Nicholas Young is an award-winning artist, choreographer, dancer, musician, educator, and creative

technologist whose work explores the intersections of rhythm, movement, sound, improvisation, and

technology. A recipient of the 2014 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award, Young began his

professional career at age 16 with Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, Texas, under the direction of Acia

Gray and Deirdre Strand. He became a Principal Dancer and Resident Choreographer with the company and

was recognized by the Austin Critics Council with awards for Best Male Dancer and Best Choreography.

After moving to New York City, Young spent nearly a decade with STOMP, performing multiple roles,

including the lead, and serving as Rehearsal Director for the North and South American Tour.

Young went on to become a longtime member of Dorrance Dance and later served as Associate Artistic

Director. Working alongside Michelle Dorrance and the company’s exceptional community of dancers,

musicians, and collaborators, he contributed to more than a decade of the company’s artistic development,

performance, touring, and creative work. His work with the company has spanned performance,

choreography, composition, sound design, improvisation, and the development of new technologies for

rhythmic performance.

Among these projects are SOUNDspace, ETM: The Initial Approach, ETM: Double Down, The Guggenheim

Rotunda Project, Elemental, and Ways to Now. Young co-created ETM: Double Down with Michelle

Dorrance, developing original electronic tap instruments that allowed dancers to trigger, manipulate, layer,

and compose music through movement in real time. His original choreographic works for the company

include Elastic Time, premiered at The Joyce Theater, and Untitled Waveforms, premiered at Jacob’s Pillow.

Young and Dorrance continue to work together as artists and collaborators.

Young’s work has been presented at Jacob’s Pillow, Sadler’s Wells, BAM, The Joyce Theater, New York City

Center, the Guggenheim Museum, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and at festivals and venues throughout

North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond.

Teaching has remained central to Young’s artistic practice throughout his career. An internationally

sought-after teacher of tap dance, body percussion, improvisation, and rhythmic composition, he has taught

and performed at festivals including Tap City, Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Soul to Sole, Stockholm Tap

Festival, Monterey, festivals in Finland, Düsseldorf and Hong Kong, the International Body Music Festival,

and many others. He has also served on the faculties of Steps on Broadway, Broadway Dance Center, 92NY,

and the American Tap Dance Foundation.

As a musician, Young has performed and toured with Cyro Baptista’s Beat the Donkey, as drummer for

Darwin Deez, and as a musician with Dorrance Dance. He appeared in the Amazon film Música and created

electronic music scores for the documentaries Tap or Die and Aces and Knaves.

Young is the Co-Founder of Rhythmic Arts Center NYC (RAC) and serves as Co-Artistic Director alongside

Melissa Wu. Located in the heart of El Barrio/East Harlem, RAC is a gathering place for dancers, musicians, teachers, emerging

artists, and neighbors - a creative sanctuary devoted to rhythm as both an artistic practice and a shared

human language. Now entering its second year, representing the realization of a vision Young has carried for nearly two decades: a dedicated home where tap dance and the rhythmic arts can live alongside music, improvisation, education, technology, wellness, and community.