National Tap Dance Day | May 25th 2010
National Tap Dance Day falls on May 25 every year and is a celebration of tap dancing as an American artform. The idea of National Tap Dance Day was first presented to U.S. Congress on September 15, 1988 and was signed into American law by President George H.W. Bush on November 7, 1989. Tap Dance Day is celebrated globally in other countries, particularly Japan, Australia, India and Iceland
National Tap Dance Day was the brainchild of Carol Vaughn, Nicola Daval, and Linda Christensen. They deemed May 25 appropriate for this holiday because it is the birthday of legendary tap pioneer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
To tap insiders, Robinson was renowned for dancing on the ball of the foot, in split wooden soles, and in perfect time
| by Wikipedia
Rhythm Mash-ups | Dance Magazine | May 2010
Percussive dance hybrids send new sounds across the globe.
Kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das improvises with tap dance whiz Jason Samuels Smith. Champion Irish dancer James Devine studies rhythm tap and creates his own style of CelticTap. Renowned tap dancer Roxanne Butterfly receives and e-mail request from Swaziland to collaborate with gumboot dancers. While these scenarios are not new to the world of percussive dance, they are happening with greater frequency thanks to the power of the Internet, the limitless portals of online video, and the ease of modern day travel. Percussive dance forms that were once worlds apart are now closer often sharing the same stage. Call it collaboration. Call it exchange. Call it noisy. Just don't call it fusion!
"There is a lot of confusion regarding fusion," Butterfly says with a laugh. "There are very few true fusions. Fusion takes time spent living in the other culture. You need to learn their codes, otherwise you just pretend to fuse. I'm far too respectful of people coming from another tradition to pretend that I'm fusing with them."
Butterfly, a 15-year veteran of working with percussive forms outside of tap dance describes the process as "an encountering" and believes that a dance form's relationship with its music is the key to mutual understanding between different styles. "For me, the path to other percussive forms lies in learning how their dance works within a musical context," she explains. "I don't want to learn their steps - I already have lots of steps. I want to understand how they use their steps within their musical idiom, because that is how we will communicate."
In 2005, Butterfly and flamenco artist Susana di Palma were invited by Minneapolis-based Kathak dancer Rita Mustaphi to collaborate on a work entitled Naari-The Woman. "We worked with each other's music which was challenging," di Palma says. "Tap is generally in 8s. Kathak has a range of different rhythmic patterns. Flamenco uses 12s or 6/8 or 3/4 mixtures. But we found that 4s go into just about everything. You think that things are complex, but then you find that common pulse - that 2/4 - which is breath and heartbeat." Di Palma appreciates the sense of camaraderie that collaboration brings. "If you are a percussive dancer, you often feel that you are in a less popular, less funded corner of the dance world," she says. "Yet I see our audiences excited in a way that I don't see at other kinds of dance concerts. It comes from the rhythm. It gets in people's blood."
Collaboration can also be useful in building a crossover audience for dance. Since 2005, Pandit Chitresh Das and Jason Samuels Smith have been performing India Jazz Suites, a dialongue between kathak and tap. "Our audiences are extremely diverse, from conservative Indian families to young American kids from the hip-hop generation. We attract them all. Whether we perform in India at a prestigious music institute or in New Orleans for a group of school kids, the response has been tremendous," Smith says. "The show represents the idea that beyond race, age, class, culture, political or religious beliefs, we can share the same passion with two completely differnt styles."
Tap and kathak have many similarities . "Improvisation, or upaj, is very important in both forms says Smith. "The idea of trading steps with a sense of one-upmanship is also common. Our entire show is improvised except for the tihais (a rhythmic cycle repeated three times at the end of a piece), which are set so we can finish together."
Learning to improvise was a critical step for Irish dancer James Devine in the creation of CelticTap, his signature blend of Irish step and Rhythm Tap - and the title of his latest production. Named the "fastest dancer in the world" by Guinness World Records, Devine discusses the difference between Irish dance and tap: 'Irish dance is primarily a learned art form, whereas tap dance is based on improvisation. Tap dancers are finely tuned to what the musicians are playing. They interpret the music like a percussionist would. When Irish dancers "step about" to a tune, they dance a complicated series of steps, but usually it will be from memory."
In 1997, while on tour with Lord of the Dance at Radio City Music Hall, Devine caught a performance of Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk. "Under its spell," he recalls, "I briefly signed up for Rhythm tap lessons. Until then, I had only been exposed to Irish dance, but those initial dance lessons began what I consider a never-ending journey for me to explore other percussive art forms. One thing that I changed in the Irish style was to come down off the balls of my feet and dig the heels into the ground. That enabled me to to incorporate tap into my style."
Devine's performances of CelticTap are largely improvised and embrace a number of muical genres, including Celtic, jazz, classical, funk and country. "Improvisation is the ultimate in freedom of expression," he declares. "There is a strong edge to it that is in the moment. It's raw."
Improvisation is also a key tool for eclectic dance artist Sandy Silva, who performs with the Quebecois band La Bottine Souriante, among other projects.
“When you have a vast language that is practiced, you can draw on it in the moment. Improv is knowing what you are doing and letting it go!" she says. "I know the tunes so well that I'll know when a certain accent is coming up. But there are a hundred ways that I could hit that accent." She combines body percussion with the rhythms of Irish step dance, Spanish Flamenco, American Tap, Hungarian Legenyes and Appalachian Buck Dance. "When you work rhythmically, you can go everywhere, because you don't have the stylistic thing. It becomes a visual reperesntation of the music," Silva explains. "The core is embodying the music both sonically and emotionally. How does your body react to the sounds that you are making.? When you hit your chest, you feel that reverberation in the chest cavity."
“Silva is currently developing an ensemble in Montreal with performers who have diverse backgrounds in percussion, music, dance and theatre. About their rehearsed process, she says, "We take sheet music from 'Syncopation for the Modern Drummer' and put it on the body. We make the bottom line the hands and the top line the body. Now here's the vocabulary. Let's go!”
Developing a shared vocabulary has been just as essential to Max Pollack and his ensemble RumbaTap, a mixture of Afro-Cuban music and dance rhythms with American jazz, tap dance and body percussion. "I treat the technique like drumming and I teach it like music. I don't let anyone put on their tap shoes until they've mastered the rhythms of the body percussion," Pollack explains. "When we put it together with the band, it becomes another weight of responsibility because the dancers are absolutely the percussionists. The sax, marimba, and vocalist are listening to us. RumbaTap is first and foremost a music ensemble. We just happen to be moving."
Pollack credits both ease of travel and the Internmet for increasing the opportunities to engage with other percussive forms.
“I've definitely seen more and more cross-pollinations in the last five years. People travel more. People go to each other's websites," Pollack says. "Being a New York City resident also helps. We live the Internet. We are globalization. We see interactions in our city all of the time. You can't help it. It's a burning desire of the human condition to express in rhythm and motion at the same time."
| by Darrah Carr
Irish dancers ‘get pilot G-force’ | The Sunday Times | March 2010
Warning: Irish dancing can seriously damage your health. Engineers at Coventry University have discovered that Irish dancers’ ankles have to bear 14 times their bodyweight while executing certain steps and have compared the force with that experienced by fighter pilots.
The load is far greater than a person would experience while running. The researchers said one well-known Irish dancing step, known as the rock move, should be monitored because of its potential to cause injury.
Performers from Riverdance, as well as world champions, were monitored while dancing in a laboratory which measures the impact of various activities on the body. The study team, whose work is in the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, had to check their readings because they did not believe how large the forces were. The measurements for Irish dancers were the highest recorded.
In the rock move, legs are crossed at the ankle and the dancer rocks from side to side on the balls of their feet. Most of the force is taken by ankle joints as the weight is transferred rapidly back and forth. The force was found to be 14 times bodyweight, while that on the Achilles tendon was 42.5 stone. The soles of some of the dancers’ feet bore 4.5 times their bodyweight.
“That’s 4.5G — fighter pilot stuff. If you were subjected to 4.5G long term, you would be at great risk of blacking out,” said James Shippen, a lecturer at Coventry University’s School of Art and Design.
“Obviously, Irish dancers are doing it in short bursts, but at that instant they are pulling fighter pilot loads on their feet.
“We take engineering principles and apply them to Irish dancers. The loads are enormous. It’s very punishing on the body. Classical ballet dancers’ loads are incredibly light, about one quarter the level.”
Sinead Whelan, director of Celtic Feet Irish Dance and Theatre Company in Coventry, took part in the study. “A lot of our dancers get injured but because a dancer’s career is so short we don’t, if we’re honest, take as much time out as the physios recommend,” she said.
Irish dancers suffer injuries similar to those of footballers, according to Whelan. In particular, they get knee injuries such as floating cartilage.
“James had to recalculate the force that went through our dancers’ legs about five times before he believed the data he was getting. He said they’re not dancers, they’re paratroopers,” Whelan said.
Julian Erskine, senior executive producer of Riverdance, said the studies were an eye-opener. “When Riverdance started, nobody knew what Irish dancing did to the body because it wasn’t done on a sustained basis. We realised early on that it shouldn’t be taken lightly and we’ve always had a physio and two massage people with every company.”
Riverdance has a physical therapist on-call 24 hours a day for performers, who can tap out 46,000 beats per show and perform eight shows a week.
One dancer, Melissa Convery, ruptured her Achilles tendon and blacked out on stage. “You usually dance through the pain,” she told the San Jose Mercury News in December. “But I sprang and it popped. I had to learn to walk again.”
Stars of TV and Brit award winners perform at the Event Production Show | February 2010
Artiste management, show producer and entertainment agency Showbizworks has lined up a world class programme of entertainment for this year's Event Production Show which takes place at Olympia in London on the 2nd and 3rd February.
On the Live At The Grand stage will be Brit award winners BLAKE, described by the media as the 'classical Fab Four'. They will be headlining on day one performing tracks from their new classical crossover album.
On day two, there is a focus on the nation's obsession with all things dance. World dance champions Flawless, whose new movie Streetdance 3D is released worldwide in May, will be wowing the crowds of professional event producers. Simon Cowell described Flawless as: "..not just the best dance act I have ever seen, it is one of the best things I have ever seen in my life!"
Urban tap dancer and international choreographer James Devine will also be performing along with Strictly Come Dancing professionals and production show dancers
From James | January 2010
Here it is. The New Site. Finally! It’s been a few weeks in the making but I am delighted with the new-look website.
Designed and developed by myself and my good friend Fergal Grace from gracetec.com I figured that it was better to take our time, in order to make james-devine.com a better online user experience than previous designs!
All the usual stuff is here including multimedia – videos and photos. I am fortunate to have found a wonderful videographer/editor here in London who actually doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Rare!!! So it is my intention to upload a new dance video here every month of improv tap sessions I will do in the studio.
I am also planning to upload more photos here from a recent photoshoot I did with Robert Goldstein.
New features I have added to the site include integrating my website with social platforms like Twitter and linking to my YouTube Video Channel, Facebook, and Myspace.
I want to keep you up to date with everything so you can follow my various individual projects that I will be doing throughout the year.
So please sign up to the Mailing List and I will keep you informed when new items such as gig listings etc, have been added to the website.
Cheers!
JD
