Advanced Level Residencies
We are thrilled to present two advanced level residency opportunities at our 2024 festival and we are even more thrilled to have the incomparable Max Pollak and Caleb Teicher 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 leading and distinguished tap dance artists, gain insight into their artistic process and approach, all while learning an original piece of work.
The residencies are audition based and in keeping the residencies intimate to offer a one on one experience, up to only 15 advanced level tap dancers per residency will be hand selected. 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 the morning of Wednesday, July 10th, 2024. Each residency includes 7 hours of intimate rehearsal time, a residency dinner at the beach with the residency artist, and a featured performance in our professional festival closing concert, which will be accompanied by live music! ​
​
If you are auditioning for a residency, please do not purchase your concert ticket just yet! For those accepted into a residency, we will provide further details regarding concert tickets and concert performance logistics.
Max Pollak uses three instruments for his ground-breaking performances. He creates dance with his body, music with his hands and feet, and song with his voice.
​
Max Pollak takes his ground-breaking, unconventional approach to performing arts across multiple cultures. As a native Austrian, Pollak combines the German language and the wide-range Yodel that can be seen in his 70-minute solo performance of “All In One.” Pollak is recognized worldwide as the first person to merge Afro-Cuban music and dance with American tap and body percussion. This new style inspired the creation of his band RumbaTap, which has performed in the United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Cuba, Turkey, France, Germany, Austria, and Finland. Pollak also breaks into the resurgence of contemporary Austrian folklore music (otherwise known as New Austrian Sound of Music) with a traditional, classical twist. As an award-winning choreographer, educator, and composer, Pollak is also co-creator of the off-Broadway hit show Carmen, to Havana and Back. His CD RumbaTap was released in 2015 and he is on faculty at Sarah Lawrence College and Drew University.
​
The innovative work of Max Pollak redefines the world of dance, music, and song within a multi-cultural approach using humankind’s original instrument – the body.
Experience the avant-garde performances for yourself.
Max Pollak is a Flo-Bert and Hoofer-Award Winner, Bessie Award nominee, Individual Artist Grantee of the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance and New York Foundation of the Arts Fellow in Choreography. He is one of the most prestigious names on the international tap scene today. He is recognised worldwide for his superior musicianship and his highly individual style as the first person to merge authentic Afro-Cuban music and dance with American rhythm tap and body music to create RumbaTap. His original a-cappella vocal arrangements have been hailed by the NY Times , his work with classical composers, symphonic and chamber orchestras is unique in the world.
​
Originator of Cuba’s first tap festival, he has been teaching and performing there since 1998, and has worked with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Cuba’s top Rumba group, Chucho Valdés, Lila Downs and jazz legends Ray Brown, Phil Woods, Gregory Hines, Paquito D’Rivera, Slide Hampton and Danilo Perez. He toured with Cyro Baptista’s percussion ensemble Beat The Donkey, Manhattan Tap, Urban Tap, Rennie Harris Pure Movement, Feet 2 The Beat, Roxane Butterfly, Grupo Los Santos and more…
​
He is also recognized for making European and South American classical music more accessible by playing with classical ensembles in prestigious venues like Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Musikverein, Schleswig Holstein Musik Fest, Orford Festival, Musique de Chambre a Giverny, Havana’s Teatro Nacional and Teatro Amadeo Roldan. He has performed with members of the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra of NYC, Les Violons du Roy as well as the Duluth Superior and Plano Symphony Orchestras.
Caleb Teicher is a NYC-based dancer and choreographer specializing in musically-driven dance traditions and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Teicher began their career as a founding member of Michelle Dorrance’s critically acclaimed tap dance company, Dorrance Dance, while also freelancing in contemporary dance (The Chase Brock Experience, The Bang Group), Lindy Hop (Syncopated City Dance Company), and musical theater (West Side Story International Tour and London).
As a solo performer and collaborator, Teicher is known for choreographic collaborations with diverse musical talents: world-champion beatboxer Chris Celiz, composer/pianist Conrad Tao; the National Symphony Orchestra, and indie rock legends Ben Folds and Regina Spektor.
In 2015, Caleb shifted their creative focus towards Caleb Teicher & Company, a creative home for incubating new concert dance works from Teicher’s unique perspective. Outside of company work, projects include choreographing Regina Spektor on Broadway, Sister Aimee (streaming on Hulu), and AJR’s “Bang” music video.
Caleb is the recipient of a 2019 New York City Center Choreographic Fellowship, two Bessie Awards, a 2019 Harkness Promise Award, the 2020 Gross Family Prize, and a 2019 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant. Their work has been featured by The New York Times, NPR, Forbes, Vogue, Interview Magazine, on the cover of Dance Magazine and, most recently, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert alongside Regina Spektor.
Caleb continues to engage with dance communities as a teacher for international tap, swing, and jazz dance festivals.