Visiting School Days

Each Fall, Tapology kicks off Festival Weekend with excitement! That is 700 + elementary through high school students from Flint Public Schools for Visiting School Days. For 10 years we have provided arts exposure and physical activity with this extremely popular program in which schools are chosen to participate on a first come, first served basis.

Registration for this project is facilitated by Flint Public Library.

Activities for students consist of a fast paced day filled with learning opportunities as follows:

• Introductory tap dance workshop taught by visiting artists
• Historical presentation by historian/curator/photographer Daniel Dawson or Dianne Walker, world renowned dancer, performer, educator.
• Brown bag lunch
• Mini concert performance in FIM's recital hall

Volunteers are important in helping this portion of the program to run smoothly by monitoring rooms, the luncheon activities and directing groups through the rotations.

To volunteer, click here. 

Outreach

Tapology has developed programming that serves the community's youth on a year round basis. Outreach programs teach in economically challenged neighborhoods developing skills and self confidence in students who would not be able to take advantage of structured lessons.

Groups of students vary to from 10 – 30 at each location. Students are loaned shoes for classes from the Tapology shoe bank (a collection of outgrown or gently used shoes donated by parents, studios or dancers).

Murals for Flint

Frances BradleyThe visual arts project, Murals for Flint, begins in August of 2012. It's goal is to: use instruction in visual arts as a means to provide at risk youth with a culturally defined mission to find the pride in their heritage; then give them a means to demonstrate that pride in mural projects that will also beautify the City of Flint and exhibit the diversity of talent in its youth.

Coordinated by Frances Bradley, Visual Imaging Director for the Tapology Festival.

Her artwork has been used on T-Shirts, brochures and advertising media. It has been a colorful delight to dancers and art lovers throughout the festival years. During the 2010 Festival season, two art exhibits featuring Frances' works were held in conjunction with the dance festival highlighting the historical component of tap. Just returned from a humanitarian trip to Bamako, Mali- West Africa, where she used art instruction to help abused and homeless youth from a project she founded called, The Murals for Mali Project; Frances has received the Share Art Mini Grant through the Greater Flint Arts Council to use the same practice to give a number of Genesee County youth outlets for talent and alternatives to street violence and other crime over the school year.

Apply to participate

Walker/Collins Project

Walker/Collins Project is a unique program that is creating an authorized library of routines that will be taught to future generations through Tapology.

The project collaborator is Dianne "Lady Di" Walker, who coaches Tapology faculty on the professional routines developed by herself and her late mentor Leon Collins. Students are hand-picked to participate in this project and appear on stage performing the routines in the fall Tapology Concert.