Philadelphia Folklore Project presents
Germaine Ingram, Tyrone Brown, Dave Burrell, Rich Mossman, Gerald ‘Twig’ Smith, and Bobby Zankel In Rehearsal

Philadelphia, PA. — The Philadelphia Folklore Project presents a special evening of choreographed, semi-choreographed, improvised and off-the-cuff tap dance by Germaine Ingram, and music by some of the region’s most illustrious jazz artists, as part of the Philadelphia Folklore Project’s Art Happens Here artist residency program, on Friday, May 7, 2004, at 7:30 PM at Indre Recording Studios in South Philadelphia, 1418 S. Darien Street (between 8th and 9th, sound of Reed). Tickets are $10.

Ingram, a noted Philadelphia tap dancer, and recent recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in folk and traditional arts, will be joined by Tyrone Brown (bass), Dave Burrell (piano), Rich Mossman (percussion), Gerald “Twig” Smith (guitar), and Bobby Zankel (saxophone).

The evening will be a chance to see and hear this dancer and these musicians in the process of developing work. "Don’t leave all your dancing in the rehearsal hall,"is a piece of folk wisdom shared by tap dancers. Musicians also caution, "If we rehearse too hard now, we won’t have any juice for the show."On May 7, 2004, Germaine Ingram and a group of stellar musicians will get together and trade music and dance as if in an open rehearsal - but here, no one will need to hold back; artists will be able to explore some pieces with a freedom rarely possible in a more formal setting. The evening will be video recorded as a sample for the artists, and as part of the Philadelphia Folklore Project’s support programs for traditional artists.

Over the last eight years, Germaine Ingram - well known as the student and partner of National Heritage Award-winning Philadelphia tap dance great LaVaughn Robinson - has been developing both solo and group choreography, and her own artistic "voice." She has had opportunities to work increasingly with accomplished musicians. She says, "This has given me a chance to feel myself as an instrument. Also, I've been able to play around with different ways of using my body. It has always been an issue for me, to try to tap in a way that has percussive impact but that lets me move in a dancerly way. Working with really accomplished musicians, it feels as if I have more space, more license to use my body as visual expression, where I am hitting with movement as well as with my feet."

Germaine Ingram came under the spell of jazz tap dance in the early 1980s when she began intensive study with internationally acclaimed tap artist and teacher LaVaughn Robinson. She has pursued tap's call through performance, choreography, teaching, oral history, video-making and stage production for more than twenty years. Since 1985 she has performed with her mentor, Robinson, and as a soloist, and has taught workshops, throughout the United States, Europe and the Caribbean. She has shared bills with tap greats spanning at least three generations, including the late Honi Coles, Jimmy Slyde, the late Buster Brown, the Nicholas Brothers, the late Gregory Hines, Dianne Walker, Brenda Bufalino, Savion Glover and Baakari Wilder. She appeared with Robinson in the Emmy Award-winning public television production "Gregory Hines' Tap Dance in America." She has choreographed solo and ensemble pieces for Manhattan Tap and Washington-based Tappers With Attitude, as well as works for musical theater, and has performed widely. In the early 1990s, Ingram initiated research with the Folklore Project on an oral history project documenting the lives and artistic styles of veteran African American tap dancers in Philadelphia. That endeavor resulted in "Plenty of Good Women Dancers," a 1994 PFP video documentary on African American women tap dancers, for which she was co-director, and which is expected to be released soon. Ingram earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and did post-graduate studies at Harvard University as a Fellow in Law and Humanities. She has been a law professor, a litigation attorney, a civil rights lawyer, the head of a governmental law department, and was Chief of Staff of the 209,000-student School District of Philadelphia. She currently works at Philadelphia Safe and Sound.

Germaine Ingram and friends, In Rehearsal, is the second in the Philadelphia Folklore Project’s "Art Happens Here" spring 2004 artist in residence series.

Friday, May 7, 2004, at 7:30 PM, at Indre Recording Studios, 1418 S. Darien Street.
Tickets are $10, and available through the Philadelphia Folklore Project website (www.folkloreproject.org) or by check to the PFP office, 735 South 50th Street, Phila., PA 19143.

(We were SRO and had to turn people away from our wonderful March 5th event-- so buy tickets now for our May and June events! And mark your calendars: The third and final PFP artist residency program will feature music and dance from South African, Flamenco, Middle Eastern, West African and Afro-Cuban traditions, on Saturday, June 5, 2004, at 7:30 PM, at Indre Recording Studios. Tickets are $10. Please check the Philadelphia Folklore Project website www.folkloreproject.org or call 215.726.1106 for more information.)

Art Happens Here is a special artist residency and development program organized by the Philadelphia Folklore Project, a 17-year-old public interest folklife agency. The Philadelphia Folklore Project affirms the human right to cultural expression and works to protect the rights of people to know and practice traditional and community-based arts. PFP offers public education in the folk arts, develops community projects and documentary resources, and organizes around issues of concern in the field of folk and traditional arts.

Art Happens Here is made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and by Philadelphia Folklore Project members.

For JPEGs, to schedule interviews, or more information contact: Nancy Falkow-Said So PR 215-334-4964, Nancenet@aol.com.

Photo courtesy of the Kimmel Center.