Linda Sohl Donnell Interview, 1998-06-27

Linda Sohl Donnell started dancing at 6, beginning with ballet. She started taking jazz and tap at age 14 in Richmond Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland. She tapped at a private dance studio with Charlotte Keller.

Donnell studied dance at Ohio University and began teaching dance at the National Guard Armory in Athens, Ohio. She shared the space with the National Guard who also target practiced there. Dancers included community members, children, and dance majors. She moved to California with her husband and went on to graduate school, studying choregraphy, in UCLA.

At a "Tap Two" performance at UCLA, Donnell reprised learning how to tap under Foster Johnson. These private lessons, along with modern choreography, led Donnell to working with Toni Relland [Tack]. They formed a company, Rhapsody in Taps.

Donnell worked with Eddie Brown, Pauline Zagina, and Louie Belson, including a combination of big band music and tap dance. More recent work included "Two to Tamber", "Beat Percussion Discussion", and "Alone Together".

At the time of the 1998 interview, Donnell was still teaching at Orange Coast College, including modern, jazz, tap, and improv. As she also studied ballet and modern, within the interview, Donnell also called tap a "whole new language... [M]y focus is choreographic. I'm trying to say something different in each work."