The Uprooted Scholarships have been created to support continuing education and honoring some of the teachers who came before us, and those who are influencing jazz dance today.

Our goal is to support and educate the current jazz teachers and dancers community by providing opportunities to grow and participate in the UPROOTED workshops or intensives.

UPROOTED Jazz dance Education has been striving and building their educational community over the past 4 years since the feature documentary ‘Uprooted - The Journey of Jazz Dance’ was released. We recognize that if we do not nourish the teachers we do not have good artists, present and future. So our mission is to build an inspiring community that supports dancers and educators in the jazz dance space.

Lynn would like to award the Lynn Simonson Teachers Scholarship to teachers with:

    of wellness.

Lynn has an incredible legacy and we are proud to be continuing that legacy with our Uprooted Teacher Scholarship in her name.

 

"I honor and share with all of us who dance, a common recognition that we are blessed to experience this creative union of energy, movement, music, thought, emotion and, primarily, heart"

- Lynn Simonson 

 

Lynn Simonson is an internationally respected educator of jazz dance.

Simonson is the creator of Simonson Technique, an organic approach to movement that prepares the body to dance in a way that is anatomically intelligent and somatically aware. 

Her call to jazz dance grew out of a deep love, of jazz music and a need to express that music in movement.

 

Born 1943 in Los Angeles and raised in Seattle, Simonson received early classical ballet training from former Diaghllev and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancers, Marian and lllaria Ladre. 

She began teaching in her mother's studio at 13 years of age, and, from 16-18 was hired as a dancer/singer for Equity summer stock musicals. This exposure to musical theater greatly expanded her idea of dance career possibilities. 

During this same time period, she was first exposed to jazz music. This would prove to be a guiding force throughout her life.

 

Simonson arrived in New York City at 18 years of age.

Her first first year, she studied at American Ballet Theater School and was hired as a dancer in the corps de ballet at Radio City Music Hall. 

The next few years, she studied modern dance with Jimmy Truitte and jazz dance with such notables as Jaime Rogers, Claude Thompson and Luigi, and, performed in musicals, nightclubs and television.

 

For over 60 years (1967-2018) she has guest taught and choreographed in the USA, Canada, Holland, Germany, France, Japan, Spain, Finland and Sweden.

 

In the late 60's, she was Invited to teach in Amsterdam Holland, and for several years she explored and defined what would come to fruition as the Simonson Technique. 

 

1972, she returned to New York City, and was a founding co-director, choreographer and soloist with Theatre Dance Collection, 1972-1979. 

1972-1982, she was on the faculty of Morelli Ballet Inc, and, 1979-1982 served as co-director. 

1979-1982, she was founding director of the Uncompany, which provided up-and-coming dancers with professional performing experience.

 

1983 - 1989, Simonson created and directed the Jazz Project for Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

 

1984 -2013, Simonson and Simonson Technique teachers, Laurie De Vito, Michael Geiger, Danny Pepitone, and Charles Wright, created and co-founded Dance Space Center, later re-named Dance New Amsterdam. Simonson Technique, which is progressed on four levels, was the foundation technique.

Simonson Technique is currently taught by certified teachers in more than 20 countries worldwide. 

 

1985, she developed SIMONSON METHOD of TEACHER TRAINING, a certification course that fulfilled her mission of developing skilled and articulate dance educators. 

1985, she developed the Teachers' Workshop at Jacob's Pillow, which she co-directed with Bessie Schonberg for two years. 

1990-1991, she created and directed New Vision for Dance at Jacob's Pillow, which focused on a holistic approach to dance. 

1992-2004, continued her interest in holistic work and Simonson produced and directed her own program, Expanded Dance, at Windhover, in Rockport, MA. This program sought to delve deeper into Somatics and the whole person dancing. 

Since 1989, she has also taught classes in Yoga and Somatics at Dance Space Center and Caps 21 in NYC, University of Illinois, Decidedly Jazz Dance, Calgary, Canada and various International Festivals in Canada, Finland, Sweden, France and Spain.

2000, she developed a class entitled Anatomy Awareness which used the modalities of PNF muscle release and Touch For Health muscle testing (certified,1993) to help a student learn anatomy in an experiential, 'hands-on' way.

 

Over the years Simonson has performed with jazz musical artists, including Bobby McFerrin, Max Roach, Keith Terry and Charles Tolliver.As a choreographer she works with jazz music as diverse as that of John Coltrane, Count Basie, Albert Collins and Tito Puente. 

 

Simonson also studied sign language and choreographed three seasons for the Lexington School of the Deaf in New York.

 

In other areas, Simonson has served as a panelist and guest speaker for the Dance Magazine at the Kennedy Center Washington, D.C, as an auditor for Canada Council on the Arts, and as Keynote speaker for the American Dance Guild's 40th anniversary conference in New York City, 1996. 

She has served as a guest lecturer with Donald McKayle and Matt Mattox for Jazz Dance Symposium in Helsinki, Finland, 1996, 1998, and 2000. 

She has adjudicated the Northeast and Southwest American College Dance festival as well as professional competitions for Encore International Dance festival, Quebec, Canada, 1996 through 2003. 

2003 she chaired a panel on Dance Wellness for Dance Teacher magazine, New York Summer conference.

 

First certified In senior fitness in 2003, Simonson developed a senior seated yoga class (Seated Wellness) which she teaches regularly in senior centers, assisted living homes, and, hospitals. 

Simonson holds 6 certifications in Senior movement, exercise and balance programs, including Dance for PD.

2008, she developed an intergenerational dance class that coupled seniors with second, third, and fourth graders entitled, "100 years of Social Dance.”

 

2018, she created and launched BETTER BRAIN & BALANCE (BB&B), a class for older adults noticing cognitive and balance issues. This class offers exercises that create new neural pathways in the brain and re-pattern responses in fall risk scenarios. 

 

Simonson has received awards from American Dance Guild, National Dance Educators of America, Dance Magazine, and National Dance Association of USA. 

She was honored for lifetime achievement in dance by Encore International Festival, 2003, Boston Youth Moves, 2004, and Dance New Amsterdam, 2005.

 

2024 marked the launch of Jeanne Donohue’s The Simonson Legacy, which captures the essence of Simonson”s global impact, uniting an international dance community in a single home, under one binding.

 

Simonson continues to develop teachers through her offerings of SIMONSON METHOD of TEACHER TRAINING, BETTER BRAIN & BALANCE and Teacher workshops.

- lynnsimonson.com

The Pat Taylor Scholarship criteria is as follows:

 

Pat Taylor is a jazz dance educator, choreographer, independent scholar, and artistic director of JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble which she founded in 1993 to celebrate jazz as a vital thread in the cultural fabric of African American history and heritage and a defining element of the American experience. A third generation Angeleno, she was raised in a household where jazz served as the musical backdrop to daily life. Yet it is while she was teaching, performing and choreographing throughout Europe for seven years, witnessing the respect afforded our jazz tradition around the world, that she truly tapped into her passion for exploring the language of jazz through movement. 

 

Her work explores Love, The Blues, Freedom and Home – themes she finds inherent in the jazz aesthetic, and has been presented at: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Hollywood Bowl (Playboy Jazz Festivals), Glashuset (Sweden), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, City Center (NY), CIAEI Theatre (Brazil), California African American Museum, The Jazz Bakery, Southern Theater (MN), Watts Towers Jazz Festival, Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, and more.  A frequent artist-in-residence, Pat has created work for Cleo 2 of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, University of Alabama, SUNY Brockport, Southern Utah University, Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, Loyola Marymount University, Salve Regina University, University of Idaho, Sacramento State and other distinguished institutions. 

 

Committed to jazz arts education, preservation and creation, Pat’s community engagement initiatives include: the Community Salon, an intergenerational gathering for conversation and exchange of ideas; The Movement in the Music™ mini jazz dance conference; LEGACY Jazz Project, a free dance training program for teens; and The Art of Jazz lecture-demonstration and presentation series.

 

She is the recipient of a Brody Arts Fund Choreography Fellowship, and grant awards from Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Black Art Futures Fund, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Center for Cultural Innovation. Her work with JazzAntiqua has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, California Humanities and the California Arts Council.

 

Pat holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts (Jazz Aesthetics Emphasis) from Goddard College and is a Lecturer in Jazz Dance at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. She is honored to be a contributing chapter author – “The Duality of The Black Experience as Jazz Language” for Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century (University Press of Florida, 2022).

Criteria for this scholarships is as follows:

•Someone who financially is in need of a scholarship to attend The Uprooted Jazz Dance Teachers Workshop

•Someone who is passionate about teaching jazz and loves passing on the styles, traditions, choreography, history, lineage and roots of jazz to the students they come in contact with. 

•Someone who could write an essay about their passion for teaching jazz and passing on the styles, traditions, choreography, history, lineage and roots of jazz.

Born Tony Pusateri on May 2, 1948 in Herculaneum, MO, Tony began his dancing career at the ripe old age of 3 creating a tapping poodle in a local recital. This same child soon became a puppet and marionette Impresario. Over the next several years he expanded his imagination to include elaborate lighting plots, sets, costumes and appropriate music for each production. These were all signs of his perpetual sense of discovery, wonder and limitless creativity. After one season at the St. Louis Muni Opera, this young man, now Mr. Tony Stevens, was propelled Eastward to New York City in 1965 intent upon his life’s goals and his life’s work. 

Tony sought out the best, most diverse dance teachers of that time. He learned the Horton Technique at the Ailey School and took Fred Benjamin's classes there as well. He also trained with Luigi and JoJo Smith; as well as the amazing Afro Jazz teachers whose classes were accompanied by percussionists at the June Taylor Studios: Claude Thompson and Jaime Rogers. All of these teachers and styles influenced his own teaching techniques as well as his ability to execute combinations choreographers would give at auditions, and inspired his own choreography. Everyone wanted him in their show! Between 1967 and 1972, he worked constantly - in touring companies such as Hello Dolly; regional productions such as Bye Bye Birdie, George M & West Side Story; and on Broadway beginning with Fig Leaves are Falling, Billy, Jimmy, Georgy and On The Town. In 1972, a few dance teachers in NYC were producing and creating their own Concerts as a means to showcase their work to agents, directors and producers. Tony determined to use all his creative ideas produced, directed and choreographed a well structured and very entertaining Acting/Dance Program assisted by his friend, Mary Jane Houdina, which he named "T. Stevens Magic Stardust and Rainbow Water Co. 

It was in 1973, when Tony was hired as the choreographer for Rachel Lily Rosenbloom (And Don’t You Ever Forget It), and his best friend Michon Peacock was hired as a dancer in the show. Tony and Michon frequently discussed that during the course of the show and rehearsals, it became clear the dancers were not being respected and the mistreatment of these hard working dancers had to change. Their goal was to elevate the status of dancers within the theatrical community. They voiced their concerns to director/choreographer Michael Bennett in early January 1974. Together, they decided to invite their fellow Broadway dancers and friends to attend two taped talk sessions in mid January 1974 to discuss why and how they started dancing and what it meant to be a dancer. Tony brought a reel to reel tape recorder, Michon brought a list of questions and Michael asked everyone’s permission to use these recordings in whatever this project turned out to be. Eventually, these taped recordings developed into the internationally acclaimed musical A Chorus Line, and the substance of the characters in the show were largely drawn from these original recordings. This show changed the status and trajectory of dancers forever, which was the initial goal Tony and Michon set out to accomplish. Tony participated in the first workshop of A Chorus Line at the Public Theater, where he played Larry, before ultimately leaving the show to assist Bob Fosse on Chicago. When Fosse became ill and Chicago rehearsals were postponed, Fred Ebb conceived the club act ''Chita Plus Two'' for Chita Rivera, featuring Stevens and Christopher Chadman. What began as a modest venture overnight became the hottest act to hit New York City, and it soon played Las Vegas, Miami, and Los Angeles.  The intimate act established Rivera as a cabaret star and set an exciting new standard for song-and-dance club acts.  

Stevens transitioned into choreography through collaborations with some of the most celebrated choreographers of the time. He assisted Peter Genaro on Irene (1973);  Bob Fosse on Chicago (1975) starring Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera, who would become a lifelong friend and frequent collaborator with Tony.  He co-choreographed both the rock musical Rockabye Hamlet (1976) and a West Coast revival of Annie Get Your Gun(1977) with Gower Champion. His other Broadway credits include the choreography for Rachel Lily Rosenbloom…. (1973), and the Frank Loesser revue Perfectly Frank (1980), direction for Wind in the Willows (1985) and Late Night Comic (1987), and staging of select sequences in Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life (2005).

Stevens directed and choreographed touring productions of Dreamgirls, Promises, Promises, and The Who's Tommy, and worked in major regional theaters around the country.  Internationally, he directed and choreographed Sweet Charity in Japan and Turkey, Chicago in Japan, and Dreamgirls in Germany.  Off-Broadway, he choreographed Body Shop (1994) and Zombie Prom (1996), directed and choreographed Sheba (1996), and earned a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for his choreography of The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) (2001).

His work in films included choreography for The Great Gatsby (1974), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas(1982), Johnny Dangerously (1984), 

Where the Boys Are(1984), She's Having a Baby (1988), and Whatever Lola Wants (2007).  As a dancer he appeared in the film Tommy (1975) and Dames at Sea (1971) on television.  Stevens was the resident choreographer for Mary Tyler Moore’s variety series (1979) and choreographed for Late Night with David Letterman.

Tony choreographed the iconic, dance driven Dr. Pepper commercials starring David Naughton. 

Stevens was able to adapt is choreographic and directing skills in many theatrical arenas including The Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus.

For several years, Stevens directed and choreographed the renowned State Farm Industrial Shows with his longtime associate Carol Schuberg, featuring original scores by Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown.  He provided direction and choreography for many stars, including Bernadette Peters, Dolly Parton, Betty Buckley, Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Gene Kelly, Bette Midler, and Debbie Reynolds. 

He taught at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in the Musical Theatre Conservatory CAP21, STEPS, Broadway Dance Center, and master classes in the US, Europe and Japan. 

Tony was beloved by his peers and students, and he was a passionate champion for dancers and all those in the arts. Music fed his soul, and he was known for his electric energy, innate musicality, Latin & Afro Jazz rhythms, soulful mambos, extraordinary creativity, genius musical theater choreography, marvelous storytelling, brilliant humor and his generosity of spirit. He loved passing on what he had learned from all the great directors and choreographers he worked with. Stevens’ career spanned several decades of achievement in all areas of the performing arts around the world. 

Tony’s legacy of humanity, kindness, creativity, inspiration, dazzling brilliance, his love of dance, music, show business, the arts and everyone in it is legendary and lives on. 

Tony was surrounded by loved ones as he gently passed away on July 12, 2011. Chita Rivera was the last person to speak with him on that day.