Jazz tap dancer · drummer · teacher
Taps like a drummer.
Drums like a tap dancer.
For over 30 years Thomas Marek has been bringing tap into jazz as a full-fledged percussive voice: solo, with his trio, on festival stages in Europe, the US and worldwide, and in jam sessions and workshops.
European tour · 26 Nov – 6 Dec 2026
Tap, Rhythm & Swing
With Kurt Albert, Clemens Salesny and Joe Fonda – nine nights of tap, jazz and swing in the bars of Ruby Hotels. Between the sets the floor belongs to the local swing dancers. Free admission.
Munich · Frankfurt · Cologne · Hamburg · Amsterdam · Düsseldorf · Stuttgart · Zürich · Geneva
Live
Concerts, tap shows and workshops. Tour dates in yellow.
Album · Thomas Marek Trio · HGBSBlue 2025
Footprints
Tap dance on record. On the trio’s debut album tap works as an independent, percussive voice in jazz – an equal partner in an interplay built on free improvisation. Recorded directly in stereo, partly with a live audience in the studio.
Patrick Bebelaar piano · Jan Roder bass · Thomas Marek drums & tap
Thomas Marek Trio
Tap as a full percussion instrument in a contemporary, free and improvised context: Bebelaar’s compositions, freely reworked standards and open improvisation.
Thomas Marek tap & drums · Clemens Salesny sax · Gina Schwarz bass
PLAY!
A trio with four instruments. Powerful and avant-garde, tender and fierce: original compositions, standards and improvisation that tell stories in the moment.
Every Monday · Ruby Lissi, Fleischmarkt 19, Vienna · 8 pm · free
Monday Ride Quartet
The Monday Ride Quartet turns the Ruby Lissi hotel bar into an intimate jazz club – with some of Vienna’s finest musicians, including Monika Herzig, Marton Papp, Martin Melzer and Thomas Zech.
Videos
Live recordings, productions and promos.
Thomas Marek Trio – promo
PLAY! – live at ORF RadioKulturhaus Vienna (audio only)
“Caravan” – Thomas Marek & Band
“BEATS” – Tap & Bass
NOLA – Kampnagel Hamburg 2015
Demo reel
Teaching
Thomas Marek’s goal as a teacher is to nurture musicality and a strong technical foundation – to encourage each student’s personal expression and creative development.
Tap classes in Vienna – weekly classes with Thomas Marek, from beginners to advanced, plus Improvisation & Musicality.
Studio Footprints Hamburg – Thomas Marek’s tap dance studio in Hamburg. Founded in 2007.
Pro Tap Training – two-week intensive at Studio Footprints Hamburg with live music, plus optional online coaching.
Online classes – live via Zoom, focused on your sound and your touch.
Workshops & jams – guest teacher at festivals and studios in Germany, Europe and worldwide.
About
For over 30 years Thomas Marek has been blending traditional and modern tap dance with contemporary music and theatre. He learned from masters like Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, Chuck Green, Barbara Duffy and above all Brenda Bufalino, with whose American Tap Dance Orchestra he toured the USA in the mid-1990s.
His productions about_tap, ORCHESTRA, DRAMA and NOLA premiered at Kampnagel Hamburg. Born in 1972 in Ludwigsburg, he lives in Vienna and also works as a photographer.
Throughout his career, Thomas has performed and shared the stage with world-class musicians and dancers, including Frank Kimbrough, Ben Allison, Brenda Bufalino, Jarle Vespestad, Patrick Bebelaar, Sarah Petronio, Joe Fonda, Jimmy Slyde, Jan Roder, Johannes Strasser, Kurt Holzkämper, Gregory Hines, and many others.
“Thomas Marek brings an old art form to new life.”
Stuttgarter Zeitung
“Celebrates with breathtaking precision … everything jazz ever was or is today sparkles.”
Frankfurter Neue Presse
“A full-fledged soloist in a band that has a tap dancer in the front row instead of a saxophonist.”
Jazzpodium
© 2026 Thomas Marek