We recently connected with Acia Gray and have shared our conversation below.

Acia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

As the Executive/Artistic Director of Tapestry Dance Company (founded in 1989), I have always strived to create dance and theatre works that bring people “present”…artists and audiences alike. Rhythm is Life….Life is Rhythm.

Sharing theatrical and educational experiences that bring individuals together; listening; communicating and collaborating as well as “making some good trouble.”

“Passing It Forward” (2016) brought me attention as the #1 Bravest Artist by The Austin Chronicle “Best Of” awards. The performance dealt with the realities of change and division started within the 2016 Presidential Campaign.

However, “Rhythm of A Life” (dealing with my own near death experience); “.com” questioning the advancement of the computer age (2002) among many of the 65 original works have all been meaningful in their time and place.

It’s not about the steps for me…dance is a language; music is a language – we can ALL feel it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

As a soloist, choreographer and master teacher, Ms. Gray has toured extensively across the U.S. and abroad as a tap dancer and in 1989 co-founded Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, TX with Deirdre Strand and currently serves as Producing Artistic Director & Artistic Director of The Soul to Sole Tap Festival. 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 and many others. Her book The Souls of Your Feet – A Tap Dance Guide for Rhythm Explorers has been translated in the Czech Republic and China and has been an Amazon.com Bestseller in its category since 1998. Her numerous awards include the “Hoofer Award” by The New York City Tap Festival and honored as 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 at the 2018 DanceUSA 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 Honi Coles: The Class Act of Tap, Gotta Move – Women In Tap, 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. www.aciagray.com. Ms. Gray is a current member of the Austin Arts Commission.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Helping to guide individuals in the experience of LISTENING. The importance of silence. All the lessons of life are in the lessons of a jazz tap dancer….

SHARING that experience to help change the world for the better.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

33 years of running Tapestry Dance Company through personal bankruptcy; five locations due to Austin redevelopment; life altering health issues (ulcerative colitis and hospitalized numerous times); keeping the ONLY full-time, salaried professional dance company specializing in tap dance until COVID in 2020 (30th Anniversary of the company).

Surviving post COVID…Tapestry is alive – albeit in a different way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aciagray.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aciagray/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acia.gray/
• Youtube: Tapestry Dance Company; Tapestry Dance Company Austin
• Other: www.tapestry.org