Carole Anne Piccinin, Founder + Artistic Producer

Carole Anne Piccinin founded the ORI and the ORI Ensemble out of a life-long passion to explore and celebrate the art of tap dance as a percussive form in a culturally and musically authentic, and community-focused way. She has studied dance since age six, having lived the lives of an artist, performer, educator, studio owner, choreographer, producer and adjudicator along the way. Carole Anne credits Arthur Duncan, and Canadians William Orlowski (National Tap Dance Company of Canada) and Heather Cornell (Manhattan Tap) for inspiring and fostering her deep musical connection to tap dance. Carole Anne has created and taught tap dance and music programs for Ontario dance schools and school boards, musical theatre companies, and developed the Canadian Children’s Museum long-running Musicworks! program. She has been a guest instructor at the Carleton University Music program (2023, 2024), has participated on dance and arts juries municipally and provincially. Recent productions include Ottawa Summer Swing a jazz culture event with Kimberly Cooper/Decidedly Jazz Danceworks and the Ottawa Swing Dance Society (2023), an educational “tap talk” and workshop with the National Arts Centre – Dance with Michelle Dorrance (2016), and co-presented artists (Taps + Traps: Jesse Stewart + Heather Cornell – Ottawa International Winter Jazz Festival – 2018), and produced, contributed choreography, and performed in full-length ORI Ensemble tap dance and live music shows, including at the Ottawa International Summer Jazz Festival- 2018), respectively. She has mentored many tap dancers and has helped tap communities and their leaders to flourish. Passionate about tap dance to her core, she is an ORI educator, and leads and performs in the ORI Ensemble. She dances, studies and collaborates with tap dance artists and musicians wherever and whenever she can. A mom of two boys and married for over 25 years, she runs ArtsSavvy, an arts management and creative consultancy, and teaches arts and culture marketing at the Carleton University Sprott School of Business. A graduate of the University of Ottawa, she served for five years on the Canada Dance Festival board of directors (2010-2015) and for eight years (2014-2022) as the Executive Director of the Ottawa Festival Network.

Carmelle Cachero – Associate Artistic Producer: Carmelle Cachero has lived her entire life in the arts world and tells her story through rhythm and dance. Carmelle is a 2022 ThisGen Producing Fellow (NAC, Why Not Theatre) alongside mentor Michelle Dorrance and was fortunate to have her work placement residency with Dorrance Dance (NYC) for their holiday production of The Nutcracker Suite at the Kennedy Centre (2023). Her passion for Filipino dance, rhythm tap and body percussion is a driving force to her pursuits.  As a tap dancer, she has performed with Vancouver Tap Dance Society, The Urban Tap Squad, and co-founded the West Coast Tap Dance Collective. She currently dances with the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative Ensemble, and YOW City Tap.  She is the Assistant Choreographer of the Philippine Dance Troupe of Ottawa (PDTO), and a dancer/musician with Tadhana ng Kapwa Ottawa, an artist collective that focuses on traditional pre-colonial dances and kulintang music. She is a rhythm dancer and co-producer of the multi-disciplinary, accessibility-centering collective, Speaking Vibrations. Carmelle is also one of the country’s most sought after Sign Language Interpreters, with a niche in theatre and performing arts interpreting and consultation, working at the National Arts Centre English Theatre and Great Canadian Theatre Company. She has interpreted hundreds of theatre, performing arts events and concerts.

Lisa Kilner – Administrative Manager: Born and raised in Vancouver, Lisa began dancing at an early age, training and competing in ballet and jazz, as well as tap dance.  Upon moving to Ottawa in 2007, Lisa’s love of tap dance persisted and she continued taking tap classes in the region before becoming a founding member of the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative (ORI) in 2012.  She has performed with the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative’s Ensemble (ORIE) in several shows, including their inaugural rhythm tap and jazz music show “Collected Soles” at Arts Court Theatre (2013), at the Toronto Rhythm Initiative’s (TRI) “TRI Explores the Music of Duke Ellington” (2016) and “TRI Explores the Music of Duke Ellington (2019), the TADA! Festival (“Our Love is Here to Stay”, 2017) and the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival (2018).  She was also a participant in the Ottawa Arts Council-funded “Sankofa: A Rooted Jazz Dance Professional Development Study Project” in January/February 2024.  Lisa is thrilled to be part of the ORI community, helping to support and share the wonderful art of tap dance. A graduate of Carleton University (MA, Public History, 2009), Lisa works in legal administration at the City of Ottawa.

Jordan Samonas – Marketing + Project Admin Support (on maternity leave): Jordan is a dance artist, producer, grant writer and project manager. A visionary and go-getter with over 10+ years’ experience in indie self-production (Speaking Vibrations; ROOTED Contemporary Dance; NORTH OF MIND with Don Ross), she is currently co-producer and project manager of Speaking Vibrations (Most Outstanding Ensemble, Ottawa Fringe, 2021; Prix Rideau Nomination in Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Design, 2022; April Hubbard Creative Access Award, Halifax Fringe, 2023) – an award-winning, multi-disciplinary and accessibility-centering performance work and collective. Jordan is involved in several different Ottawa-based arts communities and collectives, for example: as administrative and projects assistant for the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative and YOWCity Tap. A dance “chameleon” with an eclectic movement background (contemporary/modern, rhythm tap, kizomba, ballet, jazz, hip hop, musical theatre), she has performed on stages and at festivals across Canada and internationally (Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa Dance Directive, SOUND OFF Deaf Theatre Festival, Great Canadian Theatre Company, International Dance Organization World Tap Dance Championships). Jordan deeply values the rich cultures, traditions and histories of the dances she practices, and believes in dance as communication, community-building and collective joy.

Educators

Shawna Halikas

Born and raised in Ottawa, Shawna has studied various disciplines in dance for over 25 years. She found great success as a competitive dancer, winning regional titles and scholarships and continually expanding her skillset through workshops and conventions in Canada and the US and attending Canada’s National Ballet School. While living in Toronto, her performances and experience continued including Dance Ontario, the 2015 Pan Am Games, working with Dancing with the Stars (2017) and preparing her students to perform in Disney World (2018). A passionate dance educator and choreographer of over 10 years, Shawna loves the creative process shared with students and continues to receive awards recognizing her choreography at competitions. She was a proud member of the all-female tap dance company “What’s on? TAP!” for four years under the artistic direction of Kim Chalovich. Here she was introduced to and had the joy of taking class from influential tap dancers including Sam Weber, Lisa LaTouche, Travis Knights, David Cox, Dianne Montgomery, and Johnathan Morin. She has performed in several productions including the Eastern Canadian Tap Conference’s “TAP!” from 2017-2019, and featured in the 2018 Tapperfest Gala. She had the honour of being one of seven tap dancers chosen to represent Dianne Montgomery’s choreography at Toffan Rhythm Projects’ “Toronto Rhythm Initiative Explores the Music of Miles Davis” (2019), followed by the opportunity to perform again in Dianne Montgomery’s Fall For Dance North’s segment, Night Shift (2019). Most recently, Shawna moved back to Ottawa and joined the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative Ensemble in 2022. She is thrilled to be a part of Ottawa’s tap dance community, and continue sharing the artform of tap dance this season.

Carolyn Hébert, PhD

Carolyn Hebert has over 25 years’ experience studying, choreographing, and teaching tap dance in commercial dance schools and was voted Ottawa’s Favourite Dance Instructor (Faces Awards, 2020). She has been teaching in recreational and competitive dance studios in the Ottawa region for over 15 years. Her PhD research in the faculty of education at the University of Ottawa “Relational Flow in Improvisational Tap Dancing: A Phenomenological Inquiry” (2023) inquires about the experiences of professional tap dancers in improvisation and was funded through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship. She completed her Masters of Arts in Dance Studies from York University in 2013 and published her thesis as a chapter in the Dance and Gender anthology. She has presented her research at conferences in Norway, Los Angeles, and Greece and has guest-authored articles for Dance International and The Dance Current. Carolyn is an active member of the Ottawa tap dance community as a leading member of YOWCity Tap collective, teacher for the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative (ORI) community tap dance classes and a member of the ORI Tap Dance Ensemble since 2015. Recent performances with the ensemble include TRI Presents the Music of Oscar Peterson (2019) and Ella Fitzgerald (2018), the TD Ottawa Jazz Fest on the OLG Stage (2018), and SwingFest at the Canadian War Museum (2018). She has spent recent years studying with master tap dance teachers Heather Cornell, Dianne Walker, and Brenda Bufalino. Their improvisational approaches that blend historical rhythms and steps with their unique, individual styles continue to inspire Carolyn in her own creative pursuits.

David Lafleur

David is a tap dancer based in the National Capital Region. He is the co-artistic director of (insight), a cross-Canada multi-disciplinary tap dance rooted collective, alongside Ella Steele, which debuted a new work at the Toronto International Tap Dance Festival in August 2023 produced by Toffan Rhythm Projects. David participated in Dianne Montgomery’s Fall for Dance North 2022 commission and world premier, Softly Losing, Softly Gaining. He has also been a main cast member for Rhythm and Sound, directed by Johnathan Morin and Cori Giannotta, since their 2017 iteration “Illumination”, and most recently as part of “Revamped” in July 2022. He performed in various productions across North America, including the School of Jacob’s Pillow (directed by Michelle Dorrance, Derick Grant and Dormeshia), the Just for Laughs Festival (opening for Aba and Preach with Montréal Swing Riot), Toffan Rhythm Projects (Allison Toffan and Juliana Kelly), and the Ottawa International Jazz Festival (with the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative Ensemble). David is a sought-after tap dance educator working in the Ottawa-Gatineau Region and is devoted to sharing his love of tap dance with his community.

Carole Anne Piccinin (bio above)