Philly Tap Teaser - An Evening of Tap Dance and Jazz Music - Celebrates 10th Show

PHILADELPHIA - Sept. 16, 2013 - PRLog -- Philadelphia, PA (September 16, 2013):  The tenth installment of Philly Tap Teaser, an evening of tap dance and jazz music, will be presented on November 2, 2013, 8:00 pm, at LaRose Jazz Club, 5531 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA.  Produced by Take It Away Dance Productions, and directed by professional tap dancer and choreographer Pamela Hetherington, the concert will feature a dynamic line-up of Philadelphia tap dancers, along with live jazz accompaniment by drummer, Robert H. Henderson, pianist, Paul Pelusi and bassist, Nimrod Speaks.  General admission tickets are $20, and students, senior citizens and children under age 10 can purchase discounted tickets for $10.

Founded in 2008, Philly Tap Teaser is a bi-yearly performance series for tap dancers and jazz musicians.  “I founded the Tap Teaser series in 2008 to give tap dancers and jazz musicians a consistent performance opportunity and to provide a way to rebuild audiences for tap and jazz music,” says Hetherington. “Tap dance and jazz music are both improvisational art forms that ‘grew up’ together over the past several decades.  Philly Tap Teaser is important because it keeps these two synergistic art forms alive for audiences.”  Over the course of almost six years and nine successful performances, Philly Tap Teaser has showcased 90 tap artists and 20 jazz musicians.  Philly Tap Teaser was the 2011 recipient of a grant from Dance/UP & the Barra Foundation and is a member of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

On November 2, 2013, the series will celebrate its tenth show at Germantown’s LaRose Jazz Club, a 125-seat venue, which is easily accessible by public transportation and offers ample free parking.  Although the time has flown since the first show in 2008, Hetherington notes, “Producing this show is a labor of love, and it wouldn’t have continued without dedicated audience members, supporters and of course, the dancers and the musicians who believed in the show from the very beginning.”  A fantastic mix of tap dancers will join the bill for the evening, including master hoofers Robert F. Burden, Jr., Darrell Williams, and Nicole Kostura Hockenberry.  Hetherington’s pick-up company, Take It Away, will also perform a tap suite to Thelonious Monk tunes.  Appealing to jazz music lovers across the Delaware Valley, the rhythm section of Henderson, Pelusi and Speaks will also perform beloved jazz standards throughout the evening.

Hetherington, a Northeast Philadelphia native, joined Philadelphia tap company, Tap Team Two & Company, in 1996, at the age of sixteen, and was a principle dancer with the company for fifteen years.  Since 2004, Pam has directed, performed in and choreographed for a number of tap dance and jazz music projects in Philadelphia and Charlottesville, VA, including Philly Tap Teaser, a tap and jazz music performance series, a bi-yearly community master class series, and her own project-based, pick-up dance company called Take It Away.

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Tap Teaser 10: An Evening of Tap Dance and Jazz Music

November 2, 2013

8:00 pm

LaRose Jazz Club

5531 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA

$20; $10 students, seniors, and children under 10

Advance tickets: please visit phillytapteaser.ticketleap.com.