From December 5th to 8th, the heart of Milan will be enriched by a new beat: Tap, better known as Tap Dance (or Tip Tap).
The Tappers Family (the name for tap dancers) will reach the studios of the well-known dance space Area Dance, a point of reference for professional dancers in Milan, to give life to a mix of rhythms and dance steps.
Six teachers from England, USA and Italy are ready to share tap dance techniques and styles.
J A C K E V A N S – BIOGRAPHY
CREATIVE · CHOREOGRAPHER
Jack trained at Bird College. Creative credits include: writer / director of ‘DATELEAP’ (short film)
which recently completed an extensive international film festival circuit; writer / choreographe
of ‘Feet Keep Me Flyin’ – an original tap dance musical with preparations underway for an
inaugural production in 2025; ‘42nd Street at Goodwood’, ‘SKIN Fashion Show’ (Canary Wharf);
‘G-Star RAW’ – award winning commercial (Kyiv / Cinema / TV); and ‘Game of Talents’ (ITV).
Between 2010-2018, Jack’s choreography won 5 World Tap Champion titles. His performance
career included ‘42nd Street’ and ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ in the west end; ‘Anything Goes’ and
‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ on tour; and many performances across TV and film. Jack ha
written and directed fifteen original 30-minute multi-genre dance pieces and choreographed a
leading institutions internationally.
www.jackevanscreative.com
@JackEvans50
Avalon Rathgeb is a leading voice in contemporary tap dance and the Founder and Artistic Director of OKR Dance and the London Tap Dance Festival. Her work is recognised for its bold theatricality and commitment to expanding tap as a contemporary performance art form.
A graduate of Bird College, Avalon has trained and performed internationally for nearly 20 years. She was one of just 25 dancers selected worldwide for the prestigious Tap Programme at The School at Jacob’s Pillow (2014, Massachusetts, USA). The first Principal Dancer with Tapestry Dance Company (USA) under direction of Acia Gray.
Her career highlights include performing at the London 2012 Olympic Games, touring OSCiLLATE by OKR Dance over 40 times, including at venues such as Sadler’s Wells, as well as creating K-Tap in Kuwait with LAPA LOYAC.
As an international solo artist, choreographer, and educator, Avalon regularly teaches and performs worldwide, including at major festivals such as Taptastic (Germany), Australian Tap Festival, Singapore Tap Festival, Tanzhaus (Germany), and Riff Dallas (USA). Her latest solo work, UnBound, directed by Josh Hilberman, premiered in Liège, Belgium, and will tour the UK in 2027.
https://www.instagram.com/avalonrathgeb?stkn=MXo5YmRzaXBuYmNy
Oren is an NYC-based artist, performer, tap dancer, award winning
choreographer, dance educator, and the founder/director of O.K. DANCE
Company. He is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic
Academy (AMDA) in New York City. He has trained as a tap and jazz
instructor at the International Dance Teachers Association (IDTA), as
well as studied ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD).
Oren was born and raised in Israel, and after a career as a dancer,
choreographer and dance teacher in Israel, he moved to NYC in 2010 to
achieve his goals as a creator and performer.
In Israel, Oren started his dance/choreography/teaching career right
after high school in various acting schools, the Israeli opera, and shows
all over Israel. He performed with The Aluminum Show dance company’s
national & international tour in the US, Mexico, Colombia and Israel.
Since graduating from AMDA, he has performed in Off Broadway shows
as Sugar, Imported Bridegroom, My Princess Diana, and at numerous
regional theaters all over the country in classic musicals such as 42nd
Street, Mary Poppins, Cats, Oklahoma!, Singin’ in the Rain, Spamalot, The
Music Man, A Chorus Line and countless others. Oren has choreographed
for NBC (Red Nose Day), The Town Hall NYC, The Wick Theatre, The
Foundry POW, Allenberry Playhouse, various dance competitions, music
videos and more.
Oren was honored to win the 2022 Outstanding Choreography
Carbonell Award for Come Out! Come Out! The new musical at the
Foundry, FL. In 2023 he was nominated for two Outstanding
Choreography – Carbonell Awards; One for Anything Goes, and one for
the new musical One More Yesterday.
As a dance Educator, Oren has more than 15 years of experience teaching
tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical, theatre dance, and contemporary, in the US,
Europe, China and Israel. He’s currently teaching at Broadway Dance
Center, Steps On Broadway and AMDA NYC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taporen/
Giuseppe Galizia is a Tap and Musical Repertory teacher in many musical academies in Milan.
At 16 he began studying TAP with teachers Tata & Chuck Wider in Milan and immediately
undertook numerous trips abroad to study with several iconic teachers of International Tap
Dance (Derrick Grant, Jason Samuel Smith, Michela Marino, Andrew Black, Charles Godderz,
Ray Hesselink).
His career is divided between work as a performer on stage and teaching.
He is one of the longest-running performers of Italian musicals: in Italy he has performed
more than 20 musicals working with all the productions present on the Italian market. He
graduated in Computer Science, but soon realized that his life would have to take an
unexpected direction and so in 1999 he finally landed in the theater which he discovered was
his true passion. He began a successful career that saw him involved in highly successful
musicals: “Grease”, “Hello Dolly!”, “Eppy”, “Sketch”, “Dance”, “Saturday Night Fever”,
“Promesse Promesse”, “Annie”, “Sweet Charity”, “Il giorno della tartaruga”, “A Chorus Line”,
“We will rock you”, “Flashdance”, “Cats”, “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, “Sette spose per
sette fratelli”, “Billy Elliot”,
“Kinky Boots”, “A Chorus Line”, “Legally Blonde” and “Sapore di Mare”. He choreographed the
bis show “The Christmas show” with the collaboration of a great modern choreographer Anna
Rita Larghi.
As a director, he directed the Italian version of the Broadway musical “Cinderella” taking care
of the translation and adaptation on stage at the Teatro Nazionale in Milan during the
Christmas period.
He is the creator of a series of musical-themed campuses for kids: Musical for Kids, Musical
Week and Musical Winter.
In Milan he manages the dance space Area Dance, the reference point for professional
dancers and entertainment workers, which hosts lessons in Ballet, Pointe, Pas de deux,
Modern Jazz, Contemporary Modern, Musical, Floorbar, Heels and Tap Dance.
He teaches Tap Dance and Jazz Broaway Style in some musical academies BSMT (Bologna),
MAM (Milan) and MTM Litta (Milan) and in some Tap Dance festivals around Italy (Turin Tap
Festival, Siracusa Tap Festival, Milan Tap Festival).
He collects programs and mugs (the famous MUGS) from the theaters where he has been to
see a musical: he has more than 100!
His training began in 2012 at the Bernstein School of Musical Theatre, where he quickly launched onto Italy’s most prestigious stages.
Over the course of his career, he has performed in major theatrical productions, including Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Ragtime, Monster Allergy, Crazy for You, where he had the privilege of dancing alongside Manuel Frattini, the world premiere of The Impossible Man, and the international tap dance company SABOR LIIFE IS RHYTHM.
His passion for tap dance has driven him to train with some of the discipline’s greatest masters, earning significant recognition, such as first place in the World Tap Dance Championships in the trio category with the D’Angelo Brothers, and fifth place in the solo category.
He has performed as a soloist nationally and internationally in numerous galas, private events, concerts with major orchestras (big band jazz, symphony orchestras), and television programs, including OnDance, Effetto Domino, Dalla Strada Al Palco, Splendida Cornice, and for two consecutive years, VIVA LA DANZA (Rai 1), the latter organized by Roberto Bolle, with whom he has continued to collaborate as a dancer and choreographer.
The Milan Tap Festival is the first festival to welcome him as a teacher: his experience was gained first as Gillian Bruce’s assistant and then as a teacher of several courses at the BSMT Academy in Bologna.
Always driven by an insatiable desire for growth, improvement, and innovation, Tommaso Maria Parazzoli continues to push the boundaries of his discipline, offering audiences fresh, intense, and captivating performances.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tmp_danse_/
Ilaria inizia a muovere i primi passi di danza fin da piccolissima, ma è dopo il diploma presso l’accademia “MTS” che prende vita la sua avventura professionale. Dopo piccole esperienze come ballerina in televisione e piccole parti nella prosa come attrice, nel 2004 entra nel cast di “Pinocchio”, prodotto dalla Compagnia della Rancia, con cui andrà in scena nelle tournée nazionali 2004/05, 2005/06 e 2009; nella tournèe estiva mondiale in Korea nel 2009 e a New York nel 2010.
Dal 2005 al 2006 e’ assistente coreografa e performer in “Toc Toc a time for musical”; nel 2007 è performer in “Cabaret” per la Compagnia della Rancia; nel 2008 è assistente coreografa in “High school musical”; nel 2011 è assistente coreografa in “Happy Days” e coreografa per la Giais International Group al casinò di Campione d’Italia, con cui ha collaborato in vari spettacoli fino al 2017; nel 2012 e’ assistente coreografa del musical “Frankenstein Junior”; nel 2014 è assistente coreografa di “Cercasi Cenerentola”, coreografa dello spettacolo “Mina vagante” e assistente coreografa nel workshop “Newsies”; nel 2015 è assistente coreografa di “Dirty dancing”; per la Compagnia della Rancia è performer e assistente coreografa con “Cabaret” e, fino al 2019, assistente coreografa di “Grease”. Nel 2016 è coreografa della prima
opera musicale in Paraguay “Be Italian”; nel 2018 è coreografa del video tributo a “Bohemian Rhapsody” dei Queen, prodotto da STM, e fonda con Valentina Bordi la compagnia di tip tap “i TIPi del TAP”, per la quale è co-coreografa dello spettacolo “Tap Evolution”; nel 2019 è coreografa dell’opera “Ami e Tami”, coproduzione STM e Teatro Coccia di Novara;
nel 2020 è coreografa di “Oklahoma!”, coproduzione STM e Fondazione Teatro Coccia di Novara. Dal 2021 è coreografa e ballerina dello spettacolo “Harp & Tap”; nel 2022, per Roberto Bolle, è co-coreografa con Massimiliano Volpini e ballerina con Maria Celeste Losa in “Rialto Ripples” al Final Show 2022 di OnDance, per STM Live e Fondazione Teatro Coccia è co-coreografa del musical “Tick, tick…Boom!”, per All Entertainment è coreografa associata dello spettacolo “Legally Blonde, la rivincita delle bionde” in Italia e “Una Rubia Muy Legal” a Madrid. Oltre ai suoi successi professionali, Ilaria è una docente appassionata di tap dance e musical jazz presso prestigiose istituzioni e scuole a Milano.
https://www.instagram.com/ilariasuss?stkn=MWU5eDZ2cjlvaXNuYQ==