This weekend the Jennifer’s Jazz It Up dance studio welcomes top choreographer Jay T Schramek to Port Hope. Jay T will be providing his expert choreography and talent and working with the JJIU competition performance team for this seasons Tap and Jazz dances.
Jay is a Dora Mavor Moore Award nominated performer, educator and adjudicator. His twenty year teaching career spans Canada’s most prestigious post-secondary arts institutions and dozens of dance studios. A graduate of Ryerson University’s dance program and a former Mr. Dance of Canada, he has been a faculty member at the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts, George Brown College and Saint Lawrence College. Jay has been a guest teacher at: Sheridan College, Etobicoke School of the Arts, Pearson School for the Arts, the Eastern Arkansas Ballet, Duboforce Mexico and the Charlottetown Festival Young Company. He is currently the Tap Director at Dimensions in Dance in Kitchener.
His professional choreographic credits include: Singin In the Rain (Rubarb, Drayton), The Fan (Odyssey Theatre), The Time of My Life (Soulpepper), The Haunted Hillbilly(Sidemart Theatrical), Little Shop of Horrors (Magnus Theatre) & Dads II (Magnus Theatre).
As a performer, he continues to work in theatres across the continent. He has performed for The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Mirvish Productions, Capitol Theatre, Charlottetown Festival, Stage West, Drayton Entertainment, Clearchannel Entertainment and dozens more. Some of his favourite roles include: Lumiere in Beauty & The Beast, Cosmo in Singin in the Rain, Bobby in Crazy for You, Skimbleshanks in Cats, Nana in Peter Pan, Pepper in Mamma Mia, Jimmy in White Christmas, Ethan in The Full Monty, Jinx in Forever Plaid, Cecil in Anne of Green Gables, Batboy in Batboy the Musical, Action in West Side Story, Barnaby in Hello Dolly.
Jay is one of North America’s most prolific talent adjudicators and has judged and hosted over 100 talent competitions, pageants and festivals across the globe. He is a member and contributor to the Professional Adjudicator Alliance manual, has written articles for The Agent’s Book and had a column in Dance Canada Quarterly. Jay is a recipient of a Tyrone Guthrie Award and a Maud Whitmore Scholarship.
