\n<\/p>\n
Those ancestors appear in the form of extraordinary tap dancers, including Dormeshia<\/a> and Glover. And they keep reappearing throughout the show to remind Joey of his authentic self. This Joey, played by Ephraim Sykes, has a soul, and that soul expresses itself in the deeply rooted sound of Savion Glover\u2019s tap dancing.<\/p>\n The Griots are \u201ca connection to something very old,\u201d Beaty said. \u201cThe artists who have danced, sang and acted this path before. I have sat with many of them: Ossie Davis, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte. Ruby Dee told me, \u2018We have always had to dance with a gun at our feet, but still we must dance.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Glover, too, has always been an artist attuned to his ancestors, especially the veteran tap dancers who mentored him when he was a child. His solo shows can feel like s\u00e9ances, his jazz improvisations quoting those dead teachers and summoning their spirits. \u201cThose Griots could be Jimmy Slyde, Lon Chaney, Chuck Green and Buster Brown,\u201d he said, listing four hoofer-mentors he celebrated in the 1996 Broadway musical \u201cBring in \u2018Da Noise, Bring in \u2018Da Funk,\u201d<\/a> for which he won a Tony Award for choreography.<\/p>\n \u201cWherever I am, they will be,\u201d he added. \u201cThey walk with me.\u201d<\/p>\n And not just in the Griot sections. At a recent rehearsal of one of Joey\u2019s nightclub numbers, Glover stressed that he was stealing a rhythm from Henry LeTang<\/a>, who choreographed \u201cBlack and Blue,\u201d the 1989 Broadway show in which a teenage Glover shared the stage with Slyde, Chaney and other tap masters.<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciate the platform for dance to be part of the storytelling,\u201d Glover said. \u201cBut if I have a side agenda, it would be to remind people of the contribution of those old cats.\u201d<\/p>\n The first Joey, in 1940, was a then-little-known Gene Kelly, who vaulted from the part into Hollywood fame. Frank Sinatra played Joey for the sanitized 1957 film. Revivals at City Center in the 1960s starred Bob Fosse, years before he directed shows like \u201cChicago\u201d that made Joey\u2019s sleaze into a dominant style.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n