Studio Stories: CANDY BOX Dance Festival special with Joe Chvala of Flying Foot Forum - Season 17, Episode 179

Joe Chvala (Artistic Director/Flying Foot Forum) is the founder and artistic director of the highly-acclaimed percussive dance company, the Flying Foot Forum. In addition to the Flying Foot Forum, Chvala has directed, choreographed, and been commissioned to create new works for a variety of theater and dance companies including the Guthrie Theater, the Walker Art Center, the Ordway Music Theater, the Minnesota Opera, Chicago Shakespeare, Children's Theater Company, Arkansas  Repertory, Theater Mu, Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, the History Theater, The Alpine Theater Project, Park Square Theatre, and The Boston Conservatory.  He has been the recipient of both Ivey and Sage awards for theater and dance as well as numerous “Best of the Year” honors from various US newspapers and periodicals and numerous choreographic and interdisciplinary awards, fellowships, and grants from such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the McKnight Foundation. His recent film work as a director/writer has been featured in a number of European and American film festivals.

Description of Work

Footfall—Choreographed by Joe Chvala, “Footfall” features a mixture of Flying Foot Forum’s signature hybrid percussive dances with traditional clogging, folk music and dance to celebrate the passing of time, the ephemeral quality of life and the joys, struggles, strengths, longings, passions, and melancholy that are a part of it all. This piece will appear in its entirety in our upcoming concert May 8-18 at Park Square Theater. NOTE: The a cappella clogging duet “One Hundred Dead Dollars” was choreographed by founding company member, Clayton Schanilec.