Back in January, tap dancer and choreographer Kaleena Miller posted a short video on her Instagram page. Miller, now 33, appears as a 7-year-old in the clip. And she's dressed as a monkey, tap dancing away with another little girl alongside Twin Cities choreographer Karla Grotting. With her enormous monkey ears, tail and little red suspenders, Miller the adorable grade schooler exudes precocious talent.
As a kid in Anoka, Miller was an aspiring dancer who soaked up the 1990s Twin Cities dance scene, dazzled by companies such as Danny Buraczeski's Jazzdance and the all-male tap troupe Ten Foot Five. She recalled watching Grotting, her very first dance teacher, perform bold works by Minnesota choreographer Joe Chvala. "As a kid I was like, Oh my gosh. That is tap dance? That's amazing."
Influenced by these unorthodox movers, Miller grew into something of a tap-dancing rebel, intent on experimentation and often performing as the only woman in male-dominated ensembles. As a high schooler, she brought her quest to top Twin Cities teachers including Grotting and Char Weiss before studying dance at the University of Minnesota.
And now she's emerging as a visionary and artistic leader in her own right.
Miller co-founded Rhythmic Circus with Ricci Milan and Nick Bowman in 2007, a year after earning a bachelor's degree. All three were dancers with Buckets and Tap Shoes, a percussive dance troupe known for drumming on 5-gallon pails (Miller was the company's sole woman dancer). But Miller and her friends longed to strike out on their own. Their debut Rhythmic Circus show featured exuberant tapping, cheeky costumes and a live seven-piece brass band. It quickly became a touring sensation with engagements all over the world, from Scotland to China.
As if the globe-trotting schedule weren't enough, Miller then co-founded the big-hearted Twin Cities Tap Festival with Brenna Brelie in 2015. And in her spare time, she slowly started building her own dance company, a creative outlet for untangling weighty topics not usually explored in dance. Eventually, Miller found herself wanting to direct more energy to these newer pursuits. So she took a giant step and left Rhythmic Circus in April.
She explains her reasoning this way: "I no longer wanted the Tap Fest or my work to be my side project. I wanted them to be my focus."
Her decision paid off. For one thing, it gave her the head space and time to make a leap with choreography, presenting her first evening-length work for the first time in June. The show featured a strikingly minimalist aesthetic, with tap dancers acting almost as instrumentalists, creating their own score.