The mission of Measuring Time Dance Collective is to provide a diverse and inclusive space for artists, educators, students and audiences to be enriched by immersing them in the art of tap dancing.  This mission will be accomplished by providing opportunities for artists and educators to create diverse new works including live performances, classes, workshops, and lectures.

Our mission will be accomplished by creating a  full length tap dance work to be presented in July 2025, which will then tour as a combination performance piece and arts education workshop.  Our company will conduct performances, residencies, masterclasses and community outreach through the art of tap dancing. 

Funds raised will go towards creating this full length work, including rehearsal space, artists, original music, and production elements including a 16'x16' sprung maple floor.

Art, culture, and history are tied together.  It makes us think, feel, speak, and respond to events in the world around us.  Oftentimes, art is a pathway to preserving identity in the face of enormous obstacles.  Tap dancing is a prime example. 

In the villages of West Africa history, folklore, and ancestral lineage were contained in the rhythms of the Djembe drum.  This rich musical culture crossed the Atlantic to the plantations of the American South, where enslaved African people continued to preserve their identity through the rhythms of their homeland.  

This tradition took and abrupt turn when the Negro Act of 1740 was passed in the colonial province of South Carolina making it illegal for enslaved people  to own property - including drums.  

Their response was to begin dancing in a percussive way, and beating out rhythms on the ground with their feet.  This developed into Patting Juba, a rhythmic call and response performed in a circle.   Even today tap dancers will stand in a circle and “trade fours,”  a continuation of this tradition nearly 300 years later.

From the deep South, the syncopated rhythms of West Africa made their way to New York City.  In the 1840’s in Manhattan’s Five Points District and young man named William Henry Lane began to attract the attention of first the city, then the United States, then Europe with his spectacular percussive dancing.  

And so tap dancing has continued to be a vehicle by which to speak truth.

Deepest gratitude for the continued support, whether donating, sharing this fundraiser with your community, or talking us up.  It all makes a difference!