Josh's Tapping History

A highly pedigreed performer who has appeared alongside most every hoofer of note, Joshua Hilberman received the 2005 National College Choreography Initiative award from the National Endowment for the Arts/Dance USA. In May, 2006 he received the “Premi Claqueta,” Barcelona’s International Tap Day Award, in recognition of his

decade of contributions to tap in Catalunya.
Hilberman has been a featured soloist at New York's Lincoln Center and in jazz festivals from Australia to Barcelona and all over New England; was a principal dancer for three years in Manhattan Tap and has performed in Brenda Bufalino’s Other Tap Dance Orchestra; teaches and performs at tap festivals including Tap City (NYC), Finland's Feet Beat, Vancouver, Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, and annually at The North Carolina Rhythm Tap Festival and The Portsmouth Percussive Dance Festival.

Josh collaborated on “Clara’s Dream: A Jazz Nutcracker,” celebrating six seasons as the Jazz Nut. He is also a collaborator in Thomas Marek’s “About Tap,” multi-media portraits of tap dancers, which plays for a third season in 2007 in Germany’s prestigious modern dance center, Kampnagel.
In addition to a choreographic residency with the Canadian company Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Hilberman has set works on groups in Germany, Holland, and Spain, and on four nationally recognized youth ensembles: The North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, Washington DC's Tappers with Attitude, the Jefferson Dancers (OR), and The Legacy Dancers(MA).

Josh developed his teaching chops at the prestigious Leon Collins Dance Studio, and has been a faculty member at Roger Williams and Mount Holyoke Universities as well as the Boston Conservatory of Music and Dance. Currently, Hilberman freelances internationally.
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“An avant-garde tap dancer challenging conventional performance ideas while wearing very little in Dusseldorf. A new-vaudevillian in a bright pink tuxedo, jumping around on small drums. An award-winning choreographer working with dancers at Wayne State University in Detroit. And the traditional ukulele-strumming, kazoo-playing, tap-dancing one-man band. All are incarnations of Chapel Hill native and current Boston resident Josh Hilberman, who, said the late great Gregory Hines, is “one of the best of the new generations of tap dancers.”
The Chapel Hill Herald, June 10, 2005

“Unfortunately, too little was seen of Josh Hilberman. His part consisted of a brilliant, comical performance including an over-the-top turquoise suit, a ukulele and a duck whistle.”
Helsinki Sanomat, August 5, 2005

“The Hilbermaniacs are world-class, sparkling throughout. Josh Hilberman, showmaster of the evening, and one of the best dancers in the world, was also the first-class Jumping-Jack of the evening.”
Nurnberger Zeitung, January 23, 2006

“The young, savage Josh Hilberman from Boston discovers grotesque, nearly expressionistic sides.”
DIE WELT , Hamburg, February 10, 2006