News Release
January 1999
The Moravian College Music Institute announced that Tap
Team Two & Co. will perform "An Evening of Tap" on Friday,
January 29, at 8:00 p.m. in Foy Concert Hall. Tap Team Two & Company
will present a program that incorporates the old form of hoofing (street
tap dance) with the toe tapping and foot stomping of the Irish jig along
with African rhythms. The result is an innovative and exciting tap dance
show. The company uses sounds made by their feet to form an orchestra,
with each dancer being a different instrument, creating many colors
and moods.
The Philadelphia-based Tap Team Two & Company, Inc.
began in 1988 as the Young Audience Program. The company later became
incorporated as a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving tap
dance as an art form. The company has been rewarded for its excellence
in education through the support of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund,
Bolfinger-McMahon Foundation, Douty Foundation, The Quaker Chemical
Foundation, The Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, and the New Impulses
for the University of the Arts.
The artistic director of Tap Team Two is Robert F. Burden,
Jr. He received his BFA in Jazz Dance from the University of the Arts
in 1988 and studied with LaVaughn Robinson and Germain Ingram. Mr. Burden
received an Independent Performing Artist Award from the Community Education
Center in 1992. He was recognized as a Discipline winner in 1996 by
the Pew Foundation. He has also been awarded the PRDI by the Pew Charitable
Trusts in conjunction with Dance USA and the Philadelphia Dance Alliance.
In 1997, he received the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Award for
Emerging Dance Choreographer.
Tap Team Two & Company, An Evening of Tap, will be
held in Foy Concert Hall at Moravian College’s Church Street Campus,
Church and Main streets in Bethlehem. General admission to the performance
is $12. Admission is $10 for LVAIC members, and $8 for senior citizens.
For more information, contact the Moravian College Music Department
at (610) 8611650.
What people are saying about Robert F. Burden Jr. &
Tap Team Two & Company, Inc.
Burden virtuosity reminds me of an Art Blakey solo.
His steps make noises like the different timbres of the bass snare,
trapdrums & cymbals… City Paper May 1996
Burden … fast feet and genuine manner brought
down the house in a recent Next Move performance. Philadelphia Weekly
May 1997
Burden… calls tap a form of percussion with musical
credits attributed to his feet and the body …Solo rhythm posits
dance that speaks for itself… Philadelphia Weekly February 1997
Tap Team Two has already made its mark on dance tradition
… with novel & innovative approach to tap. Philadelphia
News Observer May 1997
…. Pieces composed are as lyrical and layered
as a jazz band's music… City Paper 1996
….Update tap dance with club dance moves, sitcom
chatter and youth culture take on the world… Philadelphia Inquirer
1996
Tap Team Two….performed the most hip-hop tap of
the evening. Philadelphia Inquirer 1997
They educate as they entertain and are high on the fun
factor … Seven Arts March 1997
Best of School Assembly…Philadelphia Magazine
August 1996
