Tap--and a dancer's quest--explored in "Tap or Die"

"Tap is always 'coming back.' When's it going to get here?"
--Derick K. Grant

"There are a lot of our critics who would like to keep it on the corner. 
They'd like to keep it as folk art."
--Brenda Bufalino

"We've had too many people who we consider heroes die broke."

--Derick K. Grant

On Friday, January 31, meet filmmaker Jackie Paré at the 2014 Dance on Camera festival screening of Tap or Die, an hour-long documentary inspired by Boston-born tap artist Derick K. Grant and his still-unfulfilled mission to bring his celebrated 2006 show, Imagine Tap!, to Broadway.

Warm, vivacious and chock-full of interviews with numerous dance artists and experts, as well as vintage and contemporary performance footage, Tap or Die addresses both the undeniable triumphs and ongoing controversies within the tap dance field. It also makes a lot of fundamental insider stuff accessible and appealing to a broad audience--for instance, how the various parts of tap shoes are used to vary sound and how math is an essential part of the tap equation.

For more information on this screening and the full schedule for the Dance on Camera festival (January 31-February 4), click here.

Tap or Die 

(2013; 62 minutes)

Presented by 

Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association

Friday, January 31 (3:30pm)

Walter Reade Theater
Lincoln Center

165 West 65th Street (near Broadway), Manhattan

(map/directions)

Dance on Camera tickets go on sale:

December 10: Pre-sale for DFA and FSLC Members
December 17: General Public
Purchase tickets on FilmLinc.com