“Ten years ago I thought I’d retire,” confided Brenda Bufalino to the audience Saturday night, “but it’s just the opposite.” Bufalino, who’s been tapping for five decades, received the Tapestry Award “for outstanding achievement in preserving and advancing the artistry and tradition of tap dance” as part of a two-day celebration of National Tap Dance Day at the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington. “I used to think you can tap all your life — just look at the guys,” she noted. “But I never thought it would happen to a woman.”

Only a minute before, watching Bufalino solo to music by Count Basie, I was thinking I’d never seen her look so good. She danced close to the body, her feet snugging in to the ground, except for an occasional fancy wing out to the side or a surprise upbeat draping off shrugged shoulders. The down-to-earth, almost private pleasure she took in her own rhythm making reminded me of the great Chuck Green, a big man whose gravity deceived you into thinking he wouldn’t be able to tap fast. In fact, the closer his feet stayed to the ground, the more intricate he got.

Brenda Bufalino claims her main tap master was Honi Coles, but she’s never been the kind of light, ingratiating dancer he was. I think she was the first female tapper always to appear in drag — a tuxedo or pants, vest, and fedora is her usual costume — and this seems to be part of a conscious determination not to sweeten her talent with conventional femininity. Saturday night, relaxed and confident, she didn’t play up her steps with showy gestures or cute smiles. She just got down with the music. Then, after a long slow “Bye Bye Blackbird,” she encored to “How High the Moon,” signaling to the musicians to let her muse for a while unaccompanied.

Bufalino was the star of the evening, not only as dancer but as teacher, choreographer, and company director. The concert, staged by Dance Inn Productions, was a sort of top-of-the-school recital, with professional guests and faculty appearances. I loved the 12 teenagers who trundled on in “Take the A Train” and backed up Bufalino in the Basie number. They also performed a gumboot dance they’d learned during the day’s classes with Olivia Rosenkrantz.

Most tap shows I’ve seen follow a kind of nightclub format, with an MC introducing the numbers (Julia Boynton on Saturday) and everyone weaving jokes, songs, or stories into their acts. Tap dancers cultivate individual styles and personalities, but they downplay the potential for competitiveness. Tap is a small, generous world. People acknowledge their teachers and heroes; they usually tell you when they’ve borrowed someone else’s step or routine. And unlike the ahistorical modern dancers, they celebrate the past while shouldering the job of mentors to the future. “So few things are made in America,” said Josh Hilberman, one of the evening’s guest artists, as he traced the history of tap from Bill Robinson to the Copasetics, Honi Coles, Boston’s Leon Collins and Dianne Walker, and Brenda Bufalino.

Tony Waag of Bufalino’s American Tap Dance Orchestra did a couple numbers that included “Once in Love with Amy,” which is based on the eccentric style of Ray Bolger. Although Waag doesn’t look anything like him, the lanky, purposely awkward Bolger flashed across my mind when Waag did some of his steps: a kick that sent him sliding backwards, a crazy tilt on one straight leg, and the wobbly rubberlegs that prompted Bolger’s popeyed consternation.

Tap is really a solo dance form; setting it for a larger group has been a choreographic challenge. For Samba Dese Days, which was choreographed in 1990 by Bufalino and on Saturday was danced by Hilberman, Gay Nardone, and Drika Overton, the dancers maintained and embroidered the rhythm while pianist Paul Arslanian did the melody. There were hints of counterpoint, also, but nothing too taxing or involved.

The tap audience needs to hear those rhythms distinctly, and the dancers can’t do much traveling around while their feet are spinning out complexities. Unison movement in line-up is the obvious ensemble solution, though it always reminds us of Broadway. The evening’s other soloists, Dance Inn director Thelma Goldberg and guest instructors Julia Boynton, Pamela Raff, Jamie Larowitz Sherman, and Bob Thomas, joined in for the traditional finale. At this point, when we’ve seen them and know them a little, 20 pairs of feet slamming out the shim-sham is all we want. It works. It works.

Issue Date: May 31- June 7, 2001