Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Gayle Greenbrook (right) practices hard with her students at their studio in Cupertino.




Bring in Da Tap

Gayle Greenbrook's feet are leading a tap dance revival in the South Bay

By Suzanne Barnecut

Close your eyes and listen: You may hear the sound of rain falling on a corrugated tin roof, a child's leg knocking against the leg of a kitchen table or the thumping bass of a car stereo as it cruises through a quiet neighborhood.

We are constantly surrounded by rhythms that make their way into our subconscious and incite our bodies to move. There are some people, however, who are so attuned they find themselves not only responding to external rhythms, but also creating their own.

Gayle Greenbrook is a good example. As founder of Tap Explosion, a local tap-dancing troupe, and instructor of as many as 300 students per week, Greenbrook has been working hard to raise tap dancing from the dead. Tap Explosion and the classes Greenbrook teaches at Studio 10 in San Jose focus on the original style of tap dancing from the early 20th century, rather than the high kicks and flailing arms of the "show tap" often seen today.

"The original style is based on rhythm and artistry," Greenbrook explains. "You get low to the floor and use your heel a lot. You have a loose ankle, so you can create more sound in a shorter amount of space."

On a recent Wednesday night, I caught one of Tap Explosion's two weekly practices. What I saw certainly was not what I expected. The group warmed up to a selection of classical music. The 12 members had the grace of ballet dancers, but created a unified, thundering noise against the delicate strings of violins and cellos. They moved on to a piece entitled "Log Drum for Your Feet," choreographed by Mark Mendonca, one of today's master tap artists. They are practicing this number for their upcoming second annual show at Spangenberg Theatre in Palo Alto on Feb. 12. When the music stopped, the dancers drop to the floor, exhausted and smiling. After a brief pause and a round of encouragement, they got up and did it again. They made tap dancing look fun, but not easy.

Stepping Lively

Though Greenbrook was born in San Francisco, she's been a San Jose resident for the past 41 years. She attended Del Mar High School, but music and performance served as her primary schooling since her early years. Her father was a concert pianist, and Greenbrook began a professional career in voice-over work, which she quit at the age of 18 because she no longer found it fun. She also took dancing lessons, but swapped those for a pair of roller skates and skating lessons. Again, after 15 years of competitive roller skating and achieving national status, Greenbrook realized that skating had also lost its bloom. She returned to dancing, which turned out to be a good idea.

"I was sort of lucky," she admits. "I also just worked really hard. I'm always telling the kids if they work for it and believe in it, they will get it."

Greenbrook began tap dancing as an adult. She initially had professional dancing in mind, but found a lack of programs for adults in Bay Area studios. Her goal then became to teach, and she credits her success to Keith Banks, a master at jazz dancing and the owner of Studio 10.

"He started steering me," she says of Banks. "He gave me a class; then two classes." Now Greenbrook teaches 25 classes per week at Studio 10 in San Jose and Pleasanton, Dance Academy USA, Saratoga Community Center and at her church, First United Methodist Church of Campbell.

"It doesn't leave a lot of time for a social life," Greenbrook says with a smile. "I teach every night of the week, and the only people home in the mornings are retired people. But I've never been happier. Sometimes I can't believe I'm doing what I love to do. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my feet!"

The way Greenbrook describes it, she sort of fell into the original, old style of tap dancing, meeting the right people at the right time. It seems she entered the profession during an exciting period of resurgence, and she now finds herself aiding and abetting the tap renaissance that is visible in the popularity of shows like Riverdance and Savion Glover's Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk.

According to Greenbrook, tap dancing is native to America, but its roots are in the percussive dance styles of the African, English, Irish and Scottish cultures. From 1900 to 1930, tap dancing was the dance. In those early days, the footwork was so intricate that judges didn't even watch the competitions--they sat beneath the stage and listened. Then the 1940s brought Oklahoma to Broadway and tap was left in the dust.

"CBS had an edict, 'No tap dancing on this network,'" Greenbrook says. "Like it was evil."

During the 1950s and '60s, tap dancing was once again being taught, but the style of dancing that emerged was about flamboyance, not rhythm. "Show tap" cannot be danced without accompanying music, Greenbrook says. It wasn't until the early '70s that Tommy Tune and Gregory Hines entered the scene. They studied the old tap masters and opened My One and Only and Sophisticated Ladies, respectively, on Broadway and brought about this new kind of revival.

"I got in that crowd somehow," Greenbrook says, "and got to learn this [original] style and technique from the beginning. Then I brought it back home with me."

Greenbrook's personal instructor is Sam Weber, who in her words is "one of the finest dancers around." By attending workshops, she's met a number of influential dancers, including Mendonca.


Photograph by Skye Dunlap

The dancers of Tap Explosion work on their moves.




A Following of Feet

Tap Explosion, which began five years ago, is Greenbrook's way of bringing the dancing home. The group began with about seven members and has grown to 12. Four of the original members still dance with Greenbrook. The purpose of Tap Explosion is to perform, and the number of invitations the group gets continues to grow. They danced in a show at Foothill College the weekend of Dec. 3 and have a variety of pieces incorporating jazz, hip-hop, classical, soft-shoe and rhythm instruments planned for their own show in February.

Greenbrook spots prospective tap-explosives in class and then secretly begins to groom them. "Then I come hit them!" she laughs. It can't be a hard sell, however, as Greenbrook estimates that a third of the group have hopes to become professional dancers.

Besides the chance to perform, Greenbrook has given the group exposure to the very professionals in whom she has found inspiration. After Greenbrook's invitation to Mendonca to choreograph for Tap Explosion, he invited the group to Los Angeles this past June for a weekend workshop with Gregory Hines.

"He was as nice a guy as he was a tapper," Greenbrook says of Hines. "He spent as much time with us as we wanted."

Hines taught the group some new combinations--a series of individual steps put together--and an exercise called "answering," in which Hines would do a step and the group would respond, either imitating Hines or adding something new to enforce the importance of listening.

"We did improv work with him where he put music on and whatever came out came out," Greenbrook remembers. "That can be intimidating, but he was really supportive."

Also, while visiting family in London in August, Greenbrook made connections at Bromley College and did a week of workshops for students there. She found English tappers to be "way behind" and so eager to learn they begged Greenbrook to move to London, she says.

Greenbrook does not plan to move anywhere, but she does want to make the workshop in London an annual event. She says that one English student hopes to come and dance with her and the group here in San Jose.

As exciting as new beginnings and celebrity workshops are, the simple joy of Greenbrook's life is rooted in the classroom. She tells this story: "One little girl came up to me and said, 'I had my tap shoes at school today. The kids asked me to do a dance, and they clapped for me!' So, I asked her why she would bring her tap shoes to school, and she answered, 'I had to give a speech on what makes me happy.'"

It is precisely the children's happiness that drives Greenbrook. She says many parents thank her when they find that their child's self-esteem has improved after dancing with her. "It seems like the kids start with me, and they don't ever go," she says. "The atmosphere in this studio is wholesome and nurturing."

Indeed, Greenbrook's words can be backed up by her policies. Whether she's teaching adults or children, the dreaded word "can't" is not allowed. She charges a quarter every time she hears it.

What does Greenbrook do when she's not dancing? She gives the question some consideration and finally says, "I have a therapy cat, Emily, and we go to hospitals and Juvenile Hall and places where people need to hold something warm and fuzzy."

It doesn't surprise me that she gives away the little free time she has. Sacrifice for Gayle Greenbrook is not what dancing keeps her from doing, but other obligations that keep her from dancing.

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