MUSIC REVIEWS : Theatre Center Perks Up With Jazz Tap Ensemble

Sam Weber is the first dancer onstage in the Jazz Tap Ensemble’s program at the L.A. Theatre Center--and even if you’ve seen him before, you’ve never seen him. Not like this.

Sauntering out to a drum tattoo, Weber launches a fusillade of brilliant, unpredictable steps, everything from intricate rhythmic riffs to spectacular one-legged hopping gambits (the free foot ornamenting the hops at a faster tempo). But that’s not all.

Both in this brief, calling-card solo and his more developed showpieces later on, Weber’s powerful legwork detonates the steps in a unique manner that has nothing to do with his ballet training and background.

Instead, Hip Hop seems his reference point and it gives his tapping a wholly contemporary look, a propulsion through the leg that’s startlingly different from shuffle-based tapping. It’s as if all the tappy Paula Abdul videos goaded Weber to dance with a new edge and immediacy, free of the clubby, backdated styles of his colleagues.

Even the five young guests who perform Lynn Dally’s familiar “Caravan” early in Act II settle for a glazed, traditional manner. Age 12 to 18, they sport ‘90s haircuts, but that’s as far as it goes. Trained by Paul and Arlene Kennedy, they display strong technical skills and charm, bringing additional novelty to an evening that already has abundant news value.

For starters, this Jazz Tap engagement represents the first event produced by LATC in cooperation with the L.A. City Department of Cultural Affairs, the new landlord of the facility.

It also marks the first appearance with the ensemble of Denise Pennington, a tall, thin and rather clenched tapper who looks all knees and elbows early on but settles into a smooth proficiency by the finale. And it boasts tap veteran Eddie Brown as a special guest.

Master of shimmering, low-to-the-ground tap filigree, Brown can also catch you by surprise with throwaway steps or sudden-death terminations or colloquial gestures that add a dimension of personal commentary to his solos. His style exalts musicality, humor, technical polish and a personal rapport with his audience defined through moment-by-moment interplay.

This approach differs radically from Dally’s constant, generalized signals of delight and wears much better over an evening. To her credit, however, Dally can discard the party-girl mannerisms for dancing of genuine sweetness and even subtlety.

Watch her (in “Sweet Blues”) dreamily brush the floor with her hand, then lean back in a turn and reach upward, and you’ll glimpse the sensitivity of an artist seeking an expanded virtuosity for tap.

As always, the Jazz Tap musicians offer high excellence both in their many dance accompaniments and in a few danceless selections too. Pieces by Thelonious Monk sound especially rich and atmospheric, with ideal balances between the contributions of Rich Eames (piano), John Heard (bass), Jerry Kalaf (drums) and Stacy Rowles (trumpet).

Kathy Pryzgoda’s artful lighting design helps give LATC’s Theatre III the atmosphere of a basement hideaway for the in-crowd, an ideal venue for one of Southern California’s best known and loved dance companies.