A native of the state of Michigan, Nic Gareiss' dancing incorporates footwork vocabulary from many step dance styles to rhythmically accompany traditional music. Nic has studied a broad variety of percussive movement forms, focusing primarily on the dance traditions associated with North American fiddle tunes. In his teens, Gareiss received dual scholarships from the Wheatland Music Organization and the Augusta Heritage Center to apprentice with the internationally recognized company, Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble. Through high school, Gareiss performed with Footworks, including an ensemble role in "The Crossing," their production with Grammy-winning songwriter Tim O'Brien. During that period, at the tender age of sixteen, he took second place at the 2003 Clifftop Flat-footing contest in the 15-49 age group.
From his wide berth of traditional dance experience, Nic has gleaned figurations, motives and shoe sounds from percussive dance traditions worldwide. This becomes most evident when he is performing with a live musician, engaging in a musical dialogue between feet and instrument. Using imitation, ornaments and contrasting rhythmic patterns, Gareiss really is creating music on the floor.
Nic has performed in Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, England, Canada and the United States. He had danced at numerous folk festivals and concert series including the Milwaukee Irish Festival, Virginia's Wolf Trap Farm Park, the Ann Arbor Ark, New York's Old Songs Festival, the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, Boston's ICONS festival, the Baltimore Fiddle Fair in Cork, Ireland, the Ballyshannon Folk Festival in Donegal, Ireland, the Shetland Folk Festival, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival and most recently at the Festival Interceltique in Lorient, France. He has performed as a featured soloist with Solas, Dervish, Gráda, Beoga, Téada, The Old Blind Dogs, Le Vent Du Nord, Martin Hayes and the Chieftains and has also taught at Alasdair Fraser's Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle Camp in northern California. His dancing has been seen on CMT in Uncle Earl's music video, "Streak O' Lean, Steak O' Fat," directed by Tom Krueger and also on Ireland's RTÉ 2 in the short film, "Unsung," commissioned by Dance on the Box and the Irish Arts Council. "Unsung" was directed by Morleigh Steinberg and premiered during the Dublin Dance Festival, 2008. Currently, Gareiss works with the David Munnelly band from Mayo, Ireland. With Munnelly, Nic integrates Irish dance traditions with American tap, exploring the reaction of Irish immigrants to the infectious spirit of jazz they encountered in the 1920s as they settled in the United States.
In 2007, Nic spent a year living in Ireland studying traditional music and dance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Limerick. During that period he studied sean-nós and Cape Breton step dance with Mats Melin as well as Irish dancing and choreography with Orflaif Ni Bhriain, T.C.R.G, A.D.C.R.G. He also had the opportunity to take master classes and workshops from Irish dancer Colin Dunne, tap dancer Tarik Winston and sean-nós dancer Joe Néachtain. Nic is currently finishing his undergraduate work in music and anthropolgy at Central Michigan University.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Mesmerizing... a whirling dervish in tap shoes."
- Bay City Times, 2002
"Nic Gareiss, lit fire to the stage with his air born feats..."
- Country Standard Time, Review of Winfield Walnut Valley Festival, 2006
"The loudest applause came for band member Nic Gareiss. The program credited his instrument as 'feet' because he danced and stomped and tapped around the stage for about a third of the show."
- Scotty Why, Review of Kennedy Center Millenium Stage Concert, 2006
"An absolutely inspirational dancer!"
- Aladsair Fraser, Scottish Fiddler, 2007
"One of the best dancers I have seen in the United States... pure talent with explosion of joy!!"
- Benoit Bourque, Quebecois Step-dancer, 2007
"Bhà fear amháin ag rince a bhain macallaà as an úrlár."
- MÃcheál de Mórdha, Chair, Blasket Island Commemoration, Dunquin, Ireland, 2007
"Nic Gareiss is one of the few artists in the world of traditional dance whose practice transcends the language we shackle our creative expression with. I have seen his enthusiasm, supreme technical ability and creative flair engaging movement and sound traditions from around the globe with respect and an incredible thirst for knowledge. Such knowledge is used to inform his own unique artistic practice which has the freshness, purity and vision of tradition born anew. The earthquake caused by Nic's feet will still shake the worlds of dance long after he has hung up his dancing shoes. We can only take joy in the fact that he has just put them on."
- Niall Keegan, Director, MA Irish Music Performance, University of Limerick, Ireland, 2008