Kaleena Miller

Since 2015, she has been director of Kaleena Miller Dance, an umbrella that includes her choreographies, as well as two companies: KMD Work Group – an apprentice company and independent study group, and KMD2 – a pre-professional ensemble. She is also co-founder and co-director of Twin Cities Tap, which produced the acclaimed Twin Cities Tap Festival from 2015-2021.

She was named one of DANCE Magazine‘s 25 to Watch, received a McKnight Dancer Fellowship and a Sage Award, was a finalist for the Jerome Hill Fellowship and has held residencies at Air le Parc (France), American Tap Dance Foundation (NYC), Southern Theater (Minneapolis), and Everwood Farmstead Foundation (WI). Her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, American Swedish Institute, Icehouse, First Avenue, Jazz Central, Bryant Lake Bowl and the State Theater in Minneapolis, and at Arts on Site and Symphony Space in New York.

Kaleena has performed in tap dance works by Roxane Butterfly, Joe Chvala, Heather Cornell, Michelle Dorrance, Derick Grant, and Jumaane Taylor, was a founding member and performer with Rhythmic Circus – including performances at the Edinburgh Fringe, Kennedy Center, New Victory Theater and on America’s Got Talent – and also was a touring performer with Buckets and Tap Shoes. Outside of tap dance, she has performed in works by Jon Ferguson/Theatre Forever, Karla Grotting, Jolene Konkel and April Sellers.

She has a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and a certification in Deep Listening from the Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Kaleena is thankful for and deeply indebted to her first teachers: Karla Grotting and Char Weiss.