Residency Artist - Traditional Arts
Residency Artist - Dance

Fiddle'n'Feet

Tamara Loewenthal and Jamie Gans
922 1/2 W. 7th St.
Bloomington, IN  47404
Phone: (812) 333-3180
Email: tamaradancer@gmail.com
Website: www.fiddlenfeet.com

We are a duo, a dancer and a musician. Tamara's specialty is percussive dance, with an emphasis on Appalachian style clogging and French Canadian step dance. Tamara is also an experienced square and contra dance caller, as well as a teacher of various other social dance forms. Jamie is a fiddler extraordinaire, adept at many styles of traditional fiddling. Jamie also plays banjo, guitar, and jaw harp. Together, we strive to build a cooperative school community through interactive traditional dance and music. We love working with diverse ages: in the past couple of years, we have taught in preschools, elementary, middle, and high schools. Each age group allows us to focus our work on a different set of parameters. In recent residencies, elementary age students have been able to meet Ohio benchmarks for dance by identifying and performing dances from several different cultures, with an understanding of the setting in which these dances originated. Last year, we worked with middle and high school students in residency settings, developing a dance vocabulary focused on the elements of dance, particularly space (pathways), time (varying tempos of 8-count figures), and force (through partner interaction). The students were also able to demonstrate articulation, strength, coordination, and focus in their dancing.

We share our artistic work in every residency, through opening convocations, studio time, and in peripheral visits to all students in the school. Improvisation is a major aspect of percussive dance, as it interacts with the music, and we draw attention to the difference between the inspiration of the moment, compared to a tune that inspires a set pattern of rhythms and movements, choreographed in advance. We are constantly researching new sources for traditional tunes and songs. Singing together is a great way to share traditional songs with students, and we make the music accessible and engaging. We have several recordings available to schools, allowing the music to continue after we've gone. We are currently recording our newest CD of tunes and songs.

Tamara began her dance career after college -- she saw clogging in her senior year at the University of Pittsburgh, where she received a BS degree, and was hooked! She spent hours honing her craft, going to workshops and festivals, studying with masters in dance, including Sandman Sims, Brenda Bufalino, Benoit Bourque, and Pierre Chartrand. She was a founding member of Rhythm in Shoes and has toured across the United States and Canada, as well as in Japan, England, Scotland, and Ireland. She has won awards for her clogging, including a blue ribbon at the Mt Airy, NC Fiddler's Convention. Jamie graduated from Macalester College with a degree in fine arts, and has been practicing other arts ever since. He has spent over 30 years honing his Irish fiddling, for which he is nationally known. He lived in Ottawa, Canada, for five years and learned a wide array of Canadian tunes. Since moving to Indiana in 1995, Jamie has also immersed himself in Old Time music, researching unknown fiddlers and their music. Both Tamara and Jamie have received Creative Renewal Fellowships from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and have been aided in their work through grants from the Indiana Arts Commission.