At the recent Tap Awards ceremony, that was part of the annual summer Tap City festival, held in New York City, more than one person made reference to the event being sort of a family affair. Most of us there have known each other for a number of years; having performed, hung out, and/or shared life events together along the way. There are others, not present there, with whom I have strong personal/professional connections, and others whom I do not know personally, or know well, but because of my knowledge of their work and personality I feel a kinship towards. In the past month, or so, I’ve been acutely of my “Family of Tap.”
One morning in June I was indulging in my favorite vice and past time, cable channel surfing. I happened upon a local PBS station and saw the word “tapestry” and thought it was a show about weaving, which seemed like a typical public TV fare for the daytime. Just as I was about to surf on, I saw it was a show about the Tapestry Dance Company of Austin, TX and Acia Gray, who co-founded it in 1989. Something about tap to start my day! It was a fascinating show that was part of the series, “Arts in Context”. The episode was called Passing It Forward, which referred to Acia’s desire to pass on the tradition of tap she received to a new generation. I know Acia from the tap world but was lacking in details about her and her company, so seeing this show took care of that, quite well! I even saw a friend, Yuka Kameda, who was in the company at the time this was show was produced. At one point, Acia acknowledges issues and tensions some folks have concerning the history of tap, but winds up saying, “the family of tap dance is all of us, in all its history…when you really get into the meat of the professional community of tap dance, it’s all one big family.”
Someone who was in Ms Gray’s company is Travis Knights. Originally from Montreal, he is a performer now based in Brampton, Ontario and has a podcast called, The Tap Love Tour. It is one of my “go to” podcasts which I listen to when commuting between Jersey and NYC. I first became aware of it when it was a series of interviews with tap dancers on YouTube, but now I think it is only a podcast. He has interviewed just about everybody in the tap world and has an energetic, inquisitive approach to the conversations he conducts. What I like about the podcast is how he uses it as a platform to evolve and explore how he feels about tap and performing and history and life. He devoted two episodes to the issue of race and tap, including the voices of Roxanne Butterfly, Derick Grant, Max Pollak, and Heather Cornell among others. Those were interesting and informative to me, particularly hearing what some white tap dancers experienced during the “Noise, Funk” era. His podcast also introduced me to 83 year old Ethel Bruneau, who is a mentor to Mr. Knights. She grew up in Harlem but wound up in Canada performing and teaching tap for many years. The most recent episode I listened to was with Sebastian Weber, a tap dancer from Germany. I had it on while on a bus headed to the city for the Tap City Tap Awards.
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| My copy of "The Black Book" |
I got into the city hours before the awards event, so to kill time I went to see the documentary, “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”. Turned out it was what I needed to see. I have been thinking a lot about being a black male of a certain generation in this country, and contemplating the stories that I need to tell. I was in town for this award ceremony because I was to receive the 2019 Tap Preservation Award for what I like to think has been my efforts to present and celebrate stories of tap. But I know I have more to pass on and seeing Ms Morrison talk about her writing and focus as a black woman artist was affirming and inspiring. She talked of the type of activism she chose to do via her writing, which made me look at what I try to do in my work to bring about awareness. There is so much more about that documentary, but what really made it “what I needed to see” was the moment an image went up on the screen of a publication called, “The Black Book”. This iconic publication came out in 1974 and was sort of a scrapbook with information about African American culture. It was one of the books I used (I still have my copy!) that became the foundation of my own research into the culture. What I didn’t know was that Toni Morrison, as an editor at Random House, was the main force behind getting this book done! I left the screening, heading to the evening event, full of stimulated memories and some strong feelings that I couldn’t even identify.
Well, like I said at the beginning of this blog entry, the Tap Awards was a family affair. Michela Marino Lerman, whom I’ve known since she was 11, and who calls me Uncle Hank, received the Hoofers Award. Also getting the same award was Chloe Arnold, who came to my first “Story of Tap” series at Dixon Place in 1998, when she was a college student. Dianne Walker, who was my last guest during that 1998 “Story of Tap” series, was inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame, as were The Radio City Rockettes. I have fond memories of seeing the Rockettes as a youngster with my mom, but was smiling and touched when two of the current Rockettes, one black and one white, came on stage to accept the award, along with their Creative Director, Karen Keeler. A welcome change from the all-white (I understand then they weren’t even allowed to get suntans) group I saw as a kid! Ruby Keeler, whose old movies on TV were an early influence, was also inducted into the Hall and there was a tribute to the recently passed Mable Lee, who affected so many of us.
Emotions ran high that night. As the moment came for my award, a video of Jason Samuels Smith played in which he said some very kind words about me. We call each other “cuz” (after all, there are so few Smiths, we must be related!) and what he said had me a little verklempt. Then, my good friend Laraine Goodman introduced me and I was remembering the many tap events she created over the years that I participated in. One of the things I mentioned in my short speech was remembering the days when it was a big deal to see someone black on TV, and how one day, as we were watching the Jackie Gleason show, my dad called my mom in the living room saying, “I think there’s a colored girl with the June Taylor Dancers!” He was right and I acknowledged that in the audience was that very “colored girl”, Mercedes Ellington, grand daughter of Duke Ellington. There were more moments. Ayodele Casel, who received the Hoofer Award in 2017, gave a heartfelt, emotional tribute to Michela as she presented her with the same award for this year, after Michela had done a killer performance. Tony Waag, in introducing Chloe Arnold for her Hoofer Award, surprised himself as he got choked up while explaining why he thought she is important and then there was a great dance tribute that included Chloe's sister, Maud. It was touching to see a group of young dancers do a Mable Lee routine as a remembrance for her. At the end was Dianne Walker. It was a long night and those of us who are familiar with Dianne know, once she gets going…a night can get even longer. But there is so much she has done and knows, that it’s worth hanging with it. She was particularly moving in how she talked about the importance of her husband Rodney, whom she insists on calling Ronnie. You could feel the room all going “Awww..” inside of themselves as she spoke of him and their years of marriage, which I think has hit 50!
Dianne has two nicknames, Lady Di and Aunt Dianne. The latter is how many dancers under the age range of mid-40s often refer to her. She mentioned that evening that she believes Savion Glover was the first to use it. Just a few days before the award night I saw Savion’s latest show at the Joyce Theater. I’ve known of him since he was very young when the veteran performer, and member of The Copasetics, Charles “Cookie” Cook told me of this kid who could do anything a dancer showed him the minute he saw it. A few years later, I got to know him when he was a teenager on “Sesame Street”, where I was a stage manager. I even appeared on camera twice playing his teacher (both were actually flashback segments with someone playing Savion as a young child)! In this show I felt he was growing and stretching out even more to try new things and ideas. Hard to believe he’s 45 and his son, Chaney, named after tap dancer Lon Chaney, is now 14! The time goes by and members of the family grow.
The day after that awards night I posted a photo of my award on Facebook and got a lot of comments, one of which was from Sebastian Weber, who congratulated me. I replied to his comment that I had been listening to him on the Love Tap Tour podcast before and after the event, saying it had completed my “Tap Day”. He replied back, saying it made him feel like he was also receiving an award. I guess that’s what it’s all about, how some of us can feel a part of whatever happens to some others of us in the world of tap, we are family.
That’s it for now.
Peace,
Hank
Here are links relevant to this posting
“Passing It Forward” about Acia Gray and Tapestry: https://www.pbs.org/video/arts-context-tapestry
The Love Tap Tour podcast: https://soundcloud.com/the-tap-love-tour
Toni Morrison Documentary: https://www.tonimorrisonfilm.com
The Black Book 35th Anniversary: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121289328
New York Times Savion article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/arts/dance/savion-glover-joyce-theater.html
Tap City Awards night photos, by Amanda Gentile: https://www.flickr.com/photos/21727100@N05/albums/72157709668468497
