Advanced Level Residencies
We are thrilled to present two advanced level residency opportunities at our 2023 festival and we are even more thrilled to have the incomparable Sarah Reich and Leo Manzari leading the residencies!!!
The OC Tap Festival Residencies are immersive experiences that are designed to elevate and provide tap dancers the opportunity to intimately study with a master tap dance artist, gain insight to their artistic process and approach, all while learning an original piece of work.
The residencies are audition based and in keeping the residencies intimate and to offer a one on one experience, only up to 15 advanced level tap dancers per residency will be hand selected by Sarah and Leo. Tap Dancers may audition and participate in both residencies. You must be fully registered for our Advance/Pro level, in order to participate in our advanced level residencies. Our residency programs begin on July 12th, 2023. Each residency is $275.00 and includes 7+ hours of intimate rehearsal time, a residency dinner at the beach with the residency master artist, and a featured performance opportunity in our professional festival concert, which will be accompanied by live music!
If you are interested in auditioning in one or both of our residencies, please fill out the audition form by 1/31/23 by clicking below and we will be in touch with audition material in early February. Each tap dancer who would like to audition will need to learn material (taught by Sarah and Leo) via a prerecorded video and submit an audition video no later than February 28th, 2023. You must be registered for our Advanced/Pro level prior to submitting your audition video in order to be considered for our residency program.
Acceptance letters will be sent in March.
Sarah Reich Residency
Sarah Reich (Performer, Choreographer, Instructor, Composer) has emerged as one of the new leaders in the Art Form of Tap Dance. This Los Angeles native has been sought after to perform, choreograph, and teach in over 40 countries. "I want to continue to bring tap into mass media with great respect and quality," she says, focusing on "reprogramming the minds of the general public on their perception of tap dance." (Dance Magazine 2017)
Sarah has become one of the art form's pop culture ambassadors, thanks to her appearances in videos with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox. Her videos with them (A Star Wars–themed tribute, "The Tap Awakens," & “Thriller”, a Michael Jackson cover featuring Wayne Brady) have garnered millions of views on YouTube, all receiving rave reviews. She has toured the world with Postmodern Jukebox playing prestigious venues such as Radio City Music Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Sydney Opera House as well as a televised PBS special filmed in Las Vegas.
Previously she was seen on FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance under companies by Chloe Arnold and Jason Samuels Smith. With her own company, Tap Music Project, she has choreographed and performed at the Ford Amphitheatre, UCLA’s Jazz Reggae Music Festival, Blue Whale jazz club, and the televised LA County Holiday Celebration. Sarah was also a performer at Madison Square Garden for the opening of the NY Knicks 2013-2014 season. She was sought out to perform at Jazz at the Lincoln Center for a tribute to Duke Ellington in New York City in 2017.
In addition to her vast international travels and countless television appearances, Sarah has had the honor to perform at some of the most prestigious venues back home in Los Angeles such as The Hollywood Bowl, the Greek Theater with Mexican Pop-Star, Cristian Castro and the Dolby Theater with the great Herbie Hancock.
She is currently on tour with NUVO Dance Convention sharing her passion of tap dance with kids across the country.
With her Tap Music Project intensives in various cities, Reich teaches tap dancers how to dance with more musicality, communicate with musicians and write music. Using a live band in class, she instructs students on how to "scat" rhythms or transcribe choreography with rhythm notation, among other skills.
Sarah is developing new, and exciting works with her company Tap Music Productions, including her debut Tap Jazz Album titled New Change. This album is originally produced, composed from percussive tap rhythms, and performed by a great selection of musicians to create a unique sound. She hopes this is just the beginning: "I want to be the first tap dancer to win a Grammy Award!"
Leo Manzari Residency
Originally from Washington D.C., Leo Manzari is a Lucille Lortel award-nominated tap dancer and recording artist. Manzari has headlined in the touring and Off-Broadway productions of Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life, featured Guest Artist on So You Think You Can Dance, The Mo’nique Show, The Kate TV, PBS News Hour, Jerry Lewis Telethon, and ABC’s The View. He has also featured as a solo tap dance feature in Hozier’s music video “Almost (Sweet Music)” and performed alongside Grammy Award® winning band “The Free Nationals” in various virtual events. He also headlines alongside Byron Stripling and Grammy®-nominated Jazz vocalist, Carmen Bradford in a show called Uptown Nights, which has collaborated with multiple POPS orchestras across the world including The Winnipeg Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, The Columbus Jazz Orchestra, The San Diego Symphony, and The Philly POPS. He’s appeared in the Late Late Show with James Corden and Ariana Grande. Other credentials include a recurring role in Showtime’s television show Homeland, and lead writer and vocalist in his own original music.