​TAP LOVE TOUR
TORONTO
TAP DANCE CLASSES
About the teachers...
Travis Knights
Tap Dancer. Performer. Choreographer. Speaker. Believer. Montreal native Travis Knights is realizing his dreams, pounding rhythms on wood floors all over the world. His talent and dedication have earned him audiences in Shanghai, Dusseldorf, Paris, New York, and Vancouver to name a few. ​
​
His career started in 2000, when he was cast as a principal dancer in the motion picture biography of Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson with Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. The film, entitled 'Bojangles' was choreographed by the legendary Henry LeTang.
​
In 2006, he was tapped to be the principal dancer in the video game adaptation of Warner Brother's 'Happy Feet'. In 2007 and 2008, Travis participated extensively as a Tap Dance consultant for Cirque du Soleil. Since then, he has performed in Tandem Act Productions' 'Diary of a Tap Dancer' at the Apollo Theatre, and the touring show 'Wonderland: A Tap Tribute to Stevie Wonder', created by Ayodele Casel and Sarah Savelli.
He was a featured Tap Dancer in the Opening Ceremonies to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. In the same year he toured North America with the raucous and rowdy internationally acclaimed Australian Tap Dance show, Tap Dogs.​
Between 2010-2013, Travis was a principal dancer at Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, Texas, under the artistic direction of the incomparable Acia Gray. ​Off the heels of receiving the Austin Critic's Table Award for best dance artist in 2013, Travis is continuing his growth as a dance artist. Watch out for him, because the best is yet to come.
Tanya Rivard
Canadian tap dancer Tanya Rivard grew up in Montreal, Quebec where she studied with legendary tap teacher Ethel Bruneau. Travelling within Canada and the United States to further her knowledge of the dance form with Master teachers, Tanya has taken her dancing to the next level. Her unique style has earned her a spot in Montreal's own Dynamix Soles Tap Collective (2005), Caroline Pare Dance company (Mtl, 2007) and Metronome Tap company (NYC, 2008). Since 2010 Tanya has been working with Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, Texas where she has grown tremendously under the artistic direction of Acia Gray. She's performed in numerous productions with the company including the acclaimed "Souls of our Feet" with Arthur Duncan and the Vaudeville-esque "April Fools" where she performed the incredibly difficult Holst Sister's chain gang tap dance. In July 2013 Tanya produced the Montreal Tap Dance Festival honoring the great Legends of Rhythm with featured guest Arthur Duncan and a sensational international faculty. Since then she's travelled around the world teaching and performing in Japan, Australia, Singapore, Germany, Spain and France with the Tap Love Tour. Currently, Tanya is the program director of The Little Gym of Oakville where she continues to to teach young children gymnastics and dance. She adores working with children and is happy to be back that environment.
Notable credits include The Shanghai International Arts Festival, Vancouver International Tap Festival, ARTV's television show 'Voulez-yous dansez?', The Edmonton Fringe Festival, The Montreal International Jazz Festival, Canadian football's Grey Cup Gala, Festival Les FrancoFolies de Montreal, 'Montreal Completement Cirque' festival, Festival de danse Encore and Cirque du Soleil on a creation project among others.
About our up coming shows and projects...
DANCE LAB
November 24
The dance lab is an in-studio showcase. Often featuring guest performs we've come across on the Tap Love Tour, the Dance Lab aims to provide opportunities for tap dancers to showcase original pieces and practice their artform in front of an audience.
TAP... Now that's
Entertainment!
November 27
Featuring Arthur Duncan and a cast of outstanding dancers, this show will have you tapping your feet and dancing in your seats.
This show is a MUST SEE for all tap dancer lovers!
For tickets please visit carmens.com
MONTREAL
TAP DANCE FESTIVAL
With a mission to bring you quality dance education, entertainment and inspiration, the Montreal Tap Festival brings artists together from across the country and around the world for workshops, conversations, shows and more.
For information on the festival visit tapmontreal.com
TAP LOVE TOUR
Travis and Tanya share a love for each other, and a love for Tap Dance. They aim to share their love of dance with the world.
The Tap Love Tour, is a traveling workshop series aimed at increasing awareness and appreciation for the art of Tap within all who attend.
Join the rhythm + movement. Spread the love.
THE INTERVIEWS
So many stories have been told through the dance. This video series aims to capture stories about the dance.
In 2013, Travis and Tanya started taping interviews with professional tap artists that they came across during 'The Tap Love Tour', their self produced teaching and performing world tour. They produced them as documentary style interviews about their artist's passions and the details of their artistic process. The web series entitled, 'The Interviews’ featuring their conversations with Sam Weber, Yukiko 'Smilie' Misumi, Roxane Butterfly, Thomas Marek, Sarah Petronio and Leela Petronio, is now available on our YouTube channel 'The Tap Love Tour'.
They are now working on filming season 2.