Gotta keep tappin' that sass

Taps' fifth annual show, Everybody in Tap Shoes, is the sort of impressive dance performance offered much too rarely at Yale. Tap is an unusual dance form in that it incorporates and relies on making sound. The 18 dancers that constitute Taps are not afraid to do just that in the Morse Dining Hall this weekend, with a varied program that never loses the beat and offers a few surprises along the way. Did you ever think you'd get a chance to see a tap routine to Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust"?

Before the show began there was an enticing clacking noise behind the blue curtain. But the real story was onstage when the red lights came up and Peggy Lee's "Fever" introduced the first of 10 pieces. "Organized Noise" followed, a number without music in which the dancers teased each other with a conversation between their shoes. One of the strongest pieces was "Cecilia," danced to the Paul Simon song of the same name. The music seemed to ask for tap accompaniment, and in pigtails, hats, white tanks and baggy pants, the four dancers performed with high energy and appeared to have lots of fun in the process. "Got to Keep Tappin'" had some of the tightest choreography of the evening, with precise ensemble work that was always in exact rhythm to Edwin Starr's song, "Twenty-Five Miles." "Broadway Babies" was like a chorus line routine out of an old black-and-white movie, except these dancers were in technicolor turquoise and purple sequins.

Acknowledging that most of their audience was probably ignorant of tap, Taps introduced its fundamental moves and attributes in a series of humorous skits between numbers.

As a whole, Taps is a solid ensemble. Its most successful dancers seemed perfectly at ease in their upper bodies while their feet moved in a blur below. By the last number, "Life Goes to a Party" with music by Benny Goodman, one felt the joyous energy that had been building throughout the program explode as the whole company packed the floor. The dancers got down, literally, and let it all go—the choreography brought high kicks, fast turns, and—of course—lots of tapping.

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