Savion Glover’s Solo in Time

Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk star in new season at the Joyce
by Mary Staub
Encore Magazine
http://www.encoremag.com/?q=article&id=394

Savion Glover is perhaps best known for his tap work on Broadway. After all, he made his Broadway debut at age ten, in The Tap Dance Kid, and won two Obie Awards for his Broadway show Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk about a decade later.

But Savion Glover’s dedication to tap reaches far beyond the flashiness of Broadway shows. It began when he was just seven years old and would take weekend trips to New York City for tap lessons. Around that same time, Glover caught glimpses of such legendary tappers as Chuck Green and was immediately taken. It was the notion of tap as music, more so than dance, that captivated and continues to fascinate Glover. And it is this, the sound of tap, rather than only its look, that he’s most passionate about.

“I was introduced to tap as its being music,” Glover says in a phone interview. “People like Chuck Green and Jimmy Slyde were great musicians because of their approach to tap. In the style of tap I do, tap is the leading instrument and I like to make audiences aware of that.”

This is the central theme of Glover’s multi-week season at the Joyce Theater this month. Although tap is usually associated with jazz or Broadway music, Glover decided many years ago that tap can flavor any musical style. For his current production, Savion Glover’s Solo in Time, tap and flamenco will come together.

“The connection of what I do to flamenco lies in the whole lament, whole cry, whole pouring back into the earth and giving energy back to the earth,” says Glover. “It’s a cry and a celebration. That’s what music, sound, vibration should do. It should spark energy in someone.”

For audiences wanting a narrative performance with the glitz and glamour of a Broadway show, Glover’s Joyce production may not be the ticket. Just like in most Joyce shows, in Savion Glover’s Solo in Time, narration is clearly beside the point. It’s a concert; not purely or primarily a dance concert, but a concert of sound and rhythm.

“One of the great things about a concert-style project is that it’s not Broadway and there isn’t a thematic thread throughout the evening,” says Glover. “The only story here is tap. Tap is music. Tap is song. It’s free expression, emotional expression, and I hope it allows the audience to be moved by what is on stage.”