Savion Glover Performs at Westminster

Tap legend Savion Glover, a Tony Award-winning hoofer, choreographer and producer, gave a performance for the Westminster community March 28 as a part of the Graham Gund ’59 Visiting Artist Series. Performing with him were acclaimed tap dancers Ayodele Casel and Marshall Davis Jr.
 
Glover’s numerous credits include the Broadway shows “The Tap Dance Kid”; “Black and Blue”; “Jelly’s Last Jam”; and “Bring in da’ Noise, Bring in da’ Funk”; and the films “Tap” with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr.; “Bamboozled” by Spike Lee; and “Happy Feet,” which he choreographed. Glover has performed at The White House, nationally and internationally and is the founder of the HooFeRz Club School for Tap in Newark, N.J.
 
Casel is from New York City and has worked professionally as an actor and tap dancer for more than 16 years. Hailed by the late great Gregory Hines as “one of the top young tap dancers in the world today,” she has performed at The White House, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and Off-Broadway in “Savion Glover/Downtown: Live Communication.” Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, and she continues to strive to make tap dancing a relevant presence in the arts.
 
Marshall Davis Jr. is from Miami Beach and has been tapping since he was 10 years old. In 1989, he was the winner from Florida in the Tri-Star Pictures Tap Day Contest, a promotion for the movie “Tap,” starring Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr. At 13, he received a check from Ed McMahon for winning the Star Search Teen Dance Championship. Trained by the late Steve Condos, Davis performed in the Tony-winning production of “Bring in Da’ Noise Bring in Da’ Funk,” starring and choreographed by Glover. He is currently touring with Glover.
 
After an amazing performance, the three dancers took questions from the audience about their careers. When asked how often he practices, Glover replied, “I am now rehearsing two times a week for three hours for a production. When I am not doing a production, I practice at home. My life is practice. I am a work in progress.” Similarly, Casel said, “Every minute of the day is practice,” and Davis commented, “It is a way of life trying to think of different things to do mathematically and musically and, hopefully, it will work.”
 
Glover started dancing at age 7. He said his interest in tap really kicked in when he met renowned tap dancers Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines and Dianne Walker, and they started sharing with him when he was around age 13. Both Casel and Davis described how they also knew early on that tap was what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives.