Shanzell Page brings rhythm and legacy to Flint as UMS/UM-Flint Artist in Residence

FLINT, Michigan — Shanzell Page, a Flint-born artist, uses her gift of dance and art education to connect her audience to authentic experiences of cultural narratives. For her, tap dance is an art form that echoes stories of heritage and generational legacy as her projects explore connections between race and ancestral veneration.

These artistic physical expressions are often accompanied by intimate acoustics and seek to create spaces of vulnerability and nostalgia. Her work centers tap dance and black vernacular movements — tools for cultural storytelling and education.

Page brings over 25 years of experience as a Flint native and dancer to her current roles as an Art Educator and Founder of Mindful Movement with Shanzell, which was recently announced as one of the 25 Genesee County small businesses receiving support through the Flint Genesee Economic Growth Alliance Small Business Support Hub.

In addition, she’s been named the 25/26 University Musical Society and the University of Michigan – Flint Artist in Residence. During this residency, Page will develop Salt in the Soil: Seeds and Fruit, in which tap dance enthusiasts can expect to see a tapestry of movement integrating beginner-level dancers with professional performers.

Flintside caught up with Page to discuss her growing list of achievements and her current 25/26 residency with UMS/UM–Flint.

Flintside: You describe Flint as your blueprint. Can you talk more about how growing up here has shaped not just your artistry, but your worldview?

Page: “Growing up in Flint, you are taught resourcefulness and how to create with intention. There’s this deep creative intelligence here with everybody — even if you’re not an artist. People from Flint learn how to build things — how to create something from nothing. We create meaning without waiting for perfect conditions. That’s what growing up in Flint instilled in me.”

Flintside: When you look back on your first full-length tap show, what comes up for you now returning to UofM-Flint as an Artist in Residence?

Page: “I was thirteen, so coming back now is like an echo I’m answering. It’s an embodied experience that is very surreal. Sometimes, I just have to live and sit in it and be present because this work is my dream. I create from that perspective. All of the work I am creating now is for people also to take that experience and to understand Flint. I want my audience to understand themselves, and what community means, how it pours into you. The story I’ll be telling in that performance is going to be that whole arc — where I started, and where it brought me.”

Flintside: What do you hope this residency and your work will leave behind for Flint students?

Page: “The focus has always been the work itself. I’m really interested in what’s being built now and what is possible. I hope it leaves people feeling more connected to themselves and to the history of movement and tap dance — the idea that our art is something we live, not just something we watch. I really do hope that people can see this and have a perspective shift of the fine art that tap dance is.”

Flintside: If you think ahead ten or twenty years, what do you hope your artistic legacy will be?

Page: “Cultural stewardship. I really hope that I will have created something that continues. I want to create something that can be passed along. It’s not even about me; it is a collective lineage bigger than us. It is important to me to be able to contribute to the students coming underneath me to be able to continue to pass this gift on.”  

Flintside: What do you want people who have never experienced tap dance as a live art to feel or understand after seeing your work?

Page: “I was just saying earlier that dance is so deeply connected to the fabric and the history of America as we know it, and it’s so organic. It’s so raw. It is a spiritual thing. It is a joyful thing. It is an expressive thing, and I hope the audience can feel the truth and authenticity. It is an expression of the story that the practitioners on stage will be telling.”

With each tap, Page reminds her audience of the power in honoring the authentic self and the ancestral legacy. She gives back to her community by offering classes and workshops open to all skill levels.

To learn about and engage with what Page offers, check out her Linktr. For offers and additional information about her classes and portfolio, visit her website.