Feet Keep the Beat Brings Flamenco, Step, and Tap to the Adams Theater

Saturday, September 12 and 13 | Adams, MA

Feet Keep the Beat, the annual multicultural percussive dance festival developed at Arts at the Armory in Somerville, brings its touring showcase to the Adams Theater on September 12. The performance gathers a collective of dancers and musicians working in step, flamenco, tap, and other percussive traditions, exploring how rhythm has carried movement, history, and culture across centuries and continents. A special artist talkback follows the performance immediately.

The festival's home edition at the Armory has built a real following over four years, pairing artists from wildly different traditions on a single stage—kathak dancer Ariaki Dandawate alongside step dancer Lekisha Limage, flamenco guitarist Antonio Tran, and West African percussionists. Arts at the Armory Co-Director and CEO Stephanie Scherpf, who created the festival, has describes that the forms brought together almost all trace back to histories of oppression and marginalization, and putting them in conversation with each other creates both a model for intercultural exchange and, in her words, "a chance for rhythmic fireworks and innovation to emerge." This year's performance centers on a newly commissioned evening-length work, "Roots & Wings: The Next Generation," built around performers sharing the stage with their own children and students, adding an element of exploration of how these dance forms pass from one generation to the next.

The weekend continues Sunday, September 13 at 11am with a free, all-levels community workshop on the Adams Theater stage, teaching footwork, rhythm, and the cultural roots of percussive movement directly from company artists, including step instruction led by Lekisha Limage.

Adams Theater, 10 Park Street, Adams, MA. Tickets for the performance at ci.ovationtix.com; free workshop tickets at ci.ovationtix.com.