Other dances are like languages, like French or Spanish, but my steps are slang, and slang is always changing.
Savion GloverRead
Just like a comedian has a certain joke or a jazz musician has a riff that they know will get the crowd, a tap dancer always has a step.
Interpretation
Artists have signature elements that resonate with their audience.
In this quote, Savion Glover emphasizes the importance of signature styles or techniques in art forms such as comedy and music. Just as a comedian relies on a familiar joke or a jazz musician uses a well-known riff to engage their audience, a tap dancer employs distinctive steps that highlight their unique expression and connect with the crowd, showcasing the value of consistency in artistic performance.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a workshop on artistic expression.
Other dances are like languages, like French or Spanish, but my steps are slang, and slang is always changing.
For me, the importance in learning about the dance is using it as a voice. It's not about a step, it's about a way to express oneself.
There are many different styles of, and approaches to, tap. My own leans towards a more intellectual view: tap dancing not just for the sake of entertainment but to educate and spark emotion.
I can produce any instrument, any sound that I can imagine; it may be percussive to the audience, but in my mind it may be a piano, a melody, or a tuba, or a harp, or a harmonica. My mission is to allow people to hear the dance in its purity and up against any other type of sound or music.
I'm happy that people think of me as the greatest tap-dancer that ever lived. But it's just a rumor. Because the greatest dancer that ever lived knows everything, and I don't. I'm still learning. I still have a lot of work to do.
My mom couldn't afford dance shoes, so she put me in these old cowboy boots with a hard bottom so I could get some sound out. I used them for seven months. When I finally got real tap shoes, I was nervous. I kept moving my feet, thinking, 'Oh, so this is how it's supposed to sound.'
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American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
No - Kajol can never go anywhere. Kajol is absolutely hearts and minds and memories and silloys for ever and ever. I think if I was to, I wouldn't be exaggerating I if say in our times of film-making she's a beautiful living legend.
My ex-wife was trying to be nice once, so she took me to a concert in Los Angeles. I went with her to Symphony Hall, and the orchestra was playing. When the show started, the spotlight was sharp on this one man (Andres Segovia) and he had sombrero on and his guitar propped up like this and, oh man ... he was a master ! - I really heard it. That one guitar sounded like a whole orchestra to me.
Black storytelling can be about anything, absolutely anything, and within that it can be as enriching, as complex, beautiful, ugly as anything else. We are not seeing enough of those complexities on our stages.
I really admire stand-up, and I think I would have loved to learn how to do it. I think it's terrifying and thrilling. A really cool thing to do. It's a dying art, in a way.
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