Writing on Tap

Last Saturday, I went to an event called "Writing for Tap" that was co-sponsored by Collective for Writing and New Media and American Tap Dance Foundation.  It was fairly well attended by writers, dancers and writer/dancers.  The idea was to explore how tap dance has been written about and how it can be improved.  It was quite informative with not enough time to cover as much as we wanted, leading the coordinator, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, to conclude at the end that this needs to happen on a more regular basis.

Five people presented short talks about tap and then we broke into small groups to discuss issues brought up.  First, Constance Valis Hill (author of Tap Dancing America, A Cultural History) talked about issues of race, gender, and cultural roots related to tap.  What stood out for me was her description of art historian Robert Farris Thompson's criteria of assessing African rooted art forms.
Next came dancer/choreographer Derick K. Grant, who talked about his life in tap and showed a clip from a show he created called Imagine Tap!  He talked about how he is trying to be pro-active in getting tap dance seen in all its glory on the professional stage.  Veteran dancer/choreographer Brenda Bufalino followed Derick and instead of following her planned talk, decided to begin her segment by having us talk about the Imagine Tap! clip.  I thought this was very good for the session because what was mentioned were the references Derick had in his work to aspects of tap history.  The point made that if you know the history you can see the references and write about it in a review.  Michelle Dorannce followed on the same track when she came up by making comparisons between some ballet reviews and tap dance reviews she looked up.  The ballet review she quoted referenced the composer's work and the history of the ballet work in describing the performance, whereas the tap review was more general without the comparable specifics.  Last came pianist/arranger/musical director Frank Owen who has worked with many of us tap dancers and followed up on some of the issues of music that had also been mentioned by the previous speakers.  His main thing though was sharing some short stories of his experience with tap dancers and how he thrives on the challenge of working with us.

Before breaking into two smaller groups, Brenda, Michelle and Derick did a "mini jam" with Frank on piano.  The small groups allowed the writers to go back and forth with the dancers, sharing their concerns about covering tap dance.  By that point writer/dancer Jane Goldberg and dancer Max Pollak also showed up and contributed to the discussions.  I felt that people left the event sort of "charged up" and looking forward it happening again with more people.  What I believe would be really good the next time is to focus on showing more tap clip and talking about them, like what was done with Derik's clip.

What I enjoyed about the event was not only dealing with the topic at hand, but learning more about some of my colleagues as they talked and also about some of the people who are interested in writing about dance.  Dialogue and communication, even if we all don't agree on things, are so important for the tap community, especially now with so many young dancers around the world doing tap.  There is history for them to still learn and for me, too!  I did a series at Dixon Place a few times called The Story of Tap, which sort of inspired this blog, and the idea was not so much to tell a definitive history but have us dancers share our stories of this art form.  What's your story?  My next post will begin a stimulation to get that from you.....

                                                             
            The "Mini Jam" with Derick, Michelle, Brenda and Frank