Dancer Is Tapping Into the Power

An agile young man in a ‘90s-style zoot suit, his dark hair slicked back, shimmies and slides across the floor. His feet are a blur of quick moves, and the ratta-ta-tatta rhythms they’re making are as hypnotic as the best percussion.

This isn’t your kid sister’s tap dancing.

And it’s a far cry from the cutesy shuffle-shuffle-hop-hop they teach at the Y, not to mention the flap-and-smile style of countless chorus lines.

In fact, Mark Mendonca, the hotshot hoofer in the oversized duds, is making his mark with a brand of tap dancing that’s as hip and sophisticated as jazz--packed with a wide range of movement styles and marked by highly intricate footwork that results in sleek, suave musicality.

“I call it power tap dancing,” says the energetic Mendonca, seated in a West Hollywood apartment filled with flashy costumes, audio equipment and other trappings of his trade. “People get hooked because the rhythms are flowing.”

Mendonca will be turning on that power tonight, when he performs as the opening act for Dance Kaleidoscope at Cal State L.A.’s Luckman Fine Arts Complex. He’ll also dance on two more programs of the annual festival, when it moves to the Ford Amphitheatre, a week from Saturday.

Yet seductive as Mendonca’s saltation may be, it’s not, as he’ll proudly tell you, brand-new. “Where tap came from is the [jazz age] rhythm dancers on the street,” Mendonca says. “The hard-driving rhythms are far more technical and interesting than the [usual] Broadway thing.”

Mendonca is cutting a rug in a way that harks back to the style of dancers old enough to be his granddad. And he’s already shared such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall and the Apollo with such tap masters as Jimmy Slyde, Eddie Brown, Chuck Green and Steve Condos.

But Mendonca may be one of the last hoofers able to make such a claim. “There aren’t that many tap masters left,” he says. “We’ve lost a lot of them in the last 10 years.

“That’s one of the things that I’m most grateful for, that I’ve been able to share the stage with them,” Mendonca continues. “Now I feel a responsibility to carry on what they started.”

Fortunately, the Berkeley-born and raised Mendonca appears to be doing just that.

He began dancing when he was 6, taking classes at a rec center across the street from his family home, and kept right on dancing through most of his teen years.

After high school in 1988, Mendonca moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in dancing and look into acting. It wasn’t long before his talents were spotted.

At an event to promote the film “Tap,” he was noticed by actor-dancer Gregory Hines. “He said, ‘I want you to stay in touch with me and let me know what’s happening,’ ” Mendonca says.

As luck would have it, Mendonca ended up making his professional debut only a few months later, as a member of the L.A.-based Jazz Tap Ensemble on the bill of a benefit concert starring Hines.

Then in 1990, Mendonca formed the a cappella Steps Ahead Tap Trio with longtime dance partners Michael Rainey and Fred Moritel.

They made their debut in Portland, Ore., sharing a bill with some of tap’s greats--including Honey Coles and the late Eddie Brown and Steve Condos. “When Steps Ahead first came on and they saw us dance, their energy changed,” Mendonca says. “I believe it inspired them.

“It’s like they were looking back at themselves when they were young,” Mendonca continues. “They were over 60, so they couldn’t do it like they used to. But they were the MTV of their generation.”

Mendonca’s Steps Ahead trio went on to perform at festivals in Europe and the United States. The group was also showcased in Hines’ televised tribute to the Nicholas Brothers at the 1991 Kennedy Center Honors.

And Mendonca also continued to perform with Jazz Tap. When he appeared with the group at the Joyce Theater in New York in 1991, the New York Times’ Anna Kisselgoff said “Mr. Mendonca . . . is experimenting daringly with arrow-swift slides and floor-skimming moves. Adept at highly modulated nuances in his tapping, he can also seem to skate across the floor.”

On the same bill, Mendonca, Rainey and Moritel performed a piece that Kisselgoff dubbed “. . . a fabulous street-smart number that is a blend of high and popular culture. The tap is intricate, but the atmosphere suggests a rock concert.”

And that’s not far from what Mendonca has been thinking. “There’s definitely a place for tap in music videos,” he says. “It’s just about getting people in TV to see what tap can be. That’s my goal right now, to show people tap dancing like they haven’t seen it before.”

* Dance Kaleidoscope, Programs A-B, Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A., tonight and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Program C, Loyola Marymount University, Sunday, 7:30 p.m.; Program D-E, John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, July 29, 10 a.m. & 8 p.m. $17.50 (Program D, $7-$10.) (213) 466-1767.