AMERICAN TAP DANCE FOUNDATION EVENTS FOR 2011

 

Tony Waag, founder/director of American Tap Dance Foundation, announces upcoming events for the organization and, of course, the eagerly anticipated 11th Annual TAP CITY, a week that turns the Big Apple into the Tap Capital of the World.

 

This year's TAP CITY will take place July 5-10 and will roll out the red carpet in A Salute to the Copasetics, honoring the legendary "fraternity" of tap artists founded in 1949.   The week will begin with an event established by the Copasetics - a swinging boat ride around the city with tapping, singing and jamming.    In tap classes, artists of today will teach the classic material of Copasetic founders, the great Charles "Cookie" Cook, Buster Brown, Bubba Gaines, and one of the ATDF founders, Charles "Honi" Coles.  And the Copasetics will be celebrated in Tap City's performances.

 

This pre-eminent tap dance festival is a celebration of our uniquely American dance form.  Each year, Tap City offers morning-to-night master classes and courses with internationally renowned teachers, classes on all levels for all ages by a faculty of renowned teachers, awards to leaders in the field, lectures and rarely seen tap films, and performances by today's top tappers.

 

Another popular ATDF presentation is TAPPING INTO NEW YORK - TAP CITY YOUTH ENSEMBLE - a high-energy show that explores the history of tap and its connection to the city of its birth, New York City!  The group's repertory includes dances by famed tappers and ranges from the snappy "The Mayor of New York" to an authentic South African gumboot dance, which the high-spirited young tappers had a blast performing as part of the 2010 Macy's Day Parade.

 

 

Director Tony Waag first came to New York to study with Brenda Bufalino after taking one of her workshops in his hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado.   On his first day in the Big City, as fate would have it, he ran into Brenda on the street, and took that to be a happy omen.  Indeed it was, and Waag's intelligence, persistence, and vision have seen the organization that he founded, the American Tap Dance Foundation on an upward swing since its inception in 2002.   The organization evolved from the American Tap Dance Orchestra, founded by Waag and Brenda Bufalino in 1986, actually making this a banner year - a 25th Anniversary Celebration. 

 

American Tap Dance Foundation has 

** grown from offering two 2-week training sessions a year to operating a thriving Conservatory that has year round classes in many different tap techniques taught by a distinguished faculty; 

** gone from being homeless to having its own home - offices and studios -  at 154 Christopher Street;

** produced Sound Check, realizing Waag's vision of promoting tap dances that are carefully choreographed and able to enact stories;

** sent out touring companies for performances and workshops around the U.S. and abroad;

** established the Gregory Hines Collection of American Tap Dance, a memorial archive library, housed at the NY Public Library at Lincoln Center;

** established Tap City Youth Ensemble (TCYE); and 

** produced that spectacular tap feast known as  Tap City, welcoming tappers from around the world to celebrate the best in tap. 

 

And, always a man with a plan, Waag has many more ambitions and ideas up his sleeve to look forward to. 

 

www.atdf.org

Press Contact: Audrey Ross

212-877-3399

audreyrosspub@aol.com