STAR
DIXON
PRESENTING
OTT TIMES
Every encounter you have with Star Dixon is a memorable one. She stands confidently and humbly in her space, her eyes and mind taking in her surroundings with eagerness. Starr moves with the confidence of a person who knows where she came from; she communicates with a deep understanding of the history she represents and yet carries that mantle with ease. Simply, a person who is doing what she was born to do. Star Dixon embodies her message.
Starinah Dixon is from the south side of Chicago. Her stories and childhood center on the influence of her Grandma and brother Brill. Her older brother, Brill is a professional tap dancer, educator, and community activist. Starr grew up being heavily influenced by Brill’s desire to develop his community through education, participation, community, and mentorship.
She speaks about her brother challenging her with rhythms and pushing her to make every step mean something. Star did not even get her first pair of tap shoes and enter a tap class until she was eight years old! Prior to her brother was her tap teacher. Brill would teach her and challenge her to create steps and music everywhere they went. The grocery store, the bus stop, the kitchen all became a stage…tap dancing was a language & sort of communication for Star long before she claimed her voice in it.
Star will tell you that she had a “regular life” but her stories give off the scent of something more. She educates on the history of tap dance and music with a young person's perspective on making the information relevant to today. For Star, the stories of triumph over inequality are just as real today. The problems of women and the problems of black people are a part of her daily life as a musician/artist in America. She moves with an easy personality, almost unaware that her actions are making history.
How to Support the mission
When you support Tap Week, you are assisting with the OTT Mission of: “It’s so much more than dance”. When you attend a session with Star, she will fill your cup with dance, with rhythm, with history, and with love.
Why should you be apart of Tap week?
Because you want to grow!
Because you support the mission of Representation Matters!
Because you love music, dance and history!
Because you understand that and integrated experience provides for truth healing and knowledge!
Starr is an extremely talented dancer. She does African dance as well as tap dance. Expertly gifted in both genres. Her musicality and her unique rhythms are a sight to behold and experience. To see Starr tap dance is to feel tap dance. Her sounds are powerful, even when she treads lightly. Every step she takes has meaning. She is in full communication, full communion with the music and the meaning of the songs she sings.
Representation matters. To really know what that means is to experience the gap in that last sentence. Starr has had a unique upbringing in the world of tap dance. Her roots in Chicago, the success of her brother, the growth and the importance of MADD Rhythms in the community that had given her early exposure plus a combination of ingredients to inspire success and make Starr who she is today— a gifted ambassador of tap dance history. Contributing to her own history by creating new music and telling her own story with her powerful voice.
Starr has a style that stands out. Her style is a representation of her truth; there’s no way to not be captivated by her. She has a humble self confidence that resonates with many. Her legacy has yet to be written but Starr has a deep commitment to ensuring there are opportunities for the talent of tomorrow; Starr has a deep commitment to the children. She adores pouring into them when she travels, but her favorite part is to experience the growth of her students as they develop skills and the self confidence of communication through years of development.
Starr Dixon is the perfect guest speaker for Tap Week because she embodies the message of the mission in so many ways. She is history and we (by participating) get to be a part of that. You get to be part of the ensemble cast, in real time. You’ll be learning things you didn’t know you did not know, she will rhythmically fill in the gaps and have you leaving with a better understanding and appreciation of dance, life and history as it unfolds.
