Tap Dancing

PUPILS AT WINFIELD Elementary School took a historical dancing tour during a cultural arts program, "Tops in Tap: Great American Heroes." The fancy footwork of husband-and-wife dance team Cassandra and Chris Baker kept the pupils spellbound throughout the dance program Feb. 2. With limited music, the dancers kept the musical beat going strong with tap dance steps. Presented by the National Tap Ensemble, an internationally acclaimed performing and educational organization, the program demonstrated the evolution of tap styles and tap dancing's link to contemporary music and theater.

Who knew that Baltimore had such happy feet? Three icons of tap dance who were famous nationwide — known colloquially as Baby Laurence, Buster Brown and Hawk — were born in Charm City and first perfected the "shim sham" and "cramp roll" and performed for spare change on local street corners. The late hoofers will be honored Saturday during Buster, Baby and Hawk: Masters of Maryland Tap, a concert produced jointly by Coppin State University and the Creative Alliance at the Patterson that will mix local talent and national stars.

Talking to David Vain can be a bit like learning another language. Words and phrases like shim-sham and shuffle off to Buffalo slip into his conversation with regularity. The terms, more quaint than cutting-edge, are used to describe the kinds of moves Vain uses in a dance form that is both quaint and cutting-edge itself: tap. Tomorrow, the 30-year-old native of the Lansdowne-Arbutus area, graduate of Baltimore School for the Arts and tap-dance teacher and performer will be joining other area tap enthusiasts in a celebration of National Tap Dance Day. The day is being marked in Baltimore for the first time, with an event organized by a local arts-advocacy group, Dance Baltimore!

Harry R. Rosofsky, a retired vaudeville entertainer whose tap-dancing bird act during the 1940s and 1950s was described by a critic as "one of the most unusual novelty attractions in show business," died Aug. 26 of pneumonia at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 90 and had lived at the Westminster House Apartments in Mount Vernon. The son of grocers, Mr. Rosofsky — whose stage name was Ross Harvey — was born in Baltimore and raised on Norfolk Avenue in Northwest Baltimore.

Not surprisingly, Mumbles the penguin puts it the best. Tap dancing, he says, "is like singing with your body." This piece of wisdom comes straight from the beak of no less an authority than the digitally animated star of the current box office hit Happy Feet. If you go Holiday Spectacular with the BSO will be performed Dec. 15-23 at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St. $25-$75. 410-783-8000 or baltimoresymphony.org.

The 22nd annual Towson State University Dance Company performance opened Friday night with a generous program of dances designed to showcase the diverse talents of Towson students. TSU's dance program is obviously a popular one, judging from the number of student participants who demonstrated their capabilities in modern, classical ballet, jazz and tap dancing as well as choreography.Three of 11 dances choreographed by guest artists, students and faculty members were strictly classical ballet offerings.

William Baron and Wilbur Baron -- who were billed as the tap-dancing Baron Twins -- were 8-year-olds when they first glided across the Hippodrome Theatre stage performing their signature six-minute mirror dance in 1930. Now 85, and inseparable as ever, they live around the corner from each other in Pikesville. "We have our aches and pains, but we see each other and socialize as often as possible," said Wilbur, who quickly points out his twin is "10 minutes older than me." They were born in Youngstown, Ohio, the sons of a tailor who later moved his family to Baltimore.

Contrary to the assertion of its title, in "Cats Don't Dance" they do dance -- but so what? They're animated. The thrill of tap dancing is watching someone -- preferably human but I'd watch dogs, pigs and pigeons do it, too -- master an impossibly arcane, labor-intense and speed-dazzling set of moves with aplomb and panache.It has no point if it's drawn! It's not real. Who cares?Anyway, the movie turns out to be an ambitious but lame parody of "Singin' in the Rain," with Danny from Kokomo (that's Scott Bakula's thin voice behind the screen)

ONE DAY WHEN I was about 8, I underwent some sort of psychotic episode and climbed atop the kitchen table to do a little tap-dancing.My father, who was perfectly sane at the time, spotted me before too long and went ballistic.Apparently he had this thing about kids tap-dancing on the kitchen table. You could do a lot of neat things in my house -- my sister once kept a raccoon in the hall closet until she (the raccoon) chewed through part of the door and my mother said that was enough of that nonsense.

Tap dancer. Actor. Singer.Gregory Hines can answer to all three titles. However, there is one more title he is particularly fond of these days."I'm a grandfather," says Hines. "He's 2 years old and I am still very excited about that."Too soon to tell if the grandson will follow in the legendary Hines family's fancy footsteps. But, just give him time.Hines will be doing it all Sunday, except for the grandfathering thing, at the Meyerhoff, where he is performing for an AIDS benefit."I'm coming to town with a six-piece band, two backup singers and I'm bringing my own tap floor so I can be heard," Hines says.

The Talent Machine Company didn't look far for the backbone of its new show, Camp Hawyah - The Musical: The entire artistic team consists of company veterans. Director Steve Love adapted it from a show he co-wrote with Jake Thornhill that debuted in summer 2003. Love started at age 8 with the Talent Machine, was a regular in productions through his teen years, then went on to a professional stage career in such venues as Toby's Dinner Theatre. He took on this writing and directing assignment out of devotion to the young performers who wanted to revive the Camp show.

You can easily spend $4 or more for a gallon. Yet you feel you can't live without the stuff. But it may be time to explore alternative sources. We're referring, of course, to that great lubricant of modern life: bottled water. (What, you had some other expensive liquid in mind?) Maybe oil and water don't mix, but that's not to say they don't affect each other. The economy is sagging, and high gasoline prices are taking much of the blame. When filling up the minivan sets you back $75, there's an inclination to cut back on frills - for instance, things you can get almost for free.

We leave no garish moment unturned," Jack Everly says, as he surveys the gold glitter curtain on the back wall of Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and the faux-neon light strip flashing pink along the rim of the stage. Out in the lobby, Everly, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's principal pops conductor, looks over the gaming tables that have been brought in to add extra atmosphere for the "Pops Goes Vegas" show. "Part of me is enjoying this enormously, and another part of me goes, `Oh, dear, have we gone too far?

William Baron and Wilbur Baron -- who were billed as the tap-dancing Baron Twins -- were 8-year-olds when they first glided across the Hippodrome Theatre stage performing their signature six-minute mirror dance in 1930. Now 85, and inseparable as ever, they live around the corner from each other in Pikesville. "We have our aches and pains, but we see each other and socialize as often as possible," said Wilbur, who quickly points out his twin is "10 minutes older than me." They were born in Youngstown, Ohio, the sons of a tailor who later moved his family to Baltimore.

ALFRED DESIO, 74 Dancer, choreographer Dancer and choreographer Alfred Desio, a Broadway veteran who invented a form of electronically enhanced tap dancing called Tap-Tronics, died Wednesday. Mr. Desio died of complications of bladder cancer at Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles, his wife and dance collaborator, Louise Reichlin, said Friday. Mr. Desio created Tap-Tronics in the 1980s, a concept that allows tap dancers to make their own music by means of microphones in their shoes.

Judy Templeton will offer Razz-A-Ma-Tap dance classes for boys at 5 p.m. Thursdays, starting this week, at Slayton House in Wlde Lake Village Center. The eight-week series will include tap technique, drills and basic combinations. Brian Best and Templeton will teach techniques of musical theater for adults - singing, dancing, acting - and combine the newly learned skills into vignettes of Broadway shows from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, starting this week. There is a fee. Information or registration: 410-772-9448.

Joey Kasura has a fondness for firefighting - and for computer technology. The 17-year-old wasn't about to let a severe learning disability or attention deficit disorder prevent him from combining those two interests, working with the Laurel Fire Department in creating a training video for probationary firefighters to explain the use of fire hoses during a blaze. "I was relieved when it was done and excited when everybody at the firehouse really liked it," said Kasura, a Howard Community College student who was honored yesterday with a Youth Award at the 12th Howard County Commission on Disabilities Awards breakfast.

The long-awaited return of the Dance on the Edge Series took place Saturday night at Towson State University's Stephens Hall Theatre with dance performances more on the periphery than on the edge of modern dance.With co-performances of New York-based tap dancer, Anita Feldman, the Washington group, Tappers With Attitude and Towson faculty member Debbie Meyers, the series celebrated the world of tap dancing. Ms. Meyers, who is also the Dance on the Edge series producer and managing director, cheerily told the audience that the art of tap dancing is close to her heart (she teaches it at TSU)

"Hold those bellies up." Not the usual admonition given to teenage girls, perhaps, but it makes perfect sense when it's shouted by an instructor in a rehearsal room at the Baltimore School for the Arts. So, for that matter, does a reminder for those girls to double-check their beards.