Becky Hill

About the Artist

Becky Hill is a sought-after percussive dancer, Appalachian square dance caller, choreographer, and educator. Becky has worked with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, Rhythm in Shoes, Good Foot Dance Company, and studied with an array of percussive dance luminaries. Her choreography has been featured at Wheatland Music Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, and the Kennedy Center among others. She performs regularly with Big Family Business, Jesse Milnes, Roxy King, and Ben Nelson. She was a 2018 OneBeat Fellow and a 2024 Balkans OneBeat Fellow, and has been an Artist-in-Residence at Strathmore, John C.Campbell Folk School, Loghaven, and Hambidge Center for the Arts and Sciences. She earned her MFA in Dance at University of Maryland College Park in 2022. As an avid organizer and teacher, Becky’s work is deeply rooted in the connections between music and community. She believes there is always more to learn and is dedicated to creative innovative choreography tethered to traditional music and dance. Learn more at www.rebeccahill.org.

Artist's Statement

The size of collective can vary from a duet with one musician and one percussive dancer, to a larger ensemble that could feature up to six artists: three musicians and three percussive dancers. The core of the collective are Jesse Milnes, Becky Hill, Roxy King, and Ben Nelson. Nelson and Milnes are second generation old-time musicians from Appalachia, where they grew up attending old-time music festivals with their families and started playing music at a young age. Jesse Milnes is the son of renowned West Virginia folklorist, Gerry Milnes, therefore he spent his summers attending workshops at Augusta Heritage Center and studying with John Cephas, Melvin Wine, Ernie Carpenter, and numerous others. Ben Nelson is an in-demand educator who has taught at Augusta Heritage Center, Swannanoa Gathering, and numerous others traditional folk and music camps. Becky Hill grew up working with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, Rhythm in Shoes, and Good Foot Dance Company; received her MFA in Dance from University of Maryland in 2022; was OneBeat Fellow in 2018, a OneBeat Balkans Fellow in 2024, a cultural diplomacy program funded by the U.S. State Department, and teaches dance throughout the country. Roxy King, is a renowned tap dancer who performs with Music from the Sole, Michela Lerman, and Michelle Dorrance, and teaches tap in the Washington D.C. area. This ensemble has toured nationally and internationally in many different projects and are eager to tour in this configuration.  Performing our repertoire  presents the ways in which tap and flatfooting, jazz and old-time, share the same musical origins. As music journalist, Justin Hiltner states, "American music and dance have always gone hand-in-hand. Immigrant bringing their folk traditions, art, and music to North America, combined and cross pollinated with, stole and borrowed art and music from Native American, enslaved Africans, and African Americans. In that beautiful, conflicted, human melting pot way we arrived at the incredible roots genres of our modern times." This project presents the "conflicted human melting pot" from a place of radical joy, celebrating the ways in which vernacular music and dance traditions are interconnected. In an era where Beyoncé is releasing a country album, we need to celebrate the interracial music and dance repertoire that was born in the United States, and this collective does just that.