If Trane Wuz Here

There's no denying that Savion Glover is a talented man. He has almost single-handedly taken tap dancing back to its roots. His style is not Broadway-flashy but street-wise gritty. His last fully produced dance show, "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk", showcased his skill and historical fascination with tap. Glover has now brought his new show, "If Trane Wuz Here", to a very small Chicago venue.

The chance to see the dancer in such a small space as the TheatreBuilding is very exiting. I was certain that his week's worth of performances would sell out, but the house on the night I saw it was about a quarter filled. I guess that Glover has a bigger following on the East Coast.

While Glover is an electric performer, the show itself was a major disappointment. The 50-minute long performance is played on a bare stage with no other production values. The lights go up, the lights go down. The only piece dominating the performance area is a slightly raised wooden platform that serves as the dance floor. The flooring uses hidden microphones to amplify the clicks, stomps, and taps of Glover's feet to deafening effect.

Accompanying Glover are two other performers: Matana Roberts on sax and reg e gaines a "spoken word artist" (he publishes his name in lower case). Both of them, I suppose, are good at what they do, but you would never know it from this production. Roberts, who looked like a character left over from Godspell and Rent, stayed stationary for the whole set. No expression ever crossed her face. I spent a lot of time trying to discern what the heck was going on with the leg-warmers, flowers-as-accessories, and silver appliquéd things on her face and eyes. Yes, sometimes artists try so hard at being real "artistes" that they just come across as being weird. I honestly cannot say what gaines was saying or doing. He was difficult to hear and his back was turned to me for the entire performance.

If Trane Wuz Here is billed as a "band." I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. I would suggest performance art. It certainly was not theater. The auditorium at the TheatreBuilding is a ? thrust stage. This piece should not have played in this auditorium. It would have worked better on a proscenium stage. I sat on the right side and for the entire performance only watched the back of gaines's and Glover's heads. I admired the shininess of gaines's bald head and the back of Glover's medusa-like very-long dreadlocks. The three performers never acknowledged that the audience was sitting on three sides of the theater. Each performer was so intense in each of his/her performance that I felt that the audience for them was an indulgence. The audience was treated like an unwelcome guest at an exclusive party.

Adding insult to injury, during the performance a crew was loudly talking and setting up a table in the corner of the auditorium to sell show paraphernalia.