T.A.P. show draws small crowd

Choreographed thunder rocked Goldstein Auditorium Saturday night - but not many students came out to hear it.

The toe-tapping dances of the "What's on TAP" dance show, which included jazz and modern dance, impressed those who attended the show, which was hosted by Syracuse University's T.A.P., or Totally Artistic Percussion. They also were treated to the antics of comedian Jake Goldman, a senior television, radio and film major, a performance by the a cappella group Main Squeeze, and a Cabaret Performance Troupe.

The nearly empty auditorium shocked Alison Aliberti, a junior psychology major who came to the dance show to support one her roommates, Jillian Massey, a member of guest dance troupe Orange Pulse.

"Usually the bottom level is full for these kinds of things," Aliberti said.

Aliberti's other roommate, Allison Myers, a junior child and family studies major, also felt that the show would have benefited from a larger audience.

"If there were more people here it would be better," Myers said. "They need to advertise it better."

Even with the many empty seats, the two roommates were impressed by T.A.P.'s performance and their use of different types of music in their dances and felt that it made the show more interesting. The group performed to hip-hop, Riverdance, and Broadway music for the show.

"Most people would think tap is stupid and geeky, but they make it fun to watch," Aliberti said. "It's good to come if you're bored; it's something different to do."

Freshmen theater and acting majors, Christina Barclay and Megan Sass, were in the crowd to cheer on several of their friends in T.A.P. They thought the show turned out excellently.

"It's one of those things you watch and you wish you were up there with them," said Sass.

Camissa Hill, a freshman drama and acting major, choreographed T.A.P.'s "Rock Ya Body" hip-hop performance in the first half of the show. Hill, who has been dancing tap for the last two years, felt that the performance would change people's typical notions of what tap dance is supposed to be performed to.

"We wanted to give it a different twist because most people think of tap dance as mainly Broadway," Hill said.

T.A.P.'s only rehearsal began at 4:15 p.m. on the day of the show, said Jeanette German, vice president of T.A.P. and a junior international relations and Spanish major.

"It was the first time we kind of walked in, ran it, and then performed," German said. "We usually have more prep time than that, but all the groups were easy to work with."

German, a dancer since she was 2 years old, helped found T.A.P. two years ago. The group's creation was inspired by a performance in a DanceWorks show.

While the night's show was only its second, the group plans to perform more frequently now. T.A.P. is scheduled to perform at the University of Delaware and the Hard Rock Café in the coming months, German said.

Both Barclay and Sass said they will make it a point to attend all dance shows on the SU campus.

"We plan to come to every one," Sass said. "But the energy in the audience was low tonight for this show. More people should come out."