This Is Rhythm! This Is Tap!

I was three or four years old when I put on my first pair of tap shoes, wearing them at least weekly for the next 15 or so years. Even when I wasn't wearing them, I was tapping. Tapping at the bus stop, under my desk at school, even in the grocery store--relishing in the rhythms I was making and memorizing the steps so I wouldn't have to think about them anymore when the music started playing in class.

Gregory Hines is the tap legend I've always known best, in part from his captivating performances in the 1985 dance film White Nights (which co-starred Mikhail Baryshnikov and was choreographed by Twyla Tharp). If you haven't seen it and have a few minutes, I highly recommend this clip of a Gregory Hines tap solo from the film... 

Gregory Hines was a master of rhythm tap, which is different from what I learned as a child, and different from what you usually see at a traditional dance recital or musical theatre performance. In rhythm tap, the dancer's center of gravity is a little lower, and the emphasis is much more on the feet and the sounds they make than on anything else, including what the dance looks like. It's literally "music" through movement.

The most famous rhythm tapper performing today is Savion Glover, and I can't tell you how excited I am that Holiday House has published a picture book biography about him! 

This Is Tap: Savion Glover Finds His Funk, by Selene Castrovilla and Laura Freeman, not only tells the story of how Savion's natural knack and passion for rhythm propelled him to stardom but also serves as an intuitive introduction to rhythm tap. 

Full of lyrical language and onomatopoeia, the words on the pages--with all their rhythms and sounds--are the perfect embodiment of this dance style. And the illustrations, ranging from a bouncing baby Savion to an adult Savion combining the funk of hip-hop with all those beats in his body, focus on the feet and boost the energy of the already boisterous text...  

Hittin' meant expressin' yourself with your feet  

Makin' a statement  

When the audience picked up on what you were putting' down, you hit  

RIFFITY, SPIFFITY, BOMPITY, ROMPITY,   

CLAP, CLAP, CLAP!

While preparing to write this post, I learned that Savion Glover was actually a regular on Sesame Street from 1990 to 1995. That means there's probably a whole bunch of lucky 30-something-year-olds out there who grew up with Savion...and tap dancing! That makes me so happy. 

In case you'd like to see Savion Glover in action, or simply feel like reminiscing about Sesame Street, I'm going to leave you with a few videos. The first is of a young Savion playing a rhyming game in which he rhymes/raps while dancing out a bunch of words that rhyme with "tap." It's adorable...and infectious!

The second video, also from Sesame Street, stars both Savion Glover AND Gregory Hines, who was one of Savion's teachers. What a treat to see two generations of tap legends together on--in my humble opinion--the best children's show ever created...

And the final video is a clip of a more mature Savion Glover dancing, in 2002, with the cast of the Tony Award-winning musical Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk during a telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Wowza!

Learn more about This Is Tap: Savion Glover Finds His Funk from publisher Holiday House here. You can also read this blog post from the University of Michigan's University Musical Society for a brief introduction to the very interesting, but complex, history of tap dance in America.