In 1977, Orlowski opened Hoofer’s Club in Toronto, the first dance school in Canada to focus solely on the art of tapping. He co-founded the National Tap Dance Company with Steve Dymond and remained involved as artistic director and choreographer for thirty years, creating over forty works including The Tin Soldier, Oliver Button is a Sissy, Hound of the Baskervilles and Brandenburg Concerto #3. As a choreographer, Orlowski challenged the parameters of tap dancing by refusing to allow vaudeville conventions to define the art form. Instead, he communicated plot through rhythm and movement, encouraging narration and storytelling.
Orlowski continued to explore opportunities in film, choreographing for such films as Stepping Out (1991) with Liza Minnelli. In 1990, he started his own company, the William Orlowski Tap Dance Projects, through which he choreographed more works for the concert stage, including the Shaw Festival’s 2001 production of the Noël Coward musical Shadow Play.
The Arts Alive website also notes that his sense of civic responsibility often accompanied his artistic talent. His work with Smile Company, a theatre group that performs for people in hospitals and nursing homes, exemplifies that.
After his diagnosis with dystonia — a neurological movement disorder closely related to Parkinson’s — Orlowski continued dancing, performing as recently as October 2, 2016, in Well Seasoned Production’s Curtains Up on 50+. He performed, as his friend and colleague Anne Wootten recalls, “as always, with style, grace and humour.”
Tagged: Obituary, Tap, Uncategorized, ON
