High Voltage – Buckets and Tap Shoes at CLC

“This show was recommended to me by a fellow arts presenter,” Spradlin stated in a news release. “They called it the most fun you could have in a single evening. After I checked them out, I wholeheartedly agree.”

The Ausland brothers were born and raised in south Minneapolis and started taking lessons at a young age, training in jazz and ballet, as well as tap. After high school, Rick Ausland ventured to Los Angeles, where he auditioned for the hit show “Stomp.” Although he didn’t earn a slot in the show, the experience triggered a desire in him to create something similar back in Minneapolis. When he returned to Minneapolis, he and Andy Ausland gathered together a corps of like-minded dancers, and began working on pieces they performed in dance competitions. They soon found they had a successful thing going, and formed the group Buckets and Tap Shoes. The group performed throughout the Minneapolis community, garnering critical accolades and amassing a huge following, the release stated. They’ve danced at several Minnesota Fringe Festivals, and been nominated for the Minnesota Sage Award as Best Dance Performance. The group won the Minnesota State Fair Open Division Talent Competition and was voted “Best Dance Performance” by City Pages.

The group had the great honor of performing on the next-to-last broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” in 2016. In addition to their numerous appearances in Minneapolis venues, Buckets and Tap Shoes has toured internationally to Austria, Finland, Ecuador, Malta, St. Thomas, Costa Rica and Russia, as well as North American tours to over 30 U.S. states.

The Auslands got their start as street performers, and they lug their banged-up 5-gallon paint buckets onto the stage just as if they were setting up to busk on a busy corner. After a boisterous jam session pounding out beats on these makeshift instruments, the duo gets down to the seriously fun business of dancing.

Tickets for Buckets and Tap Shoes are available online at www.clcperformingarts.com or from the CLC Theatre Box Office at 218-855-8199.

The show is sponsored Prairie Bay Grill and Catering. The entire CLC Performing Arts Center season is made possible in part by an operating grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.