The Beantown Tapfest: Boston's Summer Tap Festival

jbtap | Jul 19, 2008 | 0

Aaron Tolson, Michelle Dorrance and Derick Grant at Beantown Tapfest '07

Due to the success of last year's festival, the Beantown Tapfest returns for a second year, expanding to a week-long schedule of classes and tripling the number of faculty.

Unlike a jazz or film festival, a tap festival's main ingredient is instruction, continuing the long-standing tradition of handing tap dance down from one generation to the next. And since tap is a theatrical art, you can't have a festival without a show.

The Beantown Tapfest sold out last year's show, delivering what is unique to tap: the performer as both dancer and musician, where the exciting rhythmic complexity of tap is seen and heard. This year, six tap soloists, two tap companies and three jazz musicians make up the cast of On Tap!, the festival's annual review.

For more details, click on "Read More."

Not all students enrolled in classes have to wear tap shoes. The festival now offers classes that are open to all (no previous tap or music experience necessary), such as Body Percussion and Step Your Story. There's even a class called Tap for Salseros, for salsa dancers seeking to improve their footwork.

Four Boston artists will be added to the roster this year: Sean Fielder, the director of Boston Tap Company, who toured in the national company of Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk; Akili Jamal Haynes, composer and multi-instrumentalist, who, at 18, toured with Illinois Jacquet's Big Band; preeminent tap artist Josh Hilberman, who recently debuted his one-man tap show, Heeling Powers: Rhythms of the Left Brain; and Wyatt Jackson, member of the activist hip-hop band, 4Peace, whose work with WGBH's Children's Programming spanned nine seasons and won an Emmy Award.  New York tap mainstays, Barbara Duffy and Max Pollak join returning faculty members Michelle Dorrance, Derick Grant and Aaron Tolson to complete this premier group.

So mark your calendars, Boston's tap festival returns with twenty-four classes, nine faculty, a student showcase, a jam session, and a show. Join with Boston's tap community, in the class or in the audience, and continue the traditions of tap.

The second annual Beantown Tapfest is dedicated to the great tap dancer, Boston's own Jimmy Slyde, who passed away earlier this year.

On Tap! -- Friday, August 22, 8:00 PM at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in the Mosesian Theater, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown, MA 02472  Tickets: $32.  Box Office: 617-923-8487 www.arsenalarts.org

Classes -- four-day residencies Monday through Thursday, August 18 - 21, 1:30 - 8:00 PM; two-day courses and single classes Saturday and Sunday, August 23 and 24, 11:00 - 6:00 PM at Springstep, 98 George P. Hassett Dr., Medford, MA 02155. Prices vary. 781-395-0402 www.springstep.org

For more information about the festival and to register for classes go to www.beantowntapfest.com
or call 617.522.6016.

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Beantown Tapfest is produced by Julia Boynton of Julia On Tap.
Julia On Tap produces tap events in the Boston area including jam sessions, master classes, workshops and year-round classes.

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