A fictional portrait of how one tiny Alaskan village became home to one of the most innovative tap studios in the country.
Takotna City, Alaska, is not where you'd expect to find a motion-capture dance lab. The village sits on the Takotna River with a population that barely crests fifty, where winter temperatures plunge and the nearest movie theater is a flight away. Yet since 2019, Rhythm & Reels has drawn tap dancers from Anchorage, Fairbanks, and beyond—partly out of disbelief, partly because the studio offers something they can't find anywhere else.
The Studio
Rhythm & Reels occupies a converted general store on Main Street, its weather-beaten exterior belying the equipment inside. Maya Chen, who founded the studio after leaving a choreography career in Chicago, installed a sprung oak floor herself with help from neighbors. The high-tech additions came later: a Kinovea-based motion-capture system that projects footstrike heatmaps onto the main mirror, showing dancers exactly where their weight lags behind the beat. In the back corner, a small rack holds Meta Quest 3 headsets. Students strap them on to rehearse on a simulated Apollo Theater stage, complete with audience noise and spotlight timing.
"We're not replacing the floor with screens," Chen says. "We're using the screens to make the floor matter more."
Chen still takes the beginner class herself on Saturday mornings. "Tap is democratic," she says. "You don't need a ballet body. You need patience and a pair of shoes with metal on the bottom."
Who Takes Class
About forty students pass through Rhythm & Reels each month, roughly half of them local and half traveling from elsewhere in Alaska. The studio runs six-week sessions starting on the first Monday of each month. Drop-in slots cost $22 and run Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Ages range from twelve to seventy-three; the current advanced workshop includes a retired fishery biologist, a high school drama teacher, and a dancer who commutes twice monthly from Juneau.
The "Tap 101" curriculum builds from shuffle and flap to basic time steps over three weeks. Advanced classes focus on improvisation and rhythmic layering, often with live accompaniment from Chen's brother, a drummer who visits monthly from Wasilla.
Community on Stage
Tap dance here functions as infrastructure as much as art form. Students shovel the studio's walkway together during snowstorms. The annual Takotna Tap Fest, held each March, fills the village's community hall for a weekend of workshops, showcases, and the "Tap Battle"—a friendly competition judged by audience applause. Last year's winner was a sixteen-year-old from Bethel who learned entirely through the studio's occasional virtual offerings.
There are no official troupes, but Chen pairs students for informal routines at the village's summer fish fry and the Iditarod checkpoint gatherings that still pass through Takotna.
What It Costs and How to Start
- Location: 101 Main Street, Takotna City, Alaska
- Beginner sessions: $120 for six weeks, one 75-minute class per week
- Drop-ins: $22 (Tuesday and Thursday, 6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m.)
- Ages: 12 and up; no prior dance experience required
- Next Tap Fest: March 8–10, 2024
- Registration: rhythmandreelsak.com
Winter travel to Takotna requires planning. Most visitors fly from Anchorage to McGrath, then charter a small plane or arrange snowmachine transport for the final thirty miles. Chen recommends booking lodging at the Takotna Roadhouse at least two weeks ahead of any session.
The next beginner session starts February 5. Chen advises new students to arrive early: "The floor is best when it's just been swept and no one's touched it yet."
