Saturday night, the UCI Irvine Barclay Theater in Irvine, Savion Glover demonstrated his choreographic genius has transcended conventional tap dance genre and has landed on an entirely new plateau not seen before. Tap is no longer the heel-toe, heel-toe, tap, tap, tap with which weve associated the dance form. And frankly, other than mesmerizing, I dont know how to describe the deluge of rhythms coming from the feet of his troupe and him, . The audience gawks and gasps at the many variations of footwork he incorporates during his performances. His ensemble amply responds to his every beck and call by unleashing a deluge of foot rhythms of their own until the audience is entranced in a kaleidoscopic flood of sounds. None of those watching ever realized the near-histrionics accompanying the rhythms were ever possible of coalescing with the avant-garde sounds of John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner. Yet, when Savion and the ensemble perform to Coltrane, it seems the music was expressly composed to accompany his choreograph. Sometimes it seems some musicians of the modern and post modern period, have come from a time yet to arrive for the rest of us, have left their indelible stamp on American art and just as quickly, returned whence they came. Before you and I can even grasp whats happened, theyre gone forever. Fortunately for us, they usually were nice enough to leave us their legacies. For the tap dancer, the only legacy that could possibly be left was their personal moves, or licks. A tap dancer is not a tap dancer until he develops a style others recognize as personal property, after which they set out to steal it for themselves. Among tap dancers, it is common knowledge all of them steal. It is the greatest form of flattery. Savion has taken the legacies left in his care, stylized them to reflect todays palates, and unleashed them on an unsuspecting and avid audience, which bathes in the waves of percussion spread in a rhythmic spectrum that expands the senses. A wealth of synchronization of percussive sounds emanating from the specially designed acoustic dancers surface amplify and enhance the taps until the feet no longer emanate ordinary rhythms and beats. What spews forth in their place is information; a form of communications of things past and things future; the things those dancers who have left, wanted us to remember them by. The history of centuries of joy and pain, fear and anger, hope and sorrow is so readily identifiable in the feet of the performers so much so, they nearly form words. The audience is in a trance as he takes it on rhythmic voyages like no one has sailed before. He brings symmetry and piety to Coltranes passionate and transcendental chants. The emotions of many other american classics immortals echo from the feet of the ensemble and their master. The amplification of the dance floor excites the senses and stimulates the palate. The energy is itself palpable. The lives of countless dancers before Savion have been entrusted to him, and are surely using him as a medium in a different form of seance. The feet actually are communicating the messages from his deceased and aged mentors in a dancers code he deciphers and conveys to his audiences, who in turn, digest the message without needing interpretation. It is that clear, that concise, and wholly consumed. Savion has taken the form to another level for which I have no definitions. Tap has been elevated to the post modern era. You only have to see the people who come to his shows to understand that. They are the guardians of, and the benefitters of this art. They know it is not merely entertainment, but the expression of a new dance art, another dance genre. Those people in his audiences are more than aware they are witnessing artistic history. His audiences are overwhelmingly people with degrees, more likely advanced degrees than not. For them, art is not fleeting. It spans ages. It is Beethoven and it is Ellington. It is Isadora Duncan and it is Gregory Hines. It is the Barrymores and it is Streep. It is Fosse, and it is now Savion Glover. For this artisan, this type of following, bread and circuses are not going to cut it. Something fulfilling is required. Appetites for the arts must be sated. They already know what they came to see is more than a dancer. They know they are seeing style and genre elevate to pure art. And everyone leaves his shows fulfilled, and on occasion, revitalized. Savion began tapping at the age of ten. At the time he began, there was a plethora of great tap dancers still around, and he worked with all of them. Sammy Davis, Jr., The Condo Brothers, Gregory Hines and his brother, the Nicolas Brothers, Jimmy Slide, Bunny Briggs: So many more who were just as proficient were at one time or another, Savions dance accompaniment. He has within him, all of their legacies. He is the keeper of the keys. And they couldnt have given them over to anyone more qualified than Savion. He has done for them, more than they could have hoped for. They can all rest peacefully, assured that their existence has been extended for many more generations. Savion is no longer my nephew. He now belongs to the ages. thebarclay.org/events-details.asp?n=explore-events&n1=view-events&n2=by-date&refId=C97DDDF6-3872-4F0A-9A03-9891FB5EEF65
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 07:08:40 +0000
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