Description

Born Newark, New JerseySavion Glover first performed on Broadway when he was ten, in The Tap Dance Kid. He has rooted his style firmly in the tradition forged by the great tappers of the past—the Nicholas Brothers, Jimmy Slyde, Honi Coles—but he has added his own sense of funk that is squarely based on contemporary life.Glover describes his tap as “hittin’,” and it’s all about his feet, which are his drums. His left heel is his bass drum, his right a tom-tom: “I can get a snare out of my right toe, a whip sound. . . . And if I want cymbals, crash crash, that’s landing flat, both feet.”In his choreography for the Tony Award–winning Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk, he chronicled how dance expressed African American identity, from slavery to rap. For Glover, dance is all about “communicating, getting on the floor the rhythm you live by.”

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution