Flying Foot Forum

FFF is a vibrant and bold percussive dance/theater company that fuses percussive dance and music to tell unusual tales, create a wild variety of characters and explore universal ideas in inventive and exciting ways. 

Since our 30th Anniversary concerts this spring, FFF has been creating and touring new works, filming and editing our many short films, and planning new projects as we dream into the future. 

Our 30th Anniversary concerts were a true joy!     

FFF celebrated our 30th Anniversary with performances at Park Square Theatre this past Spring (2023).  Our anniversary concerts featured dances by our rhythmic collaborators; the amazing Zorongo Flamenco, the powerhouse Patricia Brown Dance Ensemble, master fiddler and Appalachian clogger Clayton Schanilec, and dancing to music by the exhilarating  Brass Lassie (Traditional Irish and Scottish band)!  Special thanks to ALL who came out to celebrate with us!

KEEPING TIME: The Duet Show

Founding members Joe Chvala and Karla Grotting have been hard at work on a duet show called KEEPING TIME featuring dances from over 34 years of dancing together. Dancing together requires both remembering and forgetting, focusing and letting go, negotiating and surrendering, creating and imagining. At its center, it is about Keeping Time, which just happens to be the title of this new show!  We premiered a version of this complex and delightful show at the Door Kinetic Arts Festival in Door County, WI in September 2023. Keep your eyes open for upcoming performances! PC: V Paul Virtucio, Karla Grotting

COOKAPHONY

Our first short film,  COOKAPHONY , by Joe Chvala and filmmaker Steve Campbell, is a hilariously charming chase through our repertory of percussive dances, the Minnesota landscape and landmarks of this place we call home. We were thrilled to be an official selection of the Festival of Cinema NYC, where we won an award for Best Sound Design.  In past seasons, COOKAPHONY was chosen for the Sedona International Film Festival, the Door County Short Film Festival, where we won the Audience Favorite Award. Our film was featured in the Paris Short Film Festival, as well as festivals in Atlanta, Key West, Long Beach Island and others.

PC: Loco f/x Photography    

     I SAW ESAU

We're so close to releasing our second short film, I SAW ESAU; making ridiculous rhythms and magical mayhem in several of the Twin Cities famous homes, including the Turnblad Mansion, the James J Hill House and the Van Dusen Mansion.  We are deep in the process of making six short films based on landmark works in the FFF repertory that will come together to make one evening-length film!         PC: Loco f/x Photography

THE DANCING LESSONS: A PROJECT

Longtime FFF'er Karla Grotting, and her one-time student, tap master Kaleena Miller, and renowned local dance filmmakers, Caitlin Hammel and Michele Blanchard are continuing work on a MN project. Beginning with interviews of Minnesota dance teachers, of any dance form, with a special focus on women who have started their own dance schools in the 1930's-70's, we are collecting stories and teasing out the threads that will form conversations around dance, teaching dance, women in business, risk-taking, sparking creativity, and looking at generations and family trees in dance.  We know these stories will be about so much more than dance.  We can't wait to pull on the threads and see how they all tie together.  

We're grateful to have you on this journey, 
and we appreciate any support you can give; 
to help us support our artists, and our creative work
as we navigate the challenges of making art and sustaining artists 
in a changing world. 

 Thank you!

FFF is grateful for the support of the following:

The Archie D and Bertha H Walker Foundation
The Minnesota Regional Arts Council
The Minnesota State Arts Board
The McKnight Foundation