Mr. Cromer was born in New York City, and began his 50 year career as a tap dancer on roller skates at the Hudson Guild in Hell’s Kitchen. He made his Broadway debut with Bert Lahr, Ethel Merman (later replaced by Gypsy Rose Lee), and Betty Grable in Du Barry Was a Lady. Mr. Cromer later performed around the world as a member of the well-known song and dance comedy team, Stump and Stumpy, with James Cross. They appeared in leading theaters and night clubs with Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Count Basie. As well, Stump and Stumpy toured with Nat Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, the Ink Spots, Stan Kenton, and Sophie Tucker, among others. In the late 1950’s, Harold became the Master of Ceremonies to Rock and Roll’s The Biggest Show of Stars, introducing such talents as Buddy Holly, Paul Anka, Bobby Darin, Fats Domino, Chubby Checker, Frankie Avalon, Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, and Marvin Gaye. Mr. Cromer returned to Broadway in 1978 in The American Dance Machine as a guest soloist, which later toured many cities in the U.S., Japan, and Europe.

Dr. Jeni LeGon

Jeni LeGon is one of the first African American women in tap dance to develop a career as a soloist. Not a high-heeled dancer in pretty skirts, she was a low-heeled dancer performing toe-stand in pants, and her rigorous combination of flash, acrobatics, and rhythm dancing proved you didn’t have to be a man to dance like a hoofer. By the age of sixteen, she was dancing in a chorus line backed by the Count Basie Orchestra and soon after touring as a chorus line dancer with Whitman Sisters, the highest paid act on the TOBA circuit. It was while working in Los Angeles, where she was stopping the show with her flips, double spins, knee drips, toe stands, that LeGon got a part in the 1935 MGM musical Hooray for Love as dance partner to Bill Robinson. In New York, she was one of the few women ever to be invited back to the Hoofer’s Club. LeGon played leading roles in a number of black films, where she claims, “sometimes I even got to be myself,” not a maid or any number of stereotypical roles. She toured widely with US Army shows, and she did club and theater performances nationally and internationally.

Dianne Walker

Dianne “Lady Di” Walker, a pioneer in tap dancing’s resurgence has a 30 year career spanning Broadway, Television, Film and International Jazz Dance Concerts and Festivals. Savion Glover and his contemporaries affectionately call her, “Aunt Dianne,” acknowledging her unique role as mentor, teacher and confidante. Ms. Walker holds a Master’s degree in Education, and has taught at Harvard, Williams College, University of Michigan, UCLA, Bates, and Wesleyan. She serves on the board of several tap organizations, and served 10 years on the board of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Grant awards include The National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Jacobs Pillow, and New England Foundation for the Arts. She received Oklahoma City University’s 1998 “Living Treasure In American Dance Award,” adding to a long line of awards and lifetime tributes recognizing her contribution to the art form and excellence in teaching. Dianne is Artistic Director of “TapDancin, Inc.” (Boston), Rhythm World (CHRP Summer Tap Festival), and a consultant to Bloch. She is currently collaborating with schools in Minneapolis and Toyko and on tour with Tapestry Dance Company’s The Souls of Our Feet.

Acia Gray

Co-Founder and Executive/Artistic Director of Tapestry Dance Company as well as the Artistic Director of The Soul to Sole Tap Festival, Ms. Gray has danced, choreographed and taught for numerous festivals and organizations across America and abroad and is blessed to have studied and shared the stage with the great legends of tap dance including Charles “Honi” Coles and Steve Condos among many others. Ms. Gray was inducted as a premiere member of the Austin Arts Hall of Fame, nominated for a prestigious Alpert Award in the Arts as well as being a choreographer chosen for the NEA National College Choreography Initiative in 2003. Her critically acclaimed book and Amazon.com category bestseller The Souls of Your Feet – A Tap Dance Guide for Rhythm Explorers is available at all major bookstores and has been translated in the Czech Republic. Ms. Gray served on the NEA funded Steering Committee for the National Tap Plan and is current Chair of the International Tap Association Transition Committee. Her work The Souls of Our Feet – a Celebration of American Tap Dance has been chosen for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 touring rosters of the National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Dance.

Sam Weber

Sam Weber is an internationally acclaimed performing artist, master teacher and choreographer who regularly appears throughout the world. A protege of Stan Kahn in San Francisco, Sam Weber has appeared with such tap legends as Charles “Honi” Coles, Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines, Savion Glover and the Nicholas Brothers. Sam Weber is one of the few tap dancers in the world currently performing Morton Gould’s “Tap Dance Concerto” and was the first tap dancer to receive a “Bessie,” presented in New York City in 1993 in recognition of outstanding creative achievement. In addition to his solo tap dancing career, Sam has toured internationally since 1986 as a principal dancer and choreographer with the Jazz Tap Ensemble. Sam Weber performs and teaches at tap dance workshops and festivals worldwide. Sam Weber also appears as a principal dancer in Jazz Tap Ensemble’s “Tap Masterpieces: The Hollywood Journey,” throughout California for which he serves as choreologist.

Josh Hilberman

A highly pedigreed performer who has appeared alongside most every hoofer of note, Joshua Hilberman received the 2005 National College Choreography Initiative award from the National Endowment for the Arts/Dance USA. In May, 2006 he received the “Premi Claqueta,” Barcelona’s International Tap Day Award, in recognition of his decade of contributions to tap in Catalunya. Hilberman has been a featured soloist at New York’s Lincoln Center and in jazz festivals from Australia to Barcelona and all over New England; was a principal dancer for three years in Manhattan Tap and has performed in Brenda Bufalino’s Other Tap Dance Orchestra; teaches and performs at tap festivals worldwide. Josh collaborated on “Clara’s Dream: A Jazz Nutcracker,” celebrating six seasons as the Jazz Nut. He is also a collaborator in Thomas Marek’s “About Tap,” multi-media portraits of tap dancers, which plays for a third season in 2007 in Germany’s prestigious modern dance center Kampnagel.

Jason Janas

In his fifth year with Tapestry Dance Company, Jason originally hails from the northern New Jersey area, and more recently from Charlotte, NC. His dance education is highlighted with training and performing with Tapestry Dance Company and by his tenure as a charter member of the New Jersey Tap Ensemble, where Jason began his rhythm tap career under the direction of Ms. Deborah Mitchell. His interaction with other with tap dancers such as Acia Gray, Dianne Walker, Brenda Bufalino, Nicholas Young, Sarah Petronio, Mike Minery, Karen Calloway Williams, Paris Mann of the NJTE, and with Ted Levy, influenced and ignited his career. Jason continues to teach and choreograph from coast-to-coast while he continues to grow as a multiform rhythm tap dancer. Jason is also the Artistic Director of the Hoofin’ Ground Tap Festival in Charlotte, NC and performed in Derick Grant’s Chicago production of Imagine Tap as well as Wonderland produced by Ayodele Casel and Sarah Savelli.

Chloe Arnold

Managing Producer of the Debbie Dance Academy (DADA) for 3 years and was awarded recognition from the City of Los Angeles for co-directing the Los Angeles Tap Festival. She was the Associate Choreographer for Pearl (Geffen Playhouse) and appeared in Debbie Allen's Brothers of the Knight, Soul Possessed, and Sammy (the life and times of Sammy Davis Jr.). Performances include Savion Glover's All Star Tap Revue, The Oneness Awards honoring Michael Jackson, The Legacy of Cab Calloway tour, Bill Gates' Annual Meeting (Seattle), and Jason Samuels Smith's A.C.G.I. Film and television appearances include UPN's "The Parkers", "One on One", Nickelodeon's "Brothers Garcia", The Jerry Lewis Telethon (Emmy Award Winning number), Dean Hargrove's short film "Tap Heat", the AMC documentary "Cool Women", and "My Life in Idlewild" starring Outkast (Universal Pictures). Ms. Arnold directed and wrote a short film and an independent music video, and graduated Dean's List with a degree in Film from Columbia University.

Terry Brock

As a rhythm tap dancer Terry has performed and taught at Tap City and international tap festivals in Seattle, Portland, Prague as well as Vancouver where she is currently an artistic advisor for the Vancouver Tap Festival. She has shared the stage with the late great legendary tappers Gregory Hines, Steve Condos, Eddie Brown, Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, the Copasetics, the Nicolas Brothers, LaVaughn Robinson, Jimmy Slyde and TV’s Arthur Duncan. As a member of the Jazz Tap Ensemble, Terry performed with artistic director Lynn Dally and Sam Weber at the acclaimed N.Y.C Capezio Life Achievements Awards, the Joyce Theatre, and toured nationally and internationally. In addition to performance and choreographic projects, Terry conducts her own dance school in Lake Oswego, Oregon, at the Lakewood Center for the Arts, where her passion to train and inspire the next generation of dancers thrives.

Nicholas Young

A current member of the USA touring production of STOMP, Nicholas began his professional career at fifteen as an apprentice with Tapestry Dance Company under the direction of Acia Gray and Deirdre Strand. Studying Tap, Ballet and Modern, he moved from Principle Dancer to Resident Choreographer, spending more than eight years with this multi formed company and eventually earning him best male dancer in Austin, 2002. He studied with Debra Bray, Dianne Walker, Sam Weber, Eddie Brown, Sally Jacques, Dee McCandless and others. These influences gave him a rhythm foundation and endless inspiration. In New York he has performed with Manhattan Tap Ensemble, Rumba Tap, Hoofin’ to Hittin’ and Cyro Baptista’s Beat the Donkey. He has taight master classes and performed for the St. Louis, Tap City and here at Soul to Sole as well as the American Dance Festival. Nicholas would like to thank his mother Linda for giving him his passion and dedication to movement and music.

Leela Petronio

Parisian tap dancer Leela Petronio studied with tap masters Sarah Petronio and Jimmy Slyde.Over the years, she studied and shared the spotlight with tap greats Steve Condos, Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, Chuck Green, Savion Glover, Gregory Hines, Ted Levy and Lon Chaney. In the 90’s, after receiving a BA in “Arts Management” from Columbia College in Chicago she returned to Paris, created the Hip Tap Project, an ensemble of percussive dancers and curated the show “Planète Tap “ for the Suresnes Cité-Danse Festival. She was a featured Tap dancer with the Hip Hop dance company Funk Attitude that toured major festivals in France (Villette Urban Dance Festival in Paris, Avignon’s Hivernales Festival). Recent projects and performances include : “Flex the floor” a tap concerto performed with the Orchestre Lamoureux at the Paris Opéra Comique; “About Tap” and Thomas Marek’s intimately choreographed show in Germany. In 2001 she joined the European cast of STOMP and she performs regularly with “Jazz in Motion © “, a show created by Sarah Petronio.

Barbara Phillips

Barbara teaches rhythm tap as a faculty member and guest artist in both public and private dance institutions, including intensive workshops, residencies and master classes throughout the U. S. She has studied with many of the great contemporary artists and tap masters including, Sam Weber, Lynn Dally, Lane Alexander, Dianne Walker, Fred Strickler, Acia Gray, and Heather Cornell. Barbara has appeared in Tap Jammin, Rhythm Extravaganza, Tap Dance in Concert, Dallas National Tap Dance Day Celebration, The Soul to Sole Tap Festival, Third Coast Rhythm Project, Everything on Tap, Hoofin Ground in Charlotte, as guest artist with Especially Tap Chicago, with Mr. Lane Alexander in JUBA Masters of Tap and Percussive Dance at the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, and as a guest artist for the Legacy Tap Project. She has staged numerous productions for the San Antonio Symphony’s Pops Series including Big Band under the baton of the irrepressible Michael Krajewski, and works with numerous youth companies across the U.S. Barbara is artistic director of R.P.M. youth tap ensemble, and Artistic Producing Director of Third Coast Rhythm Project.