Aptly named, Artis Mooney (which translates to “wealth of art”) has voraciously consumed all things artistic since she was a small child.  With an extensive foundation in performing and visual arts, she has dabbled in just about everything over the years.  As a child and teen, she was actively engaged in dance, theater, music, and visual arts.  This translated early on to a successful career in the performing arts centered on rhythm tap and music, and more recently to a burgeoning career in visual arts and photography.  Rebelling against the dictum “Jack of all trades, Master of none,” Artis has found that her various artistic endeavors inform and influence one another, and she draws strength from the diversity of her training and experiences.

As a tap dancer & percussionist, Artis has taught, performed, & choreographed throughout the United States, including extensively in New York City and Washington, DC, as well as abroad in Prague CZ and Ireland.  Performance highlights include The Duke on 42nd (Off-Broadway) and Dance Theater of Harlem in NYC, the New Jersey Jazz Festival, The U.S. Capitol 1999 4th of July Celebration with Ray Charles and the National Symphony Orchestra, and Dance Place in DC.  In New York she performed and/or choreographed with Manhattan Tap, the American Tap Dance Orchestra, The Tap Collective, and Féraba (African Rhythm Tap).  In DC, she briefly directed Nancy Newell’s DC TAPestry.  In 2000, she founded the adult/teen company dcArtistry:tap&drum, a DC area favorite, in residence under her direction at DC Dance Collective until she disbanded the company in 2004.  From 04-06, she performed locally with Project Sole, a band that was co-founded with fellow foot percussionist Donne Lewis and served as a session drummer for poets, singer-songwriters, and other musicians. Artis’ performing schedule the past couple of years has been curtailed by the birth of her second child, Phoenix. 

Artis has studied tap with most of the great masters young and old, including Savion Glover, Brenda Bufalino, Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde,  Dianne Walker, Heather Cornell, Derick Grant, Ayodele Casel, and Baakari Wilder, to name just a few; she had the good fortune to grace the stage with many of these greats as well.  Artis studied percussion (djembe, congas, balofon, doun doun) primarily with the legendary Juma Santos (most notably a Miles Davis recording artist) and Abou Sylla (formerly of Les Ballets Africains) in NYC, and Luis Garay in DC (drums plus xylophone and vibes). 

After returning to her native town of DC in late 1998 to further develop her visual arts & music skills, Artis earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in mixed media from Corcoran College of Art + Design in 2002, shortly after the birth of her first child, Adobe.  She now works as a professional artist & photographer and has photographed such notables as Barack Obama, George W. & Laura Bush, Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Jim Webb, and Jim Moran, among others.  Artis has shown her art work in galleries in DC, Baltimore MD, and Miami FL.

Artis has taught for 17 years, all ages and levels, including at-risk youth, learning disabled, and autistic children. Artis has run after-school arts programs, summer arts camps, and served as a lead artist/teacher in a DC public charter school, where she was responsible for developing her own curriculums which integrated the arts with academics & cultural issues.  She currently teaches drumming/percussion, tap, ballet, visual arts, and beginning piano, in addition to homeschooling her daughter.  With a focus on process before product, improvisation is an integral aspect of her fun & accessible teaching style.