
{"id":10133,"date":"2010-04-22T12:13:03","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T20:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=10133"},"modified":"2010-04-22T12:24:38","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T20:24:38","slug":"tap-into-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/04\/22\/tap-into-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Tap into Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY KATE GRIESMANN<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take long for Elizabeth Burke to get hooked on tap dancing. When she was 6 years old, her mother took her to a performance of the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble (NCYTE) at the Carolina Theater. After the show, the enamored Burke turned to her mother and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have to do that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c find out how.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Twelve years later, Burke is one of NCYTE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eight graduating seniors, and, with 11 years under her belt, the longest-tenured member in the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history. <\/p>\n<p>Burke will be one of 37 NCYTE performers taking the stage in this weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s season-ending performances at the Carolina Theater. Titled Mass Appeal, the show features pieces that cover a wide variety of dance and music styles. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter who you are, you can come to the show and find something you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll enjoy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Burke, who, along with the other seniors in the group has served as a production coordinator for the show by organizing everything from rehearsals to costumes and lighting. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mass Appeal is a real fun romp through the percussive dance world,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d agreed NCYTE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s artistic director and founder Gene Medler. Music for the show ranges from Beethoven to Michael Jackson, with lots in between. The performance will be accompanied by a live Jazz quartet with contributions by dancers. <\/p>\n<p>Guest artists Michelle Dorrance and Martin \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tre\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Dumas have contributed to the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choreography and will join NCYTE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s performers on stage. Dorrance, a Chapel Hill native and NCYTE alumna, is currently on tour with the world-renowned percussive dance and movement show STOMP.<\/p>\n<p>Medler started NCYTE in 1982 with a group of just 10 dance students. As the organization grew, Medler kept it moving toward two goals: to preserve the history of tap and percussive dance and explore contemporary choreography. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were on the crest of the wave of the renaissance of tap dancing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Medler. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are lots of people out there doing fantastic stuff.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Over the years the group has expanded to include dancers from across the state and it is now regarded as one of the best youth tap ensembles in the country. Medler credits his dancers for a lot of the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success, adding that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The hardest obstacle is people having the wrong idea of what to expect.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d NCYTE is not full of top hats and Shirley Temple tapping, he cautions; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s high-energy entertainment. <\/p>\n<p>During the school year, as well as in the summer, NCYTE travels around the state and the world. Burke lists Finland, Mexico and Germany among the places she has performed. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re fortunate in this area because the schools are very open-minded,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Medler. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They see this as a very valuable life experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>For Burke, being a part of NCYTE has certainly been valuable \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and life changing. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nurtured my love for the art form,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says the Chapel Hill High School senior who hopes to be a professional dancer one day. Though excited about the show and her future plans \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she will attend Marymount Manhattan College in the fall \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Burke can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help being a little sentimental about the end of her NCYTE career. <\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10137\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10137\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/04\/22\/tap-into-dance\/tap2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10137\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/TAP2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"TAP2\" width=\"500\" height=\"799\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/TAP2.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/TAP2-93x150.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/TAP2-70x113.jpg 70w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/TAP2-187x300.jpg 187w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/TAP2-50x80.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10137\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO BY KATE GRIESMANN.  NCYTE members Michael Cunningham, Breanna Polascik, Amanda Hickey and Katie Taylor land a jump at one of the groups\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 final rehearsals before this weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s performances of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mass Appeal.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take long for Elizabeth Burke to get hooked on tap dancing. When she was 6 years old, her mother took her to a performance of the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble (NCYTE) at the Carolina Theater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":10137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10133"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10140,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions\/10140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}