THE FLOOR

On the artistic relationship between tap dance and the floor.

“The floor is our instrument. I think of the floor as our instrument even more than our shoes, which might sound surprising. But I think that my shoes have more to do with the articulation of my voice, while the floor is my fundamental instrument. The floor is also what we commune with… the floor is everything.”

THE CONSTRUCTION

On the glamorous part: the build and the materials. What tap dance needs from a floor.

“All the things I will list right now are very important. It must be hardwood [floor]. Hardwood is important for both tone and vibration. The floor also has to be sprung, so we’re not damaging our bodies from feet to spinal cord. It’s also important that it’s seamless. Partly because slide technique is such an important language in tap dance. But also because the edge of a tap is so sharp, so fine, that if there is a little bit of a seam, a tap will find that seam. That is a trip, that is a potentially career-ending injury.”

THE MAGIC

On the healing power of percussive dance.

“As much as I love the freedom of exploring my voice as a solo dancer, there is rarely a better feeling than being in an ensemble of percussive dancers. It’s healing. It’s magical. Laying your body bare and making that music. It’s so special.

These percussive forms are infused with joy. They have healing and joyful frequencies. They are visceral and tangible. They have no prescribed age, or body type, or gender. These forms honor elders. They’re forms for the people.

I can’t imagine not prioritizing creating spaces for their practice. I mean, how dare we not prioritize this?”

“[Percussive dance] is school. It’s everything at once. It is history. It is art. It is anthropology. It is identity. We carry so many fields of study inside the way these forms are passed on, and expressed, and shared. There’s a deep reverence here that doesn’t exist in a lot of others. A reverence and a universality.”

THE ROOT

On what lies at the crux of the percussive space crisis.

“Why would the most magical, healing practice be marginalized? I hate to continue to come to the answer that it’s by design. But it is… It is institutionalized racism, whether or not the institutions see it as such. It is a cultural elitism that these forms are not supported, and that it is not worth it to them to even maintain a floor for percussive dance.”

THE DISCONNECT

On moving to New York at 17, and the shock she experienced at the exclusion of tap dance.

“I grew up in a really special time, in what people call the tap dance renaissance. We were a group of young folks that were being influenced by the last elders of the jazz generation. Then, I moved to New York City. Before I arrived, you never could have told me that we were barred from dancing in most dance spaces. Especially knowing that the bedrock of so much of Broadway, of so much of New York’s culture is tap dance. It really blew my mind over the course of time.”

For more on Michelle’s early artistic years navigating New York, stay tuned for Part 2.