Stacie profile picture

Stacie

It's not the sound you make, it's the space between that gives it its essence. -- Honi Coles

About Me

I'm a rhythm tap dancer and dance journalist dedicated to sharing my love of tap with the world. As a performer, I work with Tappuccino, a jazz band with strong Latin and blues influences (taps as secondary percussion), playing in the St. Louis-Columbia-Kansas City region and beyond (check out our MySpace page for more info - you can click on our icon below). Let us know if you are interested in booking us! I also perform as a soloist in concert dance settings, using a narrative approach similar to that used by the eternally innovative Chicago Tap Theatre, which is headed by my mentor, Mark Yonally. On the journalism side, I write for national dance publications, including Dance Spirit, Dance Teacher and Dancer, and am the featured blogger for Dancer magazine (http://blog.danceruniverse.com/blog/). Feel free to send me news, photos and videos on tap and I'll see about posting them! In all that spare time I have (!), I write children's books. When I'm not dancing, writing or sleeping, I'm working on memorizing the contents of every billboard between Columbia and Chicago. Images by the good people at TraptLight Photography, www.traptlight.com

My Interests

Dance -- especially Chicago Tap Theatre and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago -- as well as reading (mostly kids' books!) and writing (no 'rithmatic, not that I can't, but really, if I have a choice? No.). Chocolate and champange. Hob Nobs and Jammie Dodgers. All things English (except marmite and Lady Thatcher).

I'd like to meet:

Musicians in and around Columbia interested in working with a tap dancer on percussion, as well as just generally cool folk. Tap dancers with interesting news for my blog are also encouraged to give me a shout.

Music:

Well, I love anything by Tappuccino, of course! ;) Other than that, I like the jazz greats, past and present (Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, The Bad Plus, etc.); English choral music; wickedly fast Bach; shamefully danceable pop tunes.

Movies:

Anything with dance. I'm also partial to Jimmy Stewart (Philadelphia Story, It's A Wonderful Life), Gregory Peck (Gentleman's Agreement, Roman Holiday) and Brendan Fraser.

Books:

Fiction ranging from JK Rowling to Susan Cooper to PG Wodehouse to CP Snow (see a trend other than a shortage of first names?). Every jazz musician should read "The Bear Comes Home" by Rafi Zabor. It has amazing insights into the improvisational process, all told from the perspective of a talking, saxophone-playing bear.

My Blog

Great article on educating tap audiences

From the International Tap Assocation Newsletter, Jan/Feb 1995 (available online at http://www.tapdance.org/tap/ita/sample/newsltr.htm)..:namesp ace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:of...
Posted by Stacie on Sat, 19 Jul 2008 06:24:00 PST

Check out my blog for Dancer magazine!

If you didn't notice it in my profile, I'm the tap blogger for Dancer magazine -- head over to www.danceruniverse.com and then either hit "more blogs" to see the most recent posts from every...
Posted by Stacie on Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:40:00 PST