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 (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

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 television, 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 Worksh ...

'', 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 ''Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk'' is a musical that debuted Off-Broadway at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater in 1995 and moved to Broadway in 1996. The show was conceived and directed by George C. Wolfe, and featured music ...

''.

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 television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

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 Foss ...

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, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

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 List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

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 Outkast (sometimes written as OutKast) was an American hip-hop duo formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992, consisting of Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André 3000 (André Benjamin, formerly known as Dré). Widely regarded as one of the greatest an ...

's feature film ''Idlewild''.

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

has featured his dancing in several productions including the

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

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, actor, comedian, dancer, and musician. At age two, Davis began his career in Vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the Will Mastin Trio, which t ...

), 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 Rhythm and blues, R&B singer and actress. She has been referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godmother of Soul". LaBelle began ...

Arturo Sandoval Arturo Sandoval (born November 6, 1949) is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist, timbalero, and composer. While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 ...

, 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. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...

, 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, and the New York City Center 55th Street Theater) is a performing arts c ...

* ''Sadler's Wells Sampled'' at

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a London performing arts venue, located in Rosebery Avenue, Islington. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site. Sadler's Wells grew out of a late 17th-century pleasure garden and was opened as a theatre buil ...

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 area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

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 singer and actress. 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 ...

* ''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 o ...

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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

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'' is one of the eight major forms of Classical Indian dance, Indian classical dance. Its origin is attributed to the traveling bards in ancient northern India known as ''Kathakar'' ("storyteller"), who communicated stories from the ...

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. 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 Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...

, 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 *Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881–1925), Austrian entrepreneur *Albert Bloch (1882–1961), American painter *Alexandre Bloch (1857–1919), French painter *Alfred Bloch ( ...

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 Shoe designers