Dancers make music with feet at Bovard

It’s no wonder that Sasha Anawalt, the director of the USC Annenberg Arts Journalism Programs, introduced Tuesday night’s performer Savion Glover as “the greatest living tap dancer.” The statement proved to be truthful as Glover brought his show Bare Soundz to Bovard Auditorium, giving an explosive, emotive performance bursting at the seams with unbridled expressions of rhythm.

Hoofer · Without any musical accompaniment, Savion Glover’s Bare Soundz highlighted the percussive noises made by tap dancing. - Tim Tran | Daily Trojan

Tap is a dance style that relies on percussion created by the dancer’s feet for its own rhythmic track. Sometimes, it is accompanied by music, but other times — as with Bare Soundz — the clacks need no accompaniment.

Unfortunately, in comparison to other dance styles such as jazz or hip-hop, tap has been overlooked by the mainstream.

But when well executed, tap can be just as progressive and exciting as other dance forms. Not only are the performers percussionists by default, they also work with the dynamics of movement to create what is unmistakably a dance form.

The movements often take second place to the execution of sound, but the actual dancing — choreographed or not — is consistent and meaningful. Glover, along with co-performers Maurice Chestnut and Marshall Davis Jr., proved Tuesday that tap is absolutely breathtaking as an art form at this elite level.

Before the event, the line outside Bovard snaked past the front entrance and walkway, curled south to the front of the Student Union Building, then twisted back on itself — a fitting showing of fans for Glover, a Tony Award-winning performer who also choreographed and danced the moves for Happy Feet.

For an act as complex as tap can be, the stage setup was surprisingly bare. Glover’s show used only three wooden platforms, and the first sound of steel taps on the wood was jarring. Louder and more assertive than expected, the tap rang out across the audience.

Then came the rest of the steps — sounds as complex as the drumming on a five-piece drum kit, all from two metal plates on the bottom of a pair of shoes.

Glover’s feet weaved bewildering polyrhythms through a background beat locked down by Chestnut and Davis.

The result was noisy in a positive way, and the full-impact stomping of heels and toes was intense enough to reverberate through the chest.

As the performance continued, variation was evident. One moment, Glover, Chestnut and Davis were spinning effortlessly in perfect, coordinated circles. Next, the three held their upper bodies still while the performers’ legs moved wildly in some otherworldly half-time like bullets from a machine gun. During solos, the performers truly let loose — feet flew in frenetic joy and calves quivered as if attempting to awaken a leg that had fallen asleep.

What took things to another level, however, was the technicality of the percussion created. The sounds were — without exaggeration — equal to the cadences of full drum lines, making it even more shocking was that there were no speakers spitting out anything prerecorded.

The similarities, in terms of sound, ability and intensity, between the tap dancers on stage and talented drummers of popular culture were clear, and Glover could have easily been Led Zeppelin’s drummer John Bonham ripping through the solo of “Moby Dick.” Though Glover was the star of the show, Chestnut and Davis also lived up to their reputations as prodigy tap dancers, taking turns answering Glover’s solos with their own intricate percussive lyricism.

A highlight of the performance was when Glover, Chestnut and Davis traded off solos on a single platform, eventually combining efforts to hit the climax of the number with all three cracking out a beautifully synchronized cadence in one line. The ending sequence of the show was an exhausting experience — a Niagara Falls-like flow of thunderous sound hammered down until silence finally reigned — until the equally thunderous sound of a packed house giving a gleeful standing ovation filled Bovard.

Bare Soundz was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that reaffirmed the greatness of Glover’s tap dancing. With such a spectacular performance, fans of dance can be reassured that, despite its obscurity compared to other styles, tap will live on. Glover lit up the stage with radiant smiles and flying feet, proving him worthy of candidacy for the title of “greatest living tap dancer.”