Portland International Tap Festival (Sixth Annual) Festival 1994-07-08 Portland International Tap Festival, Oregon July 8-16 1994. Sixth annual International Tap Festival. Opened with the second showing of the documentary "Honi Coles: The Class Act of Tap" whose world premiere was in May on National Tap Dance Day. Twenty four classes were held daily throughout the city with tap masters Cholly Atkins, Gracey Tune, Dianne Walker, Buster Brown, Van Porter, Sam Weber, Heather Cornell, Linda Sohl-Donnell, Fred Strickler and others. 1994 Joe Webb and Mya Harrison attended and were featured in July 1994's Dance Magazine. July 16th ITFA culminated with the 6th annual concert "Tapping with the Masters" featuring Cholly Atkins and Dianne Walker co-emceeing at the Performing Arts Center's Intermediate Theatre. Performances started with Van "The Dancing Man" Porter, then Buster Brown. Fred Strickler was accompanied by pianist Althea Waites. Sam Weber was accompanied by Darin Clendenin on piano and Phil Baker on bass with drummer Mel Brown. Heather Cornell and Max Pollack danced a novel piece of tap shoes dueling shakeree (a gourd covered in a noisy net of beads). Linda Sohl-Donnell collaborated with drummer M.B. Gordy in a duet of platform drums and taps. Marion Coles presented the first annual Honi Coles Memorial Scholarship. The finale was the shim sham. Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.1098