Whew just got off the plan from my second Tap Dance Tour in Lima, Peru. Totally amazing. This tour tops my last by being able to share it with fellow dance partner Ryan Johnson. His company, Rawsound (www.rawsoundtk.com) was invited to come and perform at the 4th Annual Cajon Festival International. Performers and percussionist from all over the world.
We collaborated with my favorite Afro Peruvian group Colectivo Palenke and created fusion pieces with the Cajon, Tap, and West African Dance. Totally thrilling. 4 fusion pieces were created in 1 rehearsal. That's all we had time for and we made it work. Its always important to be flexible when working with other artists. You never know what kind of dance environment you're going to be in and what kind of floor you're gonna have. Even the stage for the performance had to be created. Over all the work was done and it was great. Fusion with a local Flamenco company was great as well. I was nervous about the time signature but it worked well.
An amazing collaboration with the Escuela Nacional Superior de Folklore. A special school for students interested in studying the folklore dances of Peru. These kids were hungry to learn. We taught them Tap, West African, and Body Percussion. When given a water break the just kept dancing love it. Talk about going hard. Our hope is to come back and do longer workshops with them. We gave them a nice donation of dance shoes too. Global Outreach here we come.
I definitely feel like I up'd my spanish speaking skills too. So much work to be done to keep creating relationships between the artists there and the dance programming. Looking forward to the return of Tap in Peru.
Photos and video to come
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