You might think that with the right performer, the right music and the right floor, tap dance would sustain its reputation as the most immediately irresistible of dance entertainments. All three elements were in place at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater Friday evening (Aug. 15) for the 2008 version of the Bay Area Tap Festival (presented by John Kloss’ Stepology), yet the thrills were slow in coming and the defections during intermissions too prominent to be ignored.
So, what happened? How could an evening of tingling anticipation emerge such a humdrum affair? The talent was undeniable; any show that features, in addition to Kloss, such major artists in the field as Sam Weber, Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards and Deborah Mitchell, suggests that a tap summit meeting is underway.
This year, however, the producers infused the proceedings with shtick, bringing on the guests one by one for rather abbreviated solos and then going into a phony audience participation number that introduced the Barbary Coast Cloggers who ultimately joined the celebrated soloists in one of those friendly “competitions” that make a lot of noise and prove very little. Mostly, there was far too much talk from Channing Cook Holmes, whose opening comedy routine lacked wit and wasted time. Nobody comes to a tap dance extravaganza for speeches.
Patience was eventually rewarded. Mitchell, the founder and artistic director of the New Jersey Tap Dance Ensemble, communicates in an earthy style founded on smooth, even languorous phrasing, which holds much appeal, but her rap tribute to her mentor Leslie “Bubba” Gaines (of the legendary Copasetics) fell flat, partly because of inadequate amplification, partly because of her minimal skill at rapping. Her rope jumping routine, however, almost brought the house down. Kloss gave us one of his deceptively diffident solos, uniting his feet with a percussive assault on a convenient chair. His staccato attacks, unaccompanied by music, captivated.
Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards. Photo by Eduardo Patino.
Weber, a performer in the grand manner and veteran mainstay of the Jazz Tap Ensemble, impressed with his heel-toe cadences and his dramatic slides across the stage. Watching him finesse the beat amounted to a master class in the field. Sumbry Edwards, one of the best things to happen to tap dance in the past two decades, wove intricate rhythmic tapestries in which every stitch seemed to register; her teasing, diffident manner only adds to her appeal. Later, Holmes’ syncopated routine with the three musicians seemed far less commanding.
Finally, after an extended intermission, the four lead performers got the opportunity for a group foray, in which contrasting attacks and styles emerged clearly. The call and response sequence with the Barbary Coast Cloggers was revealing. If the tappers didn’t always react with the rhythmic precision of their guests (beloved regulars at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival), they defined the difference between movement approaches. The rigid torsos of the cloggers seem constricted in comparison with the fully engaged bodies and arms of the tappers, who sometimes seem to float through space. The cloggers remain earthbound (in an invigorating way, of course). The musicians Friday included Sista Kee, piano; Lamont Keller, guitar and bass, and Michael B. Mooring, percussion.
The annual festival performances, expanded to two evenings this year, followed a week of workshops and Friday’s audience burst with tappers of contrasting degrees of accomplishment, in addition to their well-wishers. All were invited to strut their stuff in a Shim Sham finale. The pros make tapping look easy (part of their charm). It takes a bunch of amateurs struggling valiantly with a beat to make one appreciate how much art conceals art. But Kloss’ Stepology is on the right track. Tap is a major American dance form (with plenty of un-American antecedents), subject, like other forms, to evolutionary forces. It needs all the attention Kloss can lavish on it.
