[ WEEKEND ]

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COURTESY OF MULTIARTS PROJECTS Brazilian Capoeira is featured in "Full Cycle."

Tapping across
the globe

Urban dance hits
Windward Community College

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Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com

Urban Tap is not your father's tap dance troupe. Members of this troupe, which performs Sunday at Windward Community College in the group's latest evolution, "Full Cycle," include two tappers, six musicians (including a DJ), a stilt dancer, a capoeirist and an African dancer. And that's just the way Bessie Award-winning dancer, choreographer and artistic director Herbin "Tamango" Van Cayseele envisioned it.

Dances of the world Urban Tap in "Full Cycle" Where: Paliku Theatre, Windward Community College When: 2 p.m. Sunday Tickets: $25 general and $20 students, seniors, military, and UH faculty and staff Call: 956-3836

Born in French Guiana, this Paris-trained tapper traveled as a street performer for five years, toured in "Riverdance" and then moved to New York City, which he contends is the toughest place to succeed.

"New York City is the utopia for artistic endeavors," Tamango said in a telephone interview from the Big Apple. "People here can be very jaded because they are exposed to so much, so much to see, to experience."

After Van Cayseele settled in the city, he said "I reconsidered my true artistic self" then "re-emerged" as "Tamango," his given Guyanese name.

Tamango created Urban Tap in 1993. From 1997 to 2000, Tamango and Urban Tap performed internationally as part of "Cool Heat Urban Beat," which he choreographed and co-directed with Rennie Harris. Urban Tap mixes cultures and styles ranging from Brazilian capoeira to freestyle world jazz and tap -- all in a combination with a hip-hop vision born of the culture of the street.

"I see Urban Tap as a dream," he said. "Something that is offbeat, that lets you think of anything but the dance you're watching.

"Urban Tap belongs to hip-hop culture. Like tap dance, the Lindy hop, break dance and rap, it's improvised and it's real. My journey started a long time ago, but was born out of a city issue -- New York City -- a city where people from across the world find refuge, express their sensitivity in art and unleash the need for communication through the universal rhythm of dance."

His inspiration, he said, comes from "everything I see, I hear, I feel."

"I had to learn to be opened to my senses. As a dancer, musician and painter, I feel the best way to describe my work is to think of color and rhythms.

"My main focus is rhythm, not because I tap dance, but more because when I close my eyes in an empty room, I hear my heart beat. Or because when I hear a sound that repeats itself, my brain starts to vibrate miles of colors and ideas, and then motion. Only when we open our eyes do we start to create from what already exists in the natural form."

COURTESY OF MULTIARTS PROJECTS The Urban Tap company in a scene from "Full Cycle."

The blend of artists in Urban Tap also reflect his philosophy on dance as "a human response and form of communicating with others."

"Improvisation is a big part of Urban Tap in my instruction, choreography and performances, so all of us performing must trust one another because what you see on stage isn't always planned," he said. "I approach movement, dance, music not as straight tap, but I look at it holistically."

"IMPROV is the key to discovering your true voice in having the freedom to create without inhibition," Tamango said. "The best way to find your own creativity is to first learn everything you can about your art form. This knowledge provides you with standards for measuring your growth and contributions to the dance style.

"When you work with improv at an advanced level, there are things that are set most definitely. But within that, there is freedom to try new things. Urban Tap is a live mix, according to the feeling, the energy of the crowd or audience."

Tamango admits his spontaneity can make it difficult for the other performers, especially new ones.

"Onstage, I go with my gut feeling because the stage is a place where I feel totally comfortable. It's where I know I can make things happen."

Tamango "knows" that every human can connect with dance.

"I love that process of self discovery and creativity when I teach," he said. "When I work with students, they don't expect that they will not only move their feet, but they'll also find an attitude in their body."

Working with a new crop of dancers, Tamango begins slowly and builds outward.

"Eventually I want them to rely on their own creativity," he said. "I make sure they warm up the whole body through relaxation and vocalization techniques."

Then he moves onto the musculature.

"I order them to do some push-ups to feel their body and to feel how weak or strong they are, because dancers must understand the full range of their instrument."

Then Tamango introduces rhythms: clapping, body percussion and stomping "because it's all connected."

Finally, he teaches a simple routine and "breaks down a phat beat" into simpler versions. Each student is then encouraged to use the choreographic tools of riffing and accumulation (A, AB, ABC, etc.) to create their own version of the routine.

Do the students become paralyzed when faced with improvising their own movements?

"Kids are not scared," he said, laughing. "But they get in tune with it. Dance builds self-esteem. Instead of seeing a wrong move as a mistake, tap is about therapy, too."

Class is over when his students can share their new rhythm, variation on a theme or whatever their "moment of glory" may be.

"Then it's all win-win," Tamango said.

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