Chi Town Becomes Tap Town in Winter Wonderland

You don’t ordinarily think of this time of year as a period of discovery, but a concert of dance and music at Harold Washington Cultural Center recently changed that notion.  Using the holidays to bring a wide assortment of tap artists together for a celebration of the season, Winter Wonderland delivered plenty of dance fire along with a bagful of fresh revelations.

Maybe looking a little more into its roots can explain why tap connects to people in such an instinctual way.  Communicating on two levels, through sight and sound, it commands more concentrated focus from our senses.  Its lineage too factors into its distinctive character.  The product of percussive dance forms from Europe and Africa, it has evolved into its own singularly distinctive dance idiom.  One that’s found a natural affinity for improvisation and with music that sports plenty of elasticity.  In Winter Wonderland, each of those attributes were showcased in high relief.   The bonus of some very impressive group choreography also got thrown in to add a little heat and dimensional interest to the mix. 

With a display celebrating the career of tap-dancing National Endowment of the Arts fellow, Reginald (Reggio The Hoofer) McLaughlin; part of the concert’s warmth could be felt in the lobby prior to the show’s opening.   McLaughlin received his award two years ago in recognition of his contributions to this particularly American art form.  He was in the lobby with artifacts highlighting his achievements.  The exchanges and interactions he shared with concert goers revealed a level of mutual regard and appreciation you don’t often have the opportunity to witness at dance performances.  That spirit of connectivity seemed to flow into the auditorium in the way Bril Barrett, founder of M.A.D.D. Rhythms, opened the program with so much genuine affability.  Barrett, along with Mark Yonally, founder of Chicago Tap Theatre, oversee Chicago Tap Allstars (CTA); a union of tap practitioners from Chicago’s south and north sides. Presented as a CTA event, Winter Wonderland would turn out to be a kaleidoscope of dance that honored skill, creativity, honed natural talent and innovative choreographic interpretation.

With nearly twenty dances featured in two acts, what read as a marathon felt like a blazing sprint.  That’s entirely due to the presence of so many memorable dance performances.  Their mass had the effect of cancelling out time.   Star Dixon’s dance translation of Silent Night early in the show certainly counts as one excellent example.  Tapping on top of live music played by keyboard, guitar and drums, the music she created with her shoes blended beautifully with that of the trio.  Both were soft and slightly hushed while Dixon demonstrated the kind of sumptuous footwork you thought only existed in the imagination.  Stylish in black leather pants and statement gold tap shoes, she also put a sleek contemporary face on a dance form that tends to veer toward a more traditional aesthetic.

Lingus, choreographed by Tré Dumas and performed by Chicago Tap Theatre, took tap to a place of power and strength.  We’re seeing that kind of energy being expressed more and more in tap.  Here, the exuberance was so emphatic and the final collective stomp so resonant that the nine dancers looked and sounded like rhythm obsessed gladiators.  Dumas’s penchant for surging vitality popped up later in a scorching dance off performed over the brisk rhythms of Carol of the Bells.  A duet celebrating dance virtuosity morphed into a contest, albeit amicable, of prowess.  Opening in satiny synchrony, Dumas and Caleb Jackson showed how beautifully tap can flow with polished panache and suddenly erupt in dazzling speed and bravado.  When it’s done this well, it leaves an indelible impression and a hunger for more.

Chicago Tap Allstars should take pride in the way it filled the program’s plate with excellent variety.  Along with duets and group dances, the artistry of veteran craftsmanship ribboned through the entire program with ace solos.  Barrett and Yonally both proved their masterclass credentials when it comes to effortless, supremely assured finesse.  Wearing low cut white boots that had their own sizzle, Nico Rubio brought relaxed panache to his Jingle All the Way performance; making the classic as suave as it is merry with his penchant for superb tap.  Even the music he was making with his dancing was lovely, harmonizing beautifully with a trio who’d been earning their own shipload of kudos all afternoon.

By the time the “shim sham and bows” commenced closing the show, the audience was loaded with enough good cheer to last them through New Year’s day and well beyond.   Such is the power of wonderfully executed artistic expression.  It’ll be interesting to see what Chicago Tap Allstars and its band of dance warriors have in store for us just over the horizon.

Winter Wonderland

December 9, 2023

Harold Washington Cultural Center

4701 S. Martin Luther King Dr. 

Chicago, IL  60653