Historically, Tampa was not a beacon for tap dance — at least not like New York City or Los Angeles.
But Ashlyn Bolton is trying to change that.
"I feel like, over the years, and even when I was growing up and a teen kid. The tap dance was very sporadic, and it was spread out. It was never really united in the (Tampa) Bay Area," she said. "It was hard to find someone or something that united all of the areas. Florida is huge, so it makes sense, but also the community was kind of lacking a little bit, and I feel like it's gotten better."
Now, Bolton owns and directs the dance studio Tampa Bay Taps. She took it over from the previous owner, Beth Caprio, a decade ago when she was about 20 years old. A few years later, she brought back the Tampa Bay Taps Festival with a little help from professional tap icons Derick K. Grant and Aaron Tolson.
The festival this past June was her biggest yet.
"People were coming from Australia, and different states (like) Minnesota," Bolton said. "There's just so many dancers who want to learn and want tap dance in their lives. To see them come to Tampa for my festival is just... it's just beautiful."
She also runs three separate dance companies. And her goal is to make tap dance accessible and affordable for anyone who wants to learn — including Sky Lebron, host of WUSF's daily podcast The Bay Blend.
Bolton came out to WUSF's studio to give Lebron a quick tap lesson on the shim sham:
But before Lebron learned to throw down in some of the best tap shoes available (I have to say that because they belong to my brother), she invited us both to hang out at the festival to speak to Tolson and Grant.
Tolson gave Lebron a little advice before he learned to tap dance.
"Go into it knowing that it's going to challenge you, and know that you're going to succeed," he said.
But when it comes to what tap dance means to Bolton, she said Grant couldn't have said it better.
"I think tap dance finds you, you don't find it. I think it's a spiritual calling. I think people tap dance because they have to, not because they want to," he said. "You can't get rich from doing it. You won't get very famous from doing it. So, why on earth would you tap dance. Well, we do it because we don't have a choice. It's in our blood."
Grant and Tolson sat down for an interview at the festival, where they discussed the importance of tap dance, it's roots, and where they think it's going:
"I was about two and a half years old when my mom put me into dance, and of course she claims I was dancing in the womb," Bolton said. She grew up watching the iconic movies with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Shirley Temple, and said she fell in love with the art.
And her goal now is to create a pipeline for tap dancers, from learning to performing, right here in Tampa.
"I want to cultivate those opportunities here, so it's in their back door, and they can afford it, and then be able to attend class or performances, and that's kind of where the company comes in," Bolton said. "I want that to be an option for dancers to see if they even like it, if they want to do it professionally, they have this means to figure that out, if they just want it for fun or whatever, that's fine, that's beautiful, it's a part of their life still, and that they can carry that memory or whatever they felt in the future."
"And if they want to take it for real or seriously or not, it's totally up to them," she added. "But I know that I had a place in their life, whether it's just a helping hand or a sounding board in their life, or it's like, here's the shuffle over the top into the split, like craziness."
Bolton said she envisions Tampa to become a place like New York's Broadway Dance Center or Steps on Broadway.
"My long term (goal) is to have a center in Tampa Bay Taps: center for education for tap dance education," she said. "For the center to hold open classes every day of the week with different teachers, and people can just come in and drop in and take any class, or weekly or daily, whatever they feel."
Bolton has weekly drop-in classes starting back up in September with a rotating teacher schedule. And she'll hold auditions for her companies this August.
