On Saturday, 16 years after she moved her Knock On Wood Tap Dance Studio out, Yvonne Edwards was back in a studio at the Takoma Metro Arts building on Willow Street.
As movers rolled in office supplies and square pieces of dance floor, Edwards and other members of the group’s Board of Directors spoke of a trying past four months. Knock On Wood, the only studio in the area and one of the few remaining in the country dedicated exclusively to rhythm tap, ended all classes and programs at the end of March because of budget shortfalls.
Edwards, 77, and her staff will begin a fall session of tap lessions in the same place the Knock On Wood studio started in 1993, keeping alive an art form they’ve been teaching for almost two decades.
“So far a lot of my dreams have come true, because it’s still going,” said Edwards, who area tap dancers know as the “Tap Lady.”
Shrinking enrollment and fewer opportunities for grant funding forced the board, led by President Ruth Silverstein, to seek a new location with lower rent and better accessibility. Knock On Wood was located in Downtown Silver Spring since 1995.
“It's just ironic, because we had certain things that we desired,” Silverstein said. “We were looking for some place with lower rent that was metro accessible, parking accessible, kid-friendly, family-friendly and then this came up. The stars were aligned.”
The Tappers With Attitude Youth Ensemble, an award-winning, jazz tap group that Edwards co-founded with Renee Kreithen in 1991, has been inactive since 2010. That group produced alumni such as Baakari Wilder, the Maryland native and renowned tap dancer and actor who studied under tap legend Gregory Hines.
With its new studio space, Knock On Wood will host its new group, Capitol Tap, under the direction Lisa Swenton-Eppard and artistic direction of Wilder.
“I’m just blessed to be this age and still be dealing with these very young people,” Edwards said.
While many dance studios offer classes in rhythm tap, there are just a handful that focus exclusively on the genre. As opposed to Broadway tap, which is more identified with Broadway theater and other forms of dance, rhythm tap is more focused with jazz. Board member Debbie Grossman, whose daughter started at Knock On Wood a few years ago, said she was referred to the studio by another dance teacher because of its reputation.
The board is taking a grassroots approach to attracting old and new students of all ages to its new location, using Facebook and an improved website to market its fall schedule, which begins Sept. 19. Board secretary Penny Passikoff and Silverstein said they’d like to grow the program into about 14 classes of eight to 10 students.
Saturday, Board Treasurer and Knock On Wood alumnus Dana Bynum and Board Vice President Michael Lutzky helped piece together the first sections of floor. The group hopes to repaint the walls in the main studio, which is lined by a mirror on one wall and adjacent to two smaller studio spaces and an office.
Edwards’ dream would be for Knock On Wood to one day own its own building, with plenty of studio space and an performance auditorium in the middle. For now, though, she’s more than happy with keeping the tradition going.
“That’s one of my mottos,” Edwards said. “Keep tap alive.”
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