Lynn Dally History

Lynn Dally co-founded the JAZZ TAP ENSEMBLE in 1979, bringing American rhythm tap dance together with live jazz music onto the concert stage.  As the first touring tap dance company in America, Jazz Tap Ensemble (JTE) created a new performance mode for tap and toured worldwide for over thirty years. From Carnegie Hall to the Apollo, the Kennedy Center to Jacob’s Pillow to New York’s Joyce Theatre, Jazz Tap learned from the legends, especially Honi Coles, Eddie Brown, Steve Condos, Nicholas Brothers, Brenda Bufalino, Jimmy Slyde and Gregory Hines, often appearing with them on Concert Tours and in Tap Festivals while creating and performing new original works each season.  As Artistic Director since 1986, Dally has created over 50 choreographies for the JTE and continues to innovate and educate, honoring the legends while mentoring gifted young artists.  Some of her favorite appearances were “Honi Coles & the Jazz Tap Ensemble” at the Smithsonian, “Tap Divas” in New York Tap City’s opening season, Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, televised concerts in London and with Honi Coles in San Francisco, Colorado Tap Festivals, Dally & Bufalino at Woodpeckers, Salzburg Jazz Festival, Theatre de la Ville, Paris, Lyon’s Maison de la Danse & the Biennale, “An American Story”, many seasons at the Joyce, and Carnegie Hall NY and the Jazz Bakery LA with Gregory Hines.

Dally has received multiple choreography grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Irvine Foundation, California Arts Council and City of Los Angeles, and was the first tap dancer to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography.  Commissions include Ruby, My Dear for Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet, Tribute to Fred Astaire for Los Angeles’ Getty Museum and “Bahia Dreams” for Joyce Theater Foundation, New York.

Jazz Tap Ensemble’s extensive touring credits include Arts America tours of southeast Asia, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, central and south America. Other tours took Jazz Tap Ensemble to France, Germany, Madrid, Italy, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In 2012, JTE was honored to be selected again by the US State Dept for Dancemotion USA, produced by Brooklyn Academy of Music BAM, to represent the best of US dance artistry in a new global diplomacy arts initiative.  JTE wrapped up a touring life since 1979 with this 2012 four-week tour of central and south Africa, Kinshasa, Maputo, Bulawayo, and Harare where they engaged with professional dance artists, sharing concerts and shim shams, with youth ensembles, at risk youth populations, teen aids orphans, in concerts, workshops, master classes, and lively informal sessions.  JTE was honored and privileged to be afforded this life changing experience.

Adjunct Professor in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance & Dept of Theatre, Film & TV from 2000-2012, Dally taught all levels of tap technique, improvisation, and repertory as well as History of American Tap Dance and Tap on Film.  While at UCLA, she worked with documentarian John Bishop to begin a new endeavor in dance on film, documenting a tribute to the late great Gregory Hines centered around the master class he taught for her students at UCLA and his appearances with JTE at the Jazz Bakery.  In 2008, she created “Women in Tap” at UCLA, featuring four generations of leading female tap artists, scholars, and documentarians in live concerts, conferences, master classes, and dialogues, available now on DVD as “Gotta Move:  Women in Tap.”  In 2015, Dally completed JAZZ TAP ORIGINALS: A Collection of Live Performances 1979 – 2012, a five disc anthology celebrating JTE’s thirty year history of choreographic innovation.

As her first “Legacy Project”, Dally was commissioned by Tony Waag’s Tap City to teach and pass on Eddie Brown’s “DOXY” to New York Tap City’s Youth Ensemble. On that same program she taught three professional tappers her original solos: Terry Brok “Gershwin”, Jenai Cutcher “Suite Blues” and Lynn Schwab “Round Midnight”. This performance was held July 8, 2023 at New York’s Symphony Space and is documented in the New York Public Library Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Cuttently Dally is preparing “Making Dance with Jimmy Slyde”, the story of a unique collaboration with one of the great tap legends.

Milestones

1963

B. A. Ohio State University, Dance and French Literature

1965

M.A. Smith College, Theatre and Dance

1979

RIFFS original presentation of Jazz Tap Percussion Ensemble at Pacific Motion, Venice, CA

1981

Tapdancin'; award winning Documentary by British filmmaker, Christian Blackwood.

1981

Smithsonian – JAZZ TAP ENSEMBLE with Honi Coles-Baird Auditorium

1983

Paris' Theatre de la Ville - Jazz Tap Ensemble debut in France

1984

Jazz Tap Ensemble Live in Concert Ch 4, TV Europe 1984-5, Bravo(US) 1986-88.

1983-1988

Several Tours of France’s Maisons de la Culture featuring Lyon’s Maison de la Danse

1986

First U.S.I.A. Tour, Southeast Asia: Phillipines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia

1986

NY Debut at the Joyce Theater with Guest Artist, Gregory Hines

1987

Kennedy Center, Washington, DC

1988

Jazz Tap Ensemble @ Joyce Theater w/ special guest, Harold Nicholas

1988

Jacob’s Pillow Debut

1990

Apollo Theatre – Dancing in the Streets-w/ Hines, Glover, et al

1991

An Evening of Tap at Carnegie Hall with Gregory Hines and the Legends of Tap

1992

Jazz Tap Ensemble @ Joyce Theater w/ special guest, Jimmy Slyde

1993

Two Takes on Tap -documentary on Tap Choreography of Dally & Bufalino

1994

Wexner Center, Ohio State University– with special guest Savion Glover

1995

New York Joyce Theater premiere of Interplay by Jimmy Slyde

1999

Jazz Tap at Bakery w/ special guest, Gregory Hines, Los Angeles

2003

KCET-TV Los Angeles - Live broadcast from the Music Center of Gregory Hines' GROOVE w/ JTE & Caravan Project together

2005

Salzburger 10th Annual Jazz Festival (Austria)

2008

Women in Tap Conference & Concerts, Kaufman Dance Theatre, Los Angeles

2008

Tap Roots, Jazz Tap Ensemble's 16th Season at NY's Joyce Theater

2012

Africa Tour, DanceMotion USA, Kinshasa, Mozambique, Bulawayo, Harare