). She has performed with grammy-award winning accapella group Take 6, grammy nominated group Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. Before his passing she performed with award-winning composer of A Chorus Line, Marvin Hamlisch, and has danced with Heather Cornell (Conversations), Roxane Butterfly (New Dance Alliance), Maurice Chestnut (Above Ground Project), Christopher Scott (W-L-U-V), Lisa LaTouche (Tap Phonics), the Boston Tap Company (Rhythm in the Night), the NJTAP Dance Ensemble, Nat Adderley Jr., and both the Princeton and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras.
 

Writing about Soul Walk, Hillary-Marie’s debut full-length show, renowned dance critic Robert Johnson said: ‘Some performers travel with their own atmosphere, a rosy bubble that floats off the stage and envelops the crowd allowing grateful viewers to forget where they are. Tap dancer Hillary-Marie and her accomplices do that’. She subsequently followed up with VIBE - a celebration of tap dance as a universal energy and language of the world; a show that Dance Metro DC says ‘serves as a springboard for locating tap dance within a concert dance context… serving to truly bring the house down.’  Hillary-Marie’s Sole Music Collective is also host to the #Herspective video series. Within Sole Music Collective, Hillary-Marie has collaborated with vocalists Emily Braden and Nancy Harmes, bassist Jennifer Vincent, pianists Mark G. Meadows and Willerm Delisfort, percussionist Vincent Smith, and singer-songwriter Ami Madeleine

 

Hillary-Marie has since toured her interactive and improvised UNplugged house concert series, bringing the joy of live music, tap dance and story telling into a low-key and intimate environment. Her most recent creation, In The Pocket, debuted at NJPAC in 2022 and wonder Hillary-Marie a funded finalist spot by NJSCA and the Midatlantic Arts Foundation as an Individual Artist in Choreography. In this work, Hillary-Marie transforms the void of silence into a world brimming with music and movement where she harnesses the powerful pulse of rhythmic performance with a combination of tap dance, body percussion, and other surprises along the way.

 

Hillary-Marie began her dance training with Jazz dance at the age of five at her local dance studio in New Jersey, and started studying tap dance at age twelve. By the age of fourteen, she was appearing in eleven shows a week in the pre-professional company ‘Showstoppers’ at the Edwards Nash Theatre. Her studies continued with Karen Callaway Williams, whose credits include Tony Award Nominated Duke Ellington musical Play On! In 2006, Hillary-Marie became a member of the New Jersey Tap Ensemble’s youth company and just three years later became a principal dancer for the company under the direction of Deborah Mitchell. From 2007 until his death in 2013, Hillary-Marie was mentored by and assistant to the Vaudeville legend, Dr. Harold ‘Stumpy’ Cromer, half of the world-famous duet ‘Stump & Stumpy’, sharing bill with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. 

 

Hillary-Marie feels that artists are the messengers of the world and strives to increase public awareness and appreciation of tap dance as an instrument. She is thankful for the artists of the past and present who have provided and continue to provide abundant inspiration and encouragement, and she is focused on serving tap dance by uniting the tap community, teaching its history, preserving its percussive and improvisational style, expanding the respect for the art and promoting the dance as a cherished American art form.

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Awards / Residencies

2024 Individual Artist Fellowship Recipient in Interdisciplinary (NJSCA)

2023 Individual Artist Fellowship Finalist in Choreography (NJSCA)

NJPAC Fellowship 2019-2022

Dance New Jersey Mini-Grant 2021-2023

2017 Individual Artist Fellowship Recipient in Choreography (NJSCA)

2017 COLAB Arts Choreography Residency

Noteable Performances

Take 6

The Wycliffe Gordon, award-winning Trombonist

Mark Martin, champion beatboxer

Jersey New Moves, NJPAC

Marvin Hamlisch, award-winning Composer
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Emily Braden, Soul Walk The Show

Nancy Harmes, Hallelujah

Jennifer Vincent, Habanera

Carolyn Dorfman Dance, Up Close & Personal
Rhythm is Our Business, Director Derick K. Grant
Rhythm in the Night, Boston Tap Company
W-L-U-V, Director Christopher Scott
Gabriel Hermida, Argentinian Guitarist
Conversations, Director Heather Cornell

New Dance Alliance, Director Roxane Butterfly
Harlem Stage’s E-Moves Jazzaponics
JC Hopkins Biggish Band
Nat Adderley Jr, award-winning Pianist
Princeton Symphony Orchestra
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
Sonnets on Tap, Director Awoye Timpo

Festivals

Jersey Tap Fest, New Jersey (Founder)

Drew University, USA

When Wave Collide, USA

Jersey (New) Moves, USA

JAM Project, USA

Brazil International Tap Festival, Brazil

​​​​​​​Rock City Tap Fest, USA

Paris Tap Crew, France

Escola Luthier de Dansa, Spain

Old Kent Road, UK

Claque Tap Studio, Spain

Lindy Focus, USA

Big Apple Tap Festival, NYC

Westobou Festival, USA

CTTap Collective, USA

Dance On The Lawn, USA

Resonance Tap Convention

Hofstra University, USA

Montclair State University, USA

NADAA Greater NY Chapter, USA

BOGOTap Festival, Colombia

NJHS Dance Festival, USA

New Dance Alliance, USA

The Krazy Tap, Taiwan

MadTap, Spain

Jimmy Slyde Institute, Spain

House of Hoofing, Sweden

Centro De Danza, Honduras

Tap Ahead Festival, Germany

Cien Ritmos un Paso, Guatemala

Anguilla Jazz Boat, Anguilla

Philly Tap Challenge, USA

Companies

Hillary-Marie's Sole Music Collective (Director since 2015)
FutureSTEP Tap Company (Director since 2016)
Grooves Unlimited Dance Studio (Director since 2012)
A.C.G.I., Director Jason Samuels Smith
Sophisticated Ladies, Director Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards
The Above Ground Project, Director Maurice Chestnut
Tap Phonics, Director Lisa LaTouche
NJTAP Ensemble, Director Deborah Mitchell

Commercial

The Power of Times Square (Anchor Light)
30 Rock (NBC)
Inside New York City Dance (MMN)
The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
SwiftXKey (Android Central)

Press

Press

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