Listen to tap dancer Travis Knights long enough and you might mistake him for a historian. He effortlessly tells the stories of the dance form and of his personal history. It’s the powerful narration of a person whose individual and professional lineage means a lot to him. Almost immediately, it also becomes clear that Travis doesn’t take lightly the fact that he is one of very few Black tap dancers in the city, let alone the country. The passion and palpable energy help you to quickly arrive at the only possible conclusion: For Travis — who has performed globally and received the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize in 2020 for his outstanding contribution to dance in Canada — tap goes much deeper than entertainment. Each tap, shuffle step, drop, and dig of his heel make up the language Travis uses to express his purpose of helping to shape, alter, and inform people’s perspective of tap — and of the world around them.
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