Dancer Savion Glover

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No one knows exactly who the first tap dancer was, but we know that tap came from Ireland, Africa, and America. The steps that children learn in tap dance studios all around the world were created and refined by the tappers of vaudeville and Broadway and Hollywood and passed on year after year. With each new generation, new steps were born and old steps modified. Tap steps were blended with jazz dance in some cities, step dancing in others. The rhythms of tap were influenced by bebop, fusion, rock ’n’ roll. Tap dancers have always improvised with what was around them at any given moment. It is an aural tradition, and Glover is one of its pioneers and most distinguished ambassadors. He brings his message to the Power Center for the Ann Arbor Summer Festival on Sunday, June 21. You won’t want to miss it.   

[Originally published in June, 2009.]