Impressions of A Festival
of Learning and Joy: Tap City 2003
By Alice Bernstein
| The third annual Tap City festival,
produced by Tony Waag of the American Tap Dance Foundation, was celebrated
in New York City in July by hundreds of dancers of all ages, countries,
and a wide variety of styles. The events included workshops, films, jams
and 213 classes taught by, among others, Dianne Walker, Sarah Petronio,
Brenda Bufalino, LaVaughn Robinson, Andrew Nemr and Michele Ribble, and
performances by Dr. Jimmy Slyde, Savion Glover, Tony Waag and many more. |
Alice Bernstein of The Harlem Times
Ernest "Brownie" Brown and Reggio "The Hoofer"
McLaughlin
photo: David M. Bernstein
|
To honor the spirit of education and joy at Tap City, I’m
glad to tell about two events I attended – a master class and a panel discussion/performance
– in relation to what I’m so grateful to have learned from Aesthetic
Realism, the philosophy founded by the great American poet and
educator Eli Siegel (1902-78). His magnificent principle, “All beauty
is a making one of opposites and the making one of opposites is what we
are going after in ourselves,” is true about all the arts in every
century and country, including the wonderful American art form of tap dance.
Rest and
Motion: The Chair Dance
| The master class taught by 87
year-old Ernest “Brownie” Brown (the legendary comic tapper whose career
began in Vaudeville) and his youthful partner from Chicago, dancer, choreographer
and educator Reggio “The Hoofer” McLaughlin, was historic. Eight years
ago they began performing together and caused a sensation by reviving the
“Chair Dance” – an almost lost classic from the 1930s that Brownie performed
in the 1950s with the Copasetics. This dance, which Brownie and Reggio
were teaching for the first time, is a wonderful relation of the opposites
of |
Ernest "Brownie" Brown & Reggio
"The Hoofer" McLaughlin teaching the Chair Dance
photo: David M. Bernstein |
rest and motion. While sitting in chairs side by side, the
dancers have a rhythmic conversation in a synchronized yet unexpected tap
routine. Being seated, they seem to be at rest; yet their energetic movements
mirror one another and also break away; and while they never get up, you
know they’re dancing.
Ernest "Brownie" Brown autographs
tap shoes
photo: David M. Bernstein |
“You’d think it would be easy,” said dancer
Katie DaSilva, “but it’s very difficult to sit down and tap dance.” About
her teachers she said, “I love the whole atmosphere: no matter what level
you’re at, they welcome you, and it’s okay if you don’t get it right away.
They have so much knowledge and they’re so humble. I wish the whole world
was like tap dancing.”
The students later gave a stand-out performance of the
Chair Dance at the Duke Theater. |
Melba
Huber’s Moving Tap History: Past and Present
| Sixty children and teens attended
Melba Huber’s “Moving Tap History,” at the New York Dance Center. Ms. Huber,
a beloved member of the tap community from McAllen, Texas, is a dancer,
teacher, and tap preservationist, and has been a regular columnist on tap
for 16 years. She introduced the children to a panel of dance artists,
young and old, whose lives are a living history of tap dance: Yvonne Edwards,
Harold “Stumpy” Cromer, Jeannie Hill, David Rider, Reggio “The Hoofer”
McLaughlin, Ernest “Brownie” Brown, Jason Samuels Smith, Charles Goddertz,
and Dr. Jimmy |
Harold
"Stumpy" Cromer and Melba Huber
Photo credit: Alice Bernstein
|
Slyde. As Ms. Huber and her guests spoke, opposites that
affected me deeply were past and present, and I loved learning about how
tap dance puts them together.
Youngsters at Melba's Moving
ap History
Photo credit: Alice Bernstein
The panel began with a moving presentation of hambone by
Yvonne Edwards from Washington, DC who participates in the Performing Arts
Society's Artists in School program at elementary and high schools. We
learned that the art of hambone grew out of the brutal injustice of slavery.
Though laws forbade slaves from playing musical instruments, they created
this musical form in which one’s body becomes an instrument. Ms. Edwards,
who has been dancing, teaching and choreographing for many years, told
the youngsters about her great grandmother, who lived on a slave plantation
and passed down hambone to others.
film and stage, joined Ms. Edwards. The way Mr. Cromer accompanied
her hambone with lively, deep vocal and dance rhythms was beautiful. I
loved seeing and hearing these artists so gracefully put together past
and present, sorrow and pleasure in their sounds and movements.
A notable, fine quality in many tap dancers is their eager
expression of gratitude for what they have learned from others. At Melba’s
event, tributes – in words and dance – were given by Jeannie Hill to Robert
Audy and by David Rider to Michele Ribble. And as Jason Samuels Smith spoke
of dancers who influenced him, he gave a stunning performance which included
original tap rhythms. The way that age and youth, tradition and freshness
are put together in tap, makes for true wonder.
This could also be seen in Dr. Jimmy Slyde’s
rousing comments to all the children at the close of this event: “After
all you’ve heard, have fun! Then you can learn about yourself and dancing.
I’ve been having fun all these years; having fun remembering; having fun
that’s new. I’m having fun, and I ain’t begun. Learn what a shuffle is,
what a slap is, what a riff is, because it all means something. But other
than that – have fun!”
Recently I read this description by Charles Dickens,
of an 1842 performance by the African |
Jimmy Slyde teaching
children during
Melba's Moving Tap History
Photo credit: Alice Bernstein |
American dancer, William Henry Lane, known as Master Juba:
| “Single shuffle, double shuffle, cut and cross-cut; snapping
his fingers, rolling his eyes, turning in his knees, presenting the backs
of his legs in front, spinning about on his toes and heels like nothing
but the man’s fingers on the tambourine; dancing with two left legs, two
right legs, two wooden legs, two wire legs, two spring legs – all sorts
of legs and no legs….His leg movements resembled the noises of the fingers
on a tambourine…. He finishes by leaping gloriously….in one inimitable
sound.” |
Dickens called Master Juba “the lively hero,” and
at Tap City, the youngsters were thrilled to meet present-day lively heroes.
Editor’s Note: Alice Bernstein is a journalist
and Aesthetic Realism associate whose articles appear in “The Harlem Times”
and other newspapers, including her column “Alice Bernstein and Friends.”
An earlier version of this piece appeared in “The Harlem Times.” To learn
more, contact the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation (212) 777-4490,
www.AestheticRealism.org
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