Louis Baldonieri

Louie was born in Chicago, Illinois to an Irish-Italian family in April 28, 1956. He lived in New York City, as early as 1988, where he was a dance choreographer and dance teacher in the "Henry LeTang Dance Studio", and a personal friend of Henry LeTang ("Tap", 1989) until his death in 2007. Louie's arena of expertise was his unique style of tap dance, which was a fusion of tap and ballet with an Oriental flair. Various schools and instructors in Oriental dance have left their mark on each generation, with the majority of students achieving the Roman composure in Oriental dance. A handful of gifted students achieve Eastern Greek Oriental composure, and even fewer, the 'fabled' Persian technique. Louis infused the Henry LeTang Dance Studio with his flair of Orientalism, becoming the predecessor of this Greek Oriental Tap Dance style in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s. There is a misconception that students of Oriental Dance engage in a lifestyle of illegal drug use and sexual misconduct. The misconception stems from the association of the Orient with opium and psychotropics, and in Greek Orientalism, the association of Ancient Asia Minor with Sorcery Cults and the Cult of Cleopatra VII. In the arena of Oriental dance, this is the exception rather than the norm, as any dance training requires hyperattention and hyperconcentration, and engaging in such a lifestyle would result in a fatal fall and possibly death. Most dansöz have integrated very strict diets that exclude starches such as bread, rice and pasta, which are carbohydrates that have been known to deter alertness and concentration. Oriental dansöz have integrated also Asian herbology and Yoga for the training and development of the mind. These Yogic techniques are utilized to impart the dancer the qualities or "powers" sought after without the utilization of psychotropics, entheogens and illegal drugs. In this arena, Louis was also a predecessor in New York City since the 1980s, having studied Buddhism, Yoga and Martial Arts, while practicing strict No-Starch-Vegetarianism and Zero Tolerance for Drugs while staffed in the LeTang Dance Studio.