The Story Behind the Steps..

Shanzell Q. Page is a Flint-born, Detroit-based tap artist, movement educator, and cultural interpreter with more than 25 years of experience in performance and arts education. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Mindful Movement with Shanzell, a performing arts initiative centered on tap, Black vernacular movement, cultural preservation, and interdisciplinary performance practice.

In 2025, Page was awarded the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant, named a FedEx Entrepreneur Fund recipient through Hello Alice, and selected as the 2025–26 University Musical Society / University of Michigan–Flint Artist in Residence. Her acclaimed performance work Salt in the Soil, which premiered at Sidewalk Festival Detroit, continues to expand through her residency project Seeds & Fruit—a multi-phase choreographic work that treats tap as a living historical language. The work uses musical structure, testimony, and rhythm to examine authorship, inheritance, and cultural continuity across generations of the African diaspora.

In 2026, Mindful Movement with Shanzell was selected as one of 25 Genesee County small businesses to receive support through the Flint & Genesee Economic Growth Alliance Small Business Support Hub, reflecting the initiative’s expanding reach across institutional and community settings.

Page’s work has been featured in My City Magazine and Flintside, and she has been presented in collaboration with institutions including the Riverside Arts Center and Detroit Dance Collective. She is also a Smithsonian FolkLife For the People teaching artist, contributing to national traditional arts programming and cultural stewardship initiatives.

Raised in Flint, Page’s tap practice was shaped through sustained mentorship, lineage-based study, and long-term engagement with the form. Her lineage includes study with Dianne Walker, Jimmy Slyde, Henry LeTang, and Jason Samuels Smith, and was later recognized as a Line Girl under Mable Lee. Her practice bridges traditional tap technique with contemporary performance structures, advancing site-responsive creation distinguished by a commitment to musical integrity and historical awareness. Pushing the boundaries of the art form through multiscious practice, she situates innovative educational frameworks at the center.

Page studied at Barry University and SUNY Buffalo, with further training under Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Urban Bush Women. Through Mindful Movement with Shanzell, she offers performance, mentorship, and adaptive instruction held to high artistic standards. The initiative has served more than 200 students and continues to expand across schools, parks, and cultural venues.

Her work is informed by a personal journey with caregiving and long-term health navigation. Advocating for access alongside her mother shaped her early understanding of inclusion, especially in performance spaces, continues to guide how she teaches, designs programs, and approaches movement. Page positions the art form as a practice of responsibility. Her mission is to create spaces where artistry meets accountability, providing life-affirming experiences that foster performance as an act of preservation, presence, and return.