Professional dancer returns home to for jazz workshop

HAMBURG - Tara Madsen, a former member of Hamburg’s Dance Expression Dance Company, returned home last week to lead a modern jazz workshop at her old studio. Madsen was a member of Dance Expression Dance from 1993 until she graduated from High Point High School in 2000. In May of 2004, she received her BA in Dance from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania where she was awarded “The Outstanding Choreographer Award” and the Lucy Isaac Sack Scholarship. She went on to earn her MFA in Performance and Choreography from Smith College in May of 2006. She was also awarded a teaching fellowship and the Gretchen K. Moran Scholarship from Smith College. Madsen is living in Philadelphia and performing professionally with the Tania Isaac Dance Company. She has presented her original choreography internationally at The 33rd International Choreographers Showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland at The Roxy House Theater as well as at the 28th International Choreographer’s Showcase in Barcelona at Mercat de les Flors-Ciutat del Teatre and in Madrid at Sala Cuarta Pared presented by Dance Forms Productions. Nationally, she has presented her work at various venues such as P.S. 122 and the Solar Powered Dance Festival 2005 and 2006 in New York, The Monterey Dance Fest in California, The Durham Arts Council in North Carolina and the American College Dance Festival Association. She is an adjunct faculty member at De Sales University in Center Valley, Pa., and in the spring of 2007 her “Breaking Ground” was commissioned for the De Sales University Dance Ensemble concert. For more information, on Dance Expression, call 973-823-9500 or visit www.DanceExpression.com. For more on Tara Madsen, visit www.TaraMadsendance.com.