DANCE FESTIVAL IS BACH
Classic gets a toe-tapping update
The Goldberg Variations by composer J.S. Bach have been interpreted in many different ways. Tap dancing is unlikely to have been included — until now, that is.
On Friday at the Orpheum Annex, Caleb Teicher and Company perform the acclaimed choreographer and tap dancer’s latest group work, titled Bach’s Goldberg Variations, at the Vancouver International Tap Dance Festival.
“The Goldberg Variations piece was created in three chunks,” Teicher said. “It began as a 10-minute piece of our favourite variations in 2015 and then was expanded for another festival when they requested a 20-minute piece. Then the City University of New York, Queens College gave me the CUNY Dance Initiative and commissioned me to do a full piece which runs 35 minutes and includes all the variations, but two which I really didn’t like very much.”
Using the celebrated recordings of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, Teicher set about adapting the short, often very fast pieces to tap dance interpretations. If you think this sounds like an odd pairing, it is — but Teicher is widely respected for taking the dance form into unexplored realms with fearless determination.
“It’s a very dense work, a very whimsical work and, while classical music has a lot of serious clout, we decided we wanted it to be playful,” he said. “It’s fun, funny and sometimes deeply poignant, and ultimately very gratifying to dance to.”
It was appreciation for this same gratification from movement that led Sas Selfjord to create the Vancouver festival in 1999. Selfjord, who is retiring this year, said tap “is all about timing.”
“I went to a festival which did a lot of things wrong, but the legendary Nicholas Brothers — the guys jumping up in the air, doing splits over stairs in old movies — were there and I hung out with them all weekend,” Selfjord said.
“The joy, energy and privilege I felt just being around such talent was reason to do a festival. We’ve never found a cookie-cutter formula, and that may have been our saving grace as it’s grown.”
From presenting pioneers from the Hollywood era to master classes on such moves as the slide with its legendary creator Jimmy Slide, presenters of the Vancouver Tap Dance Society have been able to present more than 200 different artists to date.
Along the way, the non-profit was able to purchase its own building at 2775 East Hastings, where it offers ongoing classes to dancers of all levels. Teicher teaches at the American Tap Dance Foundation’s centre.
Both he and Selfjord said the form is but confined to the age of your great-grandparents’ movies.
“Now, the full richness and complexities of the art form is being embraced by every artist worth their salt right now,” Selfjord said. “Caleb and Jason Janas (Saturday, 8 p.m., Orpheum Annex) are some of the bright lights really embracing the full range of tap and other dance, and I’m really excited to see where it goes.”
With a 2011 Bessie Award for outstanding individual performance as well as being named in Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch (2012) and best emerging choreographer in the 2016 Readers’ Choice Awards, Teicher is clearly a huge talent. His videos range from a heavy rhythm accompaniment to a track from Chance the Rapper to mini-films that jump into swing jazz sassiness.
One thing that shines through in all of Teicher’s performances is the fun.
“When we talk about concert dance and serious movement arts, we tend to see it as something that is dramatic without humour or joy, and to do away with that, with the levity, is to deny an aspect of the tap tradition,” he said.
“Yes, there is always time for abstraction, for a new esthetic approach, but I very much enjoy that connection to the joy of movement that is part of the tap and jazz tradition. We are making art, certainly, but also advocating for the continuation of our dance form.”
As for how difficult it is to produce a new, original work of tap dance, Teicher said it’s no more or less than for any other art. The one thing about his chosen style that can be challenging is practice space — where other dancers may jump and stomp, no other genre creates the sonic equivalent of multiple drummers pounding away for hours on end.
“Certainly in any large city such as New York or Vancouver, finding the space to create is one of the greatest limitations for choreographers who want to work,” he said.
“Particularly, when they are coming from a tradition that doesn’t have the established and wide-ranging infrastructure that ballet or jazz dance have.”
The range of ages and backgrounds is the widest in the dance world, as the form exits everywhere from the concert stage to community musicals and exercise gyms.
Another component of the tap festival is the many classes offered to the public and performers.
Teicher said he loves teaching “the young, the old, the rich, the poor and people with lovely day jobs who just always wanted to tap.”
Selfjord, meanwhile, said she finds it incredibly rewarding to watch artists of all levels and interests learn the vocabulary of tap.