JAZZ TAP ENSEMBLE.

JAZZ TAP ENSEMBLE JOYCE THEATER NOVEMBER 24-29, 1998

Jazz Tap Ensemble celebrated its twentieth anniversary season by transforming the Joyce Theater into an intimate nightclub last November, replete with soft lighting, live jazz, and seamless tap that made me feel that the dancers had just left their bar stools and taken to the stage. The setting enabled the company to make 20th Jubilee, as the program was called, a genuinely invigorating and authentic evening of tap highlighted by seven New York premieres.

Artistic director Lynn Dally opened the program by saying a few words to the audience, thereby breaking through this proscenium theater's "fourth wall," but it was JTE's house band, comprised of Theo Saunders, piano; Henry Franklin, bass; and Jerry Kalaf, drums, that really engaged the audience. Their punchy, double-time version of the Miles Davis classic "All Blues," which the show's opener also used as its title, allowed for an amalgam of tap warm-up. Choreographed by Dally, All Blues showed off the company members' diverse personalities. Dancers Roxane Butterfly and Becky Twitchell got into a vigorous call-and-response session amid Kalaf's sly percussive solos and were soon joined by Sam Weber, Steve Zee, and Dally.

JTE newcomer Zee followed up All Blues with a solo to Charles Mingus's "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat." Casual and insouciant, Zee practically talks with his feet, making statements, asking questions, uttering phrases, snapping out a flurry of thought, and then laying back. It was narrative tap with a swelling dramatic arc, marked by an impressive sensitivity to the Mingus classic. More kudos go to Butterfly for her solo, Love for Sale, one of the New York premieres. Butterfly's style is surefire jackhammering, pelting floor jams that seemed to show a pair of black shoes shooting across the stage unattached to a body. Although she busted out a lot of technique, sometimes too much, her exuberance and visible joy were infectious.

This Is New, another New York premiere, featured a four-way improv among Butterfly, Twitchell, Zee, and Weber. Set to music by Kurt Weill, This Is New was a dialogue among its members. Each responded with verve and excitement to the other, bringing each response to a higher level. Ending the first act was the New York premiere of Noche, a decidedly abstract postmodern dance choreographed by Dally with video design by Dennis Diamond. Noche put the stage in a warm, desertlike setting with images of the dancers' movement projected on the back wall. It was a notable and ambitious endeavor, suggesting Dali-like surrealism, with the tap attenuated and arm gesturing suggestive of ballet.

Gregory Hines's New York premiere of Groove opened the second act. Set to a seductive score by drummer Kalaf, Groove began with faint rumblings of bubbly feet and ended on a note of high celebration among the full company, with an especially exacting solo by Butterfly. The evening's finale was JTE's specially created collaboration with veteran tap master Jimmy Slyde, titled Interplay. Weber led the troupe in a slow interpretation of Slyde's masterly tap craftsmanship. Although the piece appeared almost like a tap class, it was clear that JTE was paying homage, and Interplay ended the evening on a graceful note.

With the addition of Butterfly and Zee, the current JTE lineup is impressive. There's a balance among the troupe's members, wherein room has been given for individual personalities to surface.