Chicago Human Rhythm Project
By Laura Molzahn
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Watching the dancers during the seventh annual Chicago Human Rhythm Project, I realized tap dance has a lot of the same appeal as sports–and it’s also traditionally been dominated by men, though women are becoming more prominent. No winner is ever declared during a tap concert, of course, but the competition among the dancers is obvious, as each takes a turn and tries to outdo the others. During the performance I saw, Ted Levy even said to his predecessor onstage, Sam Weber–who’d wowed the audience and been called back for a second bow–“Thanks, Sam, for making it hard for me.”
That spontaneity–an aspect of sports events too–is something I missed at times during this concert, in which many pieces were choreographed and looked it. The Especially Tap Company (directed by CHRP director Lane Alexander and Bruce Stegmann) in particular relies on what seem to me rather staid routines, performing in unison or in patterns spelled out right down to the movements of arms and heads. Clearly following in the tradition of Broadway show dancing, their movement often looked old-fashioned and stagy–as if there might be a subtext we were supposed to “get.” The dance rhythms didn’t do much for the music (by the Orbert Davis Combo) and vice versa, and the unison tapping was sometimes muddy. Especially Tap’s percussion piece, Stick to It, rips off such groups as Stomp and Jellyeye Drum Theater but seems more silly than clever or primal. A piece choreographed by Alexander and performed by the accomplished North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble was similarly ho-hum; however, the troupe acquitted itself well with Savion Glover’s Feet Just Do It, a straightforward a cappella rhythm piece.
Chicago’s Zephyr Dance Ensemble–an all-female troupe formed in 1989–is a modern dance company whose goals and methods are nothing like those of sports or tap dance. I don’t mean to take this group to task for simply being what it is, but in the context of the tap dance performances of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Zephyr’s concert seemed constrained and overpolite. Just like so many women in their private and public lives.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Chicago Human Rhythm Project.
