‘Hoofer’ wants to leave legacy, but for now he just wants to dance

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This article was published 22/05/2009 (6071 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ONE of these days, Bill Evans will complete the two books he’s writing.

And he’ll finish distilling thousands of videotapes into a few DVDs that will sum up his life’s work.

"I am interested in leaving a legacy," says the veteran American dancer, choreographer and dance professor, who has been connected to Winnipeg since he was artistic director of the Contemporary Dancers from 1983 to 1985.

But for now, Evans is too busy following the example of the legendary African-American tap "hoofers" of the 1920s to 1940s. Those masters went on performing into old age. Evans, 69, is still throwing himself into solo shows and remains one of North America’s most respected tap specialists.

In 2004, he was named one of three favourite tap dance artists (along with Savion Glover and Brenda Bufalino) in Dance Magazine‘s national readers’ poll.

Evans is based in western New York State. Currently in Winnipeg for a two-week teaching stint at the School of Contemporary Dancers, he performs tonight at the Contemporary Dancers’ home venue, the Rachel Browne Theatre.

He’s being presented by Gearshifting Performance Works, the company run by local modern soloist Jolene Bailie. She has been mentored by Evans for years, and wanted to pay tribute to him by getting him onstage here.

The show is billed as an intimate evening of tap dancing. Evans will perform classic numbers originated by giants such as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Charles "Honi" Coles and Cholly Atkins.

Then he’ll move into his own works, which blend tap with modern dance — an unusual hybrid. Throughout the show, he says, "I chat with the audience. They learn a little bit of tap history and I share my personal journey."

That journey started in a tiny town in Utah in the 1940s. The very first movie Evans saw, at the age of three, had tap dancing in it. His fate was sealed.

He learned to tap, but he came of age in an era when the art form had lost its popularity and there was no work for tappers. Over six feet tall and lanky, he became a professional ballet dancer, then moved into modern dance.

"I believe the reason tap dance went into such a decline in the 1950s and ’60s is because it lost contact with its roots," he says.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that a tap renaissance brought long-overdue attention to the African-American greats whose steps had been appropriated by Hollywood and Broadway. In his late 30s, Evans began to meet and take classes from the giants.

"I was just completely bowled over with their elegance, and their rhythmic complexity and refinement," he remembers. "Now they’re all gone."

The old guys’ style, full of tricky syncopation and focused on the feet and legs, is usually called "rhythm tap" today.

"Rhythm-tap artists consider themselves musicians," he says. "It’s really about the music they make."

Evans’ 50-year CV goes on for pages. It’s awe-inspiring to think that this artist who speaks of "a deep and long-lasting connection to Winnipeg" studied under 20th-century legends including jazz giant Jack Cole and modern-dance pioneers José Limón and Anna Sokolow.

But he says you don’t need any knowledge of such traditions to enjoy the rhythms of tap dance, which he has performed to warm response even in remote villages in India.

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

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