Germaine has been an influential tap dance teacher in New York City for over 25 years, serving on the faculty of Broadway Dance Center and Steps Studio, where she has taught a complete program of basic to intermediate levels. Her students include cast members from Broadway & Off-Broadway shows, National tours, the Rockettes, tap companies, as well as people who “just love to tap”.

In addition she has taught tap for Musical Theatre Majors at New York University’s School of Education, New York University’s Musical Theatre students at Cap 21, Broadway Theater Dance Workshop in Santa Fe NM, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. She has taught for almost every major Dance Organization in the USA, as well as workshops for private organizations and schools in Europe and Canada. She is very proud to have received the Tap Legacy Award from Third Rhythm Project in San Antonio Texas in July 2010.

Germaine’s extensive background in modern dance has infused her approach to tap dance. She is extremely physically oriented, and she stresses the connection between rhythm and physicality in her classes.

She has privately coached stars from the New York City Ballet and many actors & actresses including Liza Minnelli for the movie “Steppin Out” and the young boys for the Broadway and National Tour of Tap Dance Kid. As assistant to Tony Award Winner Danny Daniels, she helped train the boys for the Broadway and National tours of “Tap Dance Kid”.

Germaine has choreographed and received rave reviews for productions of “George M!” (1993, 2005, and 2007), a 1996 production of “42nd ST, a 1998 production of “Anything Goes”, and “Crazy For You” (2001) and Dames At Sea (2002) at the Muhlenberg Summer Theater in Pennsylvania. Germaine has performed in Edmonton’s Fringe Festival (2000) with an hour-long tap show called Toe Jamm, at the New York City Tap Festival/Tap City, in the New York International Dance Festival at the Duke Theater, with Jazz Tap Center on tour, and recently with her group Les Femmes Plus.

Germaine and her husband, Artis Barry Smith (a modern dancer formerly of the Martha Graham company ) have produced concerts at the Riverside Dance festival, DTW’s Bessie Schoenberg Theater, New York University, Brooklyn College and for various school programs including Lincoln Center’s Meet-the-Artist and Hospital Audiences. They have performed together in Canada and Europe, created and performed in a very successful show entitled “Not Fade Away: dancing Over 40” which was premiered in New York in 1996, and performed since in Pennsylvania and New York, Tempus Fugit (2010) at Brooklyn College, and DanceSpeak (2011) also at Brooklyn College.

Germaine has also worked with fibre for years, knitting and selling one of a kind garments, handspinning and dying yarn, weaving, and generally taking delight in colour and texture. See her projects page for recent projects.

“Germaine is a wonderful teacher. She is filled with imagination and great fun to work with. I enjoy every minute I spend with her in a dance studio.” Liza Minnelli