My festival began sweetly, with 15 people gathered in a gymnasium to learn my worldly tap dance hit, Cappella Josh. I have enough festival experience to know that 33 hours later, when they return for the third and final session, their brains will be toast, their feet will ache, and they will be largely incoherent.
The next night when we gather to finish learning the choreography, a long-lost friend of mine nearly sleeps on her feet in a far corner of the gym. Intermediate-advanced learning the first part of my choreography to Tenderly. A six-day workshop, with masterclasses and regular classes for 6 levels of students, themed classes taught by professional dancers who attend the festival to network, party, and seek inspiration; a nightly performance showcase with jam sessions, a cutting contest where both amateurs and professionals battle for supremacy and free tap shoes, an all-styles dance battle where hip-hop, tap, and contemporary dancers face off, a midnight cabaret, and a faculty concert in a historic downtown theatre; a feeding frenzy with daily lunches in two seatings for more or less people, and an Easter dinner turned aquavit-laced singalong; and throughout a nightly party beginning around midnight and ending between 3 and 6 am.
The trio and their staff of volunteers have laid down square meters American translation: a whole lot of flooring in two gymnasiums, a movie theatre which doubles as the lunch room, and the cafeteria and assorted classrooms in a nearby school. A theatre and an actual dance studio have no need for additional flooring, and so the dance classes and events spread out over at least 10 rooms in four buildings.
Full disclosure: if it happened after midnight, I missed it. By all accounts the midnight cabaret was a festival highlight, avant-garde performance art mixed in with tap dancing and all sorts of performance delights. Never having been a fan of things that happen late at night involving alcohol, I was happy to escape with my early-to-bed companion the fantastic Sam Weber.
We shut down the hotel bar midway through our first beer on Saturday night at 11pm and felt like some wild middle-aged partiers. I was nonetheless very sorry to miss the festival cabaret.
