I can hold a note, but that's about it.
— Savion Glover
The sound of tap is not 'clickety clickety tap tap,' this monotone thing. The sound of tap has depth. We want you to hear the different highs and lows, the bass, the trebles and the melodies, if you can.
I used to think I had this responsibility to carry on this tradition. Now I just feel like I have to keep the dance out there, keep it in the public eye.
Movie making is such a long process, and they only use that one take, although you do it over and over about 30 times. Live theatre is that one time and one time only.
I was very happy with the success of 'Noise/Funk,' but of course, there is a lot more that I have to say about the dance, about the history, about the people involved with the dance and their history.
I started as a drummer. The feet are an extension of that.
I wake up, and I'm in the zone... My performance is the continuation of my life.
When you think about John Coltrane, in my opinion - and I think I share this opinion with a lot of people - his approach to music changed other people's approach to music.
If someone wants to be very tight about authenticity or ownership, it just sounds kind of competitive to me.
I'm inspired by breath, by the human body - by so many things.
I've changed my whole angle for dance. I'm moving towards moving back rather than hanging out with my peers. I'm reaching back to older dudes for a second.
I never really stop and think about should I put my hat on this way or that, not thinking that little JoJo down the street would be copying that. I'm more conscious about it now and tell the kids that it's not about the shoes or what kind of shoes... it's all about the dance.
I try to convey the musical notes through dance, take on the music.
I was always looking at footage of dancers from Nicholas Brothers to Ralph Brown to Sand Man to Miller Brothers and Lois, and I grew up looking at old footage.
Whether it is Jimmy Slyde or Lon Chaney or Gregory Hines, their dance shows what they experienced, what they had to go through.
When Puffy asked me to do the video, I said yes. Cuz it's all about the Benjamins!
I love riding my ATV 450.
My style is raw; my style is '95. My style is what I live. My style is my story.
Whatever you do, just learn about what you're doing; get into it.
There are people who take tap class, do a tap dance. And then there are people who know the dance, who know why they take tap classes. Who know why they do 20 shuffles, or 50 shuffles, before they go on.
I like to express myself inside of the work that is given, and I let the dancers do the same.
I used to think I could save tap. But tap was here way before I was, and it's going to be here after I'm gone.
Who is Savion Glover? Who is that guy? Good question. I'm a lot of things... Intense... Focused.
Every now and then, someone comes along - we used to call it 'New Jack' - tries to do something new, tries to take all the credit, without acknowledging the past.
Frank Sinatra changed people's approach to singing. Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, van Gogh, they were all part of movements that allowed people to think about their craft differently. They changed the game. These people changed the game.
I like to be around dancers who are totally committed to the art form, totally committed to the men and women around them.
It wasn't until I did a musical revue in Paris in the 1980s called 'Black and Blue,' and met the great men and women responsible for the progress of tap dance, that my relationship with the dance really began.
I'm thankful I am able to continue to share the joy and the inspiration tap brings.
When I wake up in the morning, I just go.
Authenticity is the most important thing. You have to know where it all comes from, study who pioneered it.
My personal style at this point in my life is more audio; it's more driven on less visual and more musicality. But because of my upbringing, my fabulous mentors and teachers that I've had throughout my dance journey or career, I also possess a style that is of the past. It was just a matter of me reaching back.
Jimmy Slyde was more a musician than a dancer; Greg Hines was more musician than dancer.
Tap's foundation is jazz, just like hip-hop, so relating tap-dancing to rap is natural for me.
My mom always had me and my brother watching old Fred Astaire movies.
I want tap to be something danced in arenas. Sort of like a rock group. Other art forms happen every night. Take theater, opera; there's always opera happening every night.
They all come from the street - tap, jazz and flamenco. And the streets are always changing. If it comes from the streets, change is the only thing that's consistent.
I actually wanted to be a fireman when I was younger.
I've come to realize that people dance for reasons of their own.
Everything has to do with meditation. It's a conversation; it's a joy - it's everything.
I realized early on, I'm more interested in Baryshnikov than some dancer who wants to do a rock show with ballet.
I want to share what I have, and I'd rather share it with people that are a little bit more open-minded.
There are many different styles of, and approaches to, tap. My own leans towards a more intellectual view: tap dancing not just for the sake of entertainment but to educate and spark emotion.
I was first introduced to dancing through the TV: I remember watching ballet, jazz and ballroom dancing when I was very little. But I felt no connection with it whatsoever: it was just like watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
I was a drummer in a group called Three Plus. We were performing at a club in New York, and my mother signed me up for tap classes. I fell in love from the door... so you can blame it on my mother.
I search for different tonalities in my taps. But my greatest pleasure is hearing a note I haven't heard before, hearing a chord that sparks something new.
The connection of what I do to flamenco lies in the whole lament, whole cry, whole pouring back into the earth and giving energy back to the earth. It's a cry and a celebration. That's what music, sound, vibration should do. It should spark energy in someone.
I come from a long line of people who express themselves through the dance. I come from a long line of people who create music through their feet.
I'm more a percussion instrument than a dancer.
What I'm trying to do is bring young people into doing tap so that the art form will keep going.
