a music and movement collective.
featuring movement/sound artists Carmelle Cachero, Carolyn Hebert, Jordan Samonas and musician/sound artist Matt Edwards.
About Yow City Tap
Our Mission
History, legacy and community are integral to our work. We recognize and acknowledge that our collective voice is informed through the many voices, rhythms and approaches of those who came before us.
Our History
Founded in 2020, YOWCity Tap is an Anishnabe-Algonquin-based collective that has been in working in creation process for 5 years building our legacy and capacity while also navigating living and working as parents and parents-to-be. We are multi-award winning grant recipients from the Ontario Arts Council.
Our Collective
Each of us at YOWCity Tap has a foot in a different world, whether it be production and presentation, accessible-art making, contemporary, kizomba/African or Filipino cultural dance. We dance/play who we are. We teach each other the steps, time signatures and customs of our own various music, movement and artmaking practices. We then play with ways to bring these modalities together in the co-creation of something uniquely reflective of who we are as artists.
Meet the Team
Carmelle Cachero
Carmelle Cachero
Carmelle Cachero
Carmelle Cachero (she/her) has lived her entire life in the arts world and tells her story through rhythm. Carmelle is a 2022 ThisGen Producing Fellow (NAC, Why Not Theatre) alongside mentor Michelle Dorrance/Dorrance Dance. Her passion for Philippine dance, rhythm tap and body percussion is a driving force to her pursuits (Vancouver Tap
Carmelle Cachero (she/her) has lived her entire life in the arts world and tells her story through rhythm. Carmelle is a 2022 ThisGen Producing Fellow (NAC, Why Not Theatre) alongside mentor Michelle Dorrance/Dorrance Dance. Her passion for Philippine dance, rhythm tap and body percussion is a driving force to her pursuits (Vancouver Tap Dance Society, The Urban Tap Squad, West Coast Tap Dance Collective, Ottawa Rhythm Initiative Ensemble, YOWCity Tap, Philippine Dance Troupe of Ottawa, Tadhana ng Kapwa Ottawa). Carmelle is also one of the country’s most sought after Sign Language Interpreters and has interpreted hundreds of theatre, performing arts events and concerts across Canada.
Carolyn Hebert
Carmelle Cachero
Carmelle Cachero
Carolyn Hebert (she/her) has over 25 years’ experience studying, choreographing, and teaching
tap dance and was voted Ottawa’s Favourite
Dance Instructor (Faces Awards, 2020). Her PhD research in
the faculty of education at the University of Ottawa “Relational Flow in Improvisational Tap Dancing: A Phenomenological Inquiry” (2023) inquires
Carolyn Hebert (she/her) has over 25 years’ experience studying, choreographing, and teaching
tap dance and was voted Ottawa’s Favourite
Dance Instructor (Faces Awards, 2020). Her PhD research in
the faculty of education at the University of Ottawa “Relational Flow in Improvisational Tap Dancing: A Phenomenological Inquiry” (2023) inquires about the experiences of
professional tap dancers in improvisation. Carolyn is an active member of the Ottawa
tap dance community as a leading member of YOWCity Tap collective, founder of Micro Movement Dance and a member of the ORI Tap Dance Ensemble,
Jordan Samonas
Carmelle Cachero
Jordan Samonas
Jordan Samonas (she/her) is a visionary and go-getter with a history in indie self-production (Speaking Vibrations, ROOTED Contemporary Dance, NORTH OF MIND with Don Ross). She is currently co-producer and lead project manager of Speaking Vibrations, lead project manager of YOWCity Tap collective and on the steering committee for the Ott
Jordan Samonas (she/her) is a visionary and go-getter with a history in indie self-production (Speaking Vibrations, ROOTED Contemporary Dance, NORTH OF MIND with Don Ross). She is currently co-producer and lead project manager of Speaking Vibrations, lead project manager of YOWCity Tap collective and on the steering committee for the Ottawa Rhythm Initiative.
A dance “chameleon” with an eclectic movement background (contemporary/modern, rhythm tap, kizomba/semba, ballet, jazz, hip hop, musical theatre), Jordan has performed for over 25+ years on stages and at festivals across Canada and internationally.
