Photographer: Jeremy Fokkens
LISA LA TOUCHE
(proud tap dancer, choreographer, director and mom)
As a proud Canadian and New Yorker, Lisa La Touche is a Tap Dance Artist/Choreographer, Educator and Cultural Historian. Her performance credits include being an original cast member in Broadway’s Shuffle Along, choreographed by Savion Glover and Directed by George C. Wolfe, where she received both the Fred Astaire Award and the Actor’s Equity Award for Outstanding Broadway Chorus. She is proudly a 2024 “Armstrong Now” Artist in Residence with the Louis Armstrong House Museum, digging into the Armstrong legacy and premiering new works as a result. She also focuses some of her research and exploration in connection with her Trinidadian ancestry and is visionary behind her passion project “Trinidad & Tap Dance: As Folklore” in collaboration with Etienne Charles.
Her TV credits include the 70th Annual Tony Awards and Amazon’s Original “Z, The beginning of everything”. Previous highlights have also included touring with the Savion Glover production, Stepz, performing with Dormeshia at Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club as well as performing with both New York's Off-Broadway and the North American touring casts of STOMP. Since 2010 she has Directed her own performance company Tap Phonics and has been commissioned to present choreographic works for institutions such as The Brooklyn Museum, 92Y, Gibney Dance, dance Immersion, Decidedly Jazz and Fall For Dance North.
As an Educator she currently curates her own programing organizing community gathers and online programing evoking students, artists and enthusiast to make connections with each other and learn together. She also is currently working with the Apollo theater and Apollo Education, and is a Professor on faculty at PACE University and Marymount Manhattan College. She has also taught at NYU, The School of Jacob’s Pillow, Rosie’s Theater Kids, the University of Calgary, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks and the American Tap Dance Foundation.
In the spirit of a true Cultural Historian, Lisa also a writes and directs and has enjoyed collaborating on documentary filmmaking. This includes her self produced film TRAX encompassing her journey back to Alberta while discovering southern African-American migration history to western Canada bridging histories across boarders within the African Diaspora. The continues to be an ongoing research and community activation initiative in collaboration with Lisa as a member of Alberta’s Praire Place-Ancestors Collective.
Above all, her proudest achievement greatest inspiration, is the gift of being a mom. For further info please visit www.lisalatouche.com
DOWNLOAD LISA’S BIO:
A STATEMENT FROM LISA
I am a Tap Dancer. To practice this art form, know its people, and be one of many representatives of such a rich and resilient legacy, is a high honor. It is the lens that I look through in all my artistic endeavors. Adding to this, as a Black woman, cultural context and meaning making are held up at the highest integral value as I continue to research, express, educate, share and simply ENJOY the journey of LIFE as it is a process. My heart beats as my passion pushes me towards greater purposes all stemming from the simplicity of curiosity. I want to hear stories, dig into crates, sharpen my skills and circle up and just dance until infinity. Therefore, as a performing artist and fellow creative, I delight in connecting and engaging with humanity through rhythm, storytelling and community development initiatives leading us towards us all as We: The People.
While I have been blessed with a successful career and considered a leader, I believe I am here to simply serve and do my part in the great works that must get done. To me, Freedom is the fearlessness of expression, existence and knowledge of which we all deserve.