TAP CITY hits NYC
From July 6-13, 2013
“TAP CITY”- JULY 6-13
International Tap Dancers Flock to NYC for Week-Long Festival
“TAP IT OUT” - 300 Tapping Feet in the Center of Times Square
Saturday, July 13 at Noon
(L-R) The Late Paul Draper, 2013 Tap Dance Hall of Fame Inductee; Tap it Out 2012, Photo: Debi Field;
Barbara Duffy, 2013 Hoofer Award Recipient
New York, NY, June 24, 2013 – Tap City, the week-long International Tap Festival, will take place Saturday, July 6 to Saturday, July 13 with a series of events and showcases in Tap’s home town, New York City. Drawing participants from around the world, Tap City, presented by The American Tap Dance Foundation (ATDF), will feature film presentations, awards, master classes and performance events by international artists. The week’s happenings will culminate at noon on Saturday, July 13, with 150 tap dancers hoofing it out in the heart of Manhattan at Father Duffy Square/Times Square in a free, public, outdoor celebration. (Event details below).
Tap City has become the premiere meeting place where hundreds of American and international tap dancers come to study, teach, and perform – to share new ideas and to collaborate on new productions, celebrating a vibrant and diverse global tap community.
“Our goal, in addition to giving audiences great entertainment- is to establish a higher level of understanding and examination of tap dance as an art form. The creation of an international tap dance festival in New York City secures the preservation of tap dance and perpetuates its continued growth as a thriving contemporary art form. The New York City Tap Festival also makes a lasting statement about New York City and its dedication to this uniquely American form of art. We pay homage to tap dance by producing a festival in the city known for much of its major development,” said Tony Waag, Artistic and Executive Director of ATDF.
Tap City is committed to presenting new work and new voices from around the world. Tap dance, which began in America in the 1800's on plantations and on city streets, is now produced all over the globe. Thanks to the efforts of numerous U.S. tap soloists and companies (including the American Tap Dance Orchestra) who toured, taught, produced and promoted tap internationally, tap dance has been seen all over the world. Tap dance festivals and tap dance studios have sprung up as far away as Beijing!
Highlights of this year’s Tap City Festival include:
TAP AWARDS
Tuesday, July 9 at 730pm – The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Bruno Walter Auditorium
(Enter at 111 Amsterdam Avenue - 65th Street)
Tickets: 5 - Advanced purchase required!
Contact ATDF at 646-230-9564
Hosted by ADTF Artistic/Executive Director Tony Waag, Tap Awards will feature film presentations and performances honoring recipients of this year’s Hoofer and Tap Preservation awards and inductees into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame. The evening will include performances by Warren Craft, Barbara Duffy & Company, Michelle Dorrance, Kazu Kumagai, Michela Marino Lerman, Carson Murphy, Gay Nardone, Drika Overton and Nicholas Young. Jess Jurkovic will accompany on piano, Joe Fonda on bass, and Bernice “Boom Boom” Brooks on drums.
Award Recipients this year include:
2013 Hoofer Awards
Barbara Duffy
Dean Diggins
2013 Tap Preservation Awards
The late Ernie Smith
Sally Sommer
2013 Tap Dance Hall of Fame Award
The late James “Buster” Brown
The late Paul Draper
TAP INTERNATIONALS
Thursday, July 11 at 7:30pm - Symphony Space
PJ Sharp Theater
2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York, NY 10025
Tickets: General 6 (Day of Show 0)
Children 17 & under/Symph. Member/College Student/Senior: 0 (Day of Show 4)
Box Office: 212.864.5400 Hours: Tues - Sun from 1 - 6pm. (Box office windows remain open on the night of a show until one half hour after curtain)
TAP INTERNATIONALS will feature leading artists from around the world who will mix and make global magic. New work will be introduced and explored demonstrating tap’s fluidity and evolution, particularly its ability to intersect with a broad cross-section of percussive dance, music and cultures.
A global community of artists that include international soloists, contemporary tap ensembles, raw talent and leading tap masters, will combine tap dance with world music, body percussion, gumboot, funk, swing, step dance, vocals, film, and storytelling.
Participants include Brenda Bufalino (US), Flavia Costa (Brazil), Felipe Galganni (Brazil), Corey Hutchins (US), Chikako Iwahori (Japan), Ryan Johnson (US), Kazu Kumagai (Japan), Lisa La Touche (Canada), Winston Morrison (Australia), Claudia Rahardjanoto (Germany/Indonesia), Rumba Tap (Cuba), Lynn Schwab (US), the Tap City Youth Ensemble (Africa/US), and Nicholas Young (US).
TAP IT OUT
Saturday, July 13 noon, 1 & 2pm – Father Duffy Square/Times Square
Between 45th and 47th Streets, Broadway and Seventh Avenue
Tap it Out is a free, public, outdoor event, and will be presented and performed three times on the afternoon of Saturday, July 13th in the heart of Manhattan. Dancers and students of all ages and levels, from all over the world, will join together to create a thunderous chorus of 300 hundred tapping feet in a pre-choreographed orchestral collage of a cappella unison rhythms, contrapuntal sequences, individual riffs, movements and grooves. Tap it Out will be conducted by Tap City producer Tony Waag.
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MORE ABOUT “TAP AWARDS,” Tuesday, July 9:
The annual Hoofer Award recognizes prominent tap artists as leaders in the community for their unique contribution to the form and for inspiring future generations. The annual Tap Preservation Award is given to an outstanding individual or organization in the field for the superior advancement of tap dance through presentation and preservation.
The International Tap Dance Hall of Fame is the only tap dance hall of fame exclusively focused on tap dancers. It features founding and innovative 20th and 21st century professional tap dancers. With a collection of photographs, biographies, and videos, the Hall of Fame is becoming a colorful and diverse retrospective of America's seminal tap dance personalities. ATDF Artistic Director Tony Waag created the first International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in July of 2002 at the request and suggestion of the late Gregory Hines. Its purpose is: to honor the contributions of legendary tap dance artists by preserving their legacy for future generations to enjoy; to increase public awareness of the diversity inherent in the form; and to provide an educational experience available to local, national, and international professionals, students, and the general population.
MORE ABOUT “TAP INTERNATIONALS,” Thursday, July 11:
Tap Internationals was introduced at the very first Tap City in 2001 at the Duke on 42nd Street Theater. Since then it has become a favorite and often requested concert event receiving much praise and critical acclaim.
Like its kissing cousin jazz, tap has become an international form of expression. It now returns to us subtly transformed by the many cultures that have adopted it as an art form. Tap Internationals present outstanding dancers representing Africa, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, France and the USA.
MORE ABOUT “TAP IT OUT,” Saturday, July 13:
Tap It Outis a contemporary percussion and movement “soundscape” that promotes tap dance as pure music. Numerous eight and 16 bar phrases are developed through repetition, creating multiple canons and conversations, mixing and blending unison segments with overlaid beats that build to crescendos or diminish to a silence creating a super “hybrid” explosion of tones and rhythms.
“As a producer and director, I am always trying to find new ways of inspiring the next generation of hoofers, creating and building new audiences and educating the general public about this wonderful, yet very complex American art form we call Tap Dance. Tap It Out is not only an opportunity to celebrate the form, but also to expand and challenge the limited perception that tap dance is either old fashioned, only for the exceptionally talented, or too immature to be taken seriously…. as we celebrate this fantastic American art form this July, we’re reintroducing Tap Dance to the public where it was actually born and developed, on the street corners of Manhattan.” - Tony Waag, ATDF Artistic/Exec Director.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN TAP DANCE FOUNDATION
ADTF was founded in 1986 by tap master Charles “Honi” Coles, his protégée Brenda Bufalino, and the Foundation’s current artistic and executive director, Tony Waag. Called the American Tap Dance Orchestra until 2001, the organization was directed and choreographed by Ms. Bufalino and presented hundreds of stage performances and films from 1986 through 1999. From 1989 to 1995, it also operated Woodpeckers Tap Dance Center, where tappers from all over the world gathered for classes, workshops, jam session and performances. In 2002 with a new generation of tap dancers and enthusiasts, the Orchestra was renamed under the artistic direction and leadership of Tony Waag.
