The Marcus Strickland Quartet and Sole Society forge a compelling alliance in this concert presentation of supreme jazz and world-class jazz tap dance. Strickland, a three-time jazz poll winner, and his group have just returned from an 11-city European tour. Sole Society’s choreographer, Michela Marino Lerman, winner of numerous awards and honors, is the subject of a new documentary film, currently in production. She teams with outstanding fellow tap dancers Frances Bradley, Maurice Chestnut, and Cartier Williams. Building on a number of previous collaborations among group members, Strickly from the Sole promises to be a memorable unification of these two distinctively American art forms.
Michela Marino Lerman first appeared on Sesame Street at the age of 5. In February 2002 she was showcased on the cover of Dance Teacher magazine with Gregory Hines. In 2005, she was named by Dance Spirit magazine as one of the 20 hottest tap dancers under 20 and in 2008, Dance magazine named her as the only female tap dancer in its “25 to Watch in 2008.” Michela has appeared in both the Tap Extravaganza and Tap City numerous times over the past ten years.
She won first prize in the Harlem Jazz Dance Festival’s, “Hoofer’s Challenge” in both 2002 and 2003.
In 2002, Michela performed with Jennifer Holliday on Broadway in Nothing Like A Dame and also in 21 Below at Town Hall. In 2003, she was inducted into the famed Copasetics as their first and only female lifetime honorary member. In 2004-2006, Michela toured Spain and Japan with Rafael Amargo’s Enramblao. In the fall of 2005, her choreography was featured in the tap section of the opening number for the Bermuda Music Festival with UDP, starring Al Green, Angie Stone, and Patti LaBelle.. At the age of 19, she was commissioned by Dixon Place to create and direct her own show, entitled AM+bu$h+ED.
2007 saw Michela tour Europe for 3 months as a lead dan
cer in the hit show Magic of the Dance and also appear in Sarah Savelli and Ayodele Casel’s Tappy Holidays. In 2008-2009, she was featured in the show hit “Wonderland,” an all tap show set to Stevie Wonder’s music and also in Chris Scott’s show W-L-U-V. In 2008 she appeared on CBS’sSecret Talents of the Stars with Grammy award singer Mya, performing the choreography of Emmy award winner Jason Samuels Smith. Since 2007, Michela has been a featured performer at NYC’s hottest nightclub, The Box. She recently danced with the Roy Hargrove at the Jazz Gallery and the Village Vanguard. She has also been commissioned by the American Tap Dance Foundation and HarlemStage to show her new work entitledTapsploitation. Recently she has been co-creator in forming the tap dance company The Tap Messengers who have performed at the CareFusion Jazz Festival with Talib Kweli and Nicholas Payton in the Revive Da Live Big Band, Joe’s Pub, and HarlemStage opening for Marcus Strickland. Michela is currently running the only weekly tap jam in NYC at Smalls Jazz Club, collaborating some of today’s most gifted young jazz musicians including Theo Hill, Joe Sanders, Ben Williams, Justin Brown, Harold O’Neal, Sullivan Fortner, and Burniss Earl Travis to name a few.
Michela is grateful for the mentoring and guidance given to her by Buster Brown, Gregory Hines, and Leroy Myers. She has taught in numerous schools, studios, programs, and festivals throughout the world. As a performer, teacher, director, and choreographer Michela is dedicated to spreading the art of tap around the world.
Frances Bradley
A Flint, Michigan native, Frances graduated from Philadelphia’s University of the Arts
with a BFA in Illustration in 2006. Shortly after graduating, Bradley worked for the
world renowned Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia. As a visual artist, Bradley has
been recognized through the National Conference of Artist in Philadelphia where she
received the Artist Legacy Award and awarded studio space through 40th St. Artist in
Residence Program in Philadelphia. Because of her strong passion for social change
through the arts, she founded The Murals for Mali Project a project based organization
dedicated to teaching diverse forms of art to communities in the countries of Mali and
using mural art to visually enhance impoverished communities. Relocating to New York
City, Bradley continues to create new bodies of work, most recently being a part of
two major exhibitions in New York; Life After Death, The Persona That Was or Is Fela
Anikulapo Kuti and Sex Crimes Against Black Girls, that will embark on a exhibition
tour in the near future. Her work has also been featured in publications such as Ghubar
Magazine, an online, International fashion magazine based in Paris, France, art
galleries, and commissioned walls of homes throughout the east coast and nationally.
As a tap dancer Frances began her training under the guidance of her father, Bruce
Bradley, at Creative Expressions Dance St
udio. At the age of 12, she performed and
won Amateur night at Showtime at the Apollo with female tap group, The Stepettes.
From 2002 – 2006 she served as an instructor and choreographer for the Flintstone
Hoofers and Tapology Youth Tap Ensemble . In 2004 she was hired as an ensemble
member in musical, “Bubblin’ Brown Sugar” directed and choreographed by George
Faison, starring Diahann Caroll in Atlanta, GA. In 2009, Frances was selected to train
with world renowned performer, Savion Glover for a year at his newest dance studio,
The Hooferz Club. She was the featured soloist and tap dancer for international touring
company, Illstyle and Peace Productions and performed for notable venues such as:
Black Girls Rock! and Soul Tour at SOB’s in NYC and Cartier Williams’ Rhythm Refix at
Joe’s Pub, NYC. Other notable performances would include: “Tap Masters Honorarium”
in Oklahoma City, Savion Glover’s “Footnotes” in Detroit, MI, The 2000 National Tap
Dance Day “Tap Extravaganza” in New York City, the 2006 West Oak Lane Jazz and
Arts Festival in Philadelphia. She is currently teaching and mentoring youth from world
renowned organization, Black Girls Rock! and The American Tap Dance Foundation in
NYC.
Cartier Williams
Cartier Williams Hoofer,Choreographer,F
ilmmaker and Performer who hails from Washington, D.C., began his tap dancing career at the age of four. Cartier learned his first tap steps from his grandmother Audrey Williams. At the age of six Cartier performed a piece choreographed by Mýa Cartier won Apollo Kids at The prestigious Apollo Theater Distinguished as one of The Apollo Theater’s youngest “Apollo Legends”. Later that year Cartier was invited to the Kennedy Center Honors along side Robert Downey Jr. Mr. Williams studied at The Washington School of Ballet under the tutelage of Mary Day. When he was 10 years old, Cartier Co-Starred with Tap Legends Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde and Dianne Walker in the International tour of FOOTNOTES. Cartier consider it a blessing to have danced and shared the stage with tap pioneers and masters Peg Leg Bates, The Nicholas Brothers, and Gregory Hines. He has performed for 2 U.S. Presidents, and in 1998 Co-Starred in the PBS Special: In Performance at The White House with President Clinton. He toured the U.S. and Japan in the Tony Award Winning BRING IN ‘da NOISE, BRING IN ‘da FUNK, Co-starring with Savion Glover.He has performed at The Joyce Theatre, New York City Center as well as the L.A Kodak Theatre where he performed The AFI Awards: A Tribute to Tom Hanks. Other appearances include a performance at Usher’s birthday bash in New York City performances for the FCC, The CIA, The State Department and Department of Justice. Now 21, Cartier is currently performing his latest production A BEAUTIFUL CHAOS which is slated to tour in 2011 created by Cartier and one New York Film Academy friend Matt Denoma. He is collaborating with Harold Cromer on a new work which will premiere in Spring 2011. He is a student of The New York Film Academy. As a Filmmaker Cartier has written, directed and produced: Phone Bait, The Violinist, and My Love Awaits. He’s appeared in Spike
Lee’s Film Bamboozled. Cartier also performed at The Opening of the Cannes Film Festival for Moulin Rouge.Cartier Williams performed with Super-DJ Chew FU at The Palms Hotel/Resort in Las Vegas. His first Instructional DVD: CARTIER WILLIAMS’ HOOFING WITH THE BASICS VOL.1 is available at all Capezio Retail Stores.Cartier choreographed and directed CARTIER WILLIAMS RYTHM REFIX in May 2011 at Joe’s Pub.
Maurice Chestnut
Maurice Chestnut thrilled audiences at the Zurich “Theater Spektakel” in August 2010 when he performed together with Savion Glover and Marshall Davis Jr. with “Bare Soundz.” He has also danced along side Savion Glover in the Tony Award winning show “Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk.” He is often invited to perform or tour as a special guest with such prominent jazz musicians as Christian McBride, Geri Allen, Cyrus Chestnut, and Thelonious Monk III. Some highlights include NJPAC, JVC Jazz Festival, The Playboy Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Schomberg Center
A New Jersey native, Chestnut began dancing at age 5. He became an original member of the New Jersey Tap Ensemble under the direction
of Ms. Deborah Mitchell at age 9. As one of tap’s brightest young stars, he was featured in “My Kid’s a Star,” was a gold medalist in the NAACP Act-So competition, is a recipient of the 2005 Choreography Award for New York Nights for the Dance Educators of America, and winner of “Top Dog Performer” at the famed Apollo Theater.
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