Denise Caston-Clark, Owner and Director of Tap Dance Detroit + Performing Arts Center, was a Radio City Rockette for 10 years and toured nationally with the Tony Award winning musical, Crazy For You. Denise has also had the honor of performing the choreography of Savion Glover at a showcase in New York City. She performed on tour in Australia, dancing all over the continent in Elvis to the Max. Her choreography has been seen in many productions in which she performed, including shows at Caesars Windsor in Ontario, Canada. Credits also include film, television, commercials, and industrials.
She was on the faculty at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway in NYC, and is thrilled to be launching Tap Dance Detroit. Other teaching credits include Debbie Allen Dance Academy Summer Intensive, Gregg Russell’s Tap Into the Network, Big Apple Tap Festival, and The Rockette Experience© at Radio City Music Hall.
In 2011, Denise was invited to speak at the TEDx Detroit Conference about her contributions to the cultural landscape in Detroit, including founding and producing Motor City Tap Fest and founding the Detroit Tap Repertory.
In 2014, she was awarded a prestigious MaTilDa Award from her alma mater, Oakland University, for Alumni Achievement in Dance.
Certified by the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum
“At age 35 my mother started tap dancing and suggested I try too; I’ve been tapping ever since.” Heidi has been teaching tap for more than 30 years and hopes to follow in her mother’s footsteps and tap for decades to come.
Heidi started her tap journey in the 1980s at Annette & Co. School of Dance in Michigan and eventually ended up teaching and performing in Washington, D.C. for over 20 years. Before moving back to Detroit in 2016, Heidi taught tappers of all levels—from absolute beginners to professionals—at the Joy of Motion Dance Center in Washington, D.C.. Heidi is the founder, director, and choreographer of the rhythm tap company Tappening that has, since 2000, created pieces to a wide range of music such as R&B, electronica, reggae, hip hop, bluegrass, classical, jazz, and rock and performed at several D.C. venues including the Kennedy Center. In 2010, she started another rhythm tap company, Tappenstance, for adult tappers. In 2008, she made her Broadway debut at Lincoln Center as part of a tap chorus with the New York Philharmonic. Heidi was also an adjunct dance professor at American University for several years.
Heidi has studied, performed, and jammed with finest tap dancers across the U.S. Her tap family includes such greats as Chloe Arnold, Maud Arnold, Michelle Dorrance, Jason Holley, Jason Janas, Quynn Johnson, Toni Lombre, Joseph Webb, and Baakari Wilder.
Jill Cassidy is a professional dancer, choreographer, certified fitness instructor and founder of Motor City Choreography Collective. Classically trained from a young age, Jill’s professional career has included stage, film and television credits. Her award winning choreography can be seen locally all over the Metro Detroit area, nationally and internationally. On top of studio and company work, Jill choreographs nationally for high school and college dance teams and has been an adjunct Professor of Dance at Oakland University and now currently at Wayne State University. Jill was the choreographer for the television series The Wannabes airing on Starz Family. She works with Detroit casinos, MGM Detroit and Motor City Casino, is the choreographer and dancer for Your Generation in Concert, judges for Star Systems and Dance Force Xpress competitions, and is currently working with recording artist Sofi K.
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