Interview: Travis Knights of THE MARS PROJECT at Fall For Dance North

What would it be like to tap dance on Mars?

Dora-winner Travis Knights, one of Canada’s most celebrated Tap artists, shoots for the stars in THE MARS PROJECT, an 80-minute dance work at The Creative School Chrysalis that blends live music, dancers from four countries, and aerial work. The 2020 recipient of the Jaqueline Lemieux Prize for outstanding contribution to dance in Canada, Knights has toured with Tap Dogs, Tapestry Dance Company, and Anandam Dance Theatre on four different continents, but this may be his first time in space.

THE MARS PROJECT runs as part of Fall For Dance North’s 10th anniversary program, which takes place September 26–October 6 at venues across the city. For more program details, visit FFDN’s website.

BroadwayWorld spoke to Knights about his love of Tap, his goal to spread the art form across Toronto’s Black community, and the lightness that comes from dancing in altered gravity.

BWW: What attracts you to tap dancing as a form?

KNIGHTS: Tap dance has the best of both worlds. I get to make rhythms and dance to them at the same time. My life has transformed into a musical because of it. Anywhere I am, I have the ability to drop into a beat and live my best life. I've met some of my favorite people in life because of the dAnCe. I get to work with some of the best musicians in the world because of the dAnCe. I married a Tap dancer. That's just scratching the surface of what attracts me to Tap dance. It's also an inherently political form... but that's a whole other conversation.

BWW: After debuting Ephemeral Artifacts at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2021, you created and directed a program called Legacy Series: Dance Symposium, with a goal of introducing tap to Toronto’s Black community. How was that experience? What was the reaction to that program like, and what might be next?

KNIGHTS: Ephemeral Artifacts is one of the most important pieces of work I've ever done.  We (Anandam Dance Theatre) toured 5 countries with the piece, but the live version of the show has never been presented in Toronto. 

I was awarded a Dora for the work that I did with dance Immersion, the 'Tap Dance Legacy Concert'.  The concert was the culmination of the work we did (Timea Wharton-Suri, Lisa LaTouche and myself) during the Legacy Symposium, introducing Tap dance to the local Black community. The reaction among the participants was net positive to say the least. I had to step away at a certain point during the symposium to shed a tear or two.

Once you know the history of the form, the intense and invaluable contribution of African Americans, the influence of Tap on the evolution of Jazz... I couldn't hold back the tears. Without going into the details, a part of the reason behind helping to shape the Tap Dance Legacy Symposium was because at the time, myself and Lisa LaTouche were one of a handful of working African diasporic Tap dancers in all of Canada. More change is needed, and I'm grateful to be doing the work. dance Immersion has continued with the Legacy series following up the next year with Jazz dance, then Krump.  Stay tuned for next year because it's going to blow your minds.    

BWW: What inspired THE MARS PROJECT, and what is it about?  What can audiences expect to see and hear?

KNIGHTS: THE MARS PROJECT was inspired by my struggle to celebrate Canada Day during the pandemic. At the time, officials had discovered over 200 hundred unmarked graves of children at a Residential School in BC. I have two kids of my own.  They are my greatest teachers in life. Through them, I was able to briefly imagine what it may have felt like to be one of those parents. Learning the history of Canada's long-held policy to “Kill the Indian within the Indian” was not something I could get down with and celebrate. 

At the same time, I was reeling from the murder of George Floyd. Openly and uncontrollably crying in complete despair. It took time to work my way out of that place.  My distrust was at an all-time high.  The work that helped me was learning about Black liberation movements. The work that helped me was to engage in my own sense of agency and create the change that I wanted to see in the world. 

THE MARS PROJECT was created with a central question.  We gathered a group of stellar tap dancers from around the world, Australia, Japan, USA and Canada and asked them all the same question, “When we go to Mars, how can we continue to engage in our own respective cultures and come together to form a new one? How can we become Canadian…I mean, Martian?” 

That was the initial spirit behind the work... or so I thought.  Actually diving into the creative process with these brilliant, world class Tap dancers has brought up something more primal, more important. The show is about healing. It's about freeing ourselves and each other through the process of healing. Process is Progress.     

BWW: What excites you most about this new work?

KNIGHTS: The music is what always excites me most about anything I do.  Every single artist in THE MARS PROJECT has contributed to the creation of original music for the show, and I LOVE every single piece.

BWW: You call THE MARS PROJECT your most ambitious project yet. What makes it such an ambitious work?

KNIGHTS: Ha!  I'm used to being hired to perform 5min - 20min pieces.  I'm a Slaight Music Artist in Residence at Soulpepper.  Those concerts demand more creativity to work through an entire show.  I've had the pleasure to develop my practice to perform my own full length concerts with a four-piece band. 

THE MARS PROJECT is a full-length original work, with original music and choreography, with an international cast, sound design, projection design, lighting design, and set design.  It's taking every single drop of my experience and attention to get to the 'finish line' of this work.  That's what I mean by the most ambitious project yet. 

Let's be clear though. I am by no means working alone.  THE MARS PROJECT’s team is mighty. 

BWW: The aerial aspect of the work sounds fascinating. How are you defying gravity?

KNIGHTS: With a lot of padding for our private bits.

BWW: What do you want audiences to take away from the show?

KNIGHTS: The most important aspect of this work is the message.  When people come to see this, we want the work to serve as a boost of encouragement.  We want people who need to hear the message to decide to get out of bed tomorrow, and try again.  The work is made with love.  I’m a Virgo, so there will forever be things that I will want to tweak, but age is teaching me that perfection is a delusion. My goal as an artist is to be in relation to my audience. I want to serve them. THE MARS PROJECT is my way, our way of reaching out through all the music and dancing and magic to say, “don't be discouraged. Get up. Try again.”

Photos of the cast of THE MARS PROJECT by Max Power

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