Jason Samuels Smith (born October 4, 1980) is an American tap dancer, choreographer, and director.

Early life and career

Samuels Smith was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to professional performing arts parents Sue Samuels and JoJo Smith. He began his professional performing career at an early age through Frank Hatchett's Professional Children's Program at the

Broadway Dance Center Broadway Dance Center is a dance school located at 322 West 45th Street west of Times Square in New York City. It was founded in 1984 as one of the first "drop-in" dance training schools in the world, offering classes in jazz, tap, ballet, conte ...

in New York City. At a young age, he had appearances on the television show ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'', and at the age of 15, was understudy to the leading role in the Tony Award-winning Broadway show '' Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk''.

Awards and recognition

He won both an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

and

American Choreography Award The American Choreography Awards was a ceremony and show that honored outstanding choreographers in the fields of feature film, television, music videos, and commercials. They were first known as the L.A. Dance Awards (1994–95), then as Bob Fo ...

for "Outstanding Choreography" for the Opening number of the 2003 Jerry Lewis/MDA Telethon in a tribute to the late

Gregory Hines Gregory Oliver Hines (February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003) was an American dancer, actor, choreographer, and singer. He is one of the most celebrated tap dancers of all time. As an actor, he is best known for '' Wolfen'' (1981), '' The Cotton C ...

. Samuels Smith was also awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the City of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

for creating the First Annual Los Angeles Tap Festival in 2003 and received a proclamation declaring April 23 "Jason Samuels Day" from the City of

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

Credits

In 2004, Samuels Smith co-starred in Dean Hargrove's award-winning short film ''Tap Heat''. He was also a featured dancer in HBO/Universal Pictures release of Outkast's feature film ''Idlewild''.

Debbie Allen Deborah Kaye Allen (born January 16, 1950) is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, singer-songwriter, director, producer, and a former member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She has been nominated 20 times for an ...

has featured his dancing in several productions including the

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television series ''Cool Women'', Sammy (a tribute to the life of

Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

), and in 1999 a leading role of ''Soul Possessed'' with

Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer, actress and businesswoman. LaBelle is referred to as the " Godmother of Soul". She began her career in the early 1960s as lead singe ...

Arturo Sandoval Arturo Sandoval is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer. While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 he met Gillespie, who became his ...

, and Carmen DeLavallade. He also founded the tap dance program at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

, which is also the location of the annual Los Angeles Tap Festival. In 2016, Smith narrated Simone Maurice’s documentary on tap dancing ''Lost in the Shuffle''. Other performance credits include: * Fox Television's series ''So You Think You Can Dance'' (special guest performer) * The New York City Center

Fall For Dance Festival Fall for Dance is an annual dance festival presented by New York City Center New York City Center (previously known as the Mecca Temple, City Center of Music and Drama,. The name "City Center for Music and Drama Inc." is the organizational par ...

* ''Sadler's Wells Sampled'' at

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-sea ...

in London * Savion Glover's ''NYOTs (Not Your Ordinary Tappers)'' * ''Cross Currents: Turned on Tap'' at the Queen Elizabeth Hall -

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Alber ...

in London * The 2002-2003 Harlem Jazz Dance Festivals' ''TAAP: The Art and Appreciation of Percussion'' * The NY Tap Committee/Town Hall's ''21Below!'' with

Jennifer Holliday Jennifer Yvette Holliday (born October 19, 1960) is an American actress and singer. She started her career on Broadway in musicals such as ''Dreamgirls'' (1981–83), ''Your Arms Too Short to Box with God'' (1980–1981) and later became a su ...

* ''Thank You Gregory: A Tribute to the Legends of Tap'' * The American Institute of Vernacular Jazz Dance Darktown Strutters Ball Gala in 2010 * The Career Transition for Dancers 20th Anniversary Jubilee at The City Center, New York in 2005 * Special performances and choreography in

Psych ''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observ ...

Season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

Episode 2, "Feet Don't Kill Me Now". Samuels Smith starred in the debut of ''Imagine Tap!'' at the Harris Theater in Chicago. Samuels Smith performed in ''India Jazz Suites'', a collaboration with

Kathak Kathak ( hi, कथक; ur, کتھک) is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. It is the classical dance from of Uttar Pradesh. The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in ancient northern Ind ...

Master Pandit

Chitresh Das Chitresh Das (Devanagari: ) (9 November 1944 – 4 January 2015) was a classical dancer of the North Indian style of Kathak. Born in Calcutta, Das was a performer, choreographer, composer and educator. He was instrumental in bringing Kathak to ...

, and after Das died he danced with his Kathak disciple

Seema Mehta Seema Kaushik Mehta (born c.1976) is an Indian Kathak expert and designer of jewellery. She received the Nari Shakti Puraskar award for her dancing advocacy in 2019 after working with under-privileged children in Mumbai. Life She was born in a ...

. Kathak and tap dancing both use the feet with the major difference being footwear as Kathak is done bare foot. He founded the tap company A.C.G.I. (Anybody Can Get It) as well as JaJa Productions band featuring original jazz-influenced hip hop music, with appearances throughout the United States. He designed his own line of

Bloch Bloch is a surname of German origin. Notable people with this surname include: A–F * (1859-1914), French rabbi *Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925), Austrian entrepreneur *Albert Bloch (1882–1961), American painter * (born 1972), German motor journal ...

shoes in partnership with that company.

References

External links

Archival footage of Jason Samuels Smith performing in ''Midnight Sun'' in 2009 at Jacob's Pillow

Debbie Allen Dance Academy

Angeles Tap Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuels Smith, Jason 1980 births Living people African-American choreographers African-American male actors African-American male dancers American choreographers American male dancers American male film actors American male musical theatre actors American male stage actors American tap dancers Musicians from New York City