Seven students from the Kathleen Academy of Dance in Hillsborough had their 15 minutes of fame on the stage of 42nd Street’s Duke Theater.
By: Regina Tan
Cheered on by Savion Glover’s mother, Yvette, seven tap students from the Kathleen Academy of Dance in Hillsborough had their 15 minutes of fame on the stage of 42nd Street’s Duke Theater.
They had been chosen to perform "Kids on Tap" choreographed by Kathleen Cirioli and set to Frank Sinatra’s "World On A String" in the New York City Tap Festival’s "Tap Kids" show.
During the weeklong festival in July, the tap dancers also had the opportunity to take master classes with many tap greats, including Buster Brown, Gregory Hines and Prince Spencer.
One of the dancers, 16-year-old Hillsborough resident Janine Weekley, could not believe that she was "taking classes with so many famous people who (act as if) they are normal people." She also was amazed to see that "old legends like Buster Brown and Prince Spencer" were still "on their feet."
In the tap world, a dancer’s age does not seem to affect the quality of his or her dancing.
"Ms. Kathleen (Cirioli) once said that tap is the type of dance where you can have an old person and a young person dance together and you get the same result," said Courtney Craven, a 16-year-old tap dancer from Bridgewater.
The master classes also offered a chance for the dancers to experience new approaches to tap.
Max Pollak, a tap dancer who combines Afro-Cuban dance and music with tap, was one of the teachers who taught them a different tap style.
Mr. Pollak taught rhumba tap from Cuba, said Janine. At times, the dancers were creating three different rhythms at the same time and using their hands instead of their feet to create percussive sounds, she said.
Andrew Pirozzi, a 13-year-old who lives in Hillsborough, agreed. "Max Pollak expresses different sounds with different parts of the body." Mr. Pollak also taught them to isolate each sound of the foot, he said.
"(It is as if) your feet are the instrument and you’re the composer," said Andrew.
"Getting to experience" the festival, said Jessica Miklowcic, a 14-year-old dancer from Branchburg, was a reward in itself.
Meredith Liscovitz, a 17-year-old Hillsborough resident, said she had felt "really lucky to be part of the whole thing."
"I didn’t appreciate it (how lucky we were to be picked) until after," Meredith said.