Missing Dancer Doesn’t Spoil Rhythm of the Night

For jazz music and tap-dance buffs, there’s no better way to loll away a summer’s evening than at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, savoring the sights and sounds of the invigorating Jazz Tap Ensemble.

And so it was Friday when the ensemble, under the top-drawer direction of Lynn Dally, tossed off another program of well-honed standards and a number of Los Angeles premieres under the banner “A New Generation.”

The bad news? Ace hoofer Channing Cook Holmes was sidelined with a back injury, though he kept his hand in by pounding out some heated rhythms on conga drum, aiding crack musicians Doug Walter, Domenic Genova and Jerry Kalaf, the trio’s director.

The good news?

Dally, whose middle name must surely be Style but who hasn’t been dancing recently, took to the stage with a moxie mellowness that belied her intricate footwork, seeming to float, at times, through a host of pieces, notably her new solo, “I Hear a Rhapsody,” where heel-toe turns ruled. Hello, Dally! It’s so nice to see you back where you belong.

Other fierce solo premieres: Derick K. Grant in “Rhythm Changes” and “Solo X,” both choreographed by the dancer to Kalaf’s music. Sliding and gliding highlighted the former, while balancing on one toe in the midst of delivering a fusillade of rhythms brought the house down in the latter.

A brilliant Charon Aldredge combined sex and speed as she rocked in a sparkly halter top, split jumping and one-shoe shuffling in her take on Thelonius Monk’s “In Walked Bud.”

Aldredge’s feet also oozed electricity in “Afro Blue,” with trance-like spins predominating, while John Kloss displayed bullet-like bravado in his “How High the Moon.”

The “new generation” of the program title also delivered: The Caravan Project (tappers ages 13 to 19), founded by Dally in 1991, premiered “Without Eddie,” Becky Twitchell’s finger-snapping choreography; “Chan’s Blues,” choreographed by Holmes, saw the dozen dancers in march-like mode; and Mark Mendonca’s a cappella piece, “Mark’s Dance,” provided ample cascades of percussive foot stamping.

Jimmy Slyde’s beloved classic, “Interplay,” closed the show with a bang and a tapper-filled stage.