Hillary-Marie
Dancer, Teacher, Choreographer
Hillary-Marie is a Tap Dance Artist, a visual music maker who tells vivid stories through the universal languages of music and dance. She is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed soloist and collaborator, as well as the Founder of iTapOnline.com, the go-to online tap dance resource for tap dancers and tap teachers since 2016, also home to the iTap Teacher Certificate Program. At age 17, she founded Jersey Tap Fest, named the Best Place to See Live Dance Performances in New Jersey by New Jersey Stage, and was the Founder and Co-owner of Grooves Unlimited Dance Studio (2012-2023), the only dance studio in the U.S. dedicated entirely to hip hop and tap dance, home of FutureSTEP Tap Company. Hillary-Marie has shared the stage withmusic greats like grammy-award winning accapella group Take 6, grammy-nominated group Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and trombone-legend Wycliffe Gordon. She served as Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University and guest faculty at Alvin Ailey and STEPS, and was a Jersey (New) Moves Fellow at NJPAC from 2019-2022. She has also received multiple Individual Artist Fellowships from the NJ State Council on the Arts, one of their most competitive awards, as a 2017 recipient in Choreography, a 2023 funded finalist in Choreography, and a 2024 recipient in Interdisciplinary Arts. A native of New Jersey, Hillary-Marie has been recognized by and featured in the New York Times, Star Ledger, Dance Studio Life Magazine, Dance Spirit Magazine and Dance Teacher Magazine. She has given a TedxTalk about her artist-entrepreneur experience and has traveled the world as a featured artist at the Apollo Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Highline Ballroom, Copacabana, NJ State Theater, NJPAC, SOPAC, Symphony Space, Westobou Festival as well as tap and jazz festivals in Europe, Central America, South America, Asia and throughout the U.S. For many years, she performed weekly at Harlem’s Cotton Club as a part of Bessie-award winner Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards’ group “Sophisticated Ladies”, and previously worked with Emmy-award winning artist Jason Samuels Smith (A.C.G.I.) as well as Derick K. Grant (Rhythm Is Our Business). Before his passing she performed with award-winning composer of A Chorus Line, Marvin Hamlisch, and has danced with Heather Cornell (Conversations), Roxane Butterfly (New Dance Alliance), Maurice Chestnut (Above Ground Project), Christopher Scott (W-L-U-V), Lisa LaTouche (Tap Phonics), the Boston Tap Company (Rhythm in the Night), the NJTAP Dance Ensemble, Nat Adderley Jr., and both the Princeton and New Jersey Symphony Orchestras. Hillary-Marie’s dancing has been described as ‘like feathers with steel bones’ due to her combination of strength and grace.