"The Oscar Peterson of hoofing"
Manhattan Tap's
Rhythm Tap Intensive Workshop
with Heather Cornell
New Dates: July 13 - 24, 2009
Location: New York City
Click for a review of past intensives
Or to download a registration form
What is an Intensive Workshop?
If you are ready to get serious about your career in tap, then you need to spend some serious time at this workshop with Heather Cornell, Artistic Director of Manhattan Tap. Heather is one of the foremost rhythm tap teachers in the world today and she teaches only once a year in NYC. This is it: a 58 hour intensive over 2 weeks featuring individualized tap instruction and collaboration with live musicians. Heather has a teaching philosophy that challenges dancers to experience the creative process and to explore and mature their own artistic style. Her classes are not about imitation, they're about creation.
An intensive workshop is different than a festival. Festivals offer limited exposure to several dance instructors, who may or may not pick you out of the crowd. At Manhattan Tap's Rhythm Tap Intensive you will get the same individual attention that Heather offered in Manhattan Tap's professional training program for over a decade. Heather's students and company members have gone on to further professional careers with shows such as Stomp, Noise/Funk, Riverdance, Tap Dogs, Beat the Donkey, and Imagine Tap. Others have gone on to create their own companies such as Rumba Tap (Max Pollak), Tapage (Olivia Rosenkrantz), Urban Tap (Tamango), Worldbeats (Roxanne "Butterfly") and Tapaholics (Michael Minery).
"Living and working in Ireland can be very isolating . . . Heather's courses are a great way to re-establish the link into the tap family. I came home with a renewed sense of confidence and that feeling of 'anything's possible'." Diane Richardson, Director of Tapestry, Ireland
2009 INTENSIVE SCHEDULE
Advanced/Professional Performance Workshop
Come and learn how to dance and collaborate with musicians. Heather will teach this course so that you will learn the skills necessary in order to improvise, choreograph and perform with live music. Her own brand of technique inspired by many of the masters that she studied with and honed for the last 25 years will challenge dancers at all levels. She is expert at moving dancers from the classroom and readying them for the stage. Come and dance your butts off to some great jazz and world musicians.
Heather has over 20 years of experience in collaborating with world reknowned musicians on original music for tap. Her most notable collaborations were with bassist Ray Brown (Tap Meets Brown in Manhattan, Lincoln Center, 1997), Keith Terry & Crosspulse (Excursion Fare, Joyce Theater, 1998), Bob Telson and Chango Spasiuk (Danzas para Soné, Jamestown Civic Center, 2000), Leon Parker (residency, Litchfield, CT, 1998) and on over 20 works with Manhattan Tap's music director, Keith Saunders. Heather premiered her solo show Finding Synesthesia, a collaboration with pianist/composer Andy Milne with Rufus Cappadocia (cello) and Malika Zarra (persian and jazz vocals) at the London Jazz Festival in November, 2007 and will be repeating that show at the Salzburg Jazz Festival in Nov. 2008. The review in the UK publication "The Stage" said, "Most dancers and choreographers find inspiration in music, but not many commune with it as intensely as Canadian tapper Heather Cornell." Heather is Artistic Director of a new all-Canadian rhythm tap company that premiered at the Vancouver Tap Festival in 2007. Don't miss this opportunity to work with her.
Class Musicians: TBA
"This experience was life-changing for me. We learned to speak "jazz". It was much different from any class I had ever taken. Heather pushed us to focus our dancing in a new light. Suddenly, creating our own rhythms was no longer intimidating, but simply part of what we do - as tap musicians. Heather created a path to another level of improvisation and tap dancing. It was really fun to work at this level - comfortably." -Jenefer Miller, Phoenix, AZ
Advanced/Professional: July 13 - 24, WEEKS ONE & TWO, Monday-Friday, 3 hours per day, 4 hours on Friday.
Beginner/Intermediate Rhythm Tap Class
A solid two hour class each day to develop basic tap skills for working with music both improvisationally and choreographically. You will learn music and tap vocabulary and explore new and traditional choreographic ideas. You will be challenged to develop an individual style by exploring weight shifts, musical phrasing, aural and visual dynamics, intonation and counterpoint. As always in Heather's classes, the course will be tailored to you and your needs. This class is taught at a beg/int level. Advanced students can and do use this class as a great warm-up, to go back to the basics, and to learn basic percussion with the musicians.
Class Musician: TBA
"I think the most memorable thing for me was the opportunity to experiment in a nonjudgmental environment with the support of teacher, musician, and student. Being in a setting where we could ask so many questions made for great learning." Dayna Szyndrowski, Canada
Beginner/Intermediate: July 13 - 17, WEEK ONE, Monday-Friday, 2 hours per day. Students should have knowledge of basic tap technique or be open to working in a multi-level "all community" class.
Eddie Brown "Brush Up"
Eddie Brown was a very important friend and mentor to Heather. She spent many years studying privately with him and he created a solo for her entitled "Eddie's Sounds". Eddie performed with Manhattan Tap at the Village Gate Jazz Club in NYC in 1990, marking the first NYC performance for him in almost half a century. Heather assisted Eddie in workshops around the world including Paris and Portland, OR.
Heather has about 50 hours of video tapes of her private sessions with Eddie Brown. She is constructing routines from the "lost steps", those steps that went by in the sessions but never landed in a dance, assisted in this process by Canadian dancer Dayna Syzndrowski. In this workshop you will have a chance to "brush up" all the routines. If you know any of Eddie's style, you will know that it takes a lifetime to master. You will start as a class at the beginning - Eddie's BS Chorus, a routine that will continue to enrich your technique and musicality as you work it through the years. When ready, after mastering the BS, each individual dancer can find their way through the routines listed below. We work patiently, enthusastically and specfically to give each individual a chance to enrich their own artistic path with the wisdom of a great master.
Lost Routine #1 - Paris, a dance Heather assisted him in creating in Paris in 1990
Lost Routine #2 - The Blues, 6 choruses of swinging Blues that Heather created in 2004 and then performed on a month long tour of France
Lost Routine #3 - The Time Steps, a 3 chorus routine created in 2006 with the first and last choruses being composed of some of Eddie's famous time steps and the second chorus being a transcribed solo of his
Lost Routine #4 - The Latin, created in 2008 from a tape where Eddie began to create a latin routine for me, approx. 4 choruses of 60's Cal Djader piece.
This class is appropriate for all levels, beginner through professional. Really....I'm not kidding! As always, you work at your own level; leave with one step or with all the dances. Either way, it is guaranteed to change your technique and phrasing!
"Her dancing is a visual and aural link to some of the great tap masters." (The Sunday Mercury, Guelph, Ontario, Canada)
All Levels: July 20 - 24, WEEK TWO, Monday-Friday, 2 hours per day.
Music Worshops
Get a chance to speak directly to the musicians and to ask all those questions you've always thought were too stupid. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we dance, sometimes we play....depends on you and your questions, and on the musicians and how you inspire them to share their knowledge and creative thoughts.
Teacher: TBA
All Levels: July 14 - 23, WEEKS ONE & TWO, Tuesday/Thursday, 1 1/2 hours per day.
2009 Class Schedule
Tap Classes: Heather Cornell Music Classes: TBA Workshop Musical Director: TBA
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
July 13 10:00-12:00 Beg/Int 3:30-6:30 Adv/Pro |
14 10:00-12:00 Beg/Int 1:00-2:30 Music 3:30-6:30 Adv/Pro |
15 10:00-12:00 Beg/Int 3:30-6:30 Adv/Pro |
16 10:00-12:00 Beg/Int 1:00-2:30 Music 3:30-6:30 Adv/Pro |
17 10:00-12:00 Beg/Int 3:00-7:00 Adv/Pro |
|
July 20 10:00-12:00 Eddie Brown Routine 3:30-6:30 Adv/Pro |
21 10:00-12:00 Eddie Brown Routine 1:00-2:30 Music 3:30-6:30 Adv/Pro |
22 10:00-12:00 Eddie Brown Routine 3:30-6:30 Adv/Pro |
23 10:00-12:00 Eddie Brown Routine 1:00-2:30 Music 3:30-6:30 Adv/Pro |
24 10:00-12:00 Eddie Brown Routine 3:00-7:00 Adv/Pro |
2009 Location...
Studio TBA, Manhattan
A Note About Registration...
All registered participants will receive email confirmation of registration by July 1, 2009. Please give a phone or email address where you can be reached up to one week prior to the start of the workshop. You will be contacted in the event of a change of schedule or studio. Drop-ins are welcome but must call to check for changes in time or location. No refunds after July 1, 2008 -- no exceptions. Please do not ask.
Early Registration Discount
Pay in full by June 20 and receive a discount of $25 for one week of classes, or $50 for two weeks.
A Thank-You to 2008 Participants...
If you were fully registered for last year's workshop you'll receive an additional discount this year of $25 for one week of classes and $50 for two weeks. Let's keep working together!
Registration Information
You can print out a registration form and send it with payment to:
Rhythm Tap Intensive Workshop with Heather Cornell
P.O. Box 571
Valley Cottage, NY 10989
Private Sessions Available!
You will work one-on-one for a minimum of 20 hours. Come ready with your own questions and ideas. The focus is on you!
For Workshop or Private session Information:
Email: hcornell@manhattantap.org -- and please leave your phone number, in case we can't reach your email!
Copyright © 2002-2006 by Manhattan Tap
PO Box 571
Valley Cottage, NY 10989
845-480-1396
hcornell@manhattantap.org