Tapestry Dance is both 30 years old and brand new in their new home at 2015 East Riverside Drive – behind Taco More. Founded in 1989, Tapestry leapt onto the international stage and instantly became a highly regarded multi-dance form company and academy. The professional company actually exists as the only full-time professional dance company specializing in rhythm tap dance in the world and the organization hosts one of the oldest international tap festivals worldwide every June. But Tapestry’s reach extended far beyond the performing dance world with its multiform dance academy that makes dance accessible to everyone of all ages and levels.
Co-Founding Artistic Directors Acia Gray and Deirdre Strand created Tapestry to bring together the diverse worlds of tap dance, contemporary, ballet, modern, and jazz. Over the decades, Tapestry’s reputation and expertise in tap and tap fusion has earned a global reputation. As well, the company’s Annual Soul to Sole International Tap Festival brings together dancers from all parts of the world in a multi-day celebration of dance technique and history every June and exists as one of the oldest tap festivals in existence.
Tapestry Dance Company is a resident company of the Long Center and presents a full season of performances as well as touring many productions across the US and abroad. Tapestry Dance Company concerts are known for telling profound stories and looking at compelling issues through a fusion of dance, music, poetry, and percussion as well as celebratory tributes to this indigenous American art form.
On the educational front, Tapestry Dance Academy has taught dancers of all levels and from all walks of life with astonishing results. Students of the company’s training programs have gone on to professional dance careers not only with Tapestry itself but with STOMP, Michelle Dorrance Dance, Momix, Doug Varone & Dancers, The Rhythmic Arts, and Sound Movement in New York City to name a few. In a non-competition atmosphere, youth and adult students looking for anything from professional honing to a great workout have found themselves in Tapestry dance classes. The academy’s focus is on increasing self-confidence and self-expression while celebrating the history and technique of each style of dance – allowing students to become dancers in the truest sense: through their art, they share themselves with their families and their communities whether for recreation or professional training.
Tapestry celebrates more than dance, more than rhythm, more than art–it celebrates life itself. Tapestry’s dances, concerts, classes, and faculty all embrace the art form of dance and the rhythm that connects us all.
Now that Tapestry Dance has found its new home in the Riverside neighborhood, this long-standing, nonprofit organization stands ready to welcome dancers of all ages and from all parts of Austin and beyond. Who is the ideal person to take a class at Tapestry Dance or go see a show? You and your family! If you are alive then your heart has a beat; come celebrate that beat and the rhythm of your life with a dance class at Tapestry!
You can find out more about Tapestry Dance, the professional company, the academy and our various AISD outreach programS and scholarships at tapestry.org.
Sharing the Power of Dance Since 1989
UPCOMING EVENTS at The Long Center/The Rollins Theatre (www.thelongcenter.org for tickets)
Of Mice & Music – A Jazz Tap Nutcracker (December 12th – 22nd)
Looking Forward/Looking Back (March 26th-29th 2020) – premiere