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Dance classics

Tap king Glover puts the moves on Bach and Bartók

Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 10, 2006 at midnight

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Like most of us, Savion Glover tends to put things off until the last minute.

But we're not talking about grocery shopping or laundry. A couple of years ago, Glover, generally regarded as the world's greatest tap dancer, suddenly realized he had no concept for his annual January show at the Joyce Theatre in New York City.

"But that was cool, since it was still a couple of weeks away," he said. Filming in Australia at the time, Glover put on his tap shoes and his thinking cap and tossed around a few ideas with his cohorts.

"I said, 'Let's come up with something fresh - hey, let's do classical music.' That's how it started."

What resulted, to wild acclaim ever since its January 2005 premiere, was "Classical Savion," a program in which Glover dances to classical and Baroque music, played live onstage.

The original spur-of-the-moment concept continues to spill onto the stage in "Classical Savion."

When Glover performs at Boulder's Macky Auditorium on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, each show will be different.

"It changes every night," he said. "I add things, try new things out. Maybe one night I'll do what the viola is playing - the next time it'll be the cello. Plus, the music we choose is different every night."

Talk about loose. But then, the premiere of "Classical Savion" at the Joyce was "pretty much put together in a week," he noted.

Why tap-dance to classical? "Very simple," he noted. "It was next on the list."

Glover isn't the first to bring those two art forms together (the late tap pioneer Paul Draper choreographed to Bach, Brahms and Scarlatti decades ago). There's even a concerto for tap dancer by Morton Gould.

"I listened to it," Glover said of the Gould. "But then I started listening to this other stuff - Vivaldi, Bach, Shostakovich. Man, the intensity just wiped out the Gould piece. I started listening to all that Baroque music and it sounded so fresh, like it could've been created yesterday."

You wouldn't expect a deep familiarity with the classics from a guy who created shows titled Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk and Jelly's Last Jam, but Glover said he wasn't a cultural illiterate going into this project.

"Classical music is not new to me," he said. "I've always been hip to that sound. I heard it in my home, growing up. I've had to alert people that this is my music, too."

The music may be an old friend, but the idea of tap-dancing to it is new. So, how did the classics find there way into his feet?

"I'm hearing everything in the music," he explained. "I hear the breathing of the players, the way the music breathes. Sometimes, I'm being the conductor as I listen. Or I'll check out what the basses are doing or some other parts of the orchestra. I'll see scenes in my head."

His listening choices were all over the map, he said. "I got a lot of CDs - everything from (cellist) Yo-Yo Ma to (Duke) Ellington. I focused on whatever music was most interesting to me at the time."

In creating a traveling version of the show, Glover and his nine-piece orchestra (and jazz trio in the finale, Stars and Stripes Forever 4 Now) decided to boil the list down to excerpts from works by Vivaldi, Bach, Dvorák, Bartók, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich.

"I decide onstage," he said of the specific pieces to be performed. The original choices came out of the way the music sends Glover's feet flying.

Sometimes, the story behind the music inspires a desire to dance. "I really liked the Shostakovich Eighth (String Quartet), but when I found out the story of the piece, I really wanted to do that," he said.

The fourth movement of that autobiographical work, written in 1960, recalls the terror of the Stalin era: Three loud, ominous notes represented a coded knock known to anti-Stalinists, warning of the presence of the dreaded KGB.

Such emotional underpinnings appealed to Glover as he explored the possibilities of classical music. "Certain things are just timeless," he said, marveling at the endless wealth of material at his disposal.

"I'm blessed to be able to come across this concept. It could be a vehicle for the rest of my existence."

"Classical Savion" could also grow in size, he added. "Yeah, I think it will be expanding to include other dancers. I can imagine that happening sometime.

"At some point, I might want to write down some of my ideas. If I did, people would be excited and say, 'Wow - it's choreography!' But for now, we'll leave it as it is."

Glover described the onstage world of "Classical Savion" as "a loose but contained environment."

"It's all spontaneous - but then, my whole life is simply spontaneous improvisation.

"Whatever happens, I know everything's gonna be cool."



Music, maestro

Among the selections open to interpretation by Glover and his onstage musicians:

• Vivaldi: movements from Summer, Autumn and Winter from The Four Seasons.

• Bach: movements from Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and Orchestral Suite No. 2.

• Dvorák: American String Quartet

• Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances

• Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8

• Mendelssohn: movements from Octet for strings.



Marc Shulgold is the music and dance writer. or 303-954-5296