Margaret Morrison's "Home in Her Heart"

Margaret Morrison and Ericka L. Hart in Home in Her Heart

Home in Her Heart, a new play by Margaret Morrison--better known for her sharp and personable tap dancing--deals with the complexities of race and queer identity in a particularly fraught time for the world. It is 1939. Hitler's shadow looms over Great Britain, and two popular American entertainers based in London--a singing, tap dancing male-impersonator and her gifted pianist--face a wrenching decision. They must evacuate. Still, as difficult as it will be to leave secure careers, that may be the least of their problems.

Both women, they are deeply in love and, quite clearly, in lust. One is white and Jewish (Morrison), the other, Black and Christian (Ericka L. Hart). The dilemma of returning together, openly, as a couple to their segregated homeland and, in the case of the pianist, a potentially homophobic family, cause the lovers to painfully confront assumptions they have made about their individual lives and choices, their treasured, private relationship and how they relate to the outside world.

Someone told me that, since its initial showing in April at the 2012 Left Out Festival (created by the play's director Cheryl King), Home in Her Heart has been reworked to beef up the characterizations. After all, a two-character play--and one addressing issues of this magnitude and consequence--really needs to have characters with depth and plausibility. This enhancement, with more backstory for each character, occasionally makes the evening feel protracted. Luckily, the two actresses make it work.

Morrison brings her fine-tuned physical expressiveness and sincerity to every single moment, even if her personality sometimes projects a bit too much for King's tiny Stage Left Studio. Hart with her more understated gleam, her blend of gentleness and contained pride, seems better suited to the closeness of the studio's space. Claire Hicks (Hart's character) is a formerly straight, proper, church-going widow who likes to insist that the dynamic, devoted Jimmie LeRoy (Morrison) seduced her. The pair's erotic chemistry is frank and believable.

If all that's not enough, throw in a few brief tap routines for Morrison in a man-tailored stripe-suit, for which the great Brenda Bufalino was choreography consultant.

Cynthia Hilts contributed the soundtrack of piano solos.

Home in Her Heart continues at Stage Left Studio on November 2, 10, 13 and 27, December 4, 11 and 17 at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Stage Left Studio
214 West 30th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), 6th Floor, Manhattan
(map/directions)

Tap City 2011-2012 Awards

Last year, the American Tap Dance Foundation missed the chance to give out its annual tap community awards (given since 2002). It made up for that lapse by doubling up the awardees last evening at a fun and often moving ceremony at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

The program commenced with ATDF head Tony Waag's slide montage of past winners of the Tap Preservation Award and Hoofer Award as well as inductees to the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame. The fourth honor afforded ATDF recipients is known as the Toe Knee Award--a play on Waag's name, his sometimes nickname and that little Broadway thing--which recognizes stalwart supporters. Waag surprised his two sisters--Stephanie Waag Blackmon (who was on hand) and Cindy Roush, as well as Boston-based tap instructor/producer Thelma Goldberg, with the coveted Toe Knee.

Two of the vaudevillian Whitman Sisters, including Alberta "Bert" Whitman in male drag

A video or slide show or music and dance performances prefaced each of the other awards. Highlights were many, including Sally Sommer's loving tribute to Hall-of-Famer Charles "Cholly" Atkins (1913-2003), notable not only for the cool wit of his performing but also his expert dance coaching of many of Motown's hottest acts; a dramatic slide show tracing the history of vaudeville's remarkable Whitman Sisters act, about whom, regrettably, there is no film documentation; Michela Marino Lerman gifting jazz and tap show producer Cobi Narita (Cobi's Place), a Tap Preservation Award winner, with a shimmering solo; and Max Pollak's Rumba Tap ensemble serving up a vivacious new Afro-Cuban voice-and-dance number before longtime dancer/colleague Chikako Iwahori, presenting Pollak's Hoofer Award, spoke of his formidable intensity and generosity. A momentarily overwhelmed Pollak recovered enough to quip, "Being the only Austrian who has ever gotten this award makes me want to have a beer with you all."

A trio of angels--"Charlie's Angels," from Jason Samuels Smith's recent Joyce Theater show--dropped in to rock the house, praise their champion and hand him a well-deserved Hoofer Award. It was a treat to see Chloé Arnold, Michelle Dorrance and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards in action again so soon after the Joyce gig and to hear their stories. (Arnold on meeting Samuels Smith for the first time: JSS: "You tap?" CA: "Yeah, I tap." JSS: "We'll see.")

For more information on ATDF's remaining Tap City 2012 events (through July 13), click here.

TAP CITY 2011-2012 AWARDEES

2011 International Tap Dance Hall of Fame

Cholly Atkins

2012 International Tap Dance Hall of Fame

The Whitman Sisters Legacy

2011 Toe Knee Award

Stephanie Waag Blackmon and Cindy Roush

2012 Toe Knee Award

Thelma Goldberg

2011 Tap Preservation Award

Jacqui Malone

2012 Tap Preservation Award

Cobi Narita

2011 Hoofer Award

Max Pollak

2012 Hoofer Award

Jason Samuels Smith

Eva's Grabbag.1

Let's be frank: In New York, there's so much to do, see, hear, read, think AND write about that it's impossible to keep up with it all. (As you folks post your events on Facebook and email your press releases, just imagine my hands thrown up in a mixture of overwhelm and surrender.) So, every now and then, I'm just going to toss out some quick recommendations for InfiniteBody readers to consider and hope you'll step forward and take it from there.

I think I'll just call this Eva's Grabbag!

Eva's Grabbag.1

Dance critic Jennifer Homans (The New Republic) gave a fascinating talk and Q&A about her critically-acclaimed, Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet, at 92Y Tribeca this afternoon. After listening to Homans trace the intricate, mutually transformative connections between classical ballet and the societies that birthed and nurtured it, I'm ready to take the complete journey with her. I enjoyed her clear, lively analysis, her embodied perspective as a former ballerina and her obvious passion for her subject. "Dancing--ballet, in particular--was one of the most powerful experiences of my life," she told us, and this sounds like a valuable and powerful book. (Random House, 2010)

Coming up at Joe's Pub--Sandra Bernhard and Justin Vivian Bond in Arts & Crafts:

"...country cousins whose lives have led them in very different directions. One went from being a rock chick to born again motherhood in the Midwest and the other from small town gay to urban art world sophisticate. When the two meet up again at a family wedding they set of on a journey rediscovering their authentic selves and learning that ideology doesn't mean much when stacked up against art love and really good acid." March 7, 7:30 and 9pm. Get info and tickets.

Salsa, baby! Lehman Center for the Performing Arts presents its 30th Anniversary Gala Concert with the legendary Ruben Blades ("El Poeta") and Gilberto Santa Rosa ("El Caballero de la Salsa") performing together for the first time! Saturday, February 26, 8pm. Get info and tickets.

American Tap Dance Foundation presents TAP TALKS / TAP FILMS on Sunday, February 20, 1:30pm: Juanita Pitts: Race, Gender and the Female Hoofer (video and history). Presentation by Margaret Morrison. Free for registered ATDC students. $5 general admission. American Tap Dance Center, 154 Christopher Street, Manhattan. Get info or call 646-230-9564.

More grabbags to come soon! Everybody have a fabulous evening!