The 23rd Annual International Soul to Sole Tap Festival
"It's About Time"
June 14th - 18th, 2023
LIVE IN AUSTIN, TX
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Tapestry's Soul 2 Sole Festival is a rhythmic & musical experience for Adults & Teens
connecting tap dance techniques, history and legacy to lives and life.
One unique and individual step at a time...
(Austin, TX) – Tapestry Dance Company, North America’s oldest full-time, professional repertory tap dance company presents its annual festival of rhythm with the 23rd Annual Soul to Sole Festival, June 14th-18th 2023. This one-of-a-kind, “Austintatious” tap festival will bring world renown tap artists from around the world for a soulful live reunion and an opportunity for the participants to look inward and upward to unpack and discover what it is to be a tap-dancing artist from many of the leaders in the field. Master classes of all levels (ADV BEG thru PRO), film screenings, panel discussions, tap jam with live music at Tapestry Dance and two premiere concerts at The Long Center/Rollins Theatre!
2023 S2S FACULTY
Acia Gray
Sharon Lavi
Daniel Luka
Carson Murphy
Leela Petronio
Ayako Ukawa
Baakari Wilder
"It's About Time" / Concert
Friday & Saturday - June 16th & 17th @ 8pm / Rollins Theatre
Tap dance is all about time. Keeping time, shaping time, taking steps in time. Now it’s about time we tell its story. The title It’s about time references, like an echo, the 1984 tour undertaken by tap dance artists Sarah Petronio and Jimmy Slyde. The piece is a tribute to Sarah Petronio, in which her choreographies are staged by her most trusted dancers from the US, Canada, Europe, right up to Japan. It's About Time debuted at Tap Dance Days/Tanzhause Dusseldorf in May 2022 and among these artists were Leela Petronio, Travis Knights, Ayako Ukawa, Sharon Lavi, Daniel Luka, Carson Murphy and Acia Gray. The cast will miss the busy Travis Knights, but Baakari Wilder will join the US premiere in Austin, TX!
It’s About Time entwines poetics, rhythm, and movement, and it is built around meaningful solos. The solos are connected by Sarah Petronio’s history, unfolding through her various choreographies: A selection from the original stage productions from Jazz in Motion, Thelonious and It’s About Time. Formative moments summed up in images – a rehearsal studio, a dressing room, a jazz club – bringing the essence of the dance called tap dance onto the stage.
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Sarah Petronio is known as an improvisational jazz tap artist – over the years, she created many choreographies that have been performed, at different times, by a diverse range of dancers, in a number of shows, on several continents. Taking strong inspiration from her dance partner Jimmy Slyde, the musical genius of Thelonious Monk and Ahmad Jamal’s deep sensitivity, Sarah Petronio’s work experiments with form, space, time, and energy, determining some rhythmic phrases, and changes the musical elements like the pieces of a puzzle – thus creating a harmonious interplay between music and movement.
Sarah Petronio's soul and presence has been at the foundation of The Soul to Sole Festival since its inception as The Austin Tap Jam in the early 1990’s and she has graced many stages and festivals here in Austin since that time as well as being a part of our family in many ways.
This year’s faculty artists are gathered in celebration of Sarah; our friendships together in her love and in living and sharing her life and rhythm within us.