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Savion pours out his heart and soles
By Diane Urbani
Deseret News staff writer
SAVION GLOVER, Abravanel Hall, Friday, Feb. 22, one performance.
Savion Glover is not so much a storyteller as a walloping storm, breaking across the stage and drenching his fans. They may not know what hit them — but they aren't about to seek shelter. His Olympic Arts Festival performance brought the audience in the sold-out auditorium to its feet straight from the start, and then took the hooting, cheering crowd on a wild ride through the rainforest.
With a saxophone's wind blowing behind him, Glover's amplified soles thundered hard into his opener, a dance he called "an extorted version of 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' "
Then on came the members of Tii-Dii, his nine partners, flooding the stage with their fluid bodies. Glover stepped to the back row, even offstage at times, but his presence, as a kind of guide through the world of 21st-century tap, pervaded the auditorium throughout the show.
And the group's celebratory mood was contagious. Glover, who, before coming to Utah last week, professed a refreshing enthusiasm about attending his first Olympics, fairly rode on a whimsical, boyish air, belying his formidable power as an artist. By turns he tapped and pounded symphonies with his feet and then goofed around with his Roots beret and Olympic credential.
Glover was just 22 when he won Tony awards in 1996 for choreographing and performing the lead in "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk." Since then, he has been stretching and remolding his chosen form, as if tap dance were Claymation. "My favorite question in the world," he told his Olympic audience, "is 'Whatcha wanna do?' " He proceeded to reinvent tap a few times over in the next hour, long hair flying as in an erratic wind, head tilted as if listening to an inner voice.
The tappers in Tii-Dii are like Glover's prodigious children; all clearly having the time of their lives being individuals on the stage. These dancers and this form aren't about fitting a prototype and moving in unison. Each swings his or her arms in a way that evokes an embrace of one's own dance space. The nine dancers present a refreshing contrast to tradition; they are all over the map in age, size and shape.
At times, the musicians on stage muddied the sound of the dancers' soles; I wanted to hear each slide and pop better. It was a relief when the whole group flowed on stage to a slightly softer playing of the Stevie Wonder tune "Overjoyed," and later for Sade's "Cherish the Day." The crowd was entranced, shouting its delight; a German man who spent the first half of the show with his hands folded leapt out of his seat to applaud.
By the end, Glover's body seemed possessed by a force of nature, his feet clattering like rain on a roof to "My Favorite Things." When Tii-Dii reappeared to take the first of several bows, each member was dressed appropriately, in exuberant rainbow tie-dyed T-shirts.
E-mail: durbani@desnews.com
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February 25, 2002
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