Tag: Tony Waag

Tap City, the New York City Tap Festival, will celebrate the legacy of bandleader Duke Ellington and his contribution to the world of tap dance at "Tap Ellington," a highlight event of the American Tap Dance Foundation's Tap City Festival week (July 8-15) that will take place on July 14 at Jazz at Lincoln Center. "Tap Ellington" will celebrate Ellington's music as well as his unique legacy of introducing, promoting and presenting tap dancers to audiences all over the world. The event is presented by the American Tap Dance Foundation in association with Mercedes Ellington and will be hosted by tap artist and American Tap Dance Foundation artistic director Tony Waag. It will feature the Duke Ellington Center's Big Band, conducted by Eli Yamin, and a lineup of emerging talent, contemporary soloists and leading tap masters including Brenda Bufalino, Ayodele Case, Mercedes Ellington, Sarah Reich, Caleb Teicher, Sam Weber, Jossette and Joseph Wiggan and others. "Tap is a form of music, and tap dance has inspired numerous jazz musicians throughout history and can claim a partial creative credit and ownership to the development of jazz music," says Waag in an official press release. "Duke Ellington is a key figure in the perpetuation of the idea that tap dance IS music and tap dancers are indeed musicians that create with their feet." For more information, go to http://www.jazz.org/events/t-6400/