Tap Dancing

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.

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.

What's more American than apple pie? How about apple pie with a side of burlesque? If this sounds like more fun than fireworks, check out Trixie Little's Stars and Stripes Show on Saturday at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson. Charm City's own burlesque star, Trixie Little, is slated to perform with her sidekick, the Evil Tap-Dancing Hate Monkey, and New York's "World Famous Pontani Sisters" at a show with a July Fourth theme. "This show is going to be lots of fun, like the seedy side of Mayberry," says Little, also known as Keri Burneston, 28, who along with her boyfriend, 25-year-old Adam Krandle, created the characters of superhero Trixie and her foil, the Hate Monkey, almost three years ago. "There will be lots of acrobatics, tap dance and lots of comedy.

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!

LONG REACH High School junior Trent Covington recently had a brush with fame. And those who know him well suspect this will not be his only "15 minutes" in the spotlight. The 17-year-old tap dancer performed at the Kennedy Center with famed choreographer Debbie Allen to sold-out audiences for more than a week this month. He had a standout role in the show "Brothers of the Knight," written, directed and choreographed by Allen as part of the Kennedy Center's Imagination Celebration series for young audiences.

In 1995, when director George C. Wolfe asked tap sensation Savion Glover about collaborating on a show, the dancer told him: "I want to bring in 'da noise, I want to bring in 'da funk." Seven years later, Glover's irrepressibly percussive feet are still tapping out the gospel of Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk. The show, which ran on Broadway for almost three years, came to the Mechanic Theatre in 1999 with Glover's choreography but without Glover himself. Now it's at the Lyric Opera House with the star reprising his original role.

ATHOLTON HIGH School sophomore Micayla Diener, 15, dreams of dancing on Broadway. Harper's Choice resident Kathy Taub, 47, thought learning to tap dance was "now or never." Both are students in the teen and adult tap-dancing class at Stonehouse in Long Reach Village Center. The class is part of Ballet with Cindee Velle, a dancing school that makes its home at Stonehouse. Classes are offered in ballet, tap and jazz dance for children and adults. On a recent Wednesday, about eight students worked up a sweat dancing in Shelly Maykuth's energetic tap class.

O'Malley center plans spring course on war and terrorism O'Malley Senior Center is offering a course, "War and Terrorism," this spring through Anne Arundel Community College. Mark Craotti, a political science instructor affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University and Anne Arundel Community College, will teach the 10-week course. Topics will include the funding of terrorism and efforts to combat terrorism. Seniors may register for the class between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Friday through March 15 at the center, 1275 Odenton Road, Odenton.

What does an emotionally charged play about a murder trial jury have to do with an upbeat, splashy Broadway musical? Not much, unless you happen to be involved in both productions at once, as are some members of the River Hill High School drama department. "This won't ever happen again," said Pam Land, the school's drama department director. Preparations for the two productions - Twelve Angry Jurors and 42nd Street - overlap by several weeks, which is unusual for the department. Land said that normally the school has a more manageable schedule - one "straight play" in the fall and one musical production in the spring.

Two years ago, the outstanding filly, Silverbulletday, blazed her way to victory in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, running to within three-fifths of a second of Private Terms' Pimlico track record for 1 1/8 miles. Today's field does not appear ready to challenge that performance. Only five fillies will go postward in the Grade II, $200,000 female version of the Preakness, and all have proved vulnerable during their careers. The only returnee from the Kentucky Oaks field two weeks ago is Tap Dance, the likely post-time favorite after coming to within a neck of the leader and then finishing fifth to Flute at Churchill Downs.