DO40 Members - CLICK HERE for video clips of the event!!

DO40’s TAP! Part 1 almost turned into TAP! Part 2 and 3!!
So many performers and panelists – and so little time!
(Well, a lot of time, actually!)

The Tap “Walkaround” Finale with all Panelists and Performers

The TAP! event was filled with tap history, tappers and tap performances, making this the most performance-oriented panel we have ever had!  Performers included Noah Racey (who opened the show), Karen Calloway and Kathy Calahan, who recreated the 5 points tap battle from the 1800s, Karin Baker and Kathy Calahan recreating an Ernest Carlost routine, Tony Waag and Karen Calloway recreating the world’s “slowest” soft shoe, a tribute to Buster Brown by Linda Rose Iennaco, a tribute to Paul Draper by Karen Prunzik, Gene Castle performing to Fred Astaire’s “Happy Feet,” and a stunningly original piece by tapper Max Pollack to end the show.  Ah, but not quite!  Special Guest Mercedes Ellington led a “Walkaround” with all the tappers and panelists, and Shim Sham’d the night to a close!

Tappers Karen Calloway and Tony Waag perform the “slowest” soft shoe!

Panelists included Randy Skinner and Lawrence Merritt, both reminiscing about Ginger Rogers, Teak Lewis and Karen Prunzik remembering Eleanor Powell, Joy Serio Dunbar and stories of Georgie Tapps and Gene Kelly, and of course, to keep the evening going, co-hosts Lee Roy Reams and Harvey Evans, both tap dancing demons from Cincinnati, Ohio! 

Tappers: Kathy Calahan and Karen Calloway

Act I was about the History of Tap, and included film clips of all the major movie couplings, Fred & Ginger, Fred & Eleanor, Kelly & O’Connor, the Nicholas Brothers, the Step Brothers and even Shirley Temple & Bill Robinson.  Great footage of Gregory Hines performing with Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde, Sandman Sims and Bunny Briggs, clips of Honi Coles, Georgie Tapps and Paul Draper, and Paul and Ruby dancing together in a stunning film sequence.

Performers: Noah Racey and Max Pollack

Act II focused on the Broadway Shows, and included many of our DO40 members who were in the originals – No, No, Nanette (Mercedes Ellington and Linda Rose Iennaco), George M! (Harvey Evans, Patti Mariano, Gene Castle, Karin Baker – and audience member Kathie Savage), Sophisticated Ladies (Mercedes and Ty Stephens) and 42nd Street (Lee Roy Reams, Randy Skinner, Karen Prunzik and Karin Baker).  Stories and laughs abounded. 

Panel One - L ro R: Mercedes Ellington, Joy Serio Dunbar, Lawrence Merritt,
Teak Lewis, Randy Skinner, Tony Waag and moderator Harvey Evans

Well, Act I did run a bit long.  As Lee Roy Reams remarked, it was so long he started menopause!  Act II came in a respectable 40 minutes, so Lee Roy left the event looking actually only TEN years older! 

Performers: Karen Prunzik and Linda Rose Iennaco

DO40 President John Sefakis spoke right before intermission and turned the video camera around to the audience to honor all the tappers – and performers in attendance.  And we could have filmed that all night!  Rockettes!  Broadway performers!  Ballet dancers!  A veritable smorgasbord of the dance community, all coming together to celebrate the History, Legacy and Lives of the people who, well, TAP!

Tappers: Kathy Calahan and Karin Baker

Over 130 pictures are now up on the DO40 Facebook page, and video clips of the event will be posted on the member-only video page of our website soon!  Yet another perk of becoming a DO40 member! No matter where you are!  New York to Nevada, Connecticut or California, we’re there for you!  Especially with our huge Facebook presence, with over 12,000 people “liking” our page!

This is the first time Dancers Over 40 celebrated a specific genre of dance, instead of a performer, director or choreographer.  DO40 will continue the discussion next season with a ballet panel in October and eventually feature jazz and modern dance. 

The Curtain Call

(L to R, Ty Stephens, Tony Waag, Kathy Calahan, Max Pollack, Mercedes Ellington, Karen Calloway,
DO40 President John Sefakis, Gene Castle, Linda Rose Iennaco, Randy Skinner, Karin Baker,
Karen Prunzik, Harvey Evans, Joy Serio Dunbar, Lee Roy Reams and Patti Mariano
– not pictured, Lawrence Merritt and Teak Lewis)

This is also the first time a DO40 event has been totally underwritten.  Our sponsor for TAP! was Kraige Block and the Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery.  Kraige is a long-time tapper and teacher, who has now, with his partner, gone on to a new career in the art world.  He attended our DO40 CARES dance concert with producer Bruce Robert Harris, both of whom have come on board to help raise money for DO40.  A gracious thank you and welcome to them both!

This was the last event of the DO40 2011 – 2012 season, our busiest and most successful year EVER!  Thank you to all our members and donors, to Broadway Cares/EFA and the Equity Foundation for believing in us!  Stay tuned for information on the 2012 – 2013 season, to be announced in August – right along with our membership renewal mailing!  We simply can’t do it without you!