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Tanya Picard
Tanya Picard is a teacher and choreographer from the Chicago area who has studied jazz dance in New York with Luigi, modern at the Martha Graham Dance Center, and tap with Bob Audy and Charles “Cookie” Cook. A lifelong student of Gus Giordano in Chicago, she has been awarded scholarships for several of her students to take master classes at the Giordano studios. Tanya is currently an active participant in Chicago Human Rhythm Project and studies Isadora Duncan technique with Jennifer Sprowl.
Tanya did her graduate work at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where she served as the Artistic Director for Pasticcio Dance Ensemble, a regional contemporary company. While in Minneapolis, she also worked as choreographer for the Renaissance Faires in Chicago and Boston, creating the original “Gypsy Dancers,” and choreographed more musicals than she cares to count. Returning to Chicago, in addition to teaching technique classes, serving as a movement specialist for an early childhood program, and directing an adult tap company, she received grants to produce two original works: Amelia and Leonardo and Elements. In 2009, she organized a two-day Luigi workshop taught by Luigi’s assistant, Francis Roach, and produced Never Stop Moving, a special performance honoring Luigi’s influence. Since 2011, Tanya has created unique pieces that fuse text, music, tap, modern, and jazz dance that have been presented at the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois.
Most recently, as the Artistic Director of Impulse Arts in Champaign, IL, she and Corbin Phillips have collaborated to create Harmonic Conversion for CU Wise TV, and Tapestry for Urbana Fine Arts Center.
