Dance time
Musical in Margate’s a fast-paced style retrospective.
Although the heyday of tap and the time step may have come and gone, putting a tap number into a musical is one sure-fire way to get audiences smiling. Whether it’s in a big Broadway musical or a more intimate revue, a great rhythmic tap combination involves training, physical dexterity, synchronized movement and the ability to imbue those moves with razzle-dazzle.
The payoff? All those smiles.
Director-choreographer Kevin Black, who has made a subspecialty out of creating original revues, has a new one at Margate’s Stage Door Theatre. “Time Step” links many styles and eras of dance with a common denominator: the percussive rhythms of six dancers’ flying feet.
Because he was juggling several projects while bringing “Time Step” to life, Black dreamed up the show and staged it, but he turned the choreographic duties over to Allison C. Scott, Sebastian Goldberg, Ashley Bachner, McKayla Cephas and Alessandra Torres.
Scott and Goldberg perform in the show, along with dancers MacKenzie Cutcliffe, Stephen James Potter, Ariel Seidman Wright and Nathaniel Washington. Sandra Marante and Matthew Staley sing to tracks supplied by musical director Ben Bagby, with Staley occasionally playing guitar and dancer Seidman Wright contributing some fiddling to the Irish step dance and clogging numbers.
Starting with a Broadway sequence (“Lullaby of Broadway,” “42nd Street” and “I Got Rhythm”), the cast then jumps to a string of flamenco-style numbers powered by Marante’s warm vocals in English and Spanish. “Bésame Mucho” kicks things off, with such songs as “Volare” and “Bamboleo” taking the women in their ruffled red skirts and the men in toreador-evocative suits through the routine.
Then, it’s off to Ireland, with scenic vistas of the Emerald Isle projected as Marante starts an aching “Danny Boy,” Staley suggests an Irish folk artist as he strums and sings “Raglan Road,” then the lads and lasses do their version of river dancing.
After some black-andwhite video of the great Nicholas Brothers —the singers and dancers then move through a string of swing-era numbers.
After a 15-minute intermission, the show explores more recent-vintage dance for a half-hour.
“Time Step” is running through May 6 at the Stage Door Theatre, 8036 W. Sample Road, in Margate. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday-Sunday. Tickets cost $48. To order, call 954-344-7765 or go to StageDoorFl.org.