Gene Medler
Gene Medler is founder and director of the highly acclaimed North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble (NCYTE), founded in 1982, and director of the NC Rhythm Tap Festival. His teaching credits include Elon University (currently), Duke University, Meredith College, St. Louis Tap Festival, American Dance Festival, The Ballet School of Chapel Hill, the Saratov Music Conservatory in Russia, the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Tap City in NYC, Tap Encontro (Rio de Janeiro), The Hot Shoe Show (Vienna, Austria), and Feet Beat (Helsinki, Finland). Selected performance experience includes performances with the Squirrel Nut Zippers, solos in Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker, Ellington’s “David Danced” from his sacred music, Rising Stars of Tap (Colorado Dance Festival), and the Great Tap Reunion (Boston). Gene has received grants from the Durham Arts Council, the NC Arts Council, and the Orange County Arts Commission. He is featured in the March, 1998 Dance Teacher Now magazine, is a recipient of the News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) “Tar Heel of the Week,” and won the 1998 “Indy Award” for contribution to the arts awarded by the Independent Magazine. He performed a duet with tap legend, Brenda Bufalino, at the World Dance Festival (March, 1999) held at the Town Hall Theater in NYC. Gene was also profiled in the September/October Carolina Alumnae Review, can be seen in the PBS special “JUBA, Masters of Percussive Dance” (WUNC-TV) and appears in the December 2001 issue of Southern Living.
Gene has received the prestigious JUBA award in 2010 from the Chicago Human Rhythm Project; the Legacy award from the Third Coast Rhythm Project; and the Grace award from the Vancouver Tap Dance Society (Canada, 2014).