ABOUT US
Guillem Alonso (Director)
Guillem Alonso (Barcelona) put on his first tap shoes at the age of 7 and has not stopped dancing ever since. At the age of seventeen, he moved to New York to expand his knowledge and learn directly from hoofers and tap masters, such as Brenda Buffalino, Barbara Duffy and Savion Glober, among others. From the age of twenty to twenty-five, he makes a living working for the most important companies of the moment: the American Tap Dance Orchestra and the Manhattahn Tap.
His return to Barcelona nourishes the Barcelona tap scene: he imports from New York the technique, the standard choreographies and the tap jams; the level of tap in the city grows, there are dancers who want to dedicate themselves to it and they start to form professional companies. Guillem Alonso has been, as a teacher and organizer, the driving force behind a new generation of tap dancers in Barcelona. He is also one of the few dancers in the world to practice the Sand Dance, with which he has gained international recognition. Guillem Alonso is currently the Director and Professor of dance department at Escola Luthier. He is also a member of Tap Olé, Camut Band and Boogie Woogie Tap, and teaches at various tap festivals around the world.
THE SCHOOL
Escola Luthier de Música was founded in 1979 by guitarist Alícia Alcalay, a graduate from the Conservatori Superior Municipal de Música de Barcelona. In 2011 Ms. Alcalay and her son Guillem Alonso, tap dancer and choreographer, opened the Dance department at Escola Luthier at the ground floor of the same building.
This dance school has the aim to become a high quality dance center specialized in tap dance. For this reason, in 2012 we start our Professional Tap Program, an intensive training for intermediate and advanced tap dancers from all nationalities.
We also teach the following classes with the same enthusiasm: ballet, jazz-dance, contemporary dance, body percussion, flamenco, urban dances, Irish dance, Baroque dance and Music Theory for dancers.
We offer workshops, masterclasses and summer and winter intensives. We regularly invite guests teachers.
These are the guest teachers that have taught at the school:
Tap dance: Michelle Dorrance (New York), Nicholas Van Young (Newa York), Brenda Bufalino (New York), Avalon Rathgeb (London), Chris Matallo (Brasil), Susan Hebach (New York), Josh Hilberman (Belgium), Mark Mendonca (Los Angeles), Mark Yonally (Chicago), Jessie Sawyers (New York), Heather Cornell (New York), Thomas Wadelton (Australia), Andrew Nemr (New York), Jason Janas (New Jersey), Sam Weber (San Francisco), Hillary-Marie (New Jersey), Thanos Daskalopoulos (Greece), Jason Rodgers (Los Angeles), Sarah Reich (Los Angeles), Sebastian Weber (Germany), Thomas Marek (Germany), Cartier Williams (Washington DC), Peter Hammer (Toulouse), Max Pollack (Vienna), Laurent Bortolotti (Switzerland), Steven Harper (Brasil), Kurt Albert and Klaus Bleis.
Jazz dance: Lynn Simonson (New York), Teresa Pérez Ceccon (New York), Colin Sinclair (London).
Ballet: Denzil Bailey (London), Jordi Arnau (Barcelona).
Baroque dance: Nick Nguyen (Paris), Bruna Gondoni (Firenze), Mª José Ruiz Mayordomo (Madrid).
We are an active part of the city’s tap community and we want to transmit our passion for dance, especially tap dancing.
