NATIONAL BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL OPENING WEEKEND
Friday, July 17
6 p.m. Gallery Hop. $30 in advance. Tour begins at Bill Lowe Gallery, 764 Miami Circle, No. 210, Atlanta.
Saturday, July 18
9 a.m.-5 p.m. Symposium on “Dance Across the Diaspora.” $75 general admission, $20 for students. High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta.
Noon. Tap Master Class with Savion Glover. $20 or free with symposium admission. High Museum of Art.
8 p.m. Poetry Slam Competition. $5 youths, $15 adults. Atlanta Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta.
Sunday, July 19
6 p.m. “SoLe Sanctuary,” performance and conversation with Savion Glover. $33-$48 ($20 students). Rialto Center for the Arts, 80 Forsyth St. N.W., Atlanta.
Later this month
3 p.m. July 26. “Stormy Weather.” First of three film screenings and conversations on black dance in film. Free admission. National Center for Civil and Human Rights, 100 Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd., Atlanta.
For information on all NBAF events and tickets, call 404-730-7315 or visit NBAF.org.
Superlatives fly as readily as Savion Glover's intricate tap phrases shower the stage floor, though few critics have been as eloquent. The New Yorker called Glover "the greatest tap virtuoso of our time, perhaps of all time." His musicianship has been compared to jazz great Charlie Parker's.
A child prodigy who learned from a cadre of old-time jazz and rhythm tap luminaries, Glover invigorated tap with funk and hip-hop in the 1996 Broadway show “Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk” when he was just 22. Today, as part of a mission to shine a light on African-American history and culture, Glover is paying tribute to the masters on whose shoulders he stands.
Glover and "Noise/Funk" veteran Marshall Davis Jr. will perform "SoLe Sanctuary" this Sunday at the Rialto Center for the Arts, capping the National Black Arts Festival's opening weekend, part of a three-month season with a strong, but not exclusive focus on dance.
Glover spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about his upcoming show.
Q: You’ve created several productions at New York City’s Joyce Theater. Of these, why did you choose “SoLe Sanctuary” for Atlanta?
A: I thought it would be quite fitting for the festival. "SoLe Sanctuary" allows me to share with the audience my gratitude, respect and love for these great men and women of the dance who have taught me and loved me and shared things with me through the dance over the years — Jimmy Slyde, Lon Chaney, Buster Brown, Ralph Brown, Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr. … Some of them are still here, but most of them are no longer with us in the physical. (It) gives the audience an opportunity to see that and feel that.
Q: The Joyce Theater is a home for dance, more intimate than most Broadway venues. What attracted you to the Joyce, and why did you stay to build a series of works there?
A: I used it as an experimental environment (for) productions that give people an understanding of the relationship that tap dance has with musicality — just allowing people to hear tap dance in a way that they might not expect to hear it, or see it, (without) a lot of lights, sets, props, things of that nature … allowing tap dance to be the driving force.
Q: Does “SoLe Sanctuary” tell a story?
A: The stories we're telling through "SoLe Sanctuary" are stories of gratitude. They're stories of honor … of meditation and prayer and things of that nature.
Q: “Noise/Funk” captured the rawness and intensity at the roots of tap dance. Since then, what’s changed in your dancing?
A: You mature as a human being, so that's going to change everything you do. I'm dancing to different music or not much music at all — just trying to allow the listener to hear the musicality in the dance, (and show) how the dance can be a form of meditation. The dance can be a symphony. It can be an orchestra. It can be an instrument.
Q: You once described your tap shoe as a drum set — the inside toe is the hi-hat; the outside rim, the cymbals; the left heel, the bass drum; etc.
A: Over 20 years ago, that's how I would think of my feet. But right now, I can think of (them) as anything from a harp, to a clarinet to the Mediterranean Sea. The feet, my instrument — can be anything … a light bulb, a fan, anything that would create a sound or vibration.
Q: The 1992 show “Jelly’s Last Jam” featured a call-and-response trading session, similar to a challenge, between you and Gregory Hines. Was there ever a time with Hines — or other mentors — when you, the student, surpassed the teacher?
A: Looking back at it, it's only in people's opinion that I am better than these great men, but I don't think that I am. So, there was never a time when I thought that I had surpassed the greatness … of any of them, including Gregory.
There are too many levels of intelligence. It’s like karate — there are many different styles. Just when you (think) that you could take him out with one style, he introduces another style. And then that can go on … you just can’t hang (on) after a while.
Q: Was there ever a challenge or trading session that was especially meaningful?
A: Oh, man. They all have been meaningful. I was always making myself available to learn from the situation. And try to steal some steps along the way.
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