Unpredictable Night: Tap City 200
It’s Tap City: Choreographer’s Night at the Duke Theater where nothing is predictable in the midst of the festival.
Josh Hilberman gives us a close-up view, through a zoom lens, as he taps under the spotlight. He peers out at us, rearranging the landscape, changing the plotline. We watch him and are mesmerized, yet alert to his solo in a cappella. He bares all, or so our minds imagine. There’s a single metal tap stuck to his forehead and one attached to his chain-link vest, over his heart. Josh is wearing a thong. A half a dozen taps are grouped hysterically on the front of his thong, "down there." He’s wearing nothing else. He uses the taps, which are in his hands, to bang out rhythms onto his head, heart, and "down there." And he keeps doing this as we wait for him in primal glee to reveal where our imaginations have already taken us. He turns around and the audience reacts to his bare cheeks with cheers and laughter like we’ve just heard a locker room secret. We love it because he’s censored, evasive, and anarchistic.
And each performance comes at us like fireworks.
Acia Gray arrives, presenting her solo in five parts like a fantastic one-woman show. Each part is separated by a recorded voice that interrupts her and annoys her, "You’re a woman and you’re white," it says. To this, she reacts savagely and dances with fevered pitch, circling and walking in huge heel to toe steps until she is swept away.
Michelle Ribble gives us reassurance as she taps, presenting a large picture of Buster Brown. In memory, we see Buster in our mind’s eye, tapping – relaxed and carefree. We experience him all dressed up in a suit and feel the greater joy!
Jump Rhythm Jazz Project with Jeannie Hill and Billy Siegenfeld, dressed in Charlie Chaplin-style hats and suits, present comic brilliance with an explosion of drama.
Lane Alexander writes us love letters through Bach’s music, and we listen word for word and step by step. We are gripped by his specificity.
LaVaughn Robinson and Germaine Ingram take strolls through Central Park and sit on park benches a they do a chair dance in flamboyant rhythm with interesting choreography.
Lynn Dally and Sam Weber present a creative pas de deux that includes improvisation and trades with the musicians: on piano is Frank Kimbrough, on bass is Ben Allison, and on drums is Eddie Ornowski.
Other dancers include the Tap Collective with Choreography by Susan Hebach, Lynn Schwab, and Sherry Stregack. Step Aside Tap Company, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, New Jersey Tap Ensemble, Jimmy Tate, Barbara Duffy and Company are all present and accounted for.
Tony Waag hosts it all, as Master of Ceremonies, in a lively and easy manner that made us crave for more dancing!
Emily Klemmer
"On Tap" Volume 13, Number 3 WINTER 2002