Bringing back 'da funk: Savion Glover taps his way into the Paramount

In conversation, Savion Glover is a man of few words. But he speaks volubly and articulately in another way: through his feet.

The remarkable young tap-dance master, now 29, has been tearing up the stage since he was a Newark, N.J., schoolboy with a yen to hoof.

But with the blazing success of the 1995 musical-historical revue "Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk," which Glover choreographed and initially starred in, he became something else: a youth ambassador to a Broadway largely unresponsive to current cultural-pop trends, and anachronistic to a younger, multicultural crowd unused to going to see live theater.

"Noise/Funk" also scored on national tour (without Glover in the cast), charting up a hit run at Seattle's Paramount Theatre in 1998.

This week the show returns to the Paramount for a weeklong stand, with Glover headlining. And, partly thanks to Glover's influence, well-crafted shows with hip-hop rhythms, urban sensibilities and a multicultural slant are creeping onto the Broadway circuit.

This mini-wave on Broadway has included Colombian actor-comic John Leguizamo's biting, propulsive and R-rated one-man comic shows "Sexaholix" and "Freak," Suzan-Lori Parks' recent Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Topdog/Underdog" (co-starring rapper Mos Def) and, this fall, "Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam."

Created by hip-hop impresario Simmons, a record and MTV producer, the latter is a street-smart "poetry slam" with no formal choreography, but a lot of rhythmic word energy, political defiance and streetwise brio.

But ask Glover if he considers himself a "hip-hop tapper," allied with any cultural movement, and he quietly demurs.

"I grew up with the hip-hop culture before it became rap," he answers by phone in a voice so soft it's hard to catch all his words. "Hip-hop is one thing, rap is another. But I wouldn't like to be labeled a hip-hop artist, because I was also under the heavy influence of great tap dancers who knew nothing about rap or hip-hop."

Indeed, one of Glover's most distinctive strengths is his uncanny gift for bridging the generation gap between jazz-based, mainly African-American tap dancers old enough to be his granddad, and a new group of improvisational tappers more influenced by today's pop music and attitudes. In addition, Glover is also a real Broadway Baby, who made his Times Square theatrical debut at age 10 in the 1983 musical "The Tap Dance Kid."

"I'm just a part of the community who has been responsible for this resurgence of this dance," Glover insists. "Gregory Hines years ago did the movies 'The Cotton Club' and 'Tap,' so he did a lot to keep the dance in the public's eye. And that was great, because as kids came up they watched him and saw the masculinity in (tapping)."

A protégé of Hines, whom he appeared with in "Tap" and in the acclaimed musical "Jelly's Last Jam," Glover was ahead of the generational curve in seeing the beauty and freedom in tap hoofing.

"I never thought of it as a game or joke or anything, especially once I met the people behind the dance who were involved with it originally," he reflects.

In one sense, "Noise/Funk" is an homage to those seminal jazz tappers who took Glover under their wings, elegant movers such as Cholly Atkins, Jimmy Slyde and Bunny Briggs. As created by Glover and director-conceiver George C. Wolfe, the show also pays tribute to their predecessors, from the African Americans who forged the dance as slaves on Southern plantations, to the black minstrels of the Reconstruction, to the dancers stereotyped in old Hollywood movie musicals, to swing-era smoothies.

But Glover has been more than just a conservationist of the art form. He also has taken it in new directions, applying his fleet, articulate footwork, hip physical presence and uncanny sense of rhythmic exploration to various musical styles and contexts — from Coca-Cola commercials to the 2002 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies. He's even written a dance biography (with Bruce Weber), "Savion: My Life in Tap."

And he has forged a singular style, which Glover calls "hittin'." It involves keeping his torso fairly still, but using every part of his tap shoe (Cuban-heeled, leather, size 12½ EE) to register sounds, like a drummer making full use of an elaborate drum set.

Whatever directions Glover may branch into (and he doesn't rule out trying to do some straight acting), right now he seems happy to be back on the road with "Noise/Funk."

Apart from his own participation (Glover was last here in 1995, with a "Jelly's Last Jam" tour), the show is essentially the same one that hit Seattle in 1998 — except there's now a woman tapper in the cast, Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards. She was in the Broadway blues revue "Black and Blue" with Glover and serves as his understudy in "Noise/Funk."

Though the production is tightly arranged and rehearsed, Glover says "there's a whole world of improvisation in it" to keep things dynamic for himself and his fellow performers, many of whom he's been hoofing with since Newark.

As for his next moves, "I just look forward to more dancing," he says. "I love concerts, I love theaters, I love working with live musicians."

As for Broadway's newfound interest in urban youth culture, particularly hip-hop, Glover is skeptical. "It depends on the type of show, if there's a story line, if it's really entertaining and educational. But if it's just something to bombard the space, just some deal about having hip-hop Broadway, that's not my thing.

"The music always exists, the dance always exists," he says simply. "Right now it's like I'd dance to anything — to hip-hop, jazz, whatever. I like to chill out by listening to a lot of music — John Coltrane, Prince, Bjork. I like a lot of stuff. I'm open."