About STEPOLOGY
STEPOLOGY was founded and incorporated in 2003 by Director John Kloss in response to the continued need for the preservation and promotion of the American art form known as tap dance.  The organization’s mission is to enhance the understanding and appreciation of tap, and STEPOLOGY’s multi-faceted approach to fulfilling this mission includes concert performances, school assembly performances, lecture/demonstrations, instruction, a scholarship program, a newsletter, and archival and preservation efforts.  STEPOLOGY began as a California nonprofit corporation, and in 2009 a second chapter of STEPOLOGY was incorporated in the state of New Mexico.  STEPOLOGY enjoys tax exempt status under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code as an organization described in section 501(c)(3).

Through its annual Bay Area Tap Festival, Santa Fe Tap Festival, and other activities, STEPOLOGY has been credited with bringing to audiences important local, national and international tap talent.  Festival artists have appeared on Broadway in productions such as Riverdance and Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, in films (TAP! and Tap Heat), television (The Lawrence Welk Show), and on concert stages around the world.  In 2005, tap artist Sam Weber received an Isadora Duncan Award nomination for outstanding individual performance for his appearance at the 2004 Bay Area Tap Festival concert performance, and STEPOLOGY's annual Bay Area Rhythm Exchange concert performance has earned multiple listings in the San Francisco Chronicle's "Top Ten Dance Performances of the Year".  STEPOLOGY has also received repeat "Access to Artistic Excellence" awards from the the National Endowment for the Arts -- first for the Bay Area Tap Festival, and now for both the Bay Area and Santa Fe Tap Festivals.  In 2010, STEPOLOGY began partnering with Santa Fe's Lensic Performing Arts Center and the New Mexico Jazz Festival to present "Tap On! -- the 2010 Santa Fe Rhythm Exchange".  A concert performance component of STEPOLOGY's Santa Fe Tap Festival, "Tap On!" debuted as part of New Mexico Jazz Festival programming at the Lensic on July 15th, 2010. 

 STEPOLOGY also produces and participates in tap and other dance related performances, workshops, and classes for various audiences and genres. For more information on how STEPOLOGY can be a part of your event, or to book "Talkin' Tap:  Sharing the Beat and Communicating Through Rhythm" for a school assembly performance, contact us at stepology@yahoo.com.

 

About John Kloss (Founder/Director)
John Kloss established the nonprofit STEPOLOGY, San Francisco’s Bay Area Tap Festival, and the Santa Fe Tap Festival.  In his roles as founder, director, and performing artist for both Festivals and their concert performance components, John’s efforts have led to programming which has earned multiple listings in the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Top Ten Dance Performances of the Year”, earned repeat “Access to Artistic Excellence” awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, and been described by the San Francisco Bay Times as invoking “…an appreciation of tap’s history while inspiring an excitement for tap’s present and future.”

John started to tap inspired by early performances of tap on film, and gained his first training in Chicago with many of tap’s masters.  John has appeared in the short film Tap Heat, as an ensemble member and soloist with Jazz Tap Ensemble and Especially Tap Chicago, as a founding member of the tap duo The Swift Brothers, and in festival productions such as the St. Louis Tap Festival, the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, and the Maui Tap Experience.  John has also been a featured performer at San Francisco 's Bay Area Dance Awards.

Inspired also by the many incredibly gifted performing artists and variety of styles in tap, John’s interests have led to a performing resume that includes a notable list of tap artists and work in a wide range of settings.  He has performed in concert ensemble choreography of Gregory Hines and Jimmy Slyde, in film choreography by Danny Daniels and Jason Samuels-Smith, with Samuels-Smith in early incarnations of the group ACGI (“Anybody Can Get It”), and in numerous events alongside many of today’s top tap artists.  John has also appeared in festival and other events honoring such luminaries as the Nicholas Brothers, Four Step Brothers Maceo Anderson and Prince Spencer, Peg Leg Bates, Arthur Duncan, and Michael Jackson, and at national conferences of corporations such as Wal-Mart and AT&T.

In addition to his work as a performing artist, John holds a law degree from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, and was admitted to the Illinois Bar.  John has served as a panelist for the San Francisco Arts Commission, and has been named a California Master Artist by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts.  John has also served on faculty at the ODC Dance Commons, City Dance Center, and San Francisco Dance Center, as well as Moving People Dance, NDI-NM, and College of Santa Fe in New Mexico.



“But there was virtuosity on display, too, in all its varied forms. Tap dancer John Kloss stamped a bass-like thud on a carpeted side stage, then clacked ever so delicately, like a typewriter.”
— Rachel Howard, the San Francisco Chronicle

“His dance is pure and pristine: no story, no score – just a man and his taps, a perfect fusion of sight and sound.”
— Rita Felciano, the San Francisco Bay Guardian

(L - R) KGO-7 TV's Don Sanchez looks on during an interview and impromptu street jam with 2005 Bay Area Tap Festival artists Sam Weber,  STEPOLOGY  Director John Kloss,  and Edward Jackson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Merchandise
To help support its mission, STEPOLOGY offers its own STEPOLOGY dancewear and other merchandise, which is available for purchase at www.cafepress.com/stepology.

You may also find other tap and dance related merchandise at a great site called Tap Wonderland.