Sarah Reich’s new footmarks in tap’s history
Sarah Reich warns us “TAP IS COMING BACK!” as she leaves spectacular effects in the tap dance world which are getting her noticed universally
Less is more, so they say, and Sarah Reich standing at only 5’ft tall gives an impression of “cuteness”, until her dynamic talent and tap skills take a curious audience center stage, in a vibratious journey around tap’s mysterious but explosive dance world! Today her heart beholds a “historic ambition” of not only keeping tap’s legacy alive but also pushing it forward.
This fresh out of high school dance student who started studying at SMC this fall has gained the admiration from one of our extremely talented tap dance teachers by the name of Joy Hewitt and from the Synapse Dance Theatre, in which she performed last weekend. Our little starlet also had the rare opportunity of being noticed by Jackie, a French tap dancer and producer. He was allured by her tremendous tapping skill and versatility after taking a private dance lesson with her. His artistic impulses didn’t hesitate to invite Sarah to teach and perform at his festival in France next year, in the summer of 2008.
She is very excited to be teaching by herself for the first time after years of working along dance legends such as Harold “Stumpy” Cromer and Jason Samuels Smith, Paul Kennedy, Ms.Kennedy, Skip Cunningham, Denise Scheerer, and Alfred Desio whom have thought her style and helped her get into the art form and history of tap dancing. Sarah Reich enthusiasm for tap history surpasses all limits as she explains, “Tap dance is the history of America! It is a hybrid art form with the influences of African rhythms and Irish step dancing.”
This lively rhythmic tap dance, has also given her the freedom to ideas of mixing the Latin salsa dance with tapping on songs such as “The Girl from Ipanema!”
With numerable successes along her career, such as winning the 2005 OMNI Awards (an award for Performing Artists of the Year) and, being featured in magazines such as Dance Spirit Magazine, Dancer Magazine and On Tap Magazine which describe her as “the busiest tap dancer in LA”, there’s always a dark past with a few obstacles. One of Sarah’s has been the difficulty of understanding how to count tap steps, but thanks to a wonderful teacher by the name of Denise Scheerer, she’s learned how to relate music notes and rhythms with taps. By accepting and overcoming her obstacles, once more Sarah Reich proved her continuous ambition and tremendous love for tapping!
Born from a Mexican mother and European father, whom have not only encouraged her dancing since the age of 5, but also build an in home studio where she’s been giving dance lessons for four years so far. The respect and admiration for her parents is expressed in her own words “They are my biggest fans and support, I probably wouldn’t be the tap dancer I am if it weren’t for them.”
From performances at the Getty Museum, Madrid Theater, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Kodak Theatre and now France, Sarah Reich is the new fresh face of not only American tap but also of Universal tap.
“The stage is my home,” she said, in a very familiar but daring tone “Tap is coming back!” and well, she’s definitely proving it.
Lorna Luft: A concert with daughter of legendary actress, Judy Garland
I had the unique honor to be part of the Marina del Rey Summer Concerts, where on August 4th Lorna Luft, the daughter of legendary actress/singer Judy Garland, delivered a versatile and exciting performance accompanied, by the Marina del Rey Symphony, Music Director Frank Fetta, and the mastermind of the beautiful musical arrangements “her other half”, husband Colin Freeman the pianist who played beautiful notes along jazzy songs such as “Chicago” and “The man that got away”. Marina del Rey Symphony gave her a proper welcome by playing the song “My fair lady”, a song that received numerous applauses inside people’s hearts!
It was a spectacle! Not only because of her strong vocal technique but also because of the special stories and meaning behind the songs, which made it even more wonderful inside the spectator’s hearts. At some point she talked about how hard it was for her to cope with being the daughter of a “legend”, one of the many reasons to why she wrote a book called: “Life with Judy Garland: A family memoir” which later was translated into a television mini series. Between her outstanding songs, she told exciting stories about times spend with her mother in the hotels of England. One of the crowd’s favorites was about a night when little Lorna and her mother were walking back to their room trough the hotel’s hallway. The shoes in front of the hotel doors caught the little Lorna’s curiosity as she asked “ Mommy why do people live their shoes out?” and her mother answered, “So they’ll have them cleaned the next day” when, after a slight pause, a fun idea surrounded the legendary actress
“ Wouldn’t it be funny if we switched them?” said her “troublemaker mommy” Miss Judy Garland. Little Lorna at first got concerned about getting caught but she gladly welcomed the idea as her mother replied confidently “ Oh I’m sure they’ll never think Judy Garland did it!”. The laugh of the crowd was overwhelmingly contagious as Lorna Luft shared one more dear memory of the times spent with her mother.
Briefly she also talked about the release of her new CD “Songs my mother taught me” which will be released this summer in Europe and next year, in the United States. Her winter will be spent in Edinburgh, as she is recreating the Broadway favorite
“A white Christmas” along with British professionals and least but not last, fans, which bought her success on foreign lands many times during her career. Even tough her success over seas has been tremendous, the spectators could feel her happiness to be back home which was felt trough out the concert.
The lovely and warm night came to a sentimental and to a promising happy end as the Marina del Rey orchestra accompanied one more time the daughter of a legend into a song and a finale surrounded once more by the magic feeling of The Wizard of Oz.
|
