Heighten your senses with Leslie Elkins@foursome performance and Tap Team Two. Leslie Elkins@foursome performance will accentuate transitional spaces in Embracing the Liminal. Tap Team Two will showcase vibrant sounds in Cadence of Color. Get ready to feel provocative images, see in-between states, and hear color spectra.

$25 / 90 minutes

Foursome performance is a collaborative arts ensemble in Philadelphia. As a founding member, Leslie Elkins served as producer and featured performer in Foursome’s American Trilogy: The Pursuit of Happiness during the 2007-2009 Philadelphia Fringe Festivals. Creating and performing with original members Grace Mi-He Lee, Jeff Prall, and Darcy Sebright, Foursome presented their idle/idol/idyll trilogy: We’ll Be With You Shortly… (2007), Who Made You Boss? (2008), and Love Is In The Air: What’s That Smell? (2009). Foursome continues to pursue creative projects with a variety of artists. Embracing the liminal, our current project, brings together a diverse team of established artists including Heidi Barr (costume designer), Leslie Elkins (choreographer/director), Elizabeth Gutierrez (dramaturge), and Jeff Warden (photographer) with emerging artists Michelle Campbell (dancer) and Jayce Williams (composer/musician). Drawing attention to transitional states, we are attempting to organize change from chaotic upheavals to perpetual transformations, lingering in between, and embracing the liminal. Robert F. Burden Jr. and Troy McLaughlin originally created Tap Team Two (TTT) and when Troy stepped down, Arthur Leo Taylor became Robert’s new partner. They made TTT into a thriving Philadelphia-based company, and with theatrically-based shows such as CyndiElla and The Nuttapper, TTT is sought after all over the US. Currently Tap Team Two and Company consists of 7 dancers and a Junior Company. The company utilizes Hoofing, the original style of tap dance, as a means to educate audiences on the history of tap. Hoofing is an American art form that evolved from the roots of Irish clogging, African dance, and street and social dances of the early 20th century. Sounds made by the feet are the “voices” or instruments of the performers, forming an “orchestra” capable of expressing a variety of moods, colors, and poetry of movement. Performing mainly a cappella pieces, TTT demonstrates how tap can be used as a way to create music. In 1997, Arthur stepped down and Corinne Karon became Robert’s 3rd partner and Executive Director of the company. Corinne is celebrating her 25th year with the company and also shares the artistic development with Robert. Tap Team Two has performed in every major dance venue in Philadelphia such as the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the first series of Dance Boom, “2000 Feet – A Celebration of World Dance,” and Dance USA’s “Dance in Public Places” (2012 & 2014). For many years TTT hosted “National Tap Dance Day,” bringing some of the pioneers of tap dance to the city. During the 2000-2001 season, TTT became the #1 Artist in the country from the National Trustees of Young Audiences with their assembly program “Hoofin’ In America. During that time TTT was performing for 18 of the 32 Young Audience chapters throughout the country.

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