About
Toronto International Tap Dance Festival opens with a screening of Restorative Culture, a 2021 film project produced by Tap Love Tour Productions and curated by Travis Knights. The documentary explores the journey of local Indigenous tap dancer Johnathan Morin. It will be followed by a Q&A and a lovely live performance featuring Jonathan and a jazz trio.
About Travis Knights
Travis Knights is a tap dancer, performer, choreographer and speaker. He began his career in 2000 when he was cast as a principal dancer in the film Bojangles with Gregory Hines and Savion Glover and choreographed by the legendary Henry LeTang. Knights was a principal dancer in the video game adaptation of Warner Brothers’ Happy Feet and has participated extensively as a tap dance consultant for Cirque du Soleil.
From 2010 to 2013, Knights was a principal dancer with Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, Texas, where he won the Austin Critic’s Table Award for best dance artist in 2011 and 2013. 2014 marked the launch of his self-produced world tour, filming his web series “The Interviews” featuring celebrated pioneers in the tap dance world. He hosts The Tap Love Tour podcast featuring interviews with many inspiring artists. Knights worked with The Soulpepper Theatre Company, was the Artistic Director for the Vancouver International Tap Dance Festival in 2018 and held the “Jazz United Jam” at the Tranzac Club in Toronto for two years. In 2021, in partnership with Anandam DanceTheatre, he debuted an original work, Ephemeral Artifacts, as a four-channel video installation, with original sound design, lighting and sculptures of bells onto the historical building of Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, and then toured it as a solo show internationally.
Knights is the 2020 recipient of the Jaqueline Lemieux Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Dance in Canada and won a 2022 Dora Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for Dance Immersion’s Legacy Tap Dance concert.
About Johnathan Morin
Johnathan Morin is an Indigenous artist of Cree descent who has quickly become a leading force in Canadian tap dance today. Hailing from Treaty 6 Edmonton, Alberta, Morin’s talent has earned him recognition across the country and around the world. He is currently based in Treaty 13, Toronto, Ontario.
Morin’s journey is marked by a series of remarkable achievements. His recent nomination for a Dora Mayor Moore Award, for his role in the ensemble of the prestigious Tap Legacy concert, produced by Dance Immersion and choreographed by Lisa Latouche and Travis Knights, is a testament to his talent and dedication. He has also served as the principal dancer in the tap dance production Love.Be.Best.Free, directed and choreographed by Danny Nielsen. The show’s tour in B.C. marked the first tap dance tour in Western Canada in 35 years. Morin has also graced the stage at the TD Toronto Jazz Festival as a guest and as a featured artist. In 2018, he danced with Toffan Rhythm Projects alongside the Toronto Jazz Orchestra as part of the 2018 Edwards Summer Music Series.
Additionally, Morin is the co-artistic director and producer of the tap dance company Rhythm & Sound, which was established in 2015. The group was presented by the Feats Dance of Dance in Edmonton in 2017 and the Toronto International Tap Dance Festival in 2017.
As a teacher, Morin is highly respected and has taught at various venues including faculty for the Vancouver International Tap Festival (2014), the Toronto International Tap Festival (2017) and Edmonton’s Feats Festival (2015 and 2017).
With his talent and dedication, Morin is sure to continue making rhythmic waves in the world of Canadian tap dance for years to come.