Upcoming Workshops
Multi-day learning and collaboration experiences for percussive artists, led by Nicholas Van Young and guest artists.
New York, NY
July 29th-August 3rd
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10128
212.415.5500
IFTRA@92NY
Institute for the Rhythmic Arts is excited to present a week long workshop at the renowned 92NY in Manhattan, NY. This intensive takes place July 29th - August 3rd, and is for Adv to Pro level dancers. Our faculty for this event is Derick Grant, Joseph Webb, Leonardo Sandoval with Gregory Richardson and IFTRA founder and director Nicholas Van Young. As always there will be classes in Tap Dance, Body Percussion, Music Studies, and Improvisation . This event will feature an open jam session, and a currated performance including IFTRA participants.
IFTRA@92NY
Final Schedule to be released soon!
IFTRA@92NY FACULTY
Nicholas Van Young
Nicholas Young is a choreographer, dancer, musician and 2014 Bessie Award recipient. He began his professional career in Austin, TX at the age of 16 with Tapestry Dance Company under the direction of Acia Gray and Deirdre Strand. Eventually earning the title of principal dancer and resident choreographer. In 2003 he joined the NYC cast of STOMP and spent 2003-2013 with the production moving on to play the lead role and serve as rehearsal director for the American Tour. Most recently he acted as Associate Artistic Director of Dorrance Dance, and has been a choreographer and collaborator with Artistic Director Michelle Dorrance for nearly a decade. As a musician he has performed and toured with Cyro Baptista’s Brazilian Percussion Ensemble “Beat the Donkey”, as drummer for Darwin Deez and Dorrance Dance and has created two electronic music scores for the documentaries “Tap or Die” and “Aces and Knaves” produced by Jackie Pare. Nicholas Young is the founder and director of Institute for the Rhythmic Arts. A multidisciplinary approach to teaching percussive arts. He is honored to currently be the Artistic Director of North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, where he serves to further educate young dancers in Tap Dance. or function
Derick Grant
Derick K. Grant is a native of Boston, where he trained with his aunt Andrea Herbert Major at The Roxbury Center For the Performing Arts. At age 8 that training led to a mentorship by tap greats Dianne Walker and Jimmy Slide. At 18 he joined The Jazz Tap Ensemble, directed by Lynn Dally, where he won the Princess Grace award for outstanding young performer. He was an original member of Bring In Da Noise Bring In Da Funk, created and directed by George C. Wolf, and choreographed by Savion Glover, where he became dance captain and later the lead for the first national tour. Mr. Grant is also the creator, director, and choreographer of Imagine Tap, a show that featured the world's best tap dancers, co-creator of The Blues Project, winner of the Bessie award with Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Michelle Dorrance, and Toshi Reagan. He was also choreographer and featured performer in And Still You Must Swing, featured at Jacob's Pillow and the Joyce Theater. Mr. Grant is a highly sought after teacher who taught at Steps on Broadway for 18 years and continues to teach at festivals and workshops worldwide.
Joseph Webb
oseph webb is an interdisciplinary artist rooted in African diasporic vernacular dance, music, and AAV poetics. He expresses these mediums in the lineage of the African griot who serves as a vessel for messages to come through. He's an award- winning artist and educator who has showcased his talents in a number of performances throughout the years. His credits include Tony Award-winning Broadway production Bring in ‘da Noise Bring in ‘da Funk, Martin Scorsese’s film Bringing Out the Dead, as well as a Helen Hayes, and a Mertz Gilmore Foundation awardee. joseph also directed and premiered Lotus at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the grand re-opening of the Terrace Theater to critical acclaim. His current interests are in the lovers rock reggae and its role in the liberation and resilience of black love. The New York Times dance and cultural critic Roslyn Sulcas regards joseph “a natural star: a fabulous tap dancer…”
Leonardo Sandoval
Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval is renowned for blending America’s great tap tradition with Brazil’s rich rhythmic and musical heritage. A member of Dorrance Dance since 2014, he also directs Music From The Sole, a tap and live music company, with composer Gregory Richardson. Leonardo is a 2021 Dance Magazine “25 To Watch”, received a 2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise, and is a 2022 NYSCA/ NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography.
Gregory Richardson
Gregory Richardson is a multi-instrumentalist focusing on upright and electric bass. He's the co-creator of Music From The Sole, an Afro-Brazilian tap dance and live band show that is currently in residence at Lincoln Center Education. He's played drums, keys, and guitar with the band Darwin Deez at the world’s largest music festivals in the UK, Australia, Japan, Germany, and Austria.
IFTRA@ 92NY
July 21 - July 23, 2023
92NY
1395 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10128
212.415.5500
Testimonials
What our studentswrite about us
Attended the IFTRA summer intensive in Chicago, and loved it! so fun to learn some body percussion and drum rudiments among our tap classes, definitely interested if there are more workshops upcoming!
YA! I am IFTRA alum from 2015 and can certainly say it was a transformative experience that forever changed my dancing, broadened my perspective, and opened up new paths for me! I also met some of my favourite people there, and had the BEST time getting to be in Chicago. I think about those three weeks often and would LOVE to get to do more
It was truly a beautiful and inspiring experience. If I could do it again I would in a heartbeat!