Causing ‘da noise

Savion Glover, 29, co-creator and star of “Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk,” took his groundbreaking, percussive musical-historical revue to Broadway in 1996 and watched the show walk off with four Tony Awards. In the years since, he’s started his own troupe, danced at the White House, choreographed award-winning Nike and Coke ads, starred in “Foot Notes,” a one-man show-- and this year, brought back the “Noise.”

“Noise/Funk” is touring 35 cities and, for the first time, Glover is part of the road show in Los Angeles, at the Ahmanson Theatre through Feb. 15.

You called the 1998 touring version of the show “a bootleg production” -- one with which you chose not associate.

It was premature. The producers wanted to ride on the success of the original rather than waiting and putting the proper people in the roles. The show requires “hoofers,” seasoned dancers, like the ones in [Broadway’s] “Jelly’s Last Jam” and “Black and Blue.” You can’t hold auditions and cast someone from Suzie’s Dance School who can do high kicks and splits. Picture the difference between Tommy Tune and Gregory Hines. Tune is good for dance, but don’t confuse him with hoofers, who are about self-expression and musicianship rather than the “show tap” of “42nd St.” A couple of cats reported back, saying the touring version had become the second half of our show -- guys going to Hollywood, doing tricks, becoming robots for the audience. Part of my decision to do this tour was to put things straight, to please the pioneers -- and ourselves.

For the first time, a woman is cast as one of the four lead dancers. She’s your understudy, in fact.

Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards is the best female dancer of our generation -- no one else would be doing this. Some said that people had gotten used to seeing four guys and wouldn’t accept a woman. But I thought it was important to present those times from a female point of view. I’ve also spiced up the choreography and taken out a step in which I land on my toes, mid-tap. Everyone wanted to see “the toes.” I felt like it was becoming “the thing” -- like Michael Jackson’s moonwalk.

One tap legend, Fayard Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, said you’ve “got great feet, but that the rest of the body is nothing.” He sees you as a “musician,” lacking the grace and style of the old-timers.

Very, very true. I’m from the waist down. I consider myself a musician -- my feet are an alto sax. I’m not for the visual, like Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines and Fayard. When I choreograph, I tell my dancers to sell it -- “let’s see the arms and all that stuff.” One day, hopefully, I can be as graceful with my upper body, but I’m not focusing on that now. I don’t even make eye contact with the audience because I’m so into the music. I’m more about the sounds and tonality of the dance.

Has “Noise/Funk” had any lasting impact?

When “Bring In ‘Da Noise” closed, Broadway went back to its old ways -- which is cool. I love Broadway’s old ways. But they’re just not interested in the rawness in our kind of dance. “Tap Dogs,” “Stomp” were called “tap dance shows”, but they didn’t have any tap dancing in them. Shows like Twyla Tharp-Billy Joel and “Contact” are a mixture of art forms. There’s not a lot of purity in the work put out now. Still, I think I succeeded in bringing tap into contemporary culture. The media calls it a dying art form, but it’s alive and well, back where it was -- in jazz clubs, in the community. You just have to come and get us.

-- Elaine Dutka