Footloose
The audience could barely distinguish the stage from Savion Glover’s feet as he performed his tap dance routine.
Glover, a Tony Award winner and renowned tap dancer, brought the noise and the funk to Goldstein Auditorium in a sold-out performance Sunday night. 
As choreographer of the award winning Broadway hit ‘Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk,’ Glover has continued to revolutionize the art of tap dancing, taking it to a different realm characterized by urban rhythm and choreography.
Glover, along with dancers Marshall Davis and Maurice Chestnut, performed 12 tap dances for an auditorium filled with families and students, an event sponsored by Pulse as part of the Syracuse University Family Weekend.
‘(Glover is) a man that lets his feet fly in ways that change the world,’ said Barry L. Wells, senior vice president and dean of student affairs.
Recently, Glover was a part of production in the Academy Award-winning film ‘Happy Feet.’ His live tapping was recorded in a motion capture suit and used as the tap moves for the film’s star animated penguin, Mumble.
Glover, Davis and Chestnut performed on three separate platforms on the stage. Each took turns tapping and dancing from one platform to the next. Glover, with his arms and dreadlocks waving in the air, smiled throughout the majority of his routine, entertaining the crowd in what seemed like second nature for the dancer who made his first Broadway appearance at age 10.
‘It was amazing to see such talent come from one person,’ said Dawn Thomas Lewis, a mother of an SU student.
In the segment ‘Trading Spaces,’ the three tappers shared a single platform. As one tapper would step down from the elevated square, another would step onto it, continuing the routine where the other left off, all without missing a beat.
Next, all three shared the platform, tapping in unison one behind the other. Their combined 12 heels and toes slapped the ground with precision, producing a sharp, single sound.
Glover’s performance was filled with jumps, spins, squats, hops and skips while maintaining complex hip-hop-inspired rhythms. Most pieces were accompanied by the dancers adding their own personal vocals to the beats created with their feet.
‘I liked it,’ said Dominick Ranieri, a sophomore in The College of Arts and Sciences. ‘I wished they had microphones on their shirts; it would have given it a jazzy feel.’
Even the audience participated in the performance by snapping and clapping along to familiar songs Glover tapped out on the stage.
At one point, Glover paused his routine to chant ‘We will, we will, rock you,’ when the audience started to clap along to the rhythm he recreated with just his feet.
‘I am sorry, you distracted me,’ he joked, and returned to his routine.
Glover’s choreography moved from one beat to another through a variation of taps with the heels and toes, shuffles, slides, steps and stomps, called hoofing.
‘My style is young and funky,’ Glover said. ‘I feel like it’s one of my responsibilities to keep the dance alive, to keep it out there, to keep the style.’
Glover’s performance is part of a yearlong Pulse performing arts series. Pulse’s mission is to provide SU students with visual and performing arts events outside the classroom. Pulse is a collaborative project of the Division of Student Affairs and The College of Visual and Performing Arts.
