Tap of the World
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Last year Alexander’s project had to compete with the Chicago on Tap Festival. Presented jointly by the Old Town School of Folk Music and the Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago on Tap was the second biennial event presented by the two organizations, and sources at both places say no decision has been made yet regarding another edition in 1998. The last Chicago on Tap broadened its artist roster to include other types of percussive dance, which may have contributed to its deficit of about $10,000. “The broader scope of the festival made it more difficult to market because it was harder for people to grasp what the festival was about,” says Julie Simpson, the Dance Center’s executive director. Old Town’s Jim Hirsch doubts there would be any red ink if the festival were happening this summer: “It would have been an entirely different story if we had come in after Riverdance.”
Their loss may be Alexander’s gain. His series of bold print ads, featuring tappers in high-stepping motion, leaves little question about the nature of the Human Rhythm Project. Alexander’s advertising budget is about $32,000, nearly three times what he spent last year. Of the 11,000 tickets available for the Athenaeum shows, Alexander needs to sell about 7,500 to meet his projections. He sold 3,200 tickets for last year’s event at the much smaller Harold Washington Library Auditorium, actually selling out six of eight scheduled performances.
On the first day that single tickets were made available to the general public, sales totaled $647,000, about a third less than first-day sales of $943,671 in Minneapolis, where the national tour is now playing. Rent spokesperson Laura Matalon says the $647,000 figure may be misleading because promotions with American Express and radio station WLIT generated an additional $573,000 and $136,000 in sales, respectively, before the public even got a crack at tickets. Says Matalon, “If you add in the special promotion sales, the first-day totals are about the same in both markets.” Of course the Chicago metropolitan area is larger, but in Chicago the top ticket price is $67.50, compared to only $60 in Minneapolis. Matalon says the public response might be slower in Chicago because of the longer lead time before the show opens; in Minneapolis tickets for an early June opening didn’t go on sale until March.
