kamrDANCE

ABOUT US:

Since 2015, kamrDANCE has been intricately fusing tap and contemporary dance to tell very serious and very silly stories about identity, music, family legacy, and more. kamrDANCE’s choreographic works often utilize the power of tap dance as music, along with original poetry, text, music, and physical theater. Under the direction of Artistic Director and Choreographer Alexis Robbins, kamrDANCE has performed at venues, events, and online performances throughout the northeast, created five dance films, and self-produced several, sold out evening length and split bill shows.
We believe that tap dance is music and that music exists to be danced to. We believe in collaboration and prioritize interdisciplinary performance works. We believe that dance can happen in any space, nothing is too big, too small, or too weird.

recent news

Our 2018 film Deconstructed was selected to be screened at the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema at the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop in Boulder, CO in July 2023, and at Rhythmically Speaking’s “The Cohort: Stage and Screen” at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis, MN in August 2023.

what are we working on now? - the mercy velvet project

The 1999 album, Live in Vain by Mercy Velvet, exists on zero streaming platforms, and few people have heard it. But its legacy is as relevant as ever. The Mercy Velvet Project is a rock-n-roll musical experience, a re-creation of the album. The work explores what makes us human, our collective need for community to survive—with musicians and dancers moving as one. Through nine songs, a queer and femme cast explores different barriers to experiencing love. Learning that by giving and receiving the gift of mercy, we are able to find the bridge to love. Over twenty years after the albums’ release, Choreographer Alexis Robbins, Musical Director Christie Echols, and their collaborators expand upon its legacy through their personal identities and today’s political realities. The show tells the story of the album through tap dance as percussion, contemporary dance, original text, and instrumentation via bass, guitar, and vocals—highlighting our vulnerabilities, learning together how to find the antidote that is mercy, and in turn lead meaningful lives.

You can see works in progress performances of The Mercy Velvet Project on April 27th in New Haven, CT, May 18th in NYC, and November 15th in NYC. The complete work will premiere in April 2025. Please contact kamrdanceco@gmail.com for booking inquiries for December 2024 through December 2027.

Above is a short excerpt from rehearsal of the song Good Morning Babylon. Thank you to Belles Studios in New Haven for rehearsal space.