Tuesday 25 April 2023 19:30 GMT | 11:30 PDT | 14:30 EDT | 20:30 CET FREE
Dr Trish Melton, will share a small aspect of her current Tap Dance Pedagogy Research. She will be joined by Lisa La Touche and Mark Yonally who will give their views on the research, and then the three will discuss before opening the floor to Q&A.
Shaped by the tidal forces of the New World, jazz music and dance are rooted in the Africa where the arts form a unified complex of interlocking relationships. The great composer and bandleader, Duke Ellington, exhalted the African aesthetic tradition, consciously aligning his music and imagination to serve all forms of jazz dance, throughout his long career. Known to keep “one eye on the audience and one eye on the act,” he most frequently called upon tap dancers to “step inside” his music and deliver a range of styles, percussive color and visual excitement to performance. A great collaborator, just as he practiced communal composing with his musicians, he also worked directly with dancers as allied artists. This presentation will share stories of these collaborations gleaned from oral histories and autobiographies of the jazz dancers who moved his music including: Bunny Briggs, Brownie Brown, Peg Leg Bates, Howard “Stretch” Johnson, Alfredo Gustar, Bessie Dudley, Talley Beatty and more.
About Allana
Artist, educator and performer, Allana Radecki has a BA in Fine Arts and MA in African American, African Diaspora Studies from Indiana University. Her research focuses on the interlocking roots and culture of jazz music and dance through autobiography and oral history. Her current book project examines the multi-faceted relationship between Duke Ellington and jazz dance, with an emphasis on tap dancers. A noted teacher of Hatha Yoga, Rhythm Tap and Modern Dance since 1986, she has taught thousands of classes to thousands of people of all ages. As a jazz tap dancer, Allana loves to improvise and also explores West African and Afro- Brazilian percussion including many years with Women of Mass Percussion and five seasons with the Indiana University Brazilian Ensemble.
with Simeon Weedall
Thursday 23 March 2023 19:30 GMT | 12:30 PDT | 15:30 EDT | 20:30 CET FREE
‘Speak honestly and your body will bring the music you sing’
Drawing from his up-and-coming book Solo’s that Speak – A Tap Dancer’s Guide to Authentic Expression, Simeon Weedall leads us on a journey through tones, textures & timbres – an exploration of the more unusual sounds in tap.
You can sit back or get up and put your shoes on to experience how Simeon works with sound inspired movements such as ‘Glick’ (gliding click), and ‘Glam’ (gliding flam).
https://www.patreon.com/thetapdanceteacher