Today we’d like to introduce you to Acia Gray.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Director of TAPESTRY
Weaving dance into life, weaving life into dance since 1989.
As a resident company of The Long Center (since 2008) and previously at Austin’s Paramount Theatre (1992-2007), Tapestry is a professional, non-profit dance organization founded in 1989 by rhythm tap dancer Acia Gray and ballet/jazz artist Deirdre Strand for the purpose of developing a foundation in multi-form dance performance and education. Initially, a performing company of three, the organization expanded to a professional company of seven resident artists, a diversified administrative and production support staff and a pre-professional and adult training facility in Austin, TX sharing the unique Strand/Gray training syllabus.
In 2021, COVID shifted the organization into a streamlined production and artistic organization collaborating with global and Austin, TX artists to continue to share its mission. Tapestry Dance Company shares the power of dance, music and theatre through numerous events and programs sponsored by individual contributors, corporations, the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Austin and the Texas Commission on the Arts as well as its wonderful audiences and touring sponsors. These programs include seasonal multi-form concert premieres, The Annual Soul to Sole International Tap Festival, community outreach programs, pop up masterclasses and workshops in dance, theatre and music, affordable rental space and a home for numerous Austin artists as well as touring residencies throughout the US and abroad. From 2002-2021, Tapestry existed as the only full-time, salaried dance company specializing in the art of jazz tap dance world-wide.
Tapestry is also proud to have hosted and collaborated with numerous Austin based artists and arts organizations including Anu Naimpally, Roy Lozano Ballet Folklorico, Lannaya Drum & Dance, ATASH, The Love of China, Zein Al-Jundi & The Bint El Balad Bellydance Ensemble, Olivia Chacon, Andrea Ariel, Pamela Hart (Women in Jazz), The Irish Dance Center of Austin, visual artist Ami Plasse, the late Tina Marsh with The Creative Opportunity Orchestra and numerous local jazz musicians including Masumi Jones voted “Best Jazz Drummer” by The Austin Chronicle. International dance and music artists include Dr. Fayard Nicholas (The Nicholas Brothers), Arthur Duncan (The Lawrence Welk Show), Brenda Bufalino, Gregory Hines, Sarah Petronio, Michelle Dorrance (MacArthur Fellow), Bill Evans, Dr. Harold Cromer, Dianne Walker, Dr. Jeni Leon, James Clouser and many contemporary leaders in the dance, theatre and music fields today as well as dozens of incredible resident artists hired on full-time season contracts from the US and abroad as part of Tapestry Dance Company.
As a member of The Texas Commission on the Arts, The Mid-American Arts Alliance and Heartland touring programs over the past 33 years, the multi-form choreographic works and training of Tapestry Dance Company have been lovingly woven throughout the U.S. and abroad to include Cyprus, Britain, Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland, Canada and China. The company has been honored by numerous “Best of” awards by The Austin Chronicle as well as Best Dance Company, Best Dance Production, Best Choreography, numerous Best Dancer(s) and Best Ensemble by the Austin Critics Table Awards. The company also toured the award-winning National Endowment for the Arts: Masterpiece Dance original production of Acia Gray’s The Souls of Our Feet – A Celebration of American Tap Dance throughout the USA, Canada and China and shifted to a focus on tap dance from 2008 to 2021.
The organization is proud to return to its founding roots as a multi-dimensional, multi-form performance and educational organization.
Our academy currently offers all levels of tap dance for adults/teens and offers affordable rental space for Austin artists.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
COVID and loss of spaces in Austin have been our biggest challenges. The pandemic resulted in the organization deciding to not start our full academy educational program for adults and children due to having just moved to our current home at 2015 East Riverside Drive a few months prior. The COVID reality also resulted in Tapestry laying off our full-time, salaried dance company (since 1995) made of artists from around the world.
The company has also called six locations home throughout its 35 year history. Our Western Trails home behind Central Market South, which was sold in 2016 (resulting in losing our lease after investing over $500,000 in build-out), was eventually “gutted” for a second sale and it still has our name on it. The space was originally The Supreme Court Health & Racket Club and had beautiful maple floors and accommodated over 350 active children in our pre-professional programs and serviced hundreds of adults as well as nurtured numerous non-profit arts organizations and artists.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
ACIA GRAY – CoFounder & Executive/Artistic Director
As a soloist, choreographer and master teacher, Ms. Gray has toured extensively across the U.S. and abroad as a tap dance artist and in 1989 co-founded Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, TX with Deirdre Strand. She currently serves as Producing Artistic Director as well as the Artistic Director of The Soul 2 Sole International Tap Festival. Along with being recognized as a leader in the rhythm tap community for over three decades as a master teacher and solo artist, she has produced over 68 full-length concert premieres as Artistic Director of Tapestry Dance – a company that existed as the only full-time, salaried dance company specializing in tap dance in the world from 1995-2021 when COVID took its toll. With a refocused vision, she continues to produce collaborative and socially relevant works through Tapestry as well as additional new works with leading artists in the field.
A graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts/NYC, Ms. Gray has shared the stage with Lon Chaney, Chuck Green, Steve Condos, Brenda Bufalino, Donald O’Connor, Fayard Nicholas, Buster Brown, Savion Glover, Gregory Hines, Jimmy Slyde, Sarah Petronio, Dianne Walker and many others in such productions as The Great Tap Reunion, Tap Do/Wop, Just Friends, Masters of Tap, Chicago on Tap and Women in Tap at UCLA. She was chosen to work with legend Charles ‘Honi’ Coles in America’s first creative residency for tap at The Colorado Dance Festival and again with Jimmy Slyde and was featured in the documentary A Class Act: The Magic of Honi Coles. She was a founding member and Managing Director of the touring company Austin on Tap, served on the Steering Committee of The International Tap Association and served as its director from 2008-2018 and was also a featured soloist in the Dance Magazine Calendar. She has also danced, choreographed and taught for Columbia College, The University of Texas, The Colorado Dance Festival, International Summer School/Cyprus, Dance Masters of America, TASIS/London, Tanzsommer/Austria, The St. Louis Tap Festival, The Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Tap City / NYC, Le Festival De Danse Encore, RIFF, OC Tap Festival, Monterrey Tap Fest and many, many others since 1991.
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 since 1998. Her numerous awards include the “Hoofer Award” by The New York City Tap Festival and she was honored to be a premiere member of the Austin Arts Hall of Fame. She was also nominated for a Princess Grace Award in the early 1990’s and honored for her work in the field at the 2018 Dance USA Conference.
Ms. Gray has received numerous “Best Of” awards by the Critics Table in Austin and her work The Souls of Our Feet – A Celebration of American Tap Dance was chosen as an NEA American Masterpiece production and toured throughout the US, Canada, and China from 2009-2012. She can also be seen in the documentaries Tap or Die, Thinking on Their Feet – Women of the Tap Renaissance and Passing it Forward produced by PBS.
Ms. Gray is also proud to be a 2019 Austin Creative Alliance Honoree and currently serves as an Arts Commissioner for the city of Austin, TX.
www.aciagray.com / www.tapestry.org
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Tapestry’s Co-Founder and Director Acia Gray has been a professional musician since the age of seven and been onstage for over fifty years.
Ms. Gray is still one of the leading jazz tap dance masters in the world and still tour internationally as an educator and solo performing artist.
She also serves as a member of The Austin Arts Commission and was a premiere member of the first inaugural AUSTIN ARTS HALL OF FAME.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tapestry.org
- Instagram: tapestrydanceaustin
- Facebook: Tapestry Dance
- Youtube: Tapestry Dance Company
Image Credits
Blue Suede Photography Elizabeth Silva
