Avant-garde tap dancer Petra Haller is teaming with pianist Meg Morley for a dual music-and-dance performance improvised on the spot for a live audience at Blackburn Hall, National Opera Studio. This unique one-time performance takes place 2pm June 26, 2022, Blackburn Hall as part of the annual summer arts festival Wandsworth Arts Fringe.
Because tap practitioners operate as both dancers and musicians, they develop and possess a singular kind of artistry — one with a rich history on stage and screen. The Haller/Morley collaboration is presented in conjunction with a screening of “Tap Dance History: From Vaudeville to Film,” a documentary charting the growth and evolution of tap as an art form. The audience will gain a clear sense of tap’s place in the worlds of music, dance, entertainment and live performance.
“Petra Haller and Meg Morley Duo” will explore rhythm, space and, most engagingly, how top-tier artists communicate in real-time. Haller and Morley will play off one another to create an experience of both free-wheeling athleticism and highly disciplined technique. They will draw on their combined experience and training, which encompasses jazz, classical styles, and free improvisation.
Haller is a tap dancer based in London. She has studied at Escola Luthier in Barcelona, Europe’s only full-time tap dance school, and at workshops under Jason Samuels Smith, Derick Grant and Andrew Nemr. These mentors taught her the dance style and introduced her to it’s African-American roots — the cultural foundation for all jazz music. She is sucessfully establishing herself in the jazz and improvised music scene and she became the first tap dancer ever named in Jazz Wise Magazine’s “Rising Jazz Artists : Who to look out for in 2020”
“Petra Haller is unique as an improvising tap dancer – a worthy successor to Will Gaines. ” — Oliver Windling, Vortex Jazz Club, Babel Label
Classically trained from the age of two, Melbourne-born, London-based musician Meg Morley was awarded Distinctions by the Australian Music Examination Board for its Associate and Licentiate diplomas in piano. She completed a Masters of Music in classical performance and a Postgraduate Certificate in composition. She studied Jazz improvisation at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Following the performance from Haller and Morley, and after a brief intermission, the audience will further immerse themselves in the legacy of tap through a special history of tap dance documentary. “Tap Dance History: From Vaudeville to Film”, Narrated by tap dancer, Andrew Nemr. The film contains a rare assemblage of original film footage from “soundies” and short films of the 1930s and 1940s. The footage was made available through a private collection preserved by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Viewers will glimpse the talent of tap legends like Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Bill Mahoney, The Berry Brothers, Slick and Slack, along with Juanita Pitts and Stump and Stumpy.
June 26, 2022, at 2 pm at Blackburn Hall.
