Drika Overton, Director | Paul Arslanian, Musical Director
Brenda Bufalino   Josh Hilberman   Keith Terry   Jay Clayton   Sandy Silva   Sekou & Marilyn Sylla   Sharon Arslanian   Jorge Perez-Albela  

Brenda Bufalino

Tap, intermediate and advanced

Brenda Bufalino founded the The American Tap Dance Orchestra in 1986. She performs and teaches throughout the U.S. and in Israel, Italy, England, Germany, France, and Australia. She has appeared as a guest soloist in such prestigious arenas as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Apollo Theater, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She also performed in concert with the late Charles "Honi" Coles, touring America, England, France, and appeared on BBC Television in England and on cable for "Atlantic City Live."

A trailblazer in the renaissance of jazz and tap dance, Brenda has been one of the guiding forces in the creation of the numerous tap festivals, summits, reunions and workshops happening worldwide. Ms. Bufalino has also made her name as an author, actress, producer and director. Her one-person shows, "Cantata & the Blues", "Journals Of A Woodpecker" & "Unaccompanied" have delighted audiences in New York City and on tour-both in the United States and abroad. She has appeared off-Broadway in "The Courtroom," directed by Bill Irwin. Ms. Bufalino has been awarded numerous choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and The New York Foundation for the Arts.
www.BrendaBufalino.com

Josh Hilberman

Tap, advanced

Reviews

A highly pedigreed performer who has appeared alongside most every hoofer of note, Joshua Hilberman received the 2005 National College Choreography Initiative award from the National Endowment for the Arts/Dance USA. In May, 2006 he received the "Premi Claqueta," Barcelona's International Tap Day Award, in recognition of his decade of contributions to tap in Catalunya.

Hilberman has been a featured soloist at New York's Lincoln Center and in jazz festivals from Australia to Barcelona and all over New England; was a principal dancer for three years in Manhattan Tap and has performed in Brenda Bufalino's Other Tap Dance Orchestra; teaches and performs at tap festivals including Tap City (NYC), Finland's Feet Beat, Vancouver, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, and annually at The North Carolina Rhythm Tap Festival and The Portsmouth Percussive Dance Festival.

Josh collaborated on "Clara's Dream: A Jazz Nutcracker," celebrating six seasons as the Jazz Nut. He is also a collaborator in Thomas Marek's "About Tap," multi-media portraits of tap dancers, which plays for a third season in 2007 in Germany's prestigious modern dance center, Kampnagel.

In addition to a choreographic residency with the Canadian company Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Hilberman has set works on groups in Germany, Holland, and Spain, and on four nationally recognized youth ensembles: The North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, Washington DC's Tappers with Attitude, the Jefferson Dancers (OR), and The Legacy Dancers(MA).

Josh developed his teaching chops at the prestigious Leon Collins Dance Studio, and has been a faculty member at Roger Williams and Mount Holyoke Universities as well as the Boston Conservatory of Music and Dance. Currently, Hilberman freelances internationally.

Further propaganda can be found on his web site: www.Hilbermania.com

Keith Terry

Body Percussion

KEITH TERRY is a percussionist/rhythm dancer/educator who has toured extensively in the Americas, Asia and Europe. He has collaborated with numerous artists, including Charles "Honi" Coles, Turtle Island String Quartet, Jovino Santos Neto, The Jazz Tap Ensemble, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, San Jose Taiko, and Bobby McFerrin.

He is the artistic director of: the Crosspulse Percussion Ensemble; Slammin All-Body Band; and Professor Terry's Circus Band Extraordináire. His large-scale works include the Body Tjak Projects, an on-going series of multi-disciplinary performances involving artists from Indonesia and the Americas, which began in 1980, co-directed with I Wayan Dibia.

From 1998 to 2005 Keith was on the faculty at UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures, where he designed and taught courses on the relationship of music and dance; deep listening; synchronicity, time and timing; and intercultural communication in the arts.

In 2006 he conceived and directed the first international body music performance project in Salzburg with artists from Turkey, Finland, Spain, Austria and the US.

Keith Terry's web site

Jay Clayton

Vocals

Jay has performed and recorded throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe with leading jazz and new music artists including Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve Reich, Julian Priester, Stanley Cowell, Kirk Nurock, Gary Bartz, George Cables, Jane Ira Bloom, Jerry Granelli as well as with the a cappela group Vocal Summit; Urszula Dudziak, Bobby McFerrin, Jeanne Lee, Norma Winstone. Her current projects, reflecting the diversity of her art and covering both standards and original music, integrate poetry and electronics. Jay's live performances, which range from duo to sextet, are unique events that draw from all of these collaborations.

Jay has gained worldwide attention as both performer and teacher. She has appeared at major venues including Lincoln Center, Sweet Basil, Town Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jazz Alley, and the North Sea and Montmartre Festivals. She has taught at Universitat fur Musik in Austria, Bud Shank Jazz Workshop, and at City College and the New School in New York City. She has co-taught with Sheila Jordan at the Vermont Jazz Workshop, Jazz in July in Mass., Banff Center in Canada and was on the jazz faculty of Cornish College of the Arts for 20 years.

Her book, Sing Your Story: a Practical Guide for Learning and Teaching the Art of Jazz Singing, was published by Advance Music in 2001.

You can read more about Jay and browse her discography on her web site: www.JayClayton.com

Sandy Silva

Percussive dance

A veteran of dance for over 20 years, Sandy Silva currently performs with Quebec megastars La Bottine Souriante, The Red Rabbit Project and Zebrafish.

Through improvisation, body percussion and original choreography, Sandy draws from the drum and dance traditions of Celtic step dance, Spanish Flamenco, American tap, Hungarian legenyes, Appalachian buck dance and modern dance. The result is rich and riveting, full of rhythmic and visual inventiveness.

She has performed internationally at festivals including the Montreal International Jazz Festival as a special guest with Bobby McFerrin; WOMAD Festival in Australia; Midsummer Night Swing, Lincoln Center, New York; Celtic Connections, Glasgow, Scotland; Galway Arts Festival, Ireland; WOMEX, Brussels; and NPR's 'A Prairie Home Companion.'

She has worked with the Human Rhythm Project, as well as with a wide variety of acclaimed musicians such as Rick Haworth (guitarist for Lhasa), jazz saxophonist Remi Bolduc and new music composer Guy Klucevsek. Sandy has also appeared with the Irish band, Altan, fiddlers Kevin Burke, Martin Hayes, Laura Risk and Bruce Molsky.

Web site: www.SandySilvaDance.com

Sharon Arslanian

Middle Eastern Dance

Sharon is currently Coordinator of the Dance Department at Greenfield Community College in Massachusetts. She has taught a variety of styles of dance in academic and community settings in California, Philadelphia and Massachusetts, including at Smith College, Temple University, and the University of California at Riverside.

During her "pre-academic" life, Arslanian performed for several years as a belly dancer in Arabic and Greek nightclubs in the San Francisco Bay Area, Salt Lake City, and Houston, Texas.   She currently teaches Middle Eastern Dance in colleges and privately, as a style of dance which reflects the compelling rhythms and beautiful melodies of Arabic/Middle Eastern music, celebrates the female body, and encourages self-expression and improvisation.

Sharon has also produced two tap dance documentaries: Two Takes on Tap and Eddie Brown's Scientific Rhythm.

Jorge Perez-Albela

Cajon and Latin percussion

Jorge Pérez-Albela started playing drums at age 16 in his native Lima, Perú. In the early 90's Jorge kept a busy schedule performing with artists, such as Latin Grammy-winning pop singer Gian Marco Zignago and Grammy-nominated música Peruana star Eva Ayllón.

Inspired by the beauty and richness of Peruvian music, Pérez-Albela began to play the cajón, which he learned directly from the masters. Jorge continues to research Afro-Peruvian music by periodic visits to his hometown, Lima, Peru.

In 1994, following his passion for Jazz, Pérez-Albela relocated to the U.S. to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Professional Music.

Pérez-Albela has been featured at the "Jazz en Lima" International Festival (Peru), with his jazz trio (w/ Eli Degibri on sax and Edward Perez on bass). Jorge has toured Europe with Javier Vercher, Albert Sanz and Andre Fernandes, performing at the most prestigious venues and festivals.

A Boston resident, Pérez-Albela is actively involved in the city’s jazz scene, and frequently commutes to New York City for performances or recordings, including recent appearances at The Blue Note, The Jazz Standard, and Sweet Rhythm. His versatility, deep knowledge of jazz and South American rhythms, and ability to integrate jazz drums with cajón make him a unique musician. He can be heard in current performances/recordings with Grammy-winning composer/conductor Maria Schneider; pianists Geoffrey Keezer, Bert Seager, Jarrett Cherner and Leo Blanco; singers Sofia Koutsovitis and Mili Bermejo; Saxophonist Dan Blake; and trumpeter Jason Palmer.

His project, Avantrio, in collaboration with Peruvian bassist Jorge Roeder and Argentine vocalist Sofia Koutsovitis, weaves jazz with Peruvian sounds at the core.

Pérez-Albela has taught percussion in the Boston area since 1997, where he also directs a music therapy program at the Edward Devotion Public School in Brookline, Massachusetts. He has taught master classes at the National Conservatory in Lima, Perú, and at the Portsmouth Dance and Percussion Festival, in New Hampshire.

Sekou Sylla and Marilyn Middleton Sylla

African Dance and Drumming

Marilyn Middleton-Sylla director of The Bamidele Drummers and Dancers, has been at Mount Holyoke College since 1994 and Greenfield Community College since 1993 teaching African dance from a cultural perspective. Since 1987 she has taught and performed throughout New England and the U.S. including Jacobs Pillow, the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York and Kripalu Center in Massachusetts. In addition, she has performed in Senegal, West Africa.

She returns to Africa regularly to continue her studies in African dance and music. In 1998 Marilyn received an award from the University of Massachusetts for "Outstanding Support to Women of Color".

Sekou Sylla, artistic director of The Bamidele Drummers and Dancers, was a principal dancer, acrobat and musician with Les Ballets Africain, the National Dance Company of the Republic of Guinea, West Africa until he relocated to Massachusetts in 1996. Sekou has taught and performed all over the world including Africa, Australia, Europe, Spain, Japan, Mexico, and North and South America. He currently teaches at Mt. Holyoke College, Greenfield Community College, and the Pioneer Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts in Hadley, MA. Sekou received an outstanding review from The New York Times for his work with Les Ballets Africains and is in demand as a musician, dancer and choreographer.

Each year in September, the Bamidele Dancers and Drummers host the African/Caribbean Dance and Drum Celebration Of Western Mass in Amherst, MA.

Drika Overton

MaD Fest Artistic Director

"Her dance style is fluid, intensely musical, long-legged, long-armed, long blonde hair flying, reflecting a passion for jazz tap rhythms and counterpoint. She has a wicked sense of humor and whimsy that adds a layer of spice to her work." - Dean Diggins

Drika's career as a jazz tap artist has spanned over two decades and includes work as a producer, director, educator, performer and choreographer.

She is the creator and artistic director of the internationally recognized Portsmouth Percussive Dance Festival and Clara's Dream: a jazz nutcracker and works throughout New England and the US.

Drika has received numerous awards for her work including an Artist fellowship from New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and Art Builds Community! funded by the Lila-Wallace Readers' Digest Fund.

She has been a featured artist at the New York City Tap Festival; the Southeastern TapExplosion in Atlanta; the Bates Dance Festival; the New England Artist's Congress; Liz Lerman's Dance Exchange's Shipyard Project; Public Television; and numerous jazz clubs, concerts, and festivals.

"You don't forget her performance, it is always dynamic. Drika's clear taps hit very interesting, fresh and inventive syncopations when she is dancing her own choreography. Her tall and very expressive body punctuates the rhythms her feet are playing. The last time I saw her dance to classical music in choreography created by Dean Diggins to the Goldberg Variations, she seemed to float effortlessly across the floor with the control and sensitivity that only a master tapper can achieve with a lifetime of practice and performance." - Brenda Bufalino

Drika is the artistic director of MaD Theatricals, a unique collaboration of nationally and internationally recognized jazz and tap artists, and co-directs and choreographs for the Youth Jazz Dance Project.

Paul Arslanian

Musical Director

Paul Arslanian, a professional pianist, composer and dance accompanist since 1970, began working with tap dancers in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1974. As Musical Director for the Jazz Tap Ensemble (1979-1984) and the "Fascinating Rhythms" tour for Boston's Dance Umbrella (1992-1995), he toured the U.S. and Europe and worked with dancers such as Savion Glover, Gregory Hines, Honi Coles, and Jimmy Slyde.

In addition to his own 1994 CD "It's The Feeling That Counts", his compositions have been recorded by jazz artists John Hicks, George Coleman and Roy Hargrove. Paul made his theatre debut composing and performing music for People's Light and Theatre Company in Philadelphia, and his score for Arabian Nights was nominated for a Barrymore Award as "Best Original Music" in 1997. Paul also composed new music for Twelfth Night, performed by the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival in 1996.