Fluent in the Universal Language of Tap

Tap dancer Roxane Butterfly lets her feet do the talking.

"Tap is a very interesting language," says Butterfly, whose has gone by that name ever since tapper Jimmy Slyde called her a papillon in deference to her French heritage. "Because it [tap] originated in the plantations with the process of slavery, it's a very powerful art form that speaks about the power of dance and rhythm as mediums to overcome oppression."

"Djellaba Groove," Butterfly's trek with tap shoes and drum beats through Spain and Africa, glides into the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park this weekend. It's one stop on a three-year journey that led Butterfly to seek out her mother's childhood home in Morocco, to spend a year away from her Harlem flat immersing herself in the flamenco culture of Spain and to delve into the African and North African music that permeated her childhood haunts in Toulon, the southern port city on the French Mediterranean.

"What's so cool about tap," Butterfly says, "is that it's a very young art form, and we are not paranoid about [changing] ancestral, traditional codes."

"Djellaba Groove" features Butterfly's longtime collaborator, jazz cornetist Graham Haynes, and three other musicians. Videos she shot during visits to Morocco, Turkey, Spain and France anchor the interlacing of rhythms tapped out by her and her two dancers.

"I wanted to find a way to make sense of these other rhythms but not lose the essence of tap as a language," Butterfly says. "We find in Moroccan dance, flamenco and tap the same need of the dancer to make a sound, to connect with the ground and emulate the drum as something primordial. That's the adventure we've been on for three years now."

Djellaba Groove Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, Route 193 and Stadium Drive, College Park 301-405-2787 Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3 $35 Djellaba Groove Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, Route 193 and Stadium Drive, College Park 301-405-2787 Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3 $35