Clatsop Community College
1653 Jerome, Astoria OR 97103
For immediate release
Contact: Lenore Morrisson (503) 338-2473
IMAGE ATTACHED

Fifth Annual Tap Festival Celebrates the Importance of Dance
Clatsop Community College’s Arts & Ideas is sponsoring Maddox Dance Studio’s Fifth Annual Tap Festival in celebration of National Dance Week. The Tap Festival will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 5 at the Performing Arts Center in Astoria.

The Maddox Dancers, including the Main Street Tappers, an adult tap group and guest performers from Hollywood Dance Center in Portland, will present tap ranging from Vaudeville to Broadway. A special feature will be a quick tap lesson for all audience members interested in joining the dancers on stage. Maddox Dance Studio faculty members Ron Smith, Alice Thompson and Andrea Kaul will teach the lesson. The finale will be Leonard Reed’s history-making “Shim Sham Shimmy” from the Vaudeville Days!

Traditional tap dancers considered themselves “musicians,” creating complex sounds and rhythms to express their mood, the music and themselves. Tap was passed from dancer to dancer, and, as the late Gregory Hines said, “from friend to friend.” They shared their knowledge with each other and danced for the pure joy of it!

National Dance Week is celebrated across the country to increase awareness of the importance of dance as one of the integral arts in American society. From the beginning of recorded history, dance has served as a meaningful venue for communication, and continues to do so in modern times. Owner and Director of Maddox Dance Studio, Jeanne Peterson, serves as the delegate in Oregon for National Dance Week.

The show is open to the public and will run for about two hours. Tickets are $8 general admission, $6 for students and seniors and $4 for ages 12 and under. The Performing Arts Center is located at 16th and Franklin in Astoria. For more information, call Lenore Morrisson at (503) 338-2473.


ATTACHED IMAGE: Young Tap Dancers perform onstage during a previous Maddox Dance Studio Tap Festival event.