Tap Dance

Avalon Rathgeb graduated from Bird College in 2009 after receiving a full-time scholarship for three years. She received two internships with the American Tap Dance Foundation (2009-11), Grant Swift's TeAyPe (Melbourne, Australia) 2009-10, a scholarship to the 2012 Los Angeles Tap Festival, winner of the 2013 Cutting competition at the Stockholm Tap Festival, invited to take one of 25 places reserved for outstanding dancers in the 2014 Tap program at the School at Jacob's Pillow in Massachusetts, USA were. Highlights of her career include performing at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, the closing ceremony of the 2015 European Games (Baku, Azerbaijan), artistic direction of "Old Kent Road" (since 2014) and the role as principal dancer in the "Tapestry Dance Company" under the direction of Acia Gray (2017-2019). Avalon is supported by Ruben Sanchez DanceWear. Avalon founded the London Tap Dance Festival in 2024.

Clara Martínez is a dancer and choreographer from Barcelona who specializes in tap dancing. As a teenager, she began her training in musical theater with Coco Comín and later completed her main training in tap dancing as part of the tap program at Luthier Dansa under the direction of Guillem Alonso. Since the age of 17, she has traveled extensively to study with leading international artists, and in 2019 she received a scholarship to the prestigious Jacob's Pillow Tap Program, where her play "Vuela" was selected to be performed at the famous Ted Shawn Theater. Her first professional engagements include the Luthier Youth Tap Company (director: Guillem Alonso), the UNUM Project (director: Estefanía Porqueras) and W.O.T.O (founded and directed by Ludovico Hombravella and Ivan Bouchain). In 2016 she created the duet “The Ground Sisters” and in 2018 founded “La Banda Street Groove”, a company that combines tap dance, percussion and urban dance styles and is touring Spain with three of its own productions. As an independent artist, she has performed on numerous stages, directed and choreographed various projects, and built a career that combines creation and pedagogy. In 2024 she presented for the first time her music project “Clara Martínez Quintet”, a live music project in which Clara develops her most rhythmic artistic expression in the world of improvisation. Since 2018 she has also been working with Dàmaris Gelabert and “Grow Up Singing” as a choreographer, dancer and director and has produced three tours and five music videos. In the educational sector, she regularly teaches tap dance at Luthier Dansa in Barcelona and gives workshops and master classes throughout Europe, distinguishing herself with a methodology focused on the groove and the connection between technique and rhythm.

Daniel Luka is a globally sought after tap dance artist. Whether as a dancer and producer of his own stage pieces, guest dancer and member of various companies, at numerous television appearances and events, as instructor as well as guest performer at festivals and concerts with a large number of international dancers and musicians: Daniel is always looking for new paths. He appreciates the border crossing, experiments with cross-genre music, absorbs impulses from the most diverse cultures or seeks the interconnection with video and digital art.
He developed his dance style as an inspired student of various international tap dance artists, above all his most important influence and master, Sarah Petronio, with whom he was allowed to dance in many different shows (including „Thelonious" on Broadway in NYC, "Monk In Motion" and “Jazz In Motion” in Paris). 
He is a proud member of the Paris based "Hip Tap Project" (including "À l'unisson" and "Boom Tchak"), created and directed by Leela Petronio who is another major influence for Daniel. Since 2011 he is a member of the percussion show "Beats And Noises", created by Knuth Jerxsen and Ute Wilbertz and furthermore constantly travels the world as a versatile soloist (including Duke Ellington’s „Sacred Concert“ or „We Got Rhythm“ with the WDR Bigband).
When Daniel is not on tour, he devotes himself passionately to his job as a teacher, the artistic direction as curator of the “Tap Dance Days” at tanzhaus nrw, as well as to the “Tap Jam Düsseldorf”, which he founded.

Jep Meléndez trained as a tap dancer at numerous art schools in Barcelona and New York; He is also passionate about classical dance, jazz and Afro-Cuban percussion. He is a dancer and improviser and has been part of many well-known shows: “Benny Goodman Memorial”, “Jazzin and Dancin”, “Escolta’m” (Barcelona), “Navigazzioni” (Italy), “Tap City”, “Swing 46 Tap Jam” (New York), etc. His own dance style is based on body percussion. For 20 years he has been developing his own performance, influenced by different styles and genres. He directs the show “Pampidam”, which was conceived by the well-known dance group MAYUMANA. He was also the solo dancer of the CAMUT BAND in their shows “Keatoniana”, “Tambores”, “La vida es ritmo” and “Kiting-Kita”. Among his most recent performances are his participation as co-author and choreographer in “Faros del Silencio”, his outstanding performance in “Tapage Nocturne”, his academic role in the III. International Body Music Festival in São Paulo (Brazil) as well as his new project “A mano limpia!”, which was presented at the 5th International Body Music Festival in Istanbul (Turkey). He also directed and organized the “Encuentro Internacional de Música Corporal de Tenerife” festival in 2011 and 2012. In 2011, he worked on the development and research of his new play “Cambuyon”, of which he became the artistic director and performer. The piece premiered at the IV International Body Music Festival in San Francisco and was subsequently shown in Tenerife, Barcelona and at “The New Victory Theater” off-Broadway in New York. He is also a lecturer in tap dance, body percussion and dance and has a wide range of academic experience at home and abroad. He was most recently a guest at the tanzhaus in 2019, where he presented “À L’UNISSON”, a new, unconventional show that he produced together with Leela Petronio and in which tap dance, body percussion and hip-hop dance merge to convey a rhythmic and poetic message of unity in artistic expressions, with the participation of Ludovic Tronché and Daniel Luka.

Tap dance artist Joshua Hilberman was trained by tap and vaudeville stars of the 1930s and has shared the stage with Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, Jimmy Slyde, Brenda Bufalino and almost every other famous tap dancer. His longtime artistic partners include mentors Bufalino and the great tap dance pianist Paul Arslanian. Together with dancer/producer Drika Overton and the German duo Tap and Tray, Josh has been creating and performing original ensemble and solo theatre productions for over 25 years. Josh has taught hundreds of workshops and tap dance festivals including New York, Chicago, Vancouver, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Stockholm, etc. His deep understanding of tap dance in performance combined with a healthy sense of humour make him an entertaining, patient and insightful teacher. He has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the US Presidential Scholars Teachers Recognition Award and the Premi Claqueta of the Dancers of Barcelona, Spain for significant contributions to the tap community. Since 2013, he has lived in Liège, Belgium with his wife Stéphanie and young son Félix. Together they run the Claquettes Club, a centre for tap dance in Belgium.

Leela Petronio is a Franco-American tap dancer and body percussionist. She is a choreographer, teacher and producer and has been part of the European cast of STOMP since 2001. She is the artistic director of the Hip Tap Project, a percussive dance ensemble that combines tap rhythm, hip hop, body percussion and live music in its work. Leela studied with tap masters Sarah Petronio, Jimmy Slyde and Steve Condos. Her eclectic approach has led her to participate in many different projects, including performances with Cirque du Soleil in Italy, a tap concert with a symphony orchestra at Paris' Opéra Comique, the Soul to Sole Festival in Austin, and the Joyce Theater for New York's "Tap City," the International Body Music Festival. In 2012, she was part of the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games with STOMP. She performs regularly in Sarah Petronio's "Jazz in Motion" and "Thelonius". She is part of the international cast of the new show "Body Music - hear dance, see music" directed by Keith Terry, which premiered at the Maison des métallos in Paris in October 2016. Leela has taught rhythm tap and body music workshops in Europe, Brazil, Senegal, Australia, Turkey, Israel and at many international tap festivals in the US. In France, she works regularly with professional multidisciplinary dancers at the National Centre for Dance, among others, has developed a percussive dance programme for music and dance teachers and is very active in youth work around rhythm. She produced the 8th edition of the International Body Music Festival in Paris in October 2016.

Als Linda sich 2001 in einer Tanzschule in der Tür vertan hatte und dadurch zufällig das erste Mal mit Tap Dance in Berührung kam, konnte sie noch nicht ahnen, dass sich daraus eine Leidenschaft für sie entwickeln wird. Seitdem nutzte sie eine Vielzahl von Gelegenheiten, um sich bei Tap Dance-Größen wie z.B. Roxane Butterfly, Josh Hilberman, Ludovico Hombravella sowie im Rahmen eines konstanten Einzelcoachings bei Daniel Luka und beim Professional Tap Training von Thomas Marek 2019 und 2021 weiterzuentwickeln. Sie erwarb zudem Bühnenerfahrung unter anderem bei Sebastian Webers Berlin Tap Project 2015 und den Projekten im Rahmen des Tap Ahead Festivals in Düsseldorf von Josh Hilberman, Barbara Duffy, Pia Neises und Daniel Luka. Ihr musikalisches Interesse insbesondere für Jazz und die damit verbundenen Begeisterung für die Improvisation zeigt sie regelmäßig bei Tap Jams in Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Lüttich und Wien. Darüber hinaus ist ihr neuestes Projekt der Tap Salon in Duisburg.

Nikolai Kemeny is considered an outstanding tap dancer and choreographer who has had a significant influence on the German tap dance scene. His training and the teachings of international tap legends have shaped him into a versatile artist. With productions such as COSMIC TAP and award-winning art films such as LAZARUS and THE STEPS I STOLE, he embodies a virtuoso combination of percussion, dance and storytelling. He is dedicated to the traditions and expressive possibilities of tap dance. In addition to his work at renowned state theaters and opera houses in Germany, he is a founding member of the Sebastian Weber Dance Company. Together with his partner Andrea Alvergue, he travels the world to explore the diversity of music and dance cultures and presents innovative jazz tap concerts such as BLUE TAPS and OFFBeat.
With his modern style, he sets new international standards and inspires as a dancer, choreographer, musician and producer in equal measure.

Whether as a stage artist, choreographer or teacher: Thomas Marek has been combining traditional and modern forms of tap dance with contemporary musical and theatrical elements in his work for 30 years. The masters with whom he learned and who inspired him were and are innovators of their art: Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, Chuck Green, Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde and, above all, Brenda Bufalino, with whose American Tap Dance Orchestra he toured Florida in the mid-1990s. Deeply rooted in jazz, Marek plays with the possibilities of sound design, phrasing, touch and sound, explores the space in which tap dance moves, shifts boundaries and discovers new forms of expression that tie in with the origins of tap and draw from its cultural context - and that tell new stories. Solo, in a duo with bass or piano or as a jazz quartet: the narrative in the abstract dance and musical form of tap is the driving force behind Marek's art, especially in his large dance productions. Sold-out theaters testify to the fact that Marek, with his productions, musical reflections on cultural tradition and individual expression in the interplay of jazz, choreography and improvisation, succeeds in making the art of tap dance accessible to a wider audience. Promoting musicality and personal expression is also the goal that Thomas Marek has committed himself to as a teacher, to awaken the sense of creative design based on a strong technical foundation. He is a regular guest as a workshop leader and as a soloist at festivals and stages in Germany, Europe and the USA and has danced with tap dance greats such as Brenda Bufalino, Barbara Duffy and Sarah Petronio.

Yaroslav Ros was trained at the Kyiv Academy of Variety and Circus Arts in the disciplines of clowning, dance and juggling. There he learned from some of the best tap dancers in the world: Savion Glover, Jason-Samuels Smith, Dexter Jones and Geri Ames. Ros studied acting at the State Institute of Theater Arts in Moscow and was a member of the Moscow Yermalova Theater ensemble for ten years. In addition to his permanent engagements, he has performed in musicals and shows and has been invited to renowned tap dance festivals worldwide. Yaroslav Ros can currently be seen at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus in the productions “Cabaret”, “Novecento oder Die Legende vom Ozeanpianisten” and “Moby-Dick”.