Dance : Jazz Tap Music Moves, Solos Soar

It’s just a little odd that the Jazz Tap Ensemble is labeled with a word that usually indicates a unitary style.

The musicians, occupying the left back quarter of the stage throughout the mixed program at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex of Cal State Los Angeles Friday night, are the model for this notion of ensemble. Especially eloquent in drummer-composer Jerry Kalaf’s “Living in the Past,” they always provided a smooth or skewed collective sound with room for virtuosic riffs.

But the six dancers are more a collection of disparate styles, given the most brilliant play in solos, least interesting in the few works, such as “Oracle,” where studied smoothness, Broadway grins and sunny shuffling prevail.

The exception to this ambling group work style was the premiere of “Interplay,” created by master tapper Jimmy Slyde. The piece shifts from duets to solos to lines, making liberal use of the choreographer’s trademark sliding moves. Scattered sections of complex, rapid tapping sound like raindrops patting out a message from a rhythmic god.

Here and elsewhere, Mark Mendonca and Derick Grant showed that fearless slipping and a-sliding, along with quirky innovations, make them major-league players. In his own short and sublime solo, “Drums,” Grant incorporated the windmilling arms and shoulder isolations of Ghanaian or Senegalese dances. His skipping turns and dynamic, precise footwork gave double life (at least) to the polyrhythms of the musicians--Kalaf, pianist Doug Walter, horn player Stacy Rowles, bassist Eric Ajaye, momentarily all on percussion.

In “Solo,” Mendonca jammed with Ajaye, unleashing hails of tiny dense taps on the spot, or clever combinations that require each foot to do its own thing. In “Oleo,” Sam Weber was equally skilled in yet another key, with a breezy, balletic energy that was silken one minute and scattered into great tickety-tack footwork the next.

What was missing were equally riveting statements from the company’s female dancers, although a hint of melancholy just began to emerge from Dormeshia Sumbry in her new solo “Black Narcissus.” Lainie Manning was pleasant without risking much, while artistic director Lynn Dally’s dancing was hampered by a downward focus and hair over her face.