Biography
As a modern hoofer, Nikolai Kemeny unites the worlds of rhythm and movement.
He studied with international tap dance masters, including Andreas Dänel, Daniel Luka, Sebastian Weber, Sarah Petronio, Max Pollak, and Roxane Butterfly.
As a choreographer, and soloist, he regularly produces and performs concerts, shows, and films. He has performed Duke Ellington’s First Concert Of Sacred Music several times. In addition, he tours internationally with Andrea Alvergue and their collaborative jazz tap concert series, Blue Taps. Nikolai is a founding member of the Sebastian Weber Dance Company and can also be seen in productions such as Daniel Luka’s RESONANCE in collaboration with the audiovisual arts collective Xenorama.
In 2020 Nikolai produced his first short film DISTORTION - A three-part jazz tap video concert series, each with a different musical composition. In 2022 the project LAZARUS was released. A visual tap dance album, for which Nikolai recorded his tap dance with greats such as Markus Stockhausen. As a visual album, he produced a 40-minute dance film with the Leipzig film collective verflimmert, in which documentary footage blends with enchanting choreographies of international dancers. LAZARUS is screening at international film festivals and has won awards such as BEST DANCE FILM and BEST JAZZ MUSIC VIDEO. In 2023 it will be shown in art house cinemas.
In January 2023, Nikolai premiered his newest stage production COSMIC TAP, representing the symbiosis between improvised percussive dance and intuitive music.
Nikolai teaches dance and music workshops worldwide and choreographs projects at dance institutes, academies, theaters, and music schools, for example, tanzhaus nrw, footprints studio Hamburg, Blue Tap in Berlin, THE FLOOR in Leipzig, Musikschule Rosenheim, Claquetap Dance Studio in Madrid, CC Danza in San Pedro Sula, Honduras and even appeared at the Lima ZAP Festival in Peru.
Passionately and dedicated as an artist, he inspires jazz and tap dance enthusiasts worldwide with his innovative, modern style of this unique art form.
Projects
LAZARUS
The visual-tap-dance-album refines jazz and tap symbiosis. The collaborations with eminent musicians provide a mesmerizing audio-visual fusion of the roots and visions of tap dance.
In the award-winning film accompanying the album, documentary footage blends with enchanting performances by international dancers.
COSMIC TAP
In improvisation, this piece creates an interstellar communication between dance and music. From a first movement, a first sound, a visually experienceable musical structure arises, directly related to this moment.
With percussive dancer Andrea Alvergue, and the genre-dissolving intuitive wind instrumentalists Dorit Schäffler and Markus Stockhausen.
TAP DANCE ON(FILM)
A daring film-scientific examination of the history of tap dance on the big screen.
This experimental short film explores the cinematic development possibilities of Tap.
DISTORTION
This three-part jazz, tap dance video concert series creates an energetic, musically powerful confrontation with the psychological effects of isolation and the social upheavals in the wake of the pandemic.
BLUE TAPS
An extraordinary concert experience with two tap dancers and a Jazz trio presenting a fine repertoire of Jazz, Swing, Bebop, and Afro Latin Standards and Improvisations.
