Tony Waag is currently the Artistic/Executive Director of the American Tap Dance Foundation (formerly known as the American Tap Dance Orchestra) which he founded in 1986, along with Brenda Bufalino and the late Charles "Honi" Coles.
From 1989-1995, he co-created and operated, with Ms. Bufalino, Woodpeckers Tap Dance Center which became a model for numerous tap organizations and tap studios worldwide creating, producing, and presenting various educational programs for adults and children year-round, as well as annual winter tap intensives with master classes, courses and workshops taught by leading International artists and master tap dancers.
In 2001, he renamed the organization the American Tap Dance Foundation and created Tap City, a tap feast with premiere performances of all styles of tap by artists from around the world, and features an extensive training program for adults, teens and children, city wide events, tap jams, student showcases, panel discussions, lectures and film screenings. The festival assures the Big Apple's position as the tap center of the world, a dream that Tony shared with the late Gregory Hines, an active and influential board member from the organization's inception.
As a performer and choreographer, he has been featured in hundreds of concert productions at the Apollo Theater, the Joyce Theater, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, the legendary Cotton Club, Avery Fisher Hall, the Walter Reade Theater, LaMama E.T.C., Town Hall, the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Theater, Symphony Space, the United Nations, the Atlanta Arts Festival, the Utah Arts Festival, the Colorado Dance Festival, and the Lincoln Center "Out-of-Doors" Festival.
In 2000, he performed to sold out audiences in “Hoagy Carmichael’s Centennial Celebration Tour!” As master of ceremonies, and backed by a 14 piece orchestra, the show toured 50 cities across the country.
Tony has also been featured on television in the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, Tap Dance in America, PBS "Great Performances", the Regis & Kathie Lee Show, WNEW TV'S P.M. Magazine, Good Day New York, Entertainment Tonight, a national Seagram's commercial, and in a French car commercial for Renault in Paris.
International appearances include USIA tours of Turkey, Poland, Cyprus, Latvia and Estonia, the Bermuda Arts Festival, tours of Germany and Italy with Brenda Bufalino, the International Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, Encontro 99 in Rio de Janiero, the Campinas Tap Festival, Brazil, the 9th Annual Nit de Claque Festival in Spain, the Vancouver International Tap Festival, recent tours of Armenia and Romania with his Tap City on Tour production and other solo appearances in Singapore, and Moscow.
Mr. Waag has received numerous grants towards the presentation and preservation of tap dance as a unique American art form. In 2002, he created the first International Tap Dance Hall of Fame honoring the contributions of legendary tap dancers by preserving their legacies for future generations to enjoy. He also created the annual Tap Preservation and Hoofer Awards, the Gregory Hines Youth Scholarship Fund, and the Gregory Hines Collection of American Tap Dance Archives which are now housed at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
In 2009, he created and staged the touring production of “Thank You Gregory”, a tribute to the Legends of Tap Dance which can be seen in theaters across the country.
In January of 2010, he opened the American Tap Dance Center in New York City where he currently directs on-going education and training programs for tappers of all ages and levels.
For more information on Tony and the American Tap Dance Foundation visit: www.atdf.org