Getting to Know Lisa La Touche

by Danny Foner

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Lisa La Touche, an internationally renowned tap dancer. Her career highlights, as she writes on her website, include "New York and North American touring casts of STOMP, the Sophisticated Ladies at Harlem's legendary Cotton Club with Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, A.C.G.I with Emmy Award winner Jason Samuels-Smith, Rumba Tap with Max Pollak, Co-Director and guest artist with the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, faculty member of the School at Jacob's Pillow, and guest artist at The American Tap Dance Foundation and The Vancouver Tap Dance Society." If you're interested in learning more, you can visit her website.

DF: How did you start learning tap? What about it made it so interesting to you?

LLT: I started taking tap lessons when I was 8 years old. I had amazing parents, dedicated to finding me a fun extra-curricular activity as a kid. After soccer and piano and gymnastics, which I didn't love, tap dance stuck. My mom also took lessons as a kid, and would sometimes show me steps and I always got a kick out of it. So upon my first class on my own, I was hooked immediately. The fact that I could make sounds and music with my feet thrilled me, while also being able to dance and express myself.

DF: Many dancers and other artists are inspired by their predecessors. Are there any tappers that inspired you to pursue your passion? What do you admire about them?

LLT: Oh man... there are so many that it's hard to narrow down. I've been really blessed and honored to have many mentors and their inspiration and wisdom is timeless and endless. Some to mention: Jason Samuels Smith, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Max Pollak, Barbara Duffy, Martin "Tre" Dumas III, Brenda Bufalino, Dianne "Lady Di" Walker... they are all such lions and lionesses in their craft. They all, to this day, dedicate themselves deeper daily in their contributions to the art form and the community. They teach me so much about what honoring your craft means and what transpires from staying focused and connected to your own passion. Jason Samuel Smiths inspires me always to see how the level of execution can always increase, and to never get comfortable. I'm always hearing "reach" when I think of him. Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards... I never have words... not only the execution but profound wisdom and grace in her dancing and teaching, and also a truly resilient woman and a divine lady always on and off stage. Max Pollak... a prime example of the possibilities of what one can achieve while branching out and simply staying true to investing in what inspires you. He's the pioneer in incorporating Afro-Cuban music and it's legacy as a tap dancer. He has created and mastered his own technique with his in-depth endeavors to study and hone the Afro-Cuban music and culture and earn respect from its homegrown artists.

DF: On your website, you write that you like to stay connected in the NYC jazz music scene. How does your experience with tap dancing influence your appreciation for jazz? Are the two connected in any way?

LLT: To me tap dance is another component of jazz. It's the same language, but different instrument. Tap is to dance as sound is to movement. It goes hand and hand to me. You have to learn how to dance and you have to learn how to play music. I've had the honor of working with some incredible musicians and they have influenced me deeply as much as my dance mentors have. Sometimes it can be a barrier to break through to have musicians be open enough to really work with a tap dancer and respect them on the same level as a musician. But upon meeting those that really do that, it's really fun from both parties to see that we really do walk the same walk... Jazz to me means a freedom to improvise and to push boundaries always in the "music," so to speak. We are composers as well - that would be the musician's term for us as "choreographers". One of the biggest highlights of my performing experiences: being on the band stand as a tap dancer with the Revive Da Live big band directed by Megan Stabile and Igmar Thomas. Having Igmar compose and arrange a song for us tap dancers with a 22-piece big band and then coming up with our own choreography composition within it was the best. And the reaction from the crowd felt like we were rock stars. This craft is truly so powerful and the advantage we have, so to speak, is the fact that we do get to dance while making our music, so music lovers always lose their minds.

DF: You belong to a tap group in New York called Tap Phonics. Can you tell me a little more about that? In other words, what does Tap Phonics do?

LLT: Tap Phonics started as my own "pick-up" company. Right now pick up companies are mostly how dancers function with their own groups. We get dancers together that we like working with on a project basis. This started for me with moving to New York in 2008. I met Brooklyn singer-songwriter Maya Azucena and she invited me to present my own group and open for one of her concerts. So I had to come up with a name, and [Tap Phonics] stuck. From then on, as different gigs came up, I pulled dancers together that I needed and it grew from there. Tap Phonics now, to me, is more of a project than a group.

I'm focusing on new arrangements and compositions and always collaborating with other artists or musicians. I think of it as "phonetically speaking." We are a group that can represent essences of the tradition and legacy of the tap dance art from, yet push past the "straight ahead" regime and find new ways to keep it contemporary. I've worked with spoken word artists, R&B musicians, MCs and electronic sounds in my projects. I'm currently working on curating a show while I'm here temporarily in Vancouver in support by the Vancouver Tap Dance Society. New works are being created as we speak which will funnel into the next Vancouver International Tap festival and I'm really excited about it!

DF: You've performed in dance festivals and on tours all across the world. What's next?

LLT: Next is working on my own conceptualized show as I mentioned before. Taking time to "be still and create." I'm very inspired lately and am composing more than I have in a while and it feels good. I've worked with so many amazing artists worldwide and only hope this will continue. In the meantime it really does feel good to take the time to work out my own ideas and build new platforms for myself and for others as well. I'm working more in Canada as of recently and am trying to bridge more of the gap between my home country, its dancers and the American tap dance scene. New York still resonates as home to me, and my roots ignited also in Chicago. It means more to me than I can express to be considered a contributor and to be respected by my American peers.

DF: And one just for fun: if you could do just one step for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

LLT: Funny as it sounds, you'll find cramp rolls and 5 count riffs in so many of my phrases. But all in all, I think in terms of musical patterns and then let that determine what vocabulary I should use.

Getting to Know: Barbara Duffy

Photographer: Julie Lemberger

This week, I had the opportunity to talk to a woman whose company performs one of the most exciting and universal styles of dance: tap.  With her complicated rhythms, versatility and appreciation for improv, Barbara Duffy is spreading the word about tap one shuffle at a time.

REMY: What do you love about tap?

BARBARA: Well I think for me it’s that I’m a dancer but I’m also a musician so I feel like I can use tap to make music also, besides just being a dancer.  That's one reason why I love tap.  And I love that you can communicate with people. I've visited 20 countries and I’ve had to teach classes where people don’t really speak English. Many times I've had to communicate with just rhythm. Rhythm is universal and it connects all people, it really does. It’s amazing, I can go to anywhere and communicate rhythmically because we all feel rhythm. I think that’s why I really like tap.

REMY: That’s so cool, I’ve never thought of it that way but I really like that.  Something in particular that I noticed while studying your work is that you use both choreography and improvisation.  I found this so interesting, and was wondering if you could talk about how you use improvisation and how it affects your work?

BARBARA:  Well, for the work that I’ve done, I use improvisation to feature dancers, to give them solos.  I like to give them an opportunity to express what they have to say within my work. They do my choreography, but they’re also dancers in their own rite and have their own style, which is one of the reasons I've asked them to be part of my company.  I might direct their improvisation, give them an intention, but they can use their own voices. Another use of improvisation is when I want to create a chaotic moment.... everyone improvises at one time, or an organized improvisation to make counter rhythms.  Even though we’re improvising, we’re blending into a groove so, again, we’re creating something musically and and because we're improvising, it's always challenging and different.

REMY: Do you ever use improvisation to build or influence your choreography?

BARBARA:  Sure, because when I’m creating something I have to improvise right away. I feel a rhythm, and then I’ll make it with my feet; that’s improv.  I think that it all starts that way and then becomes more organized.  Then I've got to settle on what steps I want to use and what picture I want to make.

REMY: Being a girl who's always favored jazz, I can't help but notice that dance forms like modern and ballet are much more main stream at the moment. How does those styles, if at all, influence you?

BARBARA:  I can't say that ONLY modern dance influences my choreography. It doesn’t actually matter what the dance form is.  If I go to any dance concert, what moves me is the story and the emotion of the dancers. So whatever form that comes in, that’s what inspires me.  I could go to watch African dance and get totally inspired, or it could be modern or ballet or opera.

REMY: Is there anyone or anything in particular that you feel has inspired your work?

BARBARA:  I've loved seeing Koresh Dance Company, based in Philly, as well as Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, here in NYC, because of the stories they tell through dance. I'm also continually inspired by all kinds of music, from Bonnie Raitt to Santana to Oscar Peterson.

REMY: When you’re creating a piece, do you usually go with the rhythm of the music or do you create a rhythm that complements it or all of that?

BARBARA:  All of that. It also depends on whether I’ll be dancing to live music or to a recorded piece of music, each is a little bit different. If it’s a recorded piece of music, of course it doesn’t change ever, it’s going to be the same and we memorize the song so I really try to create choreography that is influenced by the ups and downs and the moods of that music, so that will definitely affect what I’m going to do with that music.  Or sometimes,  when I’m making a piece, maybe I'll start with no music and then bring some music in later.  I’ve also worked with  musicians to arrange a particular piece of music that I want.  And a lot of times within that, it will be Jazz-based so the musicians will be improvising within that in certain sections, so that makes things a little bit different.

REMY: So when you have the musicians improvising, is that a point of time when you’d have the dancers improvising or would that be too hectic?

BARBARA:  No, it could be either way.  That’s what Jazz musicians do. They improvise and play with the song and then improvise off of it musically, so it depends. I mean there are sections when we’re definitely improvising together, or we might be doing choreography and the musician might still be improvising.  And so I might ask the musicians to play a certain mood, or maybe not fill up with so many notes but still improvise.

REMY: Tap always makes me think of the suave and elegant like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and their light-hearted, entertaining work.  You’re work is much more emotional and there’s much more variety and dynamic. Could you speak to that a bit?

BARBARA:  I think that we’ve grown in the art form in that people are more aware of the progress we've made, since Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, which was 50, 60  years ago now, so I do think that the general public is more aware of tap dance since then. But some people, if they’ve never seen tap dance recently, that’s what they might think of. That was a very different style of tap dance because it was for the movies, it was movie tap dance.  The traditional Broadway style of tap, with the exception of certain shows is more oriented to simpler steps and more "showy" effects, arms and hands.  In the late ‘70’s-early ‘80’s, people like Lynn Dally of the Jazz Tap Ensemble, who is a modern/tap dancer, started creating tap concerts. Tap companies started to form. Brenda Bufalino, my teacher, created the American Tap Dance Orchestra, (I was her dance captain and featured dancer). Heather Cornell created Manhattan Tap, for example. Tap dance went onto the concert stage, similar to modern dance concerts. Gregory Hines was a huge influence on-the art form.  He started dancing to contemporary music in the mid ‘80’s, so he really influenced the younger generation to want to tap dance and opened up a lot of possibilities. Jelly's Last Jam & Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk were groundbreaking musicals on Broadway, presenting a different style of tap to Broadway audiences from what we usually would see. So I came from that, I came up when that was all happening.  I have to say that we all learn from each other with tap, and of course Gene Kelly was one of my favorites, and I think it has to do with his energy and his rhythms. Everybody knows [Kelly and Astaire] so a lot is influenced by them and other famous movie stars, like the Nicholas Brothers and the Condos Brothers, that’s what made me love tap dance as a kid, those movies. 

REMY: It’s just so interesting to see how different forms of dance have evolved over time, and even looking at all the styles and genres within each dance form is amazing.

BARBARA:  Right, and the tap world has really grown in that way, it’s really grown. Savion Glover changed a lot of things technically, people are doing things they’ve never done before footwork-wise. 

REMY: One of the things that I personally had a hard time with when I was taking tap was how to coordinate and control your upper body when you were moving your feet so intricately and quickly.  So when you’re creating a piece, do you mostly focus on the footwork or do you also work with the whole upper body at the same time?

BARBARA:  I think what happens is, basically, I’m focused on the rhythm that I want and when I figure out exactly what footwork I’m using, my body kind of goes naturally where it wants to.  I’m pretty much a whole-body tap dancer anyway, I don’t just stay in one place and I move a lot and my upper body moves, so I kind of have my way of moving.  But sometimes I really get specific with my dancers about really wanting to exaggerate a movement and we all need to be together and pretty uniform most of the time, unless we’re improvising. So I think the answer is that I focus on my music first with what I want to say, and then also it depends on the mood of the music or the mood I want to create. and how my body would move to that.

REMY: I really like that idea of starting with a rhythm and feeling how it moves you, rather than deciding to move this way or that way.

BARBARA:  Right, well I’m not saying that’s the only way it could happen, because there’s many ways to approach it.  I give an exercise to my improv class about dancing first and then seeing what your feet are going to do and how your feet will follow, that’s a whole different way to approach it. 

REMY: So is there anything else you really want to say about your work or your experience with tap?

BARBARA:  I feel really lucky that I’m making a living doing this and I think it’s important to pass the word about tap dance.  That’s been the mission, to make people aware of tap dance because people love it when they see it, but it’s interesting to see how many people in the general public really don’t know much about tap dance and it's history and what's happening now. A lot of people think it's a dead art form, when actually it's growing and thriving all over the world.  So that’s the mission, to make people aware of this Americana dance form and the artistry of tap dance, not just a preconceived notion of what they think it is.

REMY: You’re right, any time anyone sees a tap dance performance they love it, it’s impossible not to!

BARBARA: I know! It’s very true.

My Favorite Things -- TAP CITY 2010

by Nicole Harris

As I mentioned yesterday, last night I was lucky enough to perform in Tony Waag's TAP CITY Show.  What I could only begin to hint at was how AMAZING some of the things that took place on that stage were.  I performed in the concert last year, so I had some sense of what to expect, but I was completely blown away by the dynamic, inventive, engaging work that was presented this year.  The show opened with Cartier Williams, a young powerhouse of a tap dancer who set the bar for the evening, and he set it high.   I wish I could tell you about every piece in the show, but for time's sake I will just give you the highlights (aka My Favorite Things).  

Xander Weinman's new tap company Sophisticated Sounds performed TwentySomething, and his company of twenty somethings is something to watch.  A strong performer, Xander danced in practically every piece in the first act and I am excited to see him putting his own work on stage too. 

I was fortunate enough to dance with Chikako Iwahori at last year's TAP CITY and I was thrilled to finally see some of her work.  Baiao Destemperado is a beautiful piece that made me secretly wish that I was on stage with them!  Danced by six of the hardest working tap dancers I know, I loved every swirling and flowing moment of it.

Another piece I actually told the choreographer I wanted to dance in was Danny Wallace's Inception.  ("Your piece was wonderful, I would love to dance in it", is apparently not how most people introduce themselves to stranger.  Who knew?)  His work was quirky and sweet and rhythmically intoxicating.

Barbara Duffy's Speedball is a high energy barrel of fun that had everyone dancing in their seats.  What more do you need?

(Since I'm telling you about all my favorite things, those last three pieces I mentioned had Carson Murphy and Claudia Rahardjanoto dancing in them, and they are both an absolute JOY to watch on stage and lovely women to boot!)

In a tribute to the ever wonderful Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards, who received a 2010 Hoofer Award, Jason Samuels Smith, Chloe Arnold and Derick K. Grant turned, slid and jitterbugged themselves and the audience into a frenzy with their high tempo, crystal clear tapping.  I have known Derick for a number of years now and I still marvel at his ability to enrapture an audience every time I have the chance to see him perform.  (Jason and Chloe are pretty amazing too!)

Last, but certainly not least, Lynn Schwab.  Since I danced in it myself, I can safely say that Lynn's Waters of March was BRILLIANT.  Of course, the brilliance came from Lynn's ability to wrangle fifteen dancers of all different levels into what can only be described as a simply beautiful piece.  It took you on an emotional ride, was visually stunning and filled your ears with delicate counterpoint.  Lynn is an amazing asset to the New York tap community and to my life. 

There you have it.  And that doesn't even begin to cover the range of pieces Tony presented this year.  There was Nicholas Young and his ukulele, a whole segment called Tap Internationals, Tony himself singing Just in Time and so much more!  I hope next year you can all make it down to take in this amazing evening of tap dancing.

TAP CITY

Summer's finally here and with it Tony Waag's TAP CITY festival. This week tap dance has taken over Chelsea Studios here in New York City with classes, residencies and workshops for dancers of all ages and levels. In the evenings there are tap jams, showcases and performances. For me, the highlights of the week so far have been: participating in a residency with Michelle Dorrance, who used our four days of classes and end of week performance to nod to Michael Jackson with a tap dancing Thriller tribute; getting to watch another MJ tribute at the Tap Youth/Tap Future showcase last night with Chloe Arnold's Pre-Professional Program; and a Tap Talks & Films panel on choreography with Brenda Bufalino and Barbara Duffy, moderated by Michelle Dorrance.

And then of course there's tonights "Main Event" featuring performances by many fabulous tap dancers including Jason Samuels-Smith, the Tap City Youth Ensemble, Michela Marino- Lerman, Derick K. Grant and the premier of Lynn Schwab's "Cross Fibers" (which I'll be dancing in).

Unfortunately the show tonight is sold out, so unless you are one of the lucky ones who already bought tickets you'll have to wait for the video to hit the archives at the Performing Arts Library... If you want more information about TAP CITY check out the American Tap Dance Foundation's website.