Joe Tremaine

Joe Tremaine is an award-winning dancer, choreographer and educator whose career spans many dance styles and includes work in television, film and theater. Tremaine has worked with some of the most recognizable stage acts of the last several decades, including Liza Minnelli, Gene Kelly, Louis Armstrong, Jackie Gleason, Mary Tyler Moore, Paula Abdul, Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and more.

A native of Oak Ridge, Louisiana, Tremaine began attending dance classes as a young child. After college, he trained and performed with the New Orleans Ballet Association and New Orleans Opera before moving to New York City.

Tremaine has performed in Europe with the French-Italian performer Caterina Valente, and he's also been on "The Jackie Gleason Show" and specials of "The Ed Sullivan Show." In 1967, Tremaine was asked to be the lead dancer on "The Jerry Lewis Show," which brought him to Los Angeles, where he led a successful career as a performer. He also worked on the 1969 movie "Hello, Dolly."

Tremaine opened a studio in California in the 1970s, called the Joe Tremaine Dance Center, where he taught thousands of dance students over nearly 30 years. Tremaine now serves as president and co-founder of Tremaine Dance Conventions and Competitions. Established in 1981, the educational dance company tours about 25 U.S. cities each year, reaching about 50,000 dancers. Tremaine's support of the University of Arizona School of the Dance goes back three decades, with him appearing as a guest performer at the Arizona Jazz Dance Showcase and donating his talent and teachings to young dancers.

Tremaine often enthusiastically recommends the School of Dance to attendees at his conventions and competitions. It's estimated that more than half of University of Arizona dance students have had contact with Tremaine before they arrive on campus to begin their programs.

Tremaine holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He has received the Gus Giordano Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Dance World Congress and the Excellence in Jazz Dance award from Dance Educators of America. He also has served on the University of Southern California's Glorya Kaufman School of Dance Board of Councilors and the Jazz Dance World Congress's Board of Advisors.