Jonah Bokaer, Holley Farmer, Jared Grimes, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and AileyII

From a celebrated family of musicians in New Orleans, Jonathan Batiste has performed in over 40 countries and collaborated with artists such as Prince, Jimmy Buffet and Wynton Marsalis. He's a Juilliard graduate, a Movado Future Legend award winner, and the youngest Steinway Performing Artist.
"Mr. Batiste was stunning: he played a solo in the piano's upper region that was spare, forceful, witty, funky, imaginative and coherent." Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards has been in… Show more almost every major tap movie or show that has appeared on tap since the '80's. Her career includes roles in "Black and Blue" and the Tony Award-winning "Bring In Da'Noise, Bring In Da'Funk," as well as the film, "TAP" with Gregory Hines.
"Are there enough words in the dictionary to praise Ms. Sumbry-Edwards? If ever there were a performer to prove that tap is equal parts dance and music, it is this singularly authoritative artist." Claudia La Rocco, The New York Times
Jared Grimes has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Gregory Hines, Jerry Lewis, Fayard Nicholas and for President Obama and Senator Ted Kennedy at the Kennedy Center. His theater credits include "The Scottsboro Boys," " Sammy," and "Broadway Underground," which he directed.
"Mr. Grimes's solo was a dazzlingly long and brilliantly sustained tour de forcein which those rippling feet of his finally reached spellbinding feats of speed." Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times
Ailey II. New artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Robert Battle has had his works performed by the Ailey company as well as by his own troupe, Battleworks. He was honored as one of the Masters of African American Choreography by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2005.
"The complex, tightly woven rhythms of Indian Kathak dance are deconstructed and abstracted in Robert Battle's `Takademe,' a percussive, fast-paced work to Sheila Chandra's jazzy score." Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
Jonah Bokaer expands the possibilities for live performance through choreography, digital media and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Among others, he has worked with Merce Cunningham and Robert Wilson. He won a New York Dance and Performance Award "Bessie" in 2007, for establishing the arts organization Chez Bushwick.
"Jonah Bokaer the former Merce Cunningham dancer, a choreographer, co-founder of two arts spaces and, at 29, already the subject of a book is clearly a man of many talents." Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times
Holley Farmer has worked with the Merce Cunningham Company and Twyla Tharp and collaborated with such musicians as Brian Eno and the band Radiohead and such artists as Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. For her leading role in Tharp's Broadway hit "Come Fly With Me," she received an Astaire Award nomination. She also won the New York Dance and Performance Award "Bessie" for sustained achievement.
"Holley Farmer's turn was the one I didn't want to see end. She embodied the paradox of impersonal personality, subsumed in someone else's abstract steps yet making us feel we know her." Brian Siebert, The New York Times

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