A group of University of Minnesota Duluth tap dancers will be performing in Finland next month.
The four-member Sole Impulse has been invited to participate in the fourth annual Feet Beat International Tap Festival in Helsinki. The event will draw dancers from all over the world, and the Duluth group will be performing with artists from Finland, Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland, Estonia, Japan and Austria.
"We are very excited," said Ann Bergeron, dance instructor at the University of Minnesota Duluth. "We have been invited to dance with the amateur group, and we were also just invited to the second concert, where there will be all professionals performing."
In addition to performing, the group will also be participating in workshops with international instructors to hone their tap skills.
Sole Impulse consists of Bergeron and her students Ben Elledge, Martin Nieves and Laura Brist. Bergeron has worked with Brist for four years and Nieves for three, but Elledge is a newcomer to tap, having studied for only about a year.
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"But he was a drummer, so he took to tap quite naturally," Bergeron said.
Having attended the Feet Beat Festival once before, Bergeron said she found Helsinki to be very much like Duluth. It is located on the water and is a tourist destination as well as a cruise ship port. Feet Beat is part of a larger festival which celebrates urban arts, and some performances are slated for outdoor venues, taking advantage of Helsinki's waterfront location.
The group leaves on Thursday to be in Helsinki in time for rehearsals for the festival, which runs from Aug. 4 to Aug. 10.
The group received financial assistance for the trip from UMD Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Vince Magnuson and Jack Bowman, dean of the School of Fine Arts, Bergeron said.
The group will give a short, informal preview of its work Sunday, July 27, at 5 p.m. on the main stage of the Marshall Performing Arts Center. The preview is free and open to the public. Duluthians will also be able to see Sole Impulse in October at the College of St. Scholastica when the group performs in a concert with Armando Maldonado of the American National Ballet, and again in February at UMD.
Leslee LeRoux is editorial coordinator for Murphy McGinnis Newspapers.
