West Stockbridge — They Dance For Rain, a collaborative and cross-cultural dance-making project that works with arts-for-social-change organizations and projects in urban Nairobi, Kenya, will hold its third fundraising event on Thursday, April 4, at The Foundry. “Soft Shoe Boom Boom Spin Blue!” is an interactive presentation comprising tap dancing, live painting and music, an “un-silent” auction, and an immersive light show by sculptor Joe Wheaton. The program opens with a performance of “Civil Motions: Scenes of the Familiar and the Absurd,” a tragicomedy by JoJo McDonald and Stefanie Weber.
Fine art photographer Monika Pizzichemi and performing artist JoJo McDonald have directed They Dance For Rain with Pittsfield-based dance artist Stefanie Weber since 2012, partnering with artists and organizations dedicated to sharing tap dance with everyone on Earth. Consider them tap dance evangelists. Seriously: They truly are on a mission, and they report life-changing results from sharing this art form through performance, education, and mentorship.
In the minds of its most dedicated practitioners, tap dancing is the most natural manifestation of joy, which is necessary to human life. But which came first: the chicken, or the egg? The joy, or the dancing? If you ask tap specialist Stefanie Weber, she will tell you that tap dance is a “secret, sonic agent of peace and change,” and that it not only expresses joy, but actually engenders it. In fact, she will confidently assert that tap is one of the best outcomes of American culture, because “percussive dance is ancient, and it connects us to our essence as rhythmic and expressive beings.”
But in Kenya? Tap dance would seem to be a low priority in a country where so many people struggle even to find fresh water. And the group acknowledges that everybody needs water. But they also point out that everybody needs community, collaboration, a way to express themselves—and they need joy. Tap dance addresses all of those needs, and the people of Nairobi get the last word about it: “Our partners in Kenya,” the group says, “have made a connection to tap dance that they are eager to sustain … Collaborators in Nairobi have expressed a strong desire for learning.”
Funding for They Dance For Rain comes from individual donors, as well as grants from the World Hoop Day Fund, Capezio Ballet Makers Dance Foundation, Margaret T. Biddle Foundation, and corporate sponsorship from British Knights. Donations go towards educational programs, performance production costs, transportation, development and manufacturing of tap shoes, and artist stipends.
For more information about They Dance For Rain, visit the group’s fundraising page here.
See “Soft Shoe Boom Boom Spin Blue!” on April 4 at The Foundry, 2 Harris Street, West Stockbridge. Tickets, $28, are available on The Foundry’s website. Seating/bar: 6:30 p.m.; show: 7 p.m. For more information, call (413) 232-5222.
Parking is limited at the venue, so please utilize one of the three public parking lots in town, one across from the Post Office, one behind Berkshire Bank, and one just off Main Street. Whatever you do, don’t park at [Trúc Orient Express Restaurant or the Post Office, unless you want to get a parking ticket.
