Rhythm is a dancer - How movement creates sound

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.