Pamela Yasutake comes to the Black Media Matters Studio to teach Besa Gordon how to tap dance.
Pamela Yasutake, a Seattle-raised professional dancer and entertainer, stopped by the Black Media Matters Studio for a one-on-one interview and tap dance lesson with Besa Gordon. During her sit-down with Gordon, Yasutake covers everything from her start in dancing, her renowned dance troupe, the Syncopated Ladies, her troupe's appearances on the Late Show with James Cordon, So You Think You Can Dance, the film Spirited, and more. When Yasutake isn't performing for large audiences, she's instructing tap dancing classes at the Northwest Tap Connection, a dance studio based out of Rainier Valley.
"Northwest Tap Connection is a dance studio that is primarily about activism and social change. We offer West African dance; in the past, we have offered house and Afro-Brazilian [dance]. We offer majorette classes and, obviously, tap dancing," Yasutake said. "We do a lot of work in the community to make tap dance accessible and bring dance to the people."
Yasutake also explained the origins of tap dancing, which is primarily rooted in African culture.
"At the time enslaved Africans were brought over to the Americas, you had a bunch of people from all these different tribes along the western coast of Africa, and they didn't speak the same language," Yatsutake said. "But the thing that connected them was the drum. Once it was recognized that the drum was a way of communication, they were stripped of it. They used their bodies as a way to create rhyme, and that is what birthed tap dancing."
Additionally, Yatsutake highlights the importance of having an artistic outlet and what having dance in her life has done for her.
"As an artist personally, dance has always been my safe space and my opportunity to get out whatever emotions and express myself fully and wholly in a way that is conducive to my mental health," Yatsutake said. "I think that is the one thing I can say about art in general. It's just another medium for expression, and I think it's really important that everybody has some way of releasing whatever it is that they are feeling."
Most recently, Yasutake performed at the Lemon Grove, a black-owned vintage clothing shop in the heart of Pioneer Square, featuring students and faculty from Northwest Tap Connection. She's currently planning a performance for the near future.
Check out photos of Yasutake’s performance at the Lemon Grove below, taken by Seattle photographer Jordan Somers. And see the full segment of Pamela teaching Besa how to tap dance.
Back2Besa hosted by Besa Gordon, airs Saturdays at 10:30 pm on FOx 13 Seattle, and the replay on Sundays at 10 am.
