2018 in Review: Tap Happy!

Hi everyone,

I know 2019 is nearly half over, but I finally made a list of my favorite performances from last year. Indulge me this week while I reminisce. First up are tap dance extraordinaires, Savion Glover and Michelle Dorrance.

Savion Glover's show, All FuNKD' Up, premiered at National Theatre in February. His tapping is all about sound, and this show began with that. With the curtain still down, the music and tapping started. The audience listened attentively until Savion called out, "Is anyone out there?" The curtain rose while we cheered, revealing a six-piece live band accompanying Savion's warp-speed tapping. As usual, he danced for long stretches of time, sometimes 20 minutes or more. His otherworldly stamina makes him seem like the Energizer Bunny. "I hope you're as prepared as we are to get all funked up," he said, while tapping away. "We're just gonna be groovin', so if you've got something better to do, you better cancel."

This show was full of joy. Savion was chatty and joked with us: "If you feel like getting up and dancing, coming up on stage and dancing, don't do that!" Toward the end of the show – again, all while tapping – he asked how many tappers were in the audience and got a loud response. "You have your tap shoes?" he asked someone in the front row. "Well, remember what I said at the beginning. We got this."

All FuNKD' Up felt like a casual party, but everything was thoughtfully choreographed. The moves were purposeful to make interesting sounds and echos. Savion always makes moves I've never seen before, like tapping on his toes or on the sides of his feet. He surprised us when he took over playing the drums for a while and did some scat singing. He danced with a few members of his troupe at times too. During one dance, they all rotated in a circle, taking turns doing solos.

Savion always plays with the musicians, mimicking their sounds with his taps or having them follow his taps with their instruments. The band played a couple of tunes I recognized, like songs by Adele and Bruno Mars. He explained his mission: to bring tap to us through these shows, making it just as accessible and exciting as a Bruno Mars type concert. He gave us an exuberant finish and two encores. By the time this thing was over, we were all funked up. Mission accomplished.

A few minutes of All FuNKD' Up, courtesy of Kurt CD, National Theatre, February 2018

While I am a Savion groupie, Michelle Dorrance is relatively new to me. I've only seen her perform once before, in 2017, but got hooked. Dorrance Dance – ETM: Double Down was at Strathmore in March. Although an entirely different kind of show from Savion's rockstar-style concert, it also focused on sound.

Michelle Dorrance and musician Nicholas Van Young mixed percussion into each performance by using flat disc-like drum surfaces and other platforms that were strategically placed on the stage for the dancers to tap on or beat with their hands. At times, everything was so in sync that it was hard to tell where the sounds were coming from. Like All FuNKD Up, this show had a back-up band with singers, but the stage full of varied platforms became a musical instrument too. The short, polished dances had moments of improvisation, but the dancers always came together with precision. Everything became part of the dance, and it was clean, crisp, and textured. Visually and musically intriguing, this show left us thrilled.

Snippets of ETM: Double Down, courtesy of Selby Artists/Management,
Strathmore Music Center, March 2018

I felt lucky to see these two shows so close together and be able to compare them. While completely different in their approaches and styles, both were unique, innovative, and exhilarating. Most people think of tap as an old, outdated form of dance. These two performers, at the top of their game, prove otherwise. Tap is alive, well, and here to stay.