Gene Kelly sang Gotta Dance in the incomparable film musical Singin' in the Rain, but that title could apply to Chicago Human Rhythm Project co-founder Lane Alexander as well. Chicago Human Rhythm Project's ( CHRP's ) co-founder and director talked with Windy City Times about his own background and the show "Windy City Rhythms Goes Global," which will feature Brazilian band Barbatuques, choreographer Jason Samuels Smith and CHRP's performing ensemble, BAM! May 29–31 at the Museum of Contemporary Art ( MCA ) , 220 E. Chicago.
Windy City Times: I've noticed that we've never talked with you...
Lane Alexander: It's probably because I'm glued to my desk. [ Laughs ] I never get out anymore. I sit and work all the time.
WCT: I am interested in your background and how you became interested in dancing.
LA: I started as a kid. My parents were musicians; they threw my sister and me into music and dance classes at very young ages, and it's been a part of my entire life. Despite the fact that I was going to the University of Texas at Austin as a pre-law major, I rebelled against that and pursued a career in the arts.
WCT: So what changed your mind?
LA: I was working at the LBJ Law Library binding books and doing all the things pre-law majors do—and I hated it. I was bored to tears. I didn't see that as my future, and what I would do every night after I got out of the law library was go dancing. [ Laughs ] It was really every night, and I'd really go dancing. It was obvious that [ dancing ] was where my passion was.
So I asked, "Why am I forcing myself to do something I'm not that excited about?" So I went to study dance—and I never looked back.
WCT: There's something to be said about following your passion.
LA: Absolutely.
WCT: And you co-founded Chicago Human Rhythm Project in 1990. Why did you do that? Was there a dearth of tap dancing in Chicago?
LA: Well, not really. I had danced in the early '80s with a repertory company based in Texas ( Austin on Tap ) . Following that, I came to Chicago to dance in a modern-dance company with Kelly Michaels, the co-founder of the Human Rhythm Project. Then, I went to Canada to dance with a national tap-dance company for a couple of years. I had done concert tap, musical-theater tap and thought I knew how to tap.
Then, I went to this musical festival out in Portland, Ore., and I was introduced to a completely different culture of tap, with African-American hoofers, [ such as ] Buster Brown. Rhythm tap was a new world, and it was at that point I decided that I would never tap-dance, because there was too much to know. But, what I did realize was that there was no focus on tap art in Chicago. I was aware of other people who were tap-dancing here and there, but there was no gathering place for the tap-art community. So we started a festival here to bring great masters here—and to bring the tap dancers from different communities in Chicago together, because there's the 75-year-old Sammy Dyer School on the South Side; Mayfair Academy, which was Tommy Sutton's school and which [ recently ] celebrated its 50th anniversary; and others. So there were all of the deeply rooted traditions that were not being recognized in a broader, more public way.
Plus, our mission has always been to honor all the different genres of tap, because there are some very distinct forms of tap dancing. They're not all the same, and they don't all come from the same place, but I like them all so I wanted to show them all. [ The festival ] was to support local artists, to build common ground for the tap-art community and to inject new information by bringing visiting masters to the community.
WCT: And I didn't know there were so many subgenres of tap. Is there a new subgenre emerging, or a fusion?
LA: I think the simplest way to describe it is that, if there's a circle, on opposite sides you might find a European theatrical tradition ( a.k.a. Rockettes ) and on the other side would be hardcore rhythm tap. Now, the Rockettes are very concerned about presentation and not really so much about complexity, composition or improvisation. African-based rhythm tapping is really foot-drumming; it's all about syncopation, rhythmic complexity [ and ] improvisational skill. In between those two are all different kinds of fusion.
Then, there was STOMP!, which brought found objects and percussive art to the front of the line. There's so much creative energy in the percussive-art community.
WCT: Tell me about "Windy City Rhythms Goes Global."
LA: Every year we do a program called "Windy City Rhythms"—it's our National Tap Dance Day concert. This year we added the tag "Goes Global" because of the addition of the company from Brazil, Barbatuques.
WCT: Barbatuques is described as a Brazilian body band. What exactly is a body band?
LA: They have taken "body-drumming"—an old tradition that began in the Civil War South and was known as "patting the juba" [ which incorporated hand-clapping and foot-stomping ] —and put their own spin on it. However, it's not just found in the United States; there's a German form of body-drumming [ and ] there's Indonesian body-drumming, which is very intricate.
Barbatuques, however, sings and have expanded the vocabulary incredibly. There are seven different tones they create with claps. When you listen to them or see them on our Web site [ www.chicagotap.com ] , you see how they've combined singing, Afro-Brazilian chants, foot-stomping, body-drumming and this sort of urban contemporary feel—they bring it all together. It sounds like you're listening to instruments.
WCT: What can we expect from BAM!?
LA: We do have a performing education ensemble; they are going to be premiering [ at least ] three new works at the end of May—one by Broadway choreographer Ted Levy, which is sort of reminscent of Gregory Hines' style. Like Gregory, Ted is a song-and-dance man. Also, last year we had an artist-in-residence from Spain, Guillermo Alonso, and he was here four times last year; over the course of his visit he created a sand dance, which is tap-dancing in soft shoes on sand. It sounds like brushes on a snare drum.
It actually fits in with our mission of preserving the old and presenting the new, and a lot of these pieces accomplish both.
Another piece that's just off the charts is hardcore rhythm tap created by Martin "Tre" Dumas—it's just unbelievably complex, intense syncopation executed brilliantly by our young dancers. They attack this material—and you have to, because it'll eat you alive [ if you don't ] .
WCT: And Jason Samuel Smith will be there, correct?
LA: Yes—and as good as our dancers are, they're going to be standing in the wings contemplating throwing their shoes in the lake. When they watch Jason, they're going to be saying, "Damn! That's just not possible." [ Laughs ] He was on Broadway at 15 with Bring in da Noise, Bring on da Funk, so he learned from a master and has taken it even farther. In the tap community, he's sort of like Superman. And, what I like about Jason is that he addresses the audience; he can let the audience in on the wonderful experience he's creating.
WCT: What do you feel is the underlying theme or message of the show?
LA: Of course, our mission is preserving tradition and presenting new works by emerging artists. But there is the universality of rhythmic expression and [ laughs ] the seemingly infinite variety of expressing oneself. Everywhere I go, I see someone doing something new and interesting—and part of our mission is to bring some of that wonderful creative energy back to Chicago.
"Windy City Rhythms Goes Global" will take place at 7:30 p.m. May 29-31 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago. Tickets are $28-$35 each; call 312-397-4010 or visit www.mcachicago.org See www.ChicagoTap.org for more on the Chicago Human Rhythm Project.
Also, Barbatuques will hold workshops Thursday, May 28, at 6 p.m. at the Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln, and Sunday, May 31, at the MCA. Tickets are $20 each for the May 28 event; call 773-728-6000 to register. Tickets are $15-$25 for the May 31 event; see www.chicagotap.org .
