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Transcription: [00:46:34]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"} Let's have a big hand, please, for Ellison [Ellison Thomas] and Richie [Richie Thomas] with the Disco Queens and Kings!
[00:46:38]
Ellison and Richie and the rest of the group are performing on the main performance area every day
[00:46:44]
in the morning review between 11 and 1, and then later in the afternoon, shortly after 1 o'clock.
[00:46:50]
{SILENCE}
[00:46:58]
In a workshop on the tap dancing tradition and its evolution from the streets of Philadelphia, in this case
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through the professional stage to the point where
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master tapper LaVaughn Robinson is now teaching tap traditions
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in Philadelphia, the very steps which he learned at age 7 on the street.
[00:47:17]
It'll be just a few minutes as we get all the dancers here
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[chuckle] and the presenter, the most important person who is yet to make it over to the stage
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so if you'll bear with us for just two or three minutes, the next workshop will be on
[00:47:29]
tap dancing traditions from Philadelphia.

[00:47:33]
{Speaker 2}: Thank you.

[00:47:37]
{Speaker 1}: [[?]] we need to do since I apparently am now stuck with the tap dance workshop as well.

[00:47:42]
Though it is a joy to work with these people, it just means that I don't get this half hour off.

[00:47:48]
What I'm going to do, we need to draw some people over here.

[00:47:51]
Everybody who's out there, standing around. You can hear me way back sitting at the tables over there

[00:47:56]
Looking at the food. Gather around, gather around.

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We're about to do a workshop that is both entertaining, educational and erudite.

[00:48:03]
That's right, the 3 E's all gathered together.

[00:48:06]
We're about to do a workshop on tap dancing traditions in Philadelphia.

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Now a lot of you come to the stages here, you come to the Folk Life festival

[00:48:14]
And you're able to say "I saw a lot of great traditional entertainment."

[00:48:19]
But what we want to do is do a little more than merely entertain.

[00:48:23]
If you see the dancers working the main stage you get an idea of their skill

[00:48:27]
You get a feel for their artistry. What we would like to do though is let you get a little bit inside their heads.

[00:48:35]
To understand a little bit of the tradition that they represent, how they fit into broader traditions of African American artistry.

[00:48:42]
More particularly, how they fit into traditions of entertainment, traditions of traditional artistry in the Philadelphia community.

[00:48:50]
That's right. Gather around. You don't need to stand out here because there are great seats up here, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:48:56]
They feel real fine and it's a lot easier to sit than to stand.

[00:49:00]
So come on in. We've got with us sitting on the stage three tap dancers.

[00:49:05]
I'm going to introduce the eldest first. Master tapper LaVaughn Robinson in the center.