Tappening, Spotlighting The Art of Footwork

Tap Show at the Atlas Is a Sparkling Rarity

Tap-dancing is a peculiarly obsessive art, honed in loneliness, its devotees driven to find the tiniest ways to produce big sounds, or to deliver a rat-a-tat clarity whose source no eye could follow. Because it's so blasted hard to do, it's one of the few popular dance styles you're unlikely to see contestants perform on Fox TV's "So You Think You Can Dance" -- it cannot be faked with costuming and camera angles, the way waltzing and krumping can.

Lucky for audiences at the Atlas Performing Arts Center this weekend, a host of true tap obsessives were on display, in two evenings of works by the local trio Tappening and guest artists. "Against the Grain," as the show was called, displayed the art of tap dance at its simple, confounding best, sans flash, with the focus squarely on the feet.

Tappening Artistic Director Heidi Schultz, a veteran tap teacher and dancer, hadn't put together a show of this scale (10 works, seven out-of-town artists) in two years. Indeed, a professional all-tap night has become a rarity in these parts. But there was no shortage of enthusiasm in Saturday's near-capacity audience for the often blistering dancing, with music ranging from the lilting cool of Gabin to folk singer Chris Bathgate to the Clash.

Schultz, with longtime collaborators Michelle Amorese and Vikki Weinberger, dominated the program with hard-hitting rhythm tap, digging into the stage, showing off crazily flexible ankles that allowed the edges of their shoes to get a pounding, too. Over six works, however, their dancing grew predictable, especially since it was more about planting themselves and dishing out tricky beats than about using the stage space in interesting ways.

In the opening dance, "Redemption Song," accompanied by a cover of Bob Marley's classic, the three women were joined by David Covington, a onetime member of Tap Dogs and the most electrifying dancer of the evening. He combined a nonchalant upper body with ringing, pay-attention power of the feet. It's a pity he wasn't seen again until the free-for-all group dance at the end.

In "Aya," Quynn Johnson and Alyse Jones wore somewhat unusual attire: high-heeled tap shoes, lending them a lighter, airier teeth-chattering kind of sound. They had a deliciously buoyant movement quality and a natural, organic musicality, as if the beat were rolling up and out of every limb.

The Philadelphia-based Tap Team Two & Company (Rochelle Haynes, Pamela Hetherington and Corinne Karon) scoured the stage with a sparkling, lifted-up style, as well as a palpable intensity. Lauren Squires put a smart spin on the traditional art of the tap solo in "All of My Friends Have Been Replaced With Cities," toying with the silences in a wistful Bathgate song, now filling them in with bunched-up beats, now doling out her taps with wait-for-it suspense. She kept it all in scale, though; her dancing was as clean and open as the music.