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| This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #102 (October / November 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription. |
It could be the sheer excellence of the performance, the difficult and diverse routines, expertly executed by the nine core dancers, under the artistic direction of Eileen Carson. Their touring production, "Incredible Feets," offers styles from Appalachian clogging to step dancing from Canada and Ireland. Then they spice things up with gumboot dancing from South Africa, and make a joyful ruckus with their vaudevillian tribute to recycling titled "Trash Dance." (Yes, plastic bottles make fine percussion instruments!) The choreography may also include ballet, modern dance, jazz, and tap, all thriving in the capable hands (feet) of this knowledgeable company.
Perhaps it's the music — traditional and original material, lovingly researched, arranged, and presented live under the musical direction of Mark Schatz, who is himself is a sort of superstar. Add an outstanding fiddler they call "Baltimore Johnny" and some renowned guest artists. The irresistible recipe is sure to charm the critics and enchant audiences, as it did for Footworks' two theatrical productions, "SoleMates" and "The Crossing."
A sane person might find any number of reasons for the instant appeal of this Annapolis, Maryland-based company. Carson, however, offers another explanation: "To this day, it's the simpler things that audiences respond to," she said, "It's the Yeehaa! factor."
On a mild evening last spring, the non-profit group celebrated 23 years of presenting the multitude of cultures that have mingled to create the American experience. The fundraiser more resembled an intimate house party — a traditional ceili, Carson called it. Among friends, Footworks members demonstrated their other skills: as teachers, instrumentalists, and even composers. While Carson addressed the group, dancers hovered over the buffet table, and Schatz huddled with the musicians around the sound system. Young dancers from the newly formed junior company, an outreach program for children, circulated among the guests.
"There's more to Footworks than what you see onstage," Carson said. "Our mission is to use art to enhance people's lives." Before the evening was over, company members would lure the guests into the performance. Megan Downes and Christine Bolthouse-Galante made the traditional steps seem easy. Schatz and Matthew Olwell taught the art of hambone, and Heidi Kulas led the junior company in a clogging routine. Finally, Carson got everyone to play "Don't Rock the Boat."
Natural and enthusiastic instructors, the dancers can be found on any given day teaching public classes and presenting Footworks' Arts in Education program to schools. Footworks is especially committed to working with youth, Carson told the gathering, and encouraging personal expression and intercultural appreciation wherever they travel. That has always been the shared dream, she said, "We thought we could just get the whole world dancing!"
Carson's vision began long before Footworks was created. Born in Maryland, her family roots were in Tennessee. "My mom was a hillbilly," she said, who could flatfoot and who loved country music. However, she didn't want her daughter to be limited, so she set out to expose her to ballet, music classes, and all manner of live shows.
When Carson was 14, her father, a civil servant, moved the family to Japan. At the army high school she attended, most of her classmates were black, so she developed a deep appreciation for African-American culture. However, the move back to Maryland "was a terrible culture shock." The lingering racial lines of the era meant "I could no longer dance with all my black friends on a daily basis," she said, a difficult situation for a teenager who had "lived for Motown." "I was pretty lost," she recalled. And so, during this identity-seeking period, Carson gravitated to those who were socially concerned and politically aware. At age 17, she attended a bluegrass festival and became hooked on the idea of everyone dancing together and expressing the music. In 1974, at a festival, she met a young dancer named Rodney Sutton, a member of the Green Grass Cloggers. Specializing in Southern clogging and flatfoot, the troupe competed in state festivals for several years. It was there that Carson experienced a plethora of diverse styles and traditions, which the cloggers incorporated into their routines.
"The Philadelphia Folk Festival was the first hip folk festival that invited the Green Grass Cloggers, and I'll never forget the way the audience responded, 'cause they'd never seen it!" Carson recalls. "It changed our lives."
This is an excerpt from an article in Dirty Linen #102 (Oct./Nov. '02). Read the full text in the magazine, available via subscription or on newsstands and in bookstores.
