#flat-footing

by Matthew Perlman

The Brooklyn Paper

Originally published here.

This is a good time to get caught flatfooted!

Flatbush Avenue will look and sound like part of the Appalachian trail on Dec. 21, when participatory music festival Make Music New York is inviting all Brooklynites to take part in a flatfooting parade that will begin at Central Library and tap its way to Barclays Center. One of the organizers said he appreciates the irony of the location.

“It’s funny having it here,” said singer and banjo player Nick Horner. “If there’s one place you don’t associate with old-time music it would be Downtown Brooklyn.”

Flatfooting is a percussive folk dance similar to tap that originated in Appalachia. It accompanies a form of repetitive old-time music that is played on instruments such as guitars, fiddles, and banjos. Horner said the dance moves are integral to the songs.

“It’s equal parts dance and percussion,” he said. “You’re actually making music as you do it.”

The flatfooting tradition is very focused on community, Horner said, with people sharing stories and dance moves between ditties. This makes it a good fit for a Make Music event, he added.

“Flatfoot really lends towards Make Music’s mission of bringing people together around music,” he said.

The parade steps off at 2:30 pm, with a workshop beforehand to teach people the dance moves. Fiddler and dancer Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Katie Cohen of Horner’s band the Nick Horner Family will also show folks how to fashion a pair of tap shoes out of an old pair of sneakers. Four musicians will play during the procession, but organizers are encouraging anyone who wants to bring their instruments to jam along.

“The potential for this is incredible,” Horner said.

Later in the evening, there will be an after-party at the Jalopy Theatre in Red Hook, where Roberts-Gevalt and the Nick Horner Family will perform while participants flatfoot and square dance the night away.

“Flat Foot Flatbush” starting in Grand Army Plaza Park (corner of Prospect Park West and Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights, www.makem‌usicn‌y.org). Dec. 21 at 2:30 pm. Free.

Pre-parade workshop at Central Library (10 Grand Army Plaza between Eastern Parkway and Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights). Dec. 21 at 1 pm. Free.

Flatfoot Flatbush Show at the Jalopy Theatre [315 Columbia St. between Hamilton Avenue and Woodhull Street in Red Hook, (718) 395–3214,www.jalop‌y.biz. Dec. 21 at 7 pm. Free, but donations encouraged.

This campaign will raise money to pay for a new heater and a winter's worth of heating oil for 91-year-old flatfoot dancing legend Robert Dotson. The remaining funds will go into the Robert Dotson Scholarship Foundation (RDSF), started by the Green Grass Cloggers to honor Robert. This scholarship is to be awarded yearly to an aspiring percussive dancer to attend dance workshops at the Swannanoa Gathering Old-Time Week. 

This "Fun" Raiser kicks off with a dance celebrating Robert and his Walking Step. The dance will be held Sunday, October 12, from 2-5pm at the Old Cove Creek School Gym in Sugar Grove, NC. It features three great old-time bands - Laurel Creek, The Cork Lickers and the New Southern Ramblers. The Green Grass Cloggers will also be dancing. Please join us in the beautiful mountains near Boone, NC, during the height of the fall foliage colors, for an afternoon of flatfooting and square dancing. The celebration is FREE, but donations for this campaign will be accepted. Please note - NO TAPS on the gym floor!

Robert Dotson is the source of the Walking Step, a flatfoot step that the Green Grass Cloggers deciphered from his dancing in 1978. This Appalachian percussive flatfoot step changed the way the Green Grass Cloggers improvised in their freestyle step-dancing.  Since that time, Dotson's Walking Step  has been shared by the Green Grass Cloggers and the Fiddle Puppet Dancers (now Footworks) in performances and workshops throughout the US and overseas and has continued to influenced legions of percussive dancers throughout the world. 

Date Posted: Friday, August 23, 2013

Originally posted here.

ELKINS - Davis & Elkins College will launch a new dance program beginning with the fall semester, and has selected Emily Oleson, assistant coordinator for Augusta Heritage Center’s Dance Week for the past seven years and founding member of Good Foot Dance Company, to lead the project.

Oleson will serve as Program Coordinator for Dance and Assistant Professor of Dance in the Fine and Performing Arts Department. Adjunct Instructor of Dance Laurie Goux and Adjunct Instructor Matt Kupstas will also instruct courses in the program.

“I am terribly excited to join the faculty at Davis & Elkins College,” Oleson says. “I love the mission statement of the College and the emphasis on social responsibility and global citizenship. I love the fact that the administration is open to new ideas and experimentation. I have encountered a real culture of listening and problem solving to a degree in which I've never had the privilege of participating before.”

The mission of the D&E Dance Program is to support students in developing and nurturing a sustainable, socially responsible and life-long dance practice for their own holistic well-being and for the health of their community. Students will engage in rigorous technical training and theoretical inquiry, and have the opportunity to perform, choreograph, compete, produce and teach dance.

Three emphases will be offered for dance majors – Sustainable Dance, American Vernacular Dance and Contemporary/Postmodern Dance.  Students selecting a minor in Dance must complete 18 credit hours of dance curriculum.

Oleson attended the Dance Works Showcase at D&E in May and met with some members of the D&E Dance Club and dance students.

“There seems to be much more of a focus on the individual, which is so rare and special,” Oleson says. “Students are recognized by name and not a long number. All the students I have met are wonderful, seem to have empowered attitudes about themselves and the world, and seem genuinely enthusiastic about D&E – that makes me so happy to be joining the community.”

Oleson, along with her husband, Matthew Olwell, serves as co-artistic director of Good Foot Dance Company. Established in 2005, the company ranges from a percussive traditional dance theater trio into a collective that performs with traditional musicians of various styles.  Since its inception, Good Foot has appeared at festivals, produced semi-annual dance concerts, and provided lecture demonstrations, workshops, summer camps and other educational opportunities in central Virginia and beyond.

Oleson is also one of several Artistic Directors with Urban Artistry, a collective of interdisciplinary artists pursuing a broad and authentic practice of urban dance, music, poetry and visual art.

Oleson earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance in 2012 from University of Maryland, where she danced for many excellent choreographers including Pearsonwidrig Dance Theater, Gesel Mason and Liz Lerman. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Dance with a dance concentration and minor in French from James Madison University in 2004.

At Augusta Heritage Center, Oleson instructed Afrolachian Roots of American Vernacular Dance in 2011 and 2010, and Hip Hop Dance from 2008 to 2011. She has taught at various other workshops and camps in the United States and Canada including Boxwood Flute Camp in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; Blue Ridge Irish Music School in Charlottesville, VA; and Lake Eden Arts Festival in Black Mountain, NC.

She has choreographed nearly a dozen works and also has experience in other areas of performing arts including lighting design, set and costume design, and stagecraft.

Among Oleson’s other performances are appearances with The Chieftains, Lunasa, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops; in Performatica, a dance festival in Cholula, Mexico; Apollo’s Fire at Cain Park in Cincinnati, OH; and with Malcolm Dalglish at Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda, MD.