Mayur Dance Company: Anjali-An Offering

Friday, May 3 at 7:30 pm

Takoma Park Community Center  

7500 Maple Avenue

Free Performance    

With intricate rhythmic footwork, lyrical movements, and elaborate costumes, the dancers of the Mayur Dance Company perform classical dances from the ancient Odissi tradition inspired by ancient Sanskrit texts and Hindu temple carvings in India.

Odissi dance, which explores religious stories and ideas emanating from the Indian state of Orissa, was suppressed during British colonial rule but has remerged since India’s independence in popular performances that merge traditional dance, music, and poetry drawn from ancient Sanskrit literature.

The Mayur Dance Company will hold a free performance on May 3 at the Takoma Park Community Center as part of the City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts series. No tickets or reservations are required, and donations will be accepted. Limited parking is available in the police station parking lot at the Community Center or at Piney Branch Elementary School next door.

“We seek to celebrate cultures from across the world in our Takoma Park Arts events wo we’re proud to host the Mayur Dance Company in their first and only performance in Takoma Park,” said the City’s Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith. “We hope this performance will attract a new audience to experience an ancient dance tradition.”

Starting as young as 4 years old, students in Mayur’s classes progress in their training with the most talented students joining the professional dance company. Founded in 2008 in Potomac, the group has performed at the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, the Smithsonian, the International Odissi Festival in India, and many other venues. You can learn more at mayurdance.org.

In their performance in Takoma Park, the dancers will share both classical and contemporary Odissi dances with protracted hand gestures, distinctive postures, and nuanced torso movements. The dancers depict and embody the physical and spiritual attributes of various Hindu deities and tell stories about them from South Asian folklore and Hindu mythology, said Mishka Mukherji, Mayur’s assistant artistic director and a company dancer.

“We find the Odissi vocabulary is so rich and expressive that this dance form invites us to explore and expand the visual and narrative possibilities with more varied points of view,” Mukherji said.

The company’s elaborate costumes are designed by Mayur’s founder and artistic director Sukanya Mukherji, and they are tailored by small, specialized darzi tailor shops in India.

You can learn more about the City’s Takoma Park Arts series and get info about all of our upcoming events by signing up for our e-newsletter here.

Percussion Discussion Taps Into Happiness

Friday, April 26 at 7:30 pm

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

Free Performance

The Knock on Wood Tap Studio in downtown Takoma Park has redefined tap dancing for more than two decades, and the studio’s resident ensembles will share their talents in a free performance at the Takoma Park Community Center on April 26.

Percussion Discussion includes three groups at different age and experience levels. Capitol Tap features youth tap dancers, Monumental Tap includes intermediate-level adult dancers, and District Tap highlights advanced adult performers. Each ensemble has their own repertoire, and they will collaborate in an intergenerational performance.

This event in the Takoma Park Arts series is free, and no tickets or reservations are required. Limited parking is available at the Takoma Park police station and the adjoining Piney Branch Elementary School parking lot.

Lisa Swenton-Eppard founded Capitol Tap in 2010, followed by District Tap and Monumental Tap. She grew up in her mother’s dance studio in southern Maryland where she learned to tap dance at an early age and started teaching when she was 15 years old.

“Tap was the one genre that spoke to me the most, and it’s been a mainstay in my life,” she said. “I’m now in my 38th year as a tap dance educator, not just for my own companies but also for other dance studios in the area.”

Percussion Discussion incorporates both historical and contemporary tap dance and has performed at the Kennedy Center, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Wolf Trap, and other venues.

“My dancers talk about the sense of connection and community they feel when creating music and dance together,” Swenton-Eppard said. “Performing is a form of communication and finding common ground with others through a range of emotions.”

The origins of tap dance are rooted in the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739 where enslaved Africans used weapons and drums in an unsuccessful uprising that led to a law being passed a year later that prohibited enslaved people from playing musical instruments.  This is believed to be the precursor that moved rhythmic patterns of West African step dances from the drum solely to the body, with tap dance evolving over centuries from various cultural influences.

Tap dance took off in the mid-1800s at dance competitions and minstrel shows, and then later in nightclubs, musicals, and vaudeville shows. Metal taps on the bottom of shoes didn’t appear until the early 1900s, replacing wooden-soled shoes and other footwear.

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson gained worldwide fame for his tap dancing in the early 1900s despite discrimination against Black performers. Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly helped develop the Broadway style of tap featured in musicals such as 42^nd Street and Anything Goes. Tap dancing reemerged in the 1980s with new dance styles fueled by funk and hip hop and has continued to grow in popularity.

This performance is part of the City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts series, which includes free concerts, theater, dance, art exhibitions, and film screenings at the Takoma Park Community Center. You can sign up for our e-newsletter to get more info about all of our upcoming events.

Interfaith Comedy Stand-Up Show

Thursday, March 14 at 7:30 pm 

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

Free Event  

In an age of polarization and angry debate, the comedians of Interfaith Comedy are sharing laughs with a side of understanding about various religions.
Five comedians from different religious backgrounds will share their talents in a free stand-up show on March 14 at the Takoma Park Community Center as part of the Takoma Park Arts series. No tickets or reservations are required, and donations will be accepted.
Comedian and producer Carmiya Weinraub, who is a modern Orthodox Jew, created the group to reduce prejudice through laughter. The comedians make lighthearted jokes only about their own religion.
“I wanted to create a space to amplify performers whose voices aren’t often heard in the wider community, including Muslim and Orthodox Jewish comedians, and put these voices in front of audiences that might not hear them otherwise,” Weinraub said. “Our group has both observant and non-observant members of different religions so we highlight many aspects of living a life influenced by religion, whether you were just raised that way or currently practice.”
The stand-up sets are followed by a Q&A where the comedians and audience members can share stories or anecdotes about their religious experiences. You can learn more about the group at interfaithcomedy.com.
Weinraub will be performing with PT Bratton (Baptist and Pentecostal), Riva Riley (raised Hindu and currently atheist), Shahryar Rizvi (Muslim), and Fish Stark (Unitarian Universalist).
“Interfaith Comedy is making a difference,” Weinraub said. “In today’s world, audiences really appreciate a show filled with positivity and connection, and that’s what we give them.”
Some limited parking is available at the Community Center, the adjacent Piney Branch Elementary School, or on neighborhood streets. The City of Takoma Park’s Arts and Humanities Division organizes the Takoma Park Arts series, including free concerts, film screenings, poetry readings, dance performances, and other events at the Takoma Park Community Center. You can sign up for our e-newsletter for news about all of our events. Join us and celebrate the arts!

SOUL OF LANGSTON 

Free Takoma Park Arts Performance 

Friday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 pm 

Takoma Park Community Center 

7500 Maple Avenue 

In a one-man play written and performed by Daron P. Stewart, Soul of Langston reveals the bittersweet wit and wisdom of Langston Hughes’ poetry, the triumphs and tragedies that shaped his life, and the worldwide impact of his literary career.

In celebration of Black History Month, a free performance will be held at 7:30 pm on Friday, Feb. 23 in the Takoma Park Community Center auditorium at 7500 Maple Avenue. No tickets or reservations are required, and donations will be accepted. Some parking is available in the Takoma Park police station parking lot, the adjacent Piney Branch Elementary School lot, or on nearby streets.

Wearing a wide-lapeled suit while standing next to a desk with a vintage typewriter, Stewart personifies Hughes and the astounding arc of his life to become “Harlem’s Wonder” who helped establish the Civil Rights movement through the Harlem Renaissance.

Fused with jazz and blues, the play explores Hughes’ prodigious work as a poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright. Hughes worked as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. in the 1920s before achieving fame as a poet, inspiring the name of the local Busboys and Poets restaurants.

Stewart has performed across the United States and abroad, including festivals, schools, colleges, churches, and conferences. He also conducts an artist residency program and is the founder of the independent production company Norad Media. You can learn more about him and see a scene from the play at souloflangston.com.

Born in 1901 in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes sketched an unvarnished view of the struggles of Black working-class people living in a racist America but also their resounding strength and deep sense of community. In his famed essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, he wrote that “no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself.”

This event is part of the City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts series, including film screenings, art exhibitions, theater, film screenings, concerts, and poetry readings. All events are free, and no tickets or reservations are required. You can sign up for our e-newsletter for more info about all of our upcoming events.

Gypsy Jazz Concert by Franglais 

Free Event 

Friday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 pm 

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue 

iMusical Improv Performance 

Free Event 

Friday, Jan. 19 at 7:30 pm 

Takoma Park Community Center 

7500 Maple Avenue 

What’s going to happen at the next iMusical performance? No one is sure yet, including the actors since they will be improvising a live musical based on audience suggestions.

The performance, which is part of the City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts series, is free and no tickets or reservations are required.

Based at the Washington Improv Theater, iMusical has performed at the Kennedy Center, theater spaces across the D.C. area, and comedy festivals in Philadelphia and New York. Founding director Travis Ploeger created the improv group in 2006 after moving from New York City to D.C.

“I wanted to create an improvised musical not to satirize the genre but to celebrate it, having warmth and poignancy as well as comedy,” Ploeger said.

At the beginning of a performance, the group of about six actors will ask a question to the audience and receive suggestions usually related to a theme for the show. Then they will improvise a musical on the spot with piano accompaniment.

“Since I’ve been doing this show since 2006, we’ve had hundreds of audience suggestions, and it all becomes a blur after a while,” Ploeger said. “The most memorable audience suggestion for me generally is from the last performance we did!”

The Takoma Park  Arts series includes free concerts, theater, art exhibitions, film screenings, and other events at the Takoma Park Community Center. You can learn more on the city website and sign up for our e-newsletter for info about all of our upcoming events.

The Sounds of Silents Film Screening with Peter Tavalin

Free Film Screening 

Friday, Dec. 8 at 7:30 pm 

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue 

Pianist and composer Peter Tavalin will bring an iconic silent film to life with a score improvised and performed live during a free film screening of the classic silent film Steamboat Bill, Jr.

In the 1928 comedy starring Buster Keaton, two college students return to the South after attending college in Boston and fall in love despite both of their fathers’ objections. The couple’s romance goes awry with prat falls, floods, a tornado, and other slapstick adventures. The film includes Keaton’s most famous and dangerous stunt when the entire two-ton façade of a house crashes to the ground around him while he stands in the precise location of an open second-story window.

No tickets or reservations are required for the film screening. There is limited parking at the Takoma Park Community Center or in the adjacent Piney Branch Elementary School parking lot.

Local resident Peter Tavalin has improvised live scores for more than 25 silent films during the past 30 years and has performed at film festivals, First Night celebrations, universities, and public schools across the country. Trained at the Berklee College of Music, he plays a synthesizer to create a modern sensibility that conveys the sounds of an entire orchestra.

“The synthesizer provides a big palette of sounds,” he said. “Simple, sweet strings with a flute for one scene, brass blaring for another with cymbals crashing when the action on the screen gets more frantic.”

Steamboat Bill, Jr. has been referenced in many movies that followed, beginning with Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie, which was released six months later and debuted Mickey Mouse.

“Before sound in films, the actors relied on body language to tell the story, and the music was always live in theaters and integral to the film’s success,” Tavalin said. “Since I’m improvising, I can play the same movie over and over again and it still feels fresh to me.”

In 1980, a friend and theater owner in Brattleboro, Vermont asked Tavalin to improvise a live score for the 1926 Buster Keaton film The General. “Two minutes into watching the movie, I was hooked,” he said. “I already knew what I could add to the experience because I grew up learning jazz so I’m comfortable with improvisation.”

Tavalin said he only has to watch a film twice before he can improvise a score. The best compliment he has received is when an audience member forgets he is playing live and thinks the score was composed for the film.

Tavalin also teaches piano and plays in the High Standards jazz group. You can learn more about him at petertavalin.com. He and his wife moved to Takoma Park in 2021 to be closer to their daughter and her family.

“Takoma Park has a great sense of community and the City’s Takoma Park Arts series offers a great level of support for local performers and artists,” he said. “After performing at other venues from New England to Florida, I’m excited to debut this performance here in Takoma Park.”

The Takoma Park Arts series is organized by the City’s Arts and Humanities Division and includes free film screenings, art exhibitions, poetry readings, theater, and dance performances at the Takoma Park Community Center at 7500 Maple Avenue. You can sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to receive more info at takomaparkmd.gov/arts.

DANCING JOY Free Film Screening 

Friday, Sept. 29 at 7:30 pm

Takoma Park Community Center

7500 Maple Avenue

In a celebration of music and dance, a film crew traveled 56,000 miles to four continents to film local dance troupes performing traditional dances to Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

The City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts series will feature a free screening of Dancing Joy at 7:30 pm on Sept. 29 in the Takoma Park Community Center auditorium at 7500 Maple Avenue. All are welcome, and no tickets or reservations are required.

More than 200 dancers choreographed and performed dances in Indonesia, Fiji, Nepal, Korea, Botswana, Greece, Northern Ireland, West Virginia, and a dozen other locales.

In a female-led production, producer Kate Tsubata prepared for 12 years before embarking on the film’s production. Film director Lan T. Lee—herself a choreographer and dancer—utilized the language of dance to guide the performers, many of whom didn’t speak English. Closer to home, the film also featured deaf and hard-of-hearing dancers at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

“We wanted to honor Beethoven’s own battle with hearing loss so the first group we approached was the Gallaudet Dance Company, which was founded in 1955,” Tsubata said. “They originated ASL dance and play a key role in the film with sign language-based dance moves that interpret the choral lyrics.”

Authenticity was a priority for the filmmakers. Capturing the historic and natural beauty of the varied locations as well as the dance traditions of each culture was paramount. Handheld camera work, drone, and GoPro action cameras, brings viewers into close proximity with the performers.

Tsubata and film editor Mie Smith will take part in a Q&A with the audience after the screening. There is a trailer and more info about the film at joydancemovie.com.

During two months of shooting, the film crew experienced summer and winter in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, high altitudes, and tropical climates. “Local crews in each nation helped with translation, local regulations, and wardrobes,” Tsubata said.

The Takoma Park Arts series, which is organized by the City’s Arts and Humanities Division, includes many free film screenings, art exhibitions, concerts, theater, and poetry readings at the Takoma Park Community Center.

Please go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts and sign up for our e-newsletter to get more info about our upcoming events.