We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kat Echevarria Richter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kat below.

Hi Kat, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I founded The Lady Hoofers Tap Ensemble in 2011 and twelve years later we’re a thriving 501(c)3 nonprofit dance company. Our mission is to produce original works of choreography while preserving the tradition of improvisation in American rhythm tap, bringing innovative percussive dance to diverse audiences. I am a white-presenting woman working in a Black vernacular art form, so this mission is extremely important to me. We want to educate our audiences about the history of tap, and to honor those who laid the foundation for the work that we do. You can’t be part of tap’s future without respecting its past.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The Lady Hoofers Tap Ensemble is an all-women tap dance company based in Philadelphia. We got our start in a show I co-produced for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival just over a decade ago, during which we broke even by $11. Over the past ten years, we have grown into a full-fledged 501(c)(3) non-profit organization complete with a Board of Directors, 6 part time staff members, and a roster of approximately 40 professional and pre-professional dancers.

There are very few professional tap companies in existence. There are a lot of reasons for this, some of which have to do with the nature of tap as an art form, and some of which have to do with systemic racism and the continued devaluation of Black vernacular dance forms, including tap, jazz, and hip hop, as opposed to Western concert dance forms, such as ballet and modern dance.

Since our start, one of my priorities has always been to pay our dancers. Unfortunately, there is a common expectation in the performing arts that dancers should work for free, or just for exposure, or that “real” artists shouldn’t worry about the bottom line. These sorts of ideas are harmful for everyone in our industry, and I am proud to say that we always pay our First Company dancers. We are a relatively small organization but we have employed many women over the years as dancers, choreographers, teaching artists, and administrators. We regularly commission new works for renowned choreographers, we run a residency program for public school students in North Philly, and we mentor the next generation of tap dancers through our Youth Ensemble. We also produce two mainstage concerts each year, and give a number of free outdoor performances that are open to the public.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The Covid-19 pandemic definitely threw us for a loop. All of our performances were canceled, including our annual holiday concert, which is our main fundraiser for the year. Fortunately, we’re tap dancers: we’re used to getting by with very little in terms of funding, resources, and institutional support. We can also dance in very small spaces when needed, and most of our dancers have their own portable tap boards for rehearsing at home.

We developed partnerships with a number of outdoor venues in Philadelphia, including several fellow non-profits, who allowed us to use their spaces to conduct rehearsals safely until we could return indoors. Many dance companies folded, or had to lay off staff during Covid. For us, though, the pandemic was an opportunity for us to get back to our roots, to connect with new audiences both digitally and in real life, and to make some permanent shifts in our programming to include more outdoor rehearsals and performances.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Our first performance was a bit of a nightmare, but we didn’t lose money at least. After that, I assembled a new team, and made myself a promise that we would always pay our dancers, no matter what. This meant paying dancers out of pocket shortly after we got our start, because we had been offered a last minute slot in a presenter’s showcase that I knew would be good exposure to us and lead to future opportunities. Those $500 felt like a lot of money at the time (I had just finished grad school!) but eventually we reached a point where I could reimburse myself and we’ve never looked back. From the original $11 we earned from our first show, we’ve grown our annual operating budget to $115,000. We keep our overhead low, and we really know how to stretch every dollar to the max, but we’ve also launched our first ever capital campaign, hired an accountant, initiated individual and corporate giving programs, and are always on the lookout for new grants and revenue streams.     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ladyhoofers.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theladyhoofers/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theladyhoofers
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-lady-hoofers-tap-ensemble/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/theladyhoofers
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/theladyhoofers
• Other: https://linktr.ee/theladyhoofers

Image Credits
Wide Eyed Studios; Brian Mengini; Bill H; Brian Mengini; Brian Mengini; Contigo Photos+Films