Soul 2 Sole Festival Taps Out 

In 2024, Tapestry Dance Company’s motivations were high. The local arts nonprofit had just booked venues and opened ticket sales for its 25th annual Soul 2 Sole International Tap Festival, an initiative started by Tapestry co-founders and dancers Acia Gray and Deirdre Strand to bring together the best of the tap community for a week of workshops, performances, and ideation in the heart of Austin. 

Soul 2 Sole was among the oldest tap festivals in the world. Tapestry’s other educational and community programs, long supported by continued funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, were booming. 

Then, the funding stopped. 

Many arts organizations around the country had to cancel events, programs, and even shut their doors altogether due to the sudden shift – a result of federal budget cuts to arts institutions under President Trump. Without warning, Tapestry Dance was forced to cancel its anniversary event. 

“It was really scary to get a grant pulled out from under your feet weeks after the event was scheduled,” Gray says. “It was devastating.” 

In addition to funding cuts, Gray explains that the Austin tap market had become “oversaturated” in recent years, making it harder to compete and straining the industry. 

“Tap dance is exploding,” she says. “It’s very exciting because the art form is being exposed … but [it’s] a frustrating time to be a tap dance festival producer.”

Funding cuts and tap’s “renaissance” contributed to Gray’s decision to close out the festival – but not without a final farewell. The organization rallied supporters, dancers, and the community to host the upcoming 25th anniversary festival, June 17-21, which will be the last for the legacy institution. 

Like former festivals, this year will offer a variety of tap workshops and sessions for students and masters from across the globe to collaborate on technique and artistry. Those begin June 17 at Tapestry Dance’s 2015 E. Riverside headquarters and run through the entire festival. A participants showcase, featuring live music from the Soul 2 Sole Jazz Trio, takes over the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center on June 19, and a faculty performance featuring solos and improv takes place in the same theatre the following night.  

“If you’ve never seen jazz tap improv in a professional setting, you’ve not experienced true tap dance,” says Gray. “Each night will be a celebration of the spirit that has driven Soul 2 Sole for 25 years. It’s an opportunity for audiences to experience the depth, joy, and artistry of tap one more time on the Long Center stage.” 

The festival represents a culmination of decades of tap expertise and evolution, says dancer Dianne Walker, a longtime friend of Gray who has participated in the festival for its entire run. She believes tap is unique because “it’s not only visual – it’s musical. When you control the music that you’re making with your feet, you have this huge empty palate that you can fill and create in.” 

This makes it especially satisfying and accessible to all thanks to its freedom of expression and experimentation, regardless of age or experience. “When you put on those shoes and start making noise, you did something beautiful,” she says. 

While Walker acknowledges that this marks the “end of an era” for Austin’s festival scene, she is confident about the new generation of dancers that will bring tap dance into the future and chooses to celebrate how much she and others have accomplished over the last quarter century. 

“We will pat each other on the back to remind each other of how much work has been done and how successful it’s all been.”

Though Soul 2 Sole is ending, Tapestry Dance will continue its dance programming, which will include salons, monthly Tap Jam sessions, and lessons from faculty and guest artists. For Gray and others, this farewell festival opens the door for future undiscovered opportunities. 

“The idea behind Soul 2 Sole is still going to live on,” she says. 

The final Soul 2 Sole International Tap Festival takes place June 17-21 at Tapestry Dance Company and the Long Center. 

The post Soul 2 Sole Festival Taps Out  appeared first on The Austin Chronicle.