Lane Alexander often feels like the Rodney Dangerfield of the dance world.
Instead of respect, he said, tap dancers get misunderstood.
”People associate tap with little girls in sequins and bows doing a lot of silly stuff,” said Alexander, who appears Tuesday in the Gus Giordano Jazz Dance World Congress at Northwestern University in Evanston, five days of performances and workshops featuring dancers from around the world.
To wit: He spent two years lobbying the Illinois Arts Council to include tap on its application for choreographic fellowships.
”They had ballet, modern, jazz and mime, but they were dumbfounded when I asked about tap,” said Alexander, who this year became the first tapper to win a $5,000 grant from the organization. He`s using it to continue his dance studies and to spread the word about tap.
There`s nothing silly about the rhythmically intricate hoofing in ”Now or Never,” a work without accompaniment that Alexander choreographed for am/ FM, the Chicago dance company he co-directs.
”The first part illustrates tap`s roots in African culture,” said Alexander, 32. ”The second part illustrates its link to the Irish, and the third part blends the two, showing that tap is a perfect example of cultural hybridization.”
The piece, which will be performed at Tuesday`s event, will become part of the repertoire of am/FM, the tap and modern dance troupe Alexander founded in 1988 with Kelly Michaels, a Chicago modern dancer.
Fred Strickler, a Los Angeles choreographer who created a work for am/FM in 1990, praises the two for presenting both tap and modern dance on the same program.
”Lane has excellent technique, and he could do any of the rhythms I asked him to, even at lightning speed,” Strickler said.
Not bad for a native Texan who put on his first pair of tap shoes at 23, an ancient age for a novice dreaming of turning pro.
”I`d always enjoyed dancing socially, and I thought I was pretty good,” said Alexander, who grew up in El Paso and Atlanta and now teaches at the Lou Conte Dance Studio in Chicago and Gus Giordano Dance Centre in Evanston. ”My mother and I were watching one of those TV awards shows that have a lot of dance numbers. I told her, `That`s not so hard. I can do it,` to which she replied, `The only difference is they`re doing it, and you`re not.` ”
So he ditched college and waited tables to pay for lessons in San Antonio. After two months, Alexander was taking daily classes in ballet, jazz, modern and tap.
”I picked up tap like that,” Alexander said, snapping his fingers.
”Tap was very natural to me. I understood the rhythms, probably from playing the drums in high school.”
He soon won a scholarship to Giordano`s and realized his destiny while watching a performance of the Los Angeles-based Jazz Tap Ensemble, a leading tap dance company, which impressed him with its intricate rhythms and unconventional music.
”I remember thinking, `That is what I want to do,` ” said Alexander, whose style fuses the elegance of Fred Astaire, the athleticism of Gene Kelly and the improvisational genius of Gregory Hines.
In 1985, he left Chicago to tour with Austin on Tap, but quit after one season because of choreography he calls ”everybody`s idea of what tap is supposed to be-tributes to Shirley Temple.” He found artistic challenge during a two-year stint with the innovative National Tap Dance Company of Canada, which sets pieces to classical music and spoken poetry, not simply 1940s swing.
Today, Chicago hoofers benefit from Alexander`s national tap dance contacts.
Two years ago, he launched ”The Human Rhythm Project,” which imports tap masters like Dianne Walker, co-choreographer of the Broadway musical
”Black and Blue,” to lead workshops for local dancers and then perform concerts to raise money for Open Hand, a Chicago AIDS charity.
”Most of the tap talent gets drained to each coast,” said Alexander.
”I want to put Chicago on the national circuit and make it part of the tap renaissance.”
