Well-Heeled

Tap Kids headline International Children’s Festival

By Janet Rems

Courtesy of New York Stage Originals

Before there was “High School Musical,” there was Tap Kids. The sensation of the 2007 International Children’s Festival, the 10-year-old troupe of young American tap dancers is returning to the festival at Wolf Trap, Sept. 15 to 20.

Featuring a cast of eight—four young men and four young women, ages 17 to 21—Tap Kids arrives fresh from performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival.

“We were anxious to bring them back,” says Scott Fridy, 45, who for the past nine years has been artistic director of the festival, produced by the Arts Council of Fairfax County.

Tap Kids fits perfectly into the festival’s mission, Fridy says. “Young talented people performing for young people. The whole theme is sort of ‘High School Musical’ set to dance.”

Through a series of vignettes, Tap Kids, in a show created by director/choreographer Lisa Hopkins and her partner, composer Philip Stern, tells the story of a group of high school seniors and the challenges they face, “mundane and momentous.”

Says Hopkins, 44, speaking from her New York City office, “They’re phenomenal dancers; they love each other and what they do. So, when they hit the stage, the audience is the recipient of their joy.”

The cast has no trouble identifying with their dance counterparts or young audiences, Hopkins notes. Although many have later gone on to professional careers, when a performance is over, cast members fly home to their respective states and “civilian” kid lives.

During the Festival, Tap Kids will also be leading a master class open to the public and local dance groups at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center, with tickets sold through Wolf Trap.

Joining them at these classes will be the Festival’s other young dancers, from Georgia, Serbia and Spain. “A lot of great things happen backstage, too,” Fridy says.

For more, visit www.internationalchildrensfestival.org or www.tapkids.com.

(September 2009)