Ray Hesselink & Acia Gray
Ray Hesselink is a director and choreographer living and working in New York City. Ray has had the privilege to help train the children performing in Broadway's
Billy Elliot: The Musical.
As a dancer, Ray created the role of Mr. Happy in Derick Grant's Imagine Tap! As a performer, Ray's favorite performances include originating the role of "Bud" in Batboy: The Musical. He has also been featured as a principal dancer in Nayikas, a classical Indian Dance Company.
Ray has choreographed for many venues including New York Musical Theater Festival, The Duke Theater, Symphony Space, Yale Drama School and as a contributing choreographer to Heatwave: The Jack Cole Story, and co-writer/choreographer to I Heart Bob at Joyce SoHo, which won a rave review from the NY Times. Ray is also on faculty at Juilliard.
Check out www.RayHesselink.com for more information and at www.TapDanceU.com for instructional tap videos.
As a dance producer, soloist, choreographer and master teacher, Acia Gray is the co-founder and Executive/Artistic Director of Tapestry Dance now in its 35th Season as well as The Soul 2 Sole International Tap Festival.
Acia has shared the stage with numerous tap legends and contemporaries around the globe and her book The Souls of Your Feet – A Tap Dance Guide for Rhythm Explorers has been translated in the Czech Republic and China and debuted as an Amazon.com Bestseller in its category in 1998.
She has produced over 65 full length multi-form dance productions and her tap dance focused concert The Souls of Our Feet – A Celebration of American Tap Dance was also chosen as an NEA American Masterpiece production.
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Numerous awards include the prestigious “Hoofer Award” by The American Tap Dance Foundation in NYC.
She continues to choreograph, perform and teach throughout the world as well as produce critically acclaimed productions in her home city of Austin, TX.
www.aciagray.com / www.tapestry.org