THE SECRET SPACE

Much of this conversation was cut and condensed for publication. But I want you to know that this part was not––it’s just as Michelle said it. I’d also like to share that while we did discuss dire space situations she’s had to make work in, she actually mentioned this in reference to when there was marginally more access to percussive space.

“A handful of years later, I learned about this urinal, which I was then so lucky to be an eighth or a fifth of a part of.”

You read that right, and she meant it earnestly.

“We lost [that rehearsal space] recently. It wasn’t open to the public, but it meant a lot to several generations of the tap dance community, to West African drummers, and to other connected communities… This space was in the former boy’s urinal on the ground floor of what was back then called the Clemente Soto Vélez, on the Lower East Side. It was an old school. The rent was shared between a number of us. I joined before texting existed, maybe 2003, so we would just sign up on a piece of paper with what hours we were going to use that week.

It was kind of the best-kept secret. We made so much work there… We even built instruments there, we made things to dance on for our shows… It was the one place we could always count on. But it was hard. We relaid the floor, Nicholas [Young] of RAC and I. We put hardwood on foam, on wood beams over the tile. Eventually the urinals got covered up by drywall, slowly. But for 30 years, the percussive dance community danced in an old urinal. That’s the story. It’s crazy.”

“It held us down when not a lot of spaces could. This was before Flamenco Vivo [Studios] existed.”

THE INTERVIEW

On a memorable moment, and the marginalization of tap dance.

“[At 17] I was naive to the institutionalized racism and elitism, and was literally slapped in the face with it upon my first visit to interview at schools. That’s why I decided not to enter any dance program. Why would I enter an institution that had no respect for my form?”

The college interview in reference.

“I knew I was moving to New York, because I wanted to tap dance. A real revolution had started––Bringing the Noise, Bringing the Funk was on Broadway. Savion [Glover] was the youngest Tony Award winner for choreography ever in history. He was my hero since before that. I knew who was inspiring me, so I knew where I was moving. I visited a bunch of colleges, and my mom came with me. I’ll say this out loud, the interview was with either a dean or the chair of the dance department.

Amidst the conversation taking a strange turn, my mother said to this woman, ‘Well, my daughter is a rhythm tap dancer.’ Rhythm tap was a term that people used in the 90s when there was an effort being made to say, this tap dance is different, this is focused on musicality. Of course, all tap dancing is rhythmic and musical, whether you pay attention to it or not. But the term was meant to differentiate tap dance from the image of cheesy little kids at a dance studio, or even what people pictured was on Broadway. To differentiate from the antiquated, marginalized idea of tap dance as this silly two-dimensional thing.

Anyways, the woman said back, ‘Well, we don’t do that down and dirty tap dancing like Savion Glover.’ She said that to our faces. ‘We don’t do that down and dirty tap dancing like Savion,’ who was my hero, and one of the reasons I was moving to New York. He revolutionized music and rhythmical sensibility inside of the form. I mean, he was so exceptional, and it spoke volumes to me about the way institutions [devalued tap dance].”

THE EXCEPTIONS

On the few major spaces that allow percussive dance, and 3 arts institutions that were willing to change.

“You can quote me saying this: friends have had to fight really hard in major institutions to make sure we can dance there.”

“On my 40th birthday there was this town hall, and that was a turning point. I remember thinking it was the most important thing I could do on my birthday. It was a game changer, because then a few of the wood floors opened up [to allow percussive dance.] And I say game changer, but it’s like a couple studios.”

“I asked, how on earth is this gorgeous wood floor in this gorgeous room that is also a drum not going to be an instrument for the dance that you want to present here? And I think that was all that needed to be said… That’s part of how change can be made. When someone at an institutional level will listen at an artistic level, and then act.”