CUSTOM DESIGNED
RESIDENCIES AND WORKSHOPS
Residencies and Workshops
with Heather Cornell
Heather Cornell is the choreographer of the Tony-nominated British comedy The Play What I Wrote, which ran at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre from March through June of 2003 in New York. She is one of the leading tap teachers on the scene today. She apprenticed to six of the original tap masters and had the rare honor of having then shared the stage with her mentors. She has been featured in shows with Cookie Cook, Buster Brown, Chuck Green, Steve Condos, Eddie Brown, Honi Coles, Jimmy Slyde, The Nicholas Brothers, Gregory Hines, and Savion Glover. She established the Manhattan Tap Apprentice Program that is responsible for training today's generation of tap artists including Max Pollak, Michael Minery, Roxanne "Butterfly", Bob Carrol and Jeannie Hill, as well as cast members of Manhattan Tap, Stomp, Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk, Tap Dogs, Cool Heat Urban Beat, and Riverdance. She travels extensively teaching Master Classes and Residencies throughout the world.
"[Heather Cornell is] one of the best tap teachers in the world." - Buster Brown
Ms. Cornell is also known for her collaborations with artists such as Ray Brown, Leon Parker, Keith Terry, Bob Telson, and Keith Saunders on original jazz and world music compositions for tap. One of the pioneers of concerrt tap, Ms. Cornell's tap choreography has been commissioned by Lincoln Center, Meet the Composer, PBS, The Tap Company (Switzerland), and Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (Canada), among others. Television and radio credits include a national KQED special with Honi Coles; Gregory Hines' Tap Dance in America for PBS' Great Performances; a 30-minute special about her company by the Canadian TV jazz series Sounds Impressive; on radio on CBC's Fresh Air; and annual features on WNYC's Around NY.
The blend of original material from her mentors, the development of her own style of concert tap, and her extensive work in collaboration with top musicians results in a teaching style that is rich with tradition, experience, musicality, and inspiration.
Ms. Cornell has conducted residencies throughout the world including: The University of Alaska, Simon Fraser University, Dennison University, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (Canada), Young Audiences NYC, Portland International Tap Festival, NY Tap Festival, and Feet the Beat (Finland). Ms. Cornell recently conducted a 3-credit course for Teachers College Columbia University Masters Division "Looking at the Master Tap Dancers: Analysis and Application of Teaching Styles." Lisa Jo Sagolla, Ed. D. Columbia University stated that the experience was "...a feather in the cap of Columbia University. Heather is a 'living link' to the original rhythm tap masters."
A Master Teacher, Ms. Cornell has been an adjunct professor at University of Alaska, Anchorage and at Dennison University, Ohio, and has taught long term residencies and master classes at numerous universities and colleges. She has been awarded choreographic fellowships from the NEA and NYFA and was the first tap dancer ever to receive long-term choreographic "B" grants from the Canada Council. Ms. Cornell was the only dancer chosen for a joint NEA/Canada Council Artists Exchange Program in 1995. She spent three months in Canada working with dancers and musicians and educating them in the elements of rhythm tap and it's historical connection to music through master classes, rehearsals and the creation of lecture demonstrations and performances.
Under Ms. Cornell's direction, Manhattan Tap frequently conducts residencies in a variety of settings, including at performance venues working with professional artists; community-based residencies working with school students and adults in the community; and university-based programs. Residencies are designed and developed with the host organization, and can include lecture-demonstrations; master classes; schools-based workshop programs and professional performances with Heather Cornell, the Manhattan Tap Company, and choreographic works. Her work is known for the individualized tap instruction and collaboration with live musicians.
Through Residencies and Workshops, Ms. Cornell is able to give a greater number of students access to the same individual attention that she offered in Manhattan Tap's professional training program for ten years.
ONE-WEEK, THREE-WEEK, SIX-WEEK
and SEMESTER RESIDENCIES
Customed designed for your educational institution, studio, theatre or festival.
SAMPLE RESIDENCY ACTIVITIES
Daily Technique Classes
The focus will be on the development of tap skills in working with music both improvisationally and choreographically, and on collaborating with musicians. Whenever possible Ms. Cornell will work with local or her musicians in technique classes. The students will learn music and tap vocabulary, will explore new arrangement ideas, and will be challenged to develop an individual style by exploring weight shifts, musical phrasing, aural and visual dynamics, intonation and counterpoint. As always in Heather's classes, the course will be tailored to your festival or institution and the needs of your students.
Video Showings
Ms. Cornell has extensive original footage of the Masters at work in the studio and on the stage. Because this footage was obtained over the years in private classes and in performances with her company, it is footage that is not available for viewing outside of this context. Also integrated can be standard tap documentaries.
Choreographic Process
Through working with local or Manhattan Tap musicians, Ms. Cornell can create a lecture demonstration or performance showing a choreographer in process. This workshop was first created at Simon Fraser University where Ms. Cornell collaborated with three local world musicians for five days and then performed a one hour improvised session showing the beginning stages of the choreographic process - before form takes over.
Composition
This class is taught through a series of exercises that expose the students to concepts of choreography. In this class ideas such as music structure and the differences between working with jazz and world music, aural and visual dynamics of music and how that translates to dance, how things such as pace, theatricality, intonation and space affect a tap choreography and the difference between a tap "routine" and a tap "choreography" can be addressed.
Living Tap/Jazz History
Ms. Cornell studied extensively with six of the originators of rhythm tap - Charles "Cookie" Cook (Cook and Brown, Kiss Me Kate), Buster Brown (The Speed Kings, Bubblin' Brown Sugar), Eddie Brown (Bill Robinson's show, The Evolution of the Blues), Harriet Brown (the only female sand dancer), Chuck Green (Chuck and Chuckles) and Steve Condos (The Condos Brothers). She spent 20 years being fed the living oral history of the artform through anecdotal stories and colourful tales. In 1992 Ms. Cornell began collaborating with jazz icon Ray Brown who quickly became one of Ms. Cornell's strongest mentors. He passed to her his first-hand knowledge of the combined history of tap and jazz. She teaches this combined history through discussion and with the integration of private video.
Teaching Styles
This course allows the students to investigate and experience the styles, techniques, history, and cultural influence of tap dance. Students will be introduced to the masterful and idiosyncratic teaching styles of the legendary hoofers, the men and women who invented the dance genre known as rhythm tap. Through rare videotaped documentation, studio dance and improvisational exercises, readings and discussions, the students analyze the ways in which these inspiring teachers passed on their understandings of their art and rescued this American artform from possible extinction. The study of the original teaching styles developed by these artists, many of whom had little or no formal education, offer meaningful insights into artistic learning. This course was originally designed for Columbia University Teacher's College Masters Program and offered in the summer of 2002.
Improvisation Workshop
Improvisation cannot be taught but the compulsion to do it can be nurtured. This course focuses on improvisational exercises and games in music and dance that will get the student moving in the direction of self-discovery.
Music for Tappers/Working with Musicians
Ms. Cornell has collaborated with many leading musicians both as a choreographer and as an improvisor. This course is designed to help the students begin to understand the basics of jazz and world music structure and to then provide them with musical terminology that will be necessary in effectively collaborating with musicians. The students are encouraged to use this knowledge to begin to develop their own unique approach to choreography and improvisation.
Musical Chairs: Collaborating with Musicians
This course was first offered to a group of tap teachers in Toronto, Canada in the summer of 2001. The course utilizes a standard jazz trio and addresses the differences in styles and drive between all the members of the trio. On day one the students work on tap technique, improvisational skills and basic jazz music structure. Day two through four involve working with one of each of the three musicians per day. The students discover the different possibilites available to them by the different personalities of the rhythm section and what they each offer. On day five the entire trio is in class and the students utilize the skills and ideas that they have amassed to create a choreography or inprovisation in collaboration with the musicians. This course can be taught with world music as well and can span a longer period than five days if requested.
Lecture Demonstrations
Ms. Cornell can be available to perform lecture demonstration on a variety of topics. These showings would include performance (with live music) and video and/or audio (showings).
Teaching Original Material of the Masters
Ms. Cornell studied privately for years with six of the top rhythm tap masters - Charles "Cookie" Cook, Eddie Brown, Buster Brown, Harriet Brown, Chuck Green and Steve Condos. She had the unique opportunity of being considered protege to many of these dancers and went on to perform with all of them. She is one of the few dancers today who can accurately teach many original routines, exercises and performance techniques of the above dancers. Workshops available include:
Charles "Cookie" Cook RoutinesChoreographic Commissions
Cookie was Heather's first mentor. He was from the team Cook & Brown and was in the original production of Kiss Me Kate. In this workshop you will learn the softshoe that Manhattan Tap commissioned from Cookie in 1986, and "Bambolina", three choruses of time steps that he loved to challenge his students with.
Eddie Brown's BS Chorus
Eddie was Heather's second big influence as a mentor. His "classy tap" style, which consisted of incredibly complex rhythmic phrases, completely changed her approach to tap.Eddie always wanted a BS Chorus for rhythm tappers, a dance that everyone could have at the ready for the end of a split bill. So he made one. Heather is one of a handful of dancers that he passed it on to directly, and requested that she teach it to every one of her students, as a legacy to rhythm tappers everywhere.
Eddie Brown Lost Routines
Heather spent hundreds of hours in private sessions with Eddie, and assisting him in sessions in New York, Paris, Portland Oregon, and Los Angeles. In 1989 she commissioned a solo piece from him, which she premiered in a show with Eddie and Manhattan Tap at the Village Gate jazz club in New York. Eddie was a phenomenal improviser who effortlessly generated unlimited material. In these sessions Heather will be reviving and teaching routines he created on the way to completing her piece, many of which would otherwise be lost to the art of tap.
Eddie Brown's "Highland Fling"
This is Eddie's rhythm tap version of the original Scottish folk dance. You have to experience it to believe it -- it is a great routine that everyone should learn.
Steve Condos' "Grounded" and Rudiments
Manhattan Tap commissioned Steve in 1990 to create a choreography for the company. During the fifty hours of sessions, the company warmed up on Steve's "rudiments" -- exercises based on drum technique -- for three hours a day. After a week of Steve's "boot camp", their technique had never been better. In this workshop, Heather will pass on one series of rudiments and the choreography "Grounded".
Buster Brown Routines
Buster worked with Manhattan Tap numerous times, and the company commissioned him twice to create choreography. One of the commissions became Buster's well-known "Laura" and "Just Me, Just You." This is the definitive version that he created with Heather, so that they could perform together -- which they did, when they toured with the show Feet First with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1996.
Ms. Cornell is a well known tap choreographer, credited as one of the originators of concert tap. Her works "Gumbo Hump" and "The Tap Suite", both to original music created with bassist Ray Brown, are thought of as classics in the world of concert tap. She is one of the most experienced collaborators with world-reknowned musicians in the jazz and world music worlds. She is available for commissions for students or professionals.
Performance Presentations
These performances are always with live music. The musicians can be provided locally or Ms. Cornell can bring her musical collaborators with her. Available is a one-hour solo show or three full evening shows featuring her company Manhattan Tap.
Student Performance Opportunities
Heather Cornell can create works for students to perform live with her. Performance opportunities can be created on a large or small group of students, tailoring the experience to interface with another workshop, studio time or rehearsals within the residency. Performance opportunities may include students sharing the bill with Ms. Cornell's solo work, or a combination of works created for the students, student-generated work, as well as Ms. Cornell's solo work.
FOR MUSIC DEPARTMENTS
Tap and Body Rhythm Workshop For Musicians
Ray Brown & Lewis Nash were tremendous influences for Ms. Cornell. They both stressed the benefits for musicians to learn to dance. This course explores basic tap and body rhythm techniques, allowing musicians to experience rhythm and produce those sounds not only with their feet but also with their entire bodies. It will be taught from a musician's point-of-view, utilizing musical therory and structure as well as emphasizing how the movement relates to the music.
Combined Music/Dance History Lectures
Ms. Cornell has been the recipient of the idiosyncratic but well grounded oral history of tap dancers & musicians through her apprenticeships and collaborations with many of the masters of both genres. In 1992 Ms. Cornell began collaborating with jazz icon Ray Brown who quickly became one of Ms. Cornell's strongest mentors. He passed to her his first-hand knowledge of the combined and colorful history of tap and jazz. She teaches this combined history through discussion and with the integration of private video. Ms. Cornell will discuss the influence that tap dancers had on the developement of Jazz music, especially during the Be-Bop era.
Collaborating with Dancers
In the tap world, Ms. Cornell is one of the most experienced collaborators with world-renowned musicians in jazz and world music. Students will learn techniques so that they will be able to engage in active collaboration rather than simply functioning as a "back-up" musician.
Writing for Dance
Ms. Cornell has collaboarated with numerous musicians to write original music for tap dance. She will share the insight that she has gained through these collaborations. Topics of discussion will include the strengths of such collaborations, effectively working with tap dancers, and the specific needs of tap dance that dictate melodic structure and arrangement choices.
Remember, every residency is custom designed to meet your needs!
Heather Cornell's Rhythm Tap Workshop / Eddie Brown Routines
In Negril, Jamaica
November 12-19, 2003
Now open for registration
Heather will be teaching material by Eddie Brown, one of her most influential mentors. Eddie's "classy tap" style is rhythmically thick and extremely close to the floor. You can't help but have your dancing transformed by this technique.
There will two group classes per day, As always in Heather's workshops, the class will be tailored to the needs and interests of the participants.
Cost is $1100 + airfare. This includes:
- Transport to and from Montego bay airport to Negril
- Meals -- light morning snack, brunch and dinner prepared by our personal chef -- Jamaican style: healthful, delicious and fresh (if you've never had Jamaican food you're in for a treat!)
- Lodging
- Two classes per day
- Daily transport to cliffside or beach destination
There is space only for six people. This is an excellent chance for personal attention. Please respond as soon as possible to secure a space.
Contact Jeannie at qjeanius@hotmail.com or call 646-229-9880.
For specific information about class content, email hcornell@manhattantap.org
MANHATTAN TAP RESIDENCIES AND WORKSHOPS
Heather Cornell frequently conducts residencies in a variety of settings, including at performance venues working with professional artists; community-based residencies working with school students and adults in the community; and university-based programs. Residencies are designed and developed with the host organization, and can include lecture-demonstrations, masterclasses, schools-based workshop programs, professional performances, and choreographic works.
Manhattan Tap's Residencies and Workshops with Heather CornellEmail hcornell@manhattantap.org -- and please leave your phone number, in case we can't reach your email!
P.O. Box 571
Valley Cottage, NY 10989
Private Sessions Available!
Email hcornell@manhattantap.org -- and please leave your phone number, in case we can't reach your email!
Copyright © 2002-2003 by Manhattan Tap
PO Box 571
Valley Cottage, NY 10989
845-480-1396
hcornell@manhattantap.org