Female Tap Dancers Eliminated on “Dancing With The Stars”
Savion Glover and his group of hoofers, introduced as “Bare Sounds” were predictably phenomenal in their performance at the “Dancing With The Stars” result show!
The sequence began with the three male dancers, Savion Glover, Maurice Chestnut, & Marshall Davis dancing on three raised wooden platforms after an initial improvised solo by Mr. Glover. Mr. Chestnut & Mr. Davis did a great job of dancing in support of Mr. Glover, executing the intricate choreography with ease and style. “Those cats are talented” is what I kept repeating to my wife throughout the performance. About halfway through the performance Ashley DeForest, Rhonda Jordan, and Shaina Mitchell formed a line across the rear of the stage and joined in on the dancing.
The problem with this dance was the way the female dancers were featured. First, throughout the performance they were either off stage, or relegated to the back of the bus…uh, I mean stage (Rosa Parks anyone?). This setup communicated to the audience that they were not really a part of the “main event” (i.e. the three dudes looking cool dancing in all of the smoke).
By the way, as far as I could tell, and I will have to wait on the YouTube video posting to confirm this but, the ladies were not even provided with the same raised wooden platforms to tap on. What kind of message does that send?
Here is the deal, Hoofing is still seen as a male dominated form of dance, despite all of the great contributions female dancers are currently making. Given this context, why restrict the female dancers to the back of the stage?
Why not provide them with the same flooring to dance on?
From what I could see, they appeared to be very talented dancers, why not feature at least one of them?
Was it that they are not as talented as the guys? If so, why were they chosen to perform? There is no shortage of great female tap dancers around. I am sure any one of them would have loved the exposure provided by a featured performance on “Dancing with the Stars”.
What do you think? Leave a comment.
September 29th, 2007 at 2:00 am
I saw the performance too and wondered why they were all the way in the back. You could barely see them at times. But I just figured it was because Savion was the main feature. I assume that most people watching DWTS probably don’t even know who he is, so it was probably better that he didn’t have so many other dancers around him. I’m sure they would’ve loved the exposure, but it really was just about him. That’s my opinion
October 1st, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I can see where you’re coming from with that. Still, I think it would have been cool for little girls all over the country to see a female tap dancer right behind Savion, doing her thing!
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 am
Thanks for the clip, T. Yeah, I noticed they showed a close up of the women when they were doing something very slow and easy looking, then when the camera pulls back you can see the women doing what appears to be a big showy cool move, oh well. I agree, the gender segregation seems out of time and place for an artform that has evolved into modernity and could really use some good exposure. I’ve long heard that in an ensemble performance, you are only as strong as your weakest link. It’s certainly true in bands. So it follows that when all your players are strong, it makes everybody look good and sound better. It woulda been cool if the backup girls and guys could have switched places during the performance. Signifying equality in ability and opportunity. At least the women weren’t barefoot! ha ha, it’s not THAT bad.
October 4th, 2007 at 5:42 am
Barefoot? LOL Maria!
I haven’t thought about that old saying “you are only as good as your weakest link” as it applies to tap before. If more tap dance teachers applied that logic to classes and recitals we might see tap nationwide surge to a new level. From now on, I think I’ll grade my teaching ability based on how the students who struggle the most are progressing.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:10 am
[...] are inspired by this clip. It is a much better representation of what women are doing in tap than other clips I have [...]
August 6th, 2008 at 9:33 am
[...] Glover’s Bare Soundz will be tap dancing in Tennessee in October. See a previous performance [...]