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“Imagine Tap,” Chicago
Tap City, New York City Tap Festival
Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Evanston

by Sali Ann Kriegsman
copyright ©2006 by Sali Ann Kriegsman

         “I never wanted to be a painter.  I wanted to be a tap dancer.”  — Andy Warhol

During the past two decades, tap has grown an idiosyncratic infrastructure of its own — an informal circuit of festivals. Tap festivals in St. Louis, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and a half dozen other cities in North America are where some of the most exciting dancing and talent can be seen. Tap fever has spread to Europe, Australia, Japan, Israel, Brazil and even China — among some 27 countries. But here, in the US, you won’t see what has been brewing tap-wise under the radar either at mainstream presenting sites or “alternative” spaces where we typically look for the new, the next. 

From May to November, the festival circuit provides the major source of work for tappers who teach (hundreds of classes are offered) and perform — and for lovers of the form to gather. Though each festival has its distinctive character and mission, they share the values of a tightly bound community in honoring legacies and elders, nurturing young dancers and original work, and inculcating a sense that everyone has something authentic to contribute, something to “say.”  Performances feel like family re-unions. Stories are shared in hallways, parking lots and on the streets. (Outside the Duke on 42nd Street, after a Tap City program one hot July night, Jimmy Slyde stops to sign programs and chat with the youngsters clustering around him. “Show me what you learned since I saw you in St. Louis,” he says and they do, and then he shows them how he does it and trades steps with them. He never stops giving. No one does.) Nationwide, there are a dozen or more youth tap ensembles performing classic tap repertory and commissioning new choreography. 

Twenty years ago the pioneer masters were the headliners and took up most of the programming. Today only a few vintage tappers survive and are still around to participate. But the thundering hoofbeats of new generations can be heard loud and clear, inspired by the elders and their proteges, and they are now fully capable and intent on holding their own.

Tap City, The New York Tap Festival

Five year old Tap City, the New York City Tap Festival founded by Tony Waag, is filling a major gap in that city’s historic status as dance capital for all genres. In the three festival programs I saw in July — “Tap Internationals,” “Tap Forward” and “Tap and Song,” there was good reason to feel optimistic about tap’s future.  Striking, for example, among the “internationals” were the “hittin” techtonics of Japan’s Kazu Kumagai, and the subversive post-modern Siamese twin “routine”of Tapage (Olivia Rosenkrantz and Mari Fujibayashi). 

A high point of the Internationals was Barcelona’s Guillem Alonso, with his sympatico guitarist Roger Raventos. In a lyrical solo to Chaplin’s theme from “Limelight,” Alonso adroitly averted cloying sentimentality. Even more extraordinary was his sand dance. Over a rectangle of floor cloth, Alonso began pouring a gentle shower of sand from a black fabric cone held over his head into a light beamed downward from above. The sand glinted and shimmered as it cascaded through the light, forming pillows of sand below. It put the watcher into a state of  sensual delirium. And then, at last, with the cone emptied, Alonso stepped into the sand and began making love to it with his shoes, playing in it like a child in a sandbox, teasing it into sounds never heard before, brushing and scraping and sliding over it, caressing it. He made sand dancing, one of the oldest forms of rhythm dancing, into an entrancing art. 

In “Tap and Song,” the most successfully curated of the programs, Karen Callaway Williams (she was in the marvelous recent documentary about the Silver Belles, “Been Rich All My Life”) choreographed a straight ahead take on Schwartz & Dietz’s famous “Shine on Your Shoes” number from “The  Bandwagon,” enunciating every tap vowel in her large lexicon. Twelve-year old Warren Craft’s dazzling musicality made him a young man to watch. The new Tap City Youth Ensemble did honor to classic Copasetics dances. (Nationwide, there are now a dozen or more youth tap ensembles performing classic tap repertory and commissioning new choreography.)   

But it was veteran entertainers Miriam Nelson (with her young compatriot dancer Rusty Frank), Mabel Lee and Harold Cromer that got the house up on its feet laughing, crying and roaring its affection.  Lee showed us what true sex appeal was when women knew just “hotcha do it”.  And Cromer’s gruff crooning and minimalist savoir faire spoke worlds about the traditions that have inspired today’s dancers. Capping it off, Baakari Wilder danced a touching tribute to Bunny Briggs who was being inducted into Tap City’s International Tap Dance Hall of Fame.  Wilder uncannily “became” Bunny — with those deep pooling eyes, the shoulder shrugs, the trilling paddles and rolls, the ineffable sweet sadness and humility.                                            

Chicago Human Rhythm Project

Second City’s Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP), in its 16th year, is the oldest continuously operating tap presenting organization. Five years ago it expanded into a year-round tap presenting/producing entity.  Founder-tap artist Lane Alexander offers a panoply of classes, workshops, conferences and showcase concerts, and presents and produces tap programs in six Chicago area neighborhoods with a host of collaborative components.  His dream is to build a theater for American tap and percussive dance in Chicago — that would be a first–with studios and performance spaces and possibly even living quarters for visiting artists.  Alexander describes CHRP as a “neutral” ground where all percussive styles and approaches are encouraged. Derick Grant and Aaron Tolson, Jason Samuels Smith, Dianne Walker, Keith Terry, and Sam Weber, among others, were teaching at CHRP in the dance facilities at Northwestern University in nearby Evanston.

The faculty concert, “JUBA! Masters of Tap and Percussive Dance” further evidenced tap’s range. Chicago’s tap history and contemporary strength were well represented on the program  alongside some of the most accomplished artists of the genre from other climes. 

Keith Terry ’s unique “body percussion” performance was like a great vintage wine,  so smooth and tangy were his rhythms and sounds, so slyly intoxicating. Heather Cornell dedicated her intricate, delicate 3/4 time number to Charles “Cookie” Cook.  Sam Weber’s breath-stopping tap medley was as extraordinary as a butterfly in flight, fluttering so fast you had to squint to make out the coloring, markings, patterns. Dianne Walker — “Lady Di” — who’s been teaching at CHRP since its inception, took a moment to offer her gratitude to the festival, faculty, students and audience in the 350-seat Marjorie Ward Marshall Dance Center Theater.  Then, with a nod to the musical trio, she began her exquisitely lyrical signature number, “Emily,” barely lifting her shoes while dropping perfect pearls of sound. She added Bill Evans’ “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” which left the audience so, so grateful. Walker gave us the essence of the art of tap, a world of reflection and understanding distilled into sounds and rhythms that only the most cultivated, wisest feet can make.  She told us the stories we need to hear.
                                            

“Imagine Tap”

A lot of hopes and dreams in the tap world are riding on the success of “Imagine Tap.” There hasn’t been an all-tap hit show on Broadway since “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk a decade ago.  With luck, this may become another. 

The buzz had already started when I made plans to see it during its last week. The dancing, everyone agreed, is incredible. Then, there’d  be an uncomfortable  pause and a slightly dismissive, “it’s entertaining.” They were right, it is immensely entertaining. But I suggest it’s more. It proves the potential of tap choreographically to tell stories, convey character, mood and tone, to move beyond the solo form to ensemble choreography. It references and encompasses a range of contemporary and historic tap idioms and the tap roots of hip-hop dancing. The fact that it is entertaining is a decided plus. It doesn’t have a social, political or historical “point.” It’s simply about dancing, specifically tap dancing.  And I submit that’s way serious enough. 

The show, co-created by dancers Derick Grant and Aaron Tolson, ran for four weeks in Chicago’s 1500-seat Harris Theater in Millennium Park (next door to Frank Gehry’s Music Pavilion). Directed and choreographed by Grant, an original member and dance captain for “Noise/Funk” on Broadway and star of the show’s first national tour, this is his first major stint creating, directing and choreographing an entire show. He has impressive dance creds, including several years with Jazz Tap Ensemble (JTE and a few other tap companies of long-standing have been crucibles for many of the show’s artists). He was motivated, he said, by seeing too many of tap’s elders die nearly destitute (most famously, Fayard Nicholas). Grant doesn’t want to end up that way or have today’s young dancers have nothing better to look forward to. “Tap has a history of bubbling up and then fizzling out” in the public eye. He wants tap to have “staying power.” With all this in mind, he set out to create a show that would engage a large public and provide steady work and opportunity for the profusion of talent that has been coming up.  So when his friend, tap dancer Aaron Tolson, was performing in “Riverdance” in Indiana and met Cari Shein, a successful realtor and developer by trade, he told her that many wonderful young dancers were emerging but they had very few places other than dance conventions and competitions to be seen. Shein agreed to back “Imagine Tap.” Grant and Tolson gathered 16 extraordinary tap dancers, two vocalists, a small Gospel choir, a hip-hop breaking duo, a DJ, composer, lyricist and band, and they workshopped the show in Manhattan studios. Chicago is the first step for what they hope will be a story of national and international success.

Like all new enterprises, the show needs time to sharpen, tighten, reshape and also attend to acoustical balance.  It needs to ramp up production values without getting slicked up in the process or losing its freshness and natural wit. And it needs to go on.

The show’s concept stems from the fact that tap dancers are inveterate hoarders of film, video, DVD and audio.  They’ll stay up til dawn after long days of teaching and performing to watch and dissect tap footage with fellow dancers and students. “Imagine Tap” was inspired by the dancers’ love of these images which flicker just beneath the show’s skin.  And this is a good part of what gives the show depth and impact.

In its present form, “Imagine Tap” is structured as a revue comprising 16 sketches or stories told in dance, music and percussion. The scenes include a toy shop, supper club, school room, basketball court, subway platform, church. The music, by composer/conductor Zane Mark, is eclectic as well.  

The show’s piece de resistance is the ferocious and dark “Samurai Shuffle,”  Jason Samuel Smith’s dead-humorous take on the laser intensity and power of Samurai warriors. Preparing for battle, Smith consecrates his red tap shoes (the reference is unmistakable) and is transformed into a human tsunami.  Sword in hand, his feet stutter and blur with determined force.  With one foot punctuating behind him, his toes drive a running stitch prestissimo into the ground as an army of Ninja figures try to best him, led by two sword-wielding break dancers tumbling and cartwheeling menacingly toward him. Smith’s technical and rhythmic compass and stamina are phenomenal. In just a few minutes we’ve seen a marriage of martial arts movies, hip hop, anime, and tap–popular culture raised to artistic heights.  We’ve been awed by Samuels Smith in the brilliant short video “Tap Heat” with veteran Arthur Duncan; we’ve known of his collaborations with Chitresh Das and others. There’s no telling what he’ll do next (he and Chloe Arnold co-direct the Los Angeles Tap Festival which opened the morning after “Imagine Tap”’s run.)  Whatever it is, I want to be there.

But every one of the dancers is a stand-out and must be named:  Chloe Arnold, Bril Barrett, Jessica Chapuis, Ayodele Casel, Michelle Dorrance, Martin Tre Dumas III, Derick Grant, Jared Grimes, Ray Hesselink, Jason Janas, Kelly Kaleta, Jason Samuels Smith,  Dormeshia Sumby-Edwards, Jumaane Taylor, Aaron Tolson and Joseph Wiggan. As are the break dancers David “Cyclone” Alan Fogler and Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie.  And the astounding rhythmists, Channing Cook Holmes on drums and DJ Daniel A. Pinero, “DP One.”

Most of the tap we’ve been seeing lately doesn’t tell narrative stories; the emphasis is on rhythms, sounds, steps and music. Here, tap is dialogue and moves the narratives along. It defines and paints character. Grant’s choreography for ensembles is inventive and skillful. Most of these dancers are learning for the first time through their dancing how to be characters in a story or a sketch, how to act.

“Imagine Tap” shows us how deep the pool of tap talent is today and how the field is growing.  Most of these dancers — women and men, black and white — are in their 20's. There is an egalitarian feeling to the show — everyone has a solo spot or number and everyone participates in the ensemble.

Aaron Tolson says tap is no longer about a dominant style or school or label; it’s all tap, all rhythm, all percussion. This generation of dancers is choreographing, directing and taking the future of tap into its own hands. They have the feet, the moves, the steps, the technique — and the ideas. All they need now is the work.

“I’m not going to wait for someone to ask me to be in a show, or choreograph a number for them,” Derick Grant said. “We’ve got to do it for ourselves. So we’re doing it.”

Photos (from top):
Jurmane Taylor, Jared Grimes Joseph Wiggin. Photo by Lois Greenfield.
New York's Tap City Festival. Photo by Lois Greenfield.
Sheketak.
Mr. Happy Ray Hesselink and Aaron Tolson. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
Samurai Shuffle and Jason Samuels Smith. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and cast in "Subway Heat." Photo by Michael Brosilow.
Front page: Chloe Arnold and Michael Hawkins in Tu Eres Loco. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Volume 4, No. 31
August 21, 2006
copyright ©2006 Sali Ann Kriegsman
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