(light music) (shoes tapping) - [Resident] Seattle really is just a big neighborhood.

It was a place for us to grow.

- [Resident] We all have a gift of some sort.

It's just my vision of what I see.

- [Resident] Theater allows you to hit harder and be more.

There's a sense of hope that your story will survive longer than you will.

(smooth mellow music) (uptempo music) - So a cypher in dance is when people dance, like, in a circle of some sort, usually going in a counterclockwise direction.

It's like the space for you to, like, be creative and to release.

And what you put into the cypher, the cypher gives back to you.

I feel like I try to emulate that just in my being, you know?

I pour a lot of love and passion into what it is that I do.

And when I'm performing, especially, I try to give that out in hopes of receiving it back.

Growing up, like, my three areas of life were always school, dance and home.

Oftentimes, school and home life were like the stressors, and dance would be the one place that I'd come to where it's like, "While I'm here, I'm able to just be here and be present.

Everything else doesn't matter right now."

So my nana, she went to church one day, and Northwest Tap had a group of kids went to go perform.

She came back to our house and was like, "Oh my God, I saw Cipher performing today."

And my mom was like, "What are you talking about?

Like, he's been home all day."

And she's like, "No, you don't understand.

Like, I saw these kids, and I feel like I saw my grandson like up there performing with them.

Like, you need to take him to a show, sign him up."

I didn't know this at the time either, but my late grandfather, he was also a tap dancer.

I guess it's just kind of been in my blood, and it helped too that I grew up in a studio that not only was teaching dance, but also was like passionate about cultivating good people and a real sense of community.

Here in Seattle, as a whole, I feel like a lot of dance studios in the Seattle area for so long were like super polarized, and I feel like that's changing.

I feel like a lot of people are finally starting to like learn from other people and take other styles.

I'm excited for where the dance community in Seattle's heading.

Practically all of my childhood, I grew up only dancing here at Northwest Tap Connection.

This studio has done a really good job of pouring into us as dancers, as just human beings, and making sure that whatever we decided to do, we knew who we were and we know how to walk through the world.

Particularly for like the young Black students that come through here.

(light music) - [Reporter] Rehearsing for their appearance on Broadway, these youngsters prepare for the big event of their lives.

- A lot of people are not aware that, like, tap dance is a Black art form.

It was created by the African people that were brought over to, you know, brought over through the transatlantic slave trade.

In a lot of African cultures, like, the drum, is just a pivotal part of that.

But when the drum was taken away because slave captors felt like they were communicating via the drum, because black people are just so amazing and innovative in all of the things, they started to create rhythms with their body.

(shoes tapping) (light music) And tap actually was like the hip hop of that time.

Like how people, like, really feel like hip hop is like the popular music of our time, and you see like all of these hip hop dances, like, that's what tap was.

And so it was jazz and tap dance.

And, like, you had Sammy Davis Jr., you had Bill Bojangles Robinson, Gregory Hines, Jeni LeGon, Juanita Pitts.

Unfortunately, I feel like their history is just not being talked about enough.

It's a huge part of American history.

And so it just excites me to like be bringing tap and for people to see it and recognize like, "Oh, this is like really cool."

I ended up having a conversation with one of my mentors, her name's Chloe Arnold.

She's a super prolific tap dancer, amazing human.

And I remember she was telling me that you shouldn't go through life thinking of a backup plan.

Like, you should definitely go through life like pouring everything into your plan A, because, like, you can quickly figure out what to do if something doesn't work out, but it's hard to like really bank on yourself if you're going into it with the mindset that this could ultimately fail.

Even if, yes, dance in this way doesn't sustain you, like, there's a magnitude for like what the doors could open.

(shoes tapping) Okay, leave them.

I'm putting my hands out this way.

This is one, one, two, three.

(shoes tapping) In doing dance, I've been not only a dancer, I've been able to be a choreographer.

I've been able to be a mentor, a teacher.

I've had to learn how to like be a videographer, a director, a costume designer, a stylist, makeup artist, hairstyle, like, all of the different things.

And then also, like, dance training is just life training.

So, you know, the lessons that I've learned and just being in a classroom, or being in a space where like you feel like one of like 100 people and having to like just be confident in yourself and know that I bring something different.

- [Dancer] Miriam Carey, say her name!

Miriam Carey, say her name!

Miriam Carey, say her name!

- I feel like it's definitely alive and well, and I'm excited because now tap is definitely on the rise.

Like, again, it's definitely being put in a lot more media, a lot of people are posting.

Tap is featured in like films again, I was in "Spirited."

To be in the room with like people that I grew up watching in like movies and stuff, it was just really cool.

And then to like have that moment of like, "Okay, I'm here.

And so just as talented as they are, I was talented enough to be here."

And I think something that I carry with me like now, and I say it to myself often, is that any room that I enter, I'm qualified to be there.

Like, if I wasn't qualified to be there, I literally wouldn't even be in the room.

That just helps me feel confident in any space that I walk in and know that, like, my experience is valid, my talents are desired, and I am more than enough.

(shoes tapping) And cyphers have been around since like creation of like humanity.

It's literally about like, just like I said, releasing, like, just being fully present and allowing the emotion, the spirit to like completely, like, take over, and tapping into whatever you feel compelled to tap into.

(smooth light music)