Jason Janas: soaring with his taps through Tapestry Dance.(On the Rise)(Tapestry Dance Company )(Biography)

When tapper Jason Janas takes center stage for an improv, his florescent green shoes tip-toe around before breaking into a storm of sound. With his long, loose ankles and intense attack, Janas, 25, blends cool classicism with hard-hitting, hip hop aggression--no surprise from someone who names tappers as diverse as Dianne Walker and Savion Glover as influences.

Now a member of Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, Texas, Janas caught the critics' eye this past summer in Derick Grant's Imagine Tap, a celebration of the art form's cutting edge that drew enraptured audiences during its brief Chicago run last summer. The show's 16-member cast put talented newcomers like Janas and Joseph Wiggan (see "All in the Family," July, 2005) alongside some of tap's biggest names, like Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Jason Samuels Smith.

The show's choreographer and an original member of Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, Grant created Imagine Tap in part to challenge young dancers like Janas. "A lot of people are concerned with being the best dancer they can as an individual," says Grant. "Today a huge part of being a tap dancer has to do with improvisation and being a soloist, so the idea of being part of an ensemble is a little strange. For a lot of the cast, learning to be about the group was new."

Janas describes the experience as "being on an Olympic tap team." Growing up in tap, Janas did not always feel part of a group. As a kid living in a New Jersey suburb--his father is an engineer, his mother, who was his first tap teacher, auditioned for the Rockettes--he eventually performed with the New Jersey Tap Ensemble. But just before he started high school, his family relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, where there were neither tap teachers nor a company.

After months of three-hour drives every Saturday to Chapel Hill for classes and rehearsals, Janas tired of commuting and spent his high school years teaching himself. Memories of feeling cut off from the ...