When Will Gains tap dances, he can feel his childhood in Detroit, hear the music that played at the clubs where he danced as a young man. Now an octogenarian living in England, Will dances because the music is still alive within him, and because he loves the sound his shoes make as they scratch and tap the ground. He says: ‘I don’t dance. The shoes do the dancing.’ My Home Is My Shoes, Will is a brief portrait of a man with a unique connection to music, a natural storyteller who recounts a life in dance by dancing.
For an 80-year-old American jazz fan in England, to live is to tap dance
Director: Debbie Anzalone
12 September 2014
videoMeaning and the good life
Late in life, Fred finds joy – and a ‘rhythm in all things’ – through tap dance
6 minutes
videoDance and theatre
Dance seems to be the ultimate frivolity. How did it become a human necessity?
4 minutes
videoWork
Far from the studio, craftsmen hammer ballet shoes with their own rough grace
9 minutes
videoDance and theatre
Stephen Fry loathes dancing. To understand better, see it performed – in dance
2 minutes
videoDance and theatre
From calluses to burnt shoes, the elegance of ballet is built from the ground up
4 minutes
videoLife stages
Harlem’s over-55s synchronised swimming team thinks ageing is better in the pool
4 minutes
