"Thinking On Their Feet: Women of the Tap Renaissance" Screening with Q&A

Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Join us for a screening of the feature-length documentary, Thinking On Their Feet: Women of the Tap Renaissance. Following the screening will be a short Q&A session with director Jenai Cutcher.

Thinking On Their Feet documents the women who revolutionized the art of American percussive dance. Determined to keep tap dance alive, they sought out former vaudeville and MGM hoofers and convinced them to return to the stage, forging a place for tap in venues better known for producing ballet and modern dance.

Cutcher discovered tap dance in college, then moved to New York City after graduation and was surprised at how many female tap dancers she encountered in the male-dominated field. In 2005, she began videotaping informal Q&A sessions with some of those women. “I just started shooting. I thought video would be the most accessible to the widest audience,’” says Cutcher.

The film shows intimate portraits of the most influential living women tap dancers emerging from scenes in the studio, personal interviews and conversations, as well as footage of performances and choreography. This film features Brenda Bufalino, Heather Cornell, Lynn Dally, Anita Feldman, Jane Goldberg, Sarah Petronio, Linda Sohl-Ellison, and more. Additional tap artists and historians share their perspectives on the causes and effects of the "Tap Renaissance."

Jenai Cutcher is an MFA candidate in Dance and a recipient of The Ohio State University Presidential Fellowship, the most competitive and prestigious scholarly recognition provided by the Graduate School. She tap dances, writes about dance, teaches dance, and makes dance movies. While based in New York, she performed with Brenda Bufalino, Barbara Duffy, Savion Glover, Derick Grant, Lynn Schwab, Rumba Tap, Ritmico, and Tap City, among others, in venues such as The Joyce Theatre, Symphony Space, City Center, and the Duke on 42nd Street. In Columbus, she has collaborated with many dancers and musicians including Brian Casey and Honk, Wail and Moan, dance professor John Giffin, and percussionist Joe Krygier in Drums Downtown. Thinking On Their Feet is Ms. Cutcher’s first documentary film.

Image: Jenai Cutcher and friend Lynn Schwab film Brenda Buffalino.