Introducing the Mentors

Workshop with Heather Cornell

TAP AHEAD

Heather credits the development of her style as an apprentice to Charlie “Cookie” Cook, as well as such other first-generation American tap masters as James Buster Brown, Eddie Brown, Steve Condos, Chuck Green, and the Copasetics, whom she also performed with. In this workshopp she will introduce the participants to the unique style of those mentors she has worked with.

Heather Cornell, weiße Tap Dance Dozentin mit kurzen weißen Haaren. Sie trägt ein Top und einen Schal, eine graue Hose und Tap Dance Schuhen. Sie macht einen Tap Move und lacht in die Kamera blickend.

Heather Cornell

Show courses (4)

Tap Dancer, choreographer and teacher, Heather Cornell is the artistic director of „Manhattan Tap“, one of the leading tap ensembles from 1985 to 2004. She credits the development of her style as an apprentice to Charlie “Cookie” Cook, as well as such other first-generation American tap masters as James Buster Brown, Eddie Brown, Steve Condos, Chuck Green, and the Copasetics, whom she performed with. She was also mentored by the iconic bassist Ray Brown and they collaborated on original music for tap over a number of years. In the 1980s Cornell was a member of the „Jazz Tap Ensemble“, with whom she was cited for dancing with insouciant musicality. She was one of the first tap dancers to collaborate with world music, performing in music ensembles as a percussionist, and is one of the main influences for many of the dancers
leading the international scene today. Her concept of teaching bilingual music/dance artists made her Professor in Dance Department at Hope College in Michigan, teaching Tap Performance and History, Improvisation, Global Percussive Music and Dance Perspectives, as well as Basics of Physical Percussion.