Photo Bruno Castaing
On the 6th and 7th October, renowned Rio based American/German tap dancer and teacher Steven Harper will be leading workshops in Paris. He talks to Ruby TV about his style, method and passion for tap dance.
What are you going to be doing in Paris?
A week-end tap dance workshop, on two levels, intermediate and advanced, over two days. Each level will receive 4 hours of classes. There’s a special discount for those who want to take both levels, so they’re in for 8 hours total.
How do you like to describe your style?
I am a tap dancer, a specialist, yet my style draws from my experience in various fields of dance. I see tap primarily as a form of dancing, which means that the “dance” portion of the words “tap dance” is important to the full understanding of the art form. This doesn’t translate as “lots of arms”. It simply means that tap is dance – and dance involves the whole body, including the arms, not just the feet. However labeled – hoofer, class, flash, Broadway and so forth – no great tap dancer has ever thrilled an audience with a mere display of footwork devoid of style and charisma. Precisely: style and charisma have all to do with the way a dancer moves. Another important aspect of my style derives from the fact that I’ve been living in Brazil for the past 20 years and incorporated many elements of Brazilian music and dances into my personal little “melting pot”.
What is your teaching method and how it has developed over the years?
Everything in my teaching derives from a simple fact: music makes us move, shake and dance. In every culture in history, music and rhythm made people move. They move in different ways of course, depending on the music and the culture. That’s how the different forms of dance developed. Tap dance and jazz dance are the ways this process took place in the USA, based on the music developed there and the mixture of people who made it.
Tap is not easy. It’s a technique which has to be mastered correctly. But in my view, too many teachers concentrate on the technique of the feet. The last thing I want is to pluck the feet out of the rest of the body, and lose the basic dance feel- the body-moved-by-the-music process, which is the basis for all the fun as far as I’m concerned. So, whatever the style of tap, and whatever the kind of music, I really want the students to feel the music and understand how the tapping of the feet derive from that.
In the classroom I accentuate the feeling and the impulse that precedes the actual production of sounds. I break down and explain the accurate body mechanics of each step, so that students will acquire precision, speed and mobility. Special attention is paid to what one “looks like” and “feels like” while dancing. Each student is helped to discover his or her individual style, charisma and stage presence.
Can you outline what will happen in the two different levels and if non- tappers (musicians for example) would be able to try the lower level?
At the intermediate level, attention is drawn more on the “inner feeling” described above, learning how to make the feet the end result of an inner process and not the contrary. We do that by using fun Brazilian based music and routines. I enjoy developing several rhythmic voices that intertwine and dialogue. Participants should have an intermediate level though. I won’t explain the very basic steps so I’m afraid non-tappers won’t be able to follow. (But they can come check out the jam- read below).
At the advanced level attention will be focussed on “what makes the difference” at this level: precision, musicality, listening, contrasts, colouring of the taps, stage presence and artistic delivery.
What do you want the dancers to get out of your workshops?
In workshops we only spend limited time with the student. My goal is to open windows and shows paths, which they can follow on their own afterwards. More than a set of new steps, I hope they will go home with a better understanding of what tap dance is and can be for them, as a “dancing person”.
How can understanding and making rhythms translate to life outside of the workshop and theatre?
Rhythm is like a bug. Once he’s bitten you its hard not to live by its rules! Let me quote the great music teacher Fernand Schirren in his book Le Rythme primordial et souverain: “It is of little importance whether tension and relaxation be of dance or of music, a single force, rhythm, generates and governs sound as it does steps.”
Will you be also performing in Paris?
I’ll be taking part in a jam session for musicians and tap dancers, Saturday Oct 6, 7:30pm, at La Timbale (18ème arrondissement), n°2, rue de Versigny. The band is called “La rythm’ section taps”. So everybody is welcome to participate as well.
For a tapper travelling to Brazil, when is the best time to go? For your tap festival? What’s the tap scene like in Rio?
Well, let me quote Heather Cornell on the festival: “What could be better….sweating like crazy in great tap classes and then jumping in the ocean to cool down…ahhhh….and all in January! At Tap in Rio that is exactly what you do. The classes are hard hitting, creative and varied. Steven Harper and Adrianna Salamao are inspired educators, in that they weave the culture of Brazil into their work and they pass on an art form rich in native music. If you want to really feel a bossa or a samba….and I mean REALLY…..then you need to be at Tap in Rio. Here you can meet some of the best young teachers in Brazil and jam with GREAT musicians. This is the place to immerse yourself in Brazilian culture, in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, one block from Copacabana beach.”
Tap in Rio happens the last week of January, each year (the last week of school summer holidays there). For more infos: www.tapinrio.com.br (mostly in Portugues so far. We’re working on the English version!)
What do you like most about this art form?
I love every bit of it. I’ve been inspired by it for 25 years and it doesn’t seem to wane. Tap dance is a small world, we know most of the professionals who are in it and we criss-cross paths here and there in different events around the world. I love the “tap people”, for the most part fun, down to earth and creative people in love with the art form. There’s no place for cockiness. It’s a fun environment.
Apart from its rich heritage, which needs to be revered, tap offers limitless contemporary artistic possibilities. There’s always more to learn and new paths to follow. Tap can be what you make it.
What’s happening next for you?
Apart from the Paris workshop I’ll be teaching a small group intensive in a farm in the Jura region, Oct 13-14. Anybody interested should get in touch.
I have several projects developing here in Brazil. My company just did 4 days of performances in Rio de Janeiro and we’ll be going to Curitiba and Brasilia in November. Tap in Rio 2013 is coming up soon. I still have a lot of work to do for that. I’m also choreographing a float for Rio de Janeiro’s next carnival parade, in February, with 40 dancers and I’m in the grant-writing process for a new show with tap dancers, show dancers, body percussion, regular musicians and singers. All with Brazilian music. Hopefully we’ll make it happen.
Steven Harper Workshop: October 6-7: Intermediate level : 12-2 pm; Advanced level : 3-5 pm
LAGENCE DANCE FLOOR- 8/10 rue de Valmy, Montreuil, Paris (Métrop St Mandé- line 1)
1 level (2 classes of 2 hours duration each, 4 hours total) : 50€
For 2 levels (4 classes) : 80€
Single class (saturday only) : 30€
CONTACT & INSCRIPTIONS
Pablo PEÑA [email protected] +33.6.14.60.91.01
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/395649507161811/
Steven will participate in the tap jam and concert on Saturday Oct 6, 7:30pm
La Timbale 2 rue de Versigny 75018
Metro Julles Joffrin
Check Steven’s company out on this youtube clip.
