The Story Behind the Steps..

Shanzell Q. Page is a Flint-rooted, Detroit-based movement artist, educator, and cultural strategist with over 30 years of experience in tap dance, performance, and arts education. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Mindful Movement with Shanzell, a performing arts initiative blending rhythm, cultural storytelling, and wellness. In 2025, she was awarded the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant, and in 2024 she was selected as a FedEx Entrepreneur Fund recipient through Hello Alice.

Raised in Flint, Shanzell began dancing at age five at Creative Expressions Dance Studio under the late Shelia Miller-Graham. Her tap foundation was shaped by direct mentorship with legendary masters including Dianne Walker, Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde, Henry LeTang, Jason Samuels Smith, and Ted Levy. She later became a “Line Girl” under the iconic Mable Lee. Her work is distinguished by a commitment to preserving the legacy, traditional techniques and history of tap dance, by pushing the boundaries of the art form through innovative educational approaches and interdisciplinary learning.

She has been featured at institutions such as The Flint Youth Theatre, Dance Center Chicago, and the Tap Dance Day Extravaganza in New York City, where she shared the stage with greats including Buster Brown, Leonard Reed, and Savion Glover. She has performed in more than 17 national tap festivals, 10 summer intensives, and worked professionally with the off-Broadway cast of STOMP at the Orpheum Theatre in New York.

Shanzell’s educational background includes studies at Barry University and SUNY Buffalo, with further training under Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and the Urban Bush Women, as well as Ronald K. Brown / Evidence, A Dance Company. These residencies shaped her approach to movement as a tool for testimony, healing, and social action.

She has served as a Teaching Artist at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee’s Center for Partnerships in Arts-Integrated Teaching, contributing to impactful programs that connected tap dance with academic and creative learning. She also spent several years teaching at community studios including Motor City Dance Factory and Linden Dance Academy, where she honed her approach to adaptive instruction and youth mentorship. More than a decade of community-based teaching laid the foundation for her inclusive curriculum design, including 12 years facilitating outreach programs and performances across Flint that celebrated Black cultural legacy through tap.

Through Mindful Movement with Shanzell, she offers adaptive instruction, site-responsive performance, and mentorship rooted in ancestral wisdom, Black vernacular movement, and cultural preservation. To date, the program has served over 200 students and continues to expand its reach across schools, parks, and community venues.

Shanzell’s work is shaped by personal experiences with chronic illness, caregiving, and spiritual transformation. Diagnosed with autoimmune gluten sensitivity in 2019 and raised alongside a mother with slight Cerebral Palsy, she grounds her practice in access, care, and holistic restoration. Her mission is to create spaces where artistry meets accountability, providing life-affirming experiences that foster performance as an act of remembrance, presence, and return.