Hines’ gift helps young dancer take next step

Clean and bright, like a smooth pebble dropped into a copper pot? Rich and radiant, like the clinking together of two gold coins? Full of promise, like the crack of the bat right before the ball sails over the fence?

Yes.

Jaelen Tyner, 18, has miles of bright and radiant and promising dance steps ahead of him now, after dancing legend Maurice Hines presented him with a pair of tap shoes in front of a packed Alliance Theatre audience last week.

“I always believe in giving back,” Hines said, as he called Jaelen up to the stage at the end of “Maurice Hines Is Tappin’ Thru Life,” which is at the Alliance through May 4.

Director Jeff Calhoun happened to be in the audience that night, so Hines summoned him to the stage to help. Together they presented Jaelen with a box, wrapped in shiny paper. Inside were the two sleek beauties that will help Jaelen follow in Hines’ footsteps.

As you’d expect, the teen’s mom was beaming. Yolanda Tyner used to dance herself in her school days, and the art form is something she and her son share.

“When Jaelen initially told me he was going to meet Maurice Hines, I told him I had seen him in ‘Sophisticated Ladies,’” she said. “For him to go and meet him, that in itself was a big thing.”

But receiving tap shoes from Maurice Hines himself? Imagine Hank Aaron handing you your first baseball bat, or Tiger Woods putting your first golf club in your hands.

“For him to do this, give him the shoes, that’s so special,” Yolanda Tyner said. “It’s a very special night.”

Jaelen is part of the Alliance Theatre Teen Vibe program, whose members attended Hines’ recent appearance at the Goat Farm Arts Center. While visiting with the artist, Jaelen told Hines he was interested in tap dancing but could not afford tap shoes.

Hines filed that away. During the performance, he shared memories of dancing with his brother, the late Gregory Hines, since the time they were little kids. He shared thrilling memories of dancing with Judy Garland and appearing on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. He didn’t so much name-drop as name-sprinkle, and the aura of iconic personages like Lena Horne and Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. wafted through the room like the sparkling flakes in a snow globe.

Then there were the grim recollections of white Las Vegas hotel patrons fleeing the pool like the water had turned to fire when the two Hines children jumped in for a splash. Oh, sure, Ella Fitzgerald could entertain them at night. But swimming with two black children? Oh, no.

“After we got out, they drained the pool,” Hines said, and then began a heartfelt rendition of the famous Charlie Chaplin ballad.

"Smile though your heart is aching. Smile even though it's breaking. When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by …"

Throughout the performance, Hines shared the stage with younger dancers — the next generation, he called them. Brothers John and Leo Manzari tore up the stage with their muscular footwork and snappy style.

“Don’t clap for them!” barked Hines repeatedly and ironically, as the audience roared. Ten-year-old Leilani Negron was as talented as she was adorable.

Jaelen’s eyes never left the stage. At times he snapped along and was the first on his feet when the audience rewarded the performers with standing ovations.

We talked to him before the show.

“I am not a dancer at all,” he demurred. “No, ma’am. Not at all.”

Oh, really? With the slightest bit of prodding, Jaelen and his friend Torreke Evans, 17, demonstrated some of their moves on a sidewalk outside the theater. Torreke got busy showing off polished staccato steps while Jaelen moved lightly, gracefully, like an angel hopping from one cloud to the next.

“I really need to learn how to dance,” Jaelen joked, too modestly. “I’m going to.”

His mom said he’s been involved in musical theater at Mill Creek High School, where he is a senior, and has enjoyed his time with the Alliance’s youth ensemble.

“He wanted to start incorporating tap into some of the dances he was learning,” Yolanda Tyner said, adding that tap shoes “can be quite pricey, especially for his size. He’s a size 13.”

A quick Internet search confirms you can easily spend around $200 for a pair of professional men’s tap shoes.

Hines’ gift to Jaelen, though, felt priceless.

“I realize now after speaking to Maurice Hines that it’s a dying art and it is a very important style of dance that cannot be killed off,” said Jaelen, who plans to attend the University of North Georgia in the fall. “I’m going to pursue acting and theater. This is my passion. This is my career. It’s all I want to do.”