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'Jazz on Tap' brings the rhythm of variety to L.A.

Artists bring virtuoso dancing, 'great jazz' music to Wadsworth

By John Mangum

Tap dancing is back, and a group of dedicated artists guarantees that it's here to stay.

These dancers come together at the Wadsworth Theater today through Saturday to bring Los Angeles "Jazz on Tap," a multi-generational tap exhibition featuring virtuoso dancing and some great jazz music. The legendary Cholly Atkins hosts the evening.

Atkins began performing as a child in vaudeville productions and appeared in movies before teaming up with Charles Coles to become half of a highly successful tap duo. He has received many honors throughout his long career, including a Tony Award in 1989 for his choreography in the Broadway hit "Black and Blue."

Atkins emphasizes the variety of the evening's show, which covers a broad base of styles and techniques. "There's a lot of technique that's involved in presenting a show of this type, and most of it is based around good jazz music."

Atkins' is best-known for his style of choreography, which he calls "vocal choreography." He invented it for the Motown groups of the '60s and '70s, groups like the Supremes and the Jackson Five.

"There was a time that they would all have movements, but everybody was doing whatever they wanted to do, but there was no unity there, there was no precision," says Atkins. "I put it into that fashion, and everybody started to pick that up."

Because of his long experience with dance, Atkins often teaches, and many of the dancers involved with this weekend's performances have studied with him. "Some of them have taken classes that I've conducted at dance festivals, and the Broadway show; a couple of the people were in the cast of 'Black and Blue' that I choreographed."

The dancers featured in "Jazz on Tap" include Dianne Walker, Germaine Ingram, LaVaughan Robinson, Van Porter, and Fred Strickler. Strickler teaches at U.C. Riverside, where he is a member of the Dance Faculty.

Strickler, like Atkins, sees the evening as a presentation of diverse styles and techniques. "I like to think of it as a dance concert, celebrating the individual."

Strickler's own style began with his first tap lessons, which he took at the age of 11. "I love rhythm, and I love dancing in general. I'm both a modern dancer and a tap dancer. To me, movement and music are both very powerful ways of being in the world. This is how I really feel I communicate myself best, through my dancing."

Though he enjoys dancing as a form of interaction, Strickler thinks that many audience members find it enthralling for different reasons. "I think that people would enjoy it for its rhythmic complexity, for its speed, for the plain old difficulty of doing it, because tap dancing is actually very difficult to do. It looks easy, but it isn't."

For Strickler, the audience gets to enjoy the art of a group of dancers that he really admires. "I get to be on stage with some really, really fine dancers and I really appreciate that opportunity. They're really good people, I think among the very best tap dancers in the U.S."

Not only does "Jazz on Tap" highlight these dancers, but it gives audiences a chance to enjoy dancing which Atkins calls, "really the only American art form as far as dance is concerned."

DANCE: UCLA Center for the Performing Arts presents "Jazz on Tap" at the Wadsworth Theater Dec. 8-10. TIX: $28, $25, $9 for students at the Central Ticket Office. For more info call (310) 825-2101.

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