Indianapolis is My Home

28
Jan

The Souls of Our Feet at Pike Performance Arts Center

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Art, Concerts, Cultural Events, High Schools, Northwest Side, Pike PAC, Theater, Things To Do in Indy

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On Saturday, January 19th it was a frigid day to be outside, but it was also a good night to be at the Pike Performing Arts Center with my daughter. You see, we went on a Daddy Daughter Date to go see "The Souls of Our Feet: A Celebration of American Tap Dance".

My daughter has taken some dance classes, including tap, to introduce her to the art and she got exposed to the true art of dance that night.

"The Souls of Our Feet" is part of a National Endowment for the Arts "American Masterpiece: Dance" production for the 2007-2008 season. The dance group is Tapestry Dance Company (Jaqueline Coleman, Katelyn Harris, Jason Janas, Brenna Kuhn, Tasha Lawson, Tony Merriwether and Matt Shields), Executive-Artistic Director is Acia Gray and special guest was Dianne Walker who was a cast member of the great tap movie entitled "TAP" with Gregory Hines.

The production was great. They would start off with a video projection of a specific scene from history that highlighted the roots of tap dance in performance. Then the jazz trio would start playing the music and the video scene would fade as the live dancers stepped into the light and began doing the routine that was introduced in the video segment. The transition and fading from recorded audio and projected video to live sound and dancers was a tremendous expression.

I found a YouTube video of clips of various segments from the performance as it was done in an opening performance back in November. The clips are almost identical to what we got to see live at Pike PAC.

What a great show.

See the video after the jump

I should also mention that the Pike Performing Arts Center is a superb facility. I spent quite a bit of time in the theater as a high school and college student and to have had that type of facility available would surely have molded me with even more of an appreciation for the arts than I already have been blessed.

It’s great to see the community and the school take advantage of this kind of a resource and make the most out of everything.

I’m looking forward to keeping my eye out for upcoming presentations that may be of interest to me and my family. You should visit the Pike PAC website yourself and schedule an evening out with you and your family.

Some of their upcoming events include:

• Complexions Contemporary Ballet Company
• Franc D’Ambrosio’s Broadway
• Heywood Banks - Comedian
• Southern Fried Chicks - Comedy

Visit their website for all the details.