faculty spotlight

Danté Lara is a California-based tap dancer, teacher, and choreographer who continues to impact the new international tap dancing scene with cutting-edge choreography of all tap sub-genres. Danté's entertaining improvisational skills have proven captivating for audiences, and he aims to bring new faces of all ages into tap dance culture. 

Danté has tap danced in every setting imaginable, from company work, on stage, television, film to living in New York City, street performing and dancing with various jazz bands and as a soloist. As a youngin’, Danté was fortunate enough to take class & even share the stage with the late Gregory Hines, Fayard Nicholas & Arthur Duncan on multiple occasions, to name a few. As an original alumnus and later teacher at the LA Tap festival since 2003, Danté has performed repertoire from hoofers like Harold Cromer, and Leonard Reed (the creator of the Shim Sham) and studied extensively with Chloé Arnold, Jason Samuels Smith, Alfred Desio, Steve Zee, among others, as a young tap dancer. Most recently, Danté was singing and dancing in the movie Spirited (2022) featuring Ryan Reynolds & Will Ferrell, and choreographed by Chloé Arnold. Dante has also been performing all around Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Utah with the Amanda Castro Band as a live tap dance soloist. 

Some of his acting/dancing credits include World of Dance, Holey Moley, Nintendo, The Talk, Ford, and Yamaha only to name a few. Danté is a popular tap festival instructor, having taught around the United States, including the DC Tap Fest (the largest tap festival in the USA!), and the Hollywood Tap Fest; and around the world, including Italy, Brazil and Ireland numerous times. Dante is a proud ambassador for @omarasprungfloors. 

www dantelara.net