TURN ON THE TAP
3rd Annual Tap Dance Day Celebration at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre
1895 Venables Street, Vancouver, BC
May 22nd 2005, 2 pm and 7 pm shows.
Tickets can be purchase through Ticket Master ($20-30 I think)

Don’t know much about tap dancing? Come out and celebrate National Tap Dance Day. National Tap Dance Day is celebrated officially on May 25th, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s birthday. But hey Sunday is close, right?

The show, put on by The West Coast Tap Dance Collective, is always great. Last year Jim Hibbard was honoured with a BC Entertainment Hall of Fame star. This year the collective is honouring Jeni LeGon. Hey these legends live in Vancouver!

Jim is a dancer and performer whose credits include film classics Hello Dolly with Barbara Streisand, Gypsy, Bye Bye Birdie, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Jim was the choreographer of the Paul Anka and the Tom Jones TV series, and many others TV shows including specials with Dean Martin and Jack Benny. He’s one of my favourite tappers, and I suspect he’ll be performing at the show.

Jeni LeGon is an absolute sweetheart. She’s a dancer, actress and instructor, born in 1916 in Chicago. In 1935 in Hollywood, Earl Dancer, the former manager of Ethel Waters, discovered LeGon. He helped her to be the first black woman to sign an extended contract from MGM, which was shortly cancelled. Black women didn’t exactly have an easy time getting lead roles. In her first screen role, LeGon danced with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (the only black woman to do so on screen) in Hooray for Love, which also featured Fats Waller. She has 24 film credits–all amazing, classics.

Jeni is a powerhouse and she still gets up on stage to show the kids the “fan kick.”

The tap show will of course include some kids because what’s a tap show without some cuties in pigtails and sequined outfits. But the big guns are also here.

I know Lisa LaTouche from MADD Rhythms Canada is in town. She can throw down an 8-count.

I’m hoping Brock Jellison will be up on stage. Brock toured with Tap Dogs, his company “Ruckus” is amazing, and I take his tap class where we sometimes rock out to Korn.

Again, I don’t know who’s on the bill. But I’m sure Jennifer Bishop’s group will be flying. My buddy Melissa Frakman who’s knocking ’em dead in New York will be up there. And, if we are fortunate enough, perhaps Van “The Man” Porter will be on hand to throw down some steps. The man has more than steps. He was in the Gregory Hines movie “Tap” and a documentary about Clayton “Peg-Leg” Bates. He’s danced with Tito Puente, George Benson, Carrie Smith, Cab Calloway and Wynton Marsalis.

Man, there is a lot of tap in this town. Get out and see it.