Tap City at the Joyce Theater at times felt like one of those revue-type shows that they show on cruise ships. The program was curated by the American Tap Dance Foundation and gathered some of the most prominent tappers who danced in tribute to tap masters of the past. It was more an exercise in nostalgia than anything else.
Granted, tap dance’s legacy and history is so rich that it’s appropriate to have some homages to the tap masters. But any dance form is also about innovation and Tap City had too much past, too little future.
Granted, some of the tributes highlighted voices that need to be heard. I particularly loved Jason Samuels Smith paying homage to the one-legged tapper Peg Leg Bates. Smith held his left leg completely stiffly, emulating Bates’ wooden leg. Michelle Dorrance danced a number originally choreographed and danced by Brenda Bufalino, My Mind is on Mingus. Bufalino is in her 80s and it’s important that her legacy is being passed on.
Other numbers only highlighted how much greater the originals were. Dewitt Fleming Jr.’s tribute to Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s famous stair dance didn’t have the speed, charm and dynamism of Bojangles. A tribute to Gregory Hines again came across as slightly twee and precious, which was completely not the impact of Hines himself. The tribute to Honi Coles lacked the patrician elegance with which Coles danced.
If you look up Coles, Hines or Bojangles on YouTube, they are so larger-than-life and charismatic, something hard to recreate by other performers, no matter how well-intentioned. Lisa La Touche’s tribute to Louis Armstrong was another number that felt dutiful and not anything that actually captured Armstrong’s personality or musicality.
I liked the newer works better, because they seemed more unique to the performers and not mere revue-style tributes. One of my favorites was Ryan K. Johnson’s The Pulse. He told the audience to clap to a beat, then conducted the audience’s claps and then tapped along to it. Another world premiere was Endless, in which a trio of tappers stood on a rotating table and tapped to Bach and Koreless. It felt less aggressively retro and more modern and I enjoyed the mix of classical and club music. One of my favorite numbers.
Another favorite was the Soles of Duende. Three women (Amanda Castro, Brinda Guhar and Arielle Rosales) tapped on small wooden floors. Their number The Kitchen was a nod to their multicultural heritage: one tapper is of Puerto Rican descent, another Mexican and Jewish, the third Bengali. Their trio was so joyful, so full of energy, that I would have been happy had it been the closing number.
The quibbles hardly mattered though. The entire run was nearly sold out and the audience loved all the numbers. I suspect it’s like comfort food for tap enthusiasts.
