Scene & Heard: Dancers kick up their heels at Engels
Published 2:07 pm Friday, September 16, 2022
Carlie Anderson, who grew up in the vibrant dance education community of Vashon, returned to the island earlier this year with her Seattle dance troupe, ZTheory, to record a video at a well-known location — Engels Repair & Towing, a gas station just south of Portage that has been owned by the Engels family since 1951.
The mom-and-pop station is a picturesque place that hearkens back to a time when attendants in oil-stained coveralls stepped outside to personally pump gas for customers. At Engels, they still do.
Coveralls were also part of the costumery in ZTheory Dance Academy’s video — along with the ensemble’s signature high-heel shoes, as they performed in front of the gas station to the high-octane beats of Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty.”
Anderson, who co-founded ZTheory with Natalya Z in 2020, said that the video project was the culmination of the dance company’s education wing, ZTheory Academy, and she was grateful to the Engels family for making it possible.
“This is such an iconic spot on Vashon, and it meant the world to me to be able to share the Vashon community with this dance family,” she said.
Watch the video at tinyurl.com/5dyk9zyc and find out more about ZTheory’s hybrid online and in-person classes, beginning Sept. 25, at ztheorydance.com.
Visit the website of Engels Repair and Towing at tinyurl.com/3e9n78ap.
