Feat x Feet present summer tap performance
<p>Marlow Schulz and Aaron Tolson perform at the O'Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>Guest instructor</strong> Derick Grant leads a group of FeatxFeet dancers through rehearsal on Wednesday at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish. Local students have spent the week dancing with professional tap instructors in a summer workshop, which will culminate with a full show on Friday night.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>Guest Instructor</strong> Aaron Tolson shows the FeatxFeet Junior Company some steps in their routine during a rehearsal on Wednesday.</p>
A taste of tap from New York City is coming to Whitefish on Friday night.
Feat x Feet, Whitefish’s local tap dance studio and company, will perform its annual summer show Friday, June 19, at 8 p.m. at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish. The show caps the company’s summer workshop, which has featured guest instructors Aaron Tolson and Derick Grant.
Tolson and Grant are both professional dancers based in New York City who make the yearly trip to Whitefish to be part of the experience for local students at Feat x Feet.
Tolson, the self-proclaimed “supreme master Jedi” of the tap dancing world, said it was good to be back in the Flathead. This summer marks Tolson’s fourth season instructing with Feat x Feet.
“[The workshop] is just good fun,” Tolson said. “I just can’t say enough about Ashley and this company.”
Ashley Smith is the owner and artistic director for Feat x Feet. She’s been bringing tap professionals to the Flathead for the summer workshop for the past 16 years.
“I love watching the kids get that experience,” Smith said. “It’s going to be a fun show.
“It’s a really amazing coming together of musicians, professionals and our local students all on one stage. It’s very unique and upbeat.”
Grant agreed. “The show is all about the collective — the kids, us, Ashley, the band — everyone coming together to celebrate tap and celebrate music.”
The dancers on Friday will be accompanied by a live band, “Pizzazz 4,” featuring Chuck Martin on drums, Dana Scranton on trumpet and flugelhorn, Jeremy Quick on guitar and Dave Wright on bass. The show will also feature the Feat x Feet Youth Tap Ensemble, Tolson, Grant, and some special alumni guests who are back in town for the event.
One of the alumni guests who will be performing with the company is 2014 Whitefish High School graduate Marlow Schulz. Schultz spent the week assisting during the workshop.
“I’m happy to get to step up into that leadership role,” Schulz said.
Tolson and Grant said that working with students like Schulz is what keeps them coming back to Montana year after year.
“One of the blessings of coming here has been the consistency,” Grant said. “Coming every year and seeing the growth, being part of this community, part of the village raising these kids ... I’m grateful. “Seeing [the students] grow over the years is so cool. It really has become home away from home.”
The students have worked hard during the workshop all week preparing for Friday’s show. But for many of them, tap goes beyond just the experience of the summer.
“I love my tap family and spending time with them,” said company captain Lauren Schulz, 14. “It’s cool to dance with the same people for years and really grow up with them.”
“[The students] are trying to find out who they are as dancers,” Tolson said. “Tap dancing ... allows you to express yourself in any mood. It allows you to express any range of emotions, while also entertaining.”
For the local tap students, the summer workshop is fun and work.
“It’s amazing to learn from [Grant and Tolson],” said ninth-grader and junior company member Aren Alexander-Battee. “Learning the rhythms and creating music ... It’s so much fun.”
Smith said the rhythm will be part of the fun for the audience on Friday as well.
“With our tap floor, it’s like dancing on a drum!” Smith said.
Tickets for the Friday night show are $15 for general admission and $25 reserved seating.
For more information or to purchase tickets, call 406-471-4400 or visit www.featbyfeet.com.
Junior company member Emma Trieweiler adds, “The show’s going to be awesome, tapping is amazing, and you have to come!”
Entertainment editor Stefanie Thompson can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.