Tap royalty at Jacob's Pillow: Be still, my heart!

Gregory Hines, Dianne Walker, Jimmy Slyde
recorded June 22, 1996

A one-time-only gala performance in 1996 provided the occasion to bring together three extraordinary tap artists. Gregory Hines (1946-2003) helped revitalize the tap genre in the 1980s, appearing on Broadway and in films such as White Nights and The Cotton Club. Dianne Walker, also known as "Lady Di", is a Boston-based artist who is among the few internationally-recognized women in tap. Her mentors included Leon Collins, with whom she ran a popular Boston school in the 1980s. Walker has also been closely associated with Jimmy Slyde (1927-2008), who was born and raised in Boston. Slyde danced with many leading big bands including those of Count Basie and Duke Ellington. All three of these artists appeared in the movie Tap, but this Pillow footage represents a unique record of them dancing together. Dianne Walker and Jimmy Slyde were most recently seen at the Pillow with Savion Glover in 2005.

Music: Bross Townsend Quartet

Just a sample of the many treasures and pleasures you can find at Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive. Visit now!

Roxane Butterfly's journey with tap

Internationally-acclaimed tapdancer Roxane Butterfly--whose name, unfortunately, is incorrectly spelled and rendered on the video and on the program's Web site--is interviewed on The Women's Connection® by host Barrie-Louise Switzen. She talks about career and self-management, family, language, practice and "the discipline of being relaxed."  There are a couple of nice dance demos, too, in the final ten minutes. You'll be tapping in no time!

In the spirit of Jimmy Slyde

Roxane Butterfly announces In The Spirit of Jimmy Slyde--an hommage to a master of tap, featuring Tamango and guests plus excerpts from the film Hoofalogies.

Music: Damon Banks (bass), Victor Jones (drums) and Mansur Scott (vocals)

See it at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space (95th Street and Broadway, Manhattan), April 16 (8:30pm) or April 17 (7pm and 9:30pm).

For complete details and tickets, click here or call 212-869-5400.

A great one passes

Since I never travel with my laptop and pretty much stay away from Internet cafes--vacation means "getting away from"--I had to find out about Dr. Jimmy Slyde's passing the old-fashioned way, from radio. The minute I twirled the dial and discovered Flagstaff's local NPR station, I heard the announcement. That was a strange feeling--to be away from New York City where I know the news hit hard and touched off much discussion. Rashida Bumbray's May 23 launching of Hoofers' House at The Kitchen (in partnership with The Studio Museum in Harlem) was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Slyde, and his performing was powerfully invoked by video artist Rashaad Newsome. The dance goes on.

In any case, if you haven't read it already, here's Claudia La Rocco's Times obit and a 2001 photo of Dr. Slyde by the great Jack Vartoogian.

Roxane Butterfly’s Worldbeats at LC Out-of-Doors

Roxane Butterfly rocks out at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. Background, left-to-right: Graham Haynes, Sinan and Arturo Martinez (Photographer: Rowshan!)

Not for nothing did the great Jimmy Slyde give French tapper Roxane Butterfly her unusual last name. Typically dressed in something colorful and funky that sets off her slim, wiry frame, she appears to skim the earth, touching down frequently but briefly, lightly and musically. Tap has always been quite diverse in styles, and hers is one of the styles I dearly love. Her dancing is virtually calligraphic. She has ease in the knees, an ability to make fleet, precise sounds, not just bash and pound away. It takes refined control to express this much joie de vivre.

Butterfly brought her troupe–now called Roxane Butterfly’s Worldbeats–to the Josie Robertson Plaza for an early evening gig at Lincoln Center Out-of Doors. The current lineup includes two effervescent tapdancing sidekicks, Claudia Rahardjanoto and Ali Bradley, the latter a real powerhouse who grooves deep into the music without losing accuracy. Sol, a flamenco dancer from Buenos Aires, solos as well as occasionally weaving among the tappers. This juxtaposition could look contrived but never does.

Butterfly’s band, with the fantastic jazz cornetist Graham Haynes, her longtime collaborator, leading the charge, reflects her rich cross-cultural background and taste: Venezuelan percussionist Tony De Vivo, jazz bassist Damon Banks, flamenco guitarist Arturo Martinez (“Espiritu Gitano”) and guest oud player, Sinan. American jazz and the heady rhythms of Spain, North Africa and the Middle East sound pretty good to me. I like them separate or together. I just plain like them.

“You know, in jazz we have ‘1 and 2 and you know what to do.’” Butterfly said. “I decided I didn’t want to know what I was doing for a change!” And so she gives us a kind of Mediterranean tap fusion–featuring excerpts from works-in-progress–with fresh rhythms and fresh takes on the familiar. In keeping with this approach, the show ended with a Worldbeats-style revisioning of the Shim Sham Shimmy--the beloved dance routine that every tapper must know–here dubbed the Shim Sham Gypsy and powered by Turkish rhythms.

What a world-class party!

© 2007 Eva Yaa Asantewaa