biography
Casey Tessier is a professional tap dance artist and award-winning percussionist from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Now based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, she has devoted her life to honoring, sharing, and advancing tap dance as a percussive instrument.
Casey began studying tap in Reno, Nevada at the age of 4 with Jeanette Conkey. She continued her studies in Albuquerque with Tracy Ritter-Golson and Luke Loffelmacher with additional training in ballet, jazz, modern, flamenco, and swing dancing. As an adolescent, she performed for many years as a principal tap dancer with the Alley Kats Tap Company and was a nationally recognized jazz drummer with performance credits at the Albuquerque Jazz Festival, Stanford University, and the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy. Casey presently studies with world-renowned professionals Sarah Reich, Sam Weber, Max Pollak, and Nico Rubio.
As a member of Sarah Reich’s Tap Music Project Team, she has traveled to numerous cities throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada assisting and co-producing Sarah Reich’s Tap Music Project intensives highlighting the musicality of tap dance. In San Francisco, Casey is contracted as the tap dance understudy for Vanessa Sanchez, the Executive Artistic Director of La Mezcla: a multi-disciplinary, polyrhythmic ensemble rooted in Chicana, Latinx, and Indigenous traditions. In Oakland, she serves as a resident artist for LoRee Kenagy’s non-profit, TapIN Youth Dance Ensemble, driven by equity in arts education and social justice.
Casey holds a B.S. in Pure Mathematics and Latin from the University of New Mexico. Her unique background continuously infuses the creative direction of her debut company, Accenτap. Casey has nearly a decade of experience teaching marching percussion, is the founder and Artistic Director of Forge Independent Percussion, and is the Percussion Caption Head at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale.
Casey strives to inspire others by offering an alternative perspective in movement, expression, and performance while communicating her passion for rhythm~