Steeplechase’s own ‘Funny Face’ (Brendan Schweda) the first to take the stage and introduce the show.
San Francisco based ‘chair stacking balance’ performer MeeZee hosted the evening with Coney Island based sword swallowing, aerialist Wendy Blades.
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Featuring the other talents of Koo Koo The Bird Girl, Jelly the Clown and Rasutin’s Marionettes.
Koo Koo The Bird Girl started the show off with her wonderful eccentric act.
Koo Koo performed blind folded in an aerial hoop and was wonderful.
The Seashore Variety Hour had their clown act too! Jelly The Clown.
Jelly the Clown couldn’t seem to keep his red clown nose on so he nailed in to his skull.
Then Wendy Blades got dressed in a straight jacket (with the assistance of MeeZee) and escaped!
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MeeZee introduced Matt Scott Rasputin and his charming sideshow marionettes.
The finesse of Matt Scott Rasputin’s control over these puppets was wonderful. Here is the sword swallower wetting the sword before it goes down the hatch.
The ‘tap dancing dandy’ was amazing in how he kept the beat with his music and tap shoes.
Wendy Blades swallowed the sword as MeeZee watches in astonishment.
MeeZee performs one of his ‘impossible’ hand balancing feats on the stacked chairs.
Wendy closed the show with a ‘fast’ aerial rope spinning act.
(Sorry Eric and Robert- Could capture any shots of you from my seat)
Bindlestiff Co-founder Keith Nelson introduced the audience to the show’s lineup.
Multi-talented Chloe Somers opened the show with a beautiful aerial act.
The Great Kaplan (David Kaplan) mesmerized the audience with his magic.
After magically producing a candle it mistakenly (on purpose) caught his suit carnation on fire.
His credits are so long I will just link you to his webpage. A master indeed! Hysterical and very skilled.
After The Great Kaplan’s grandfather’s uke gets destroyed by a rogue bowling ball he gets consolation from Bindlestiff’s Co-Founder and stage manager Stephanie Monseu.
Keith Nelson entertained the audience with 2 classic vaudeville glass balancing stunts.
Chloe Somers returned to the stage by balancing and walking on Champagne bottles
She then rearranged them in a different order/line and balanced/walked on them again.
Chloe Somers was fantastic in her skills.
The Great Kaplan returned to the stage playing a ‘turkey baster’.
Evan Ruggiero played the guitar brilliantly and tap danced with his peg-leg.
Chloe Somers showed her multiple skill set by returning to the stage with her hula-hoop act.
Chloe Somers worked the hula-hoops with such charm and personality.
Keith Nelson performed his 8 spinning plate act.
Keith was successful in keeping all 8 plates spinning and catching the spoons in the glasses.
Mr. & Mrs. G finished off the show with their ‘crossbow’ act. Beautiful and daring indeed!
Mrs. G. (Naomi Brenkman) prepares her crossbow for shooting.
Both Mr. & Mrs. G. fired crossbows at one another in the act. Attempting to hit the target.
“The Story of Tap…Etc.” is a continuation of a series originally done at Dixon Place for six evenings in 1998 and 2005. It returned for one night in 2015 and comes back again for another night. It is a narrative of tap dance, rather than some definitive history of it. Hank Smith will engage in conversation with performers about tap and associated art forms. Film clips will be shown and the performers will cover different perspectives of experience by telling their stories through words, movement and music. It’s all an improvisation. The story keeps going…
Hank Smith has done mime, clowning, dance, photography, video and television production. For twenty years he was a Stage Manager on Sesame Street, also functioning as Associate Director, Actor and Choreographer. As a tap dancer and educator, he has participated in the NY Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day’s Tap Extravaganza, the Tradition In Tap Experiences, NY Tap City and NJ Tap Festival. His performance work has also been presented in and around the NYC area. A retired Associate Professor Emeritus at Bloomfield College, New Jersey, he has two blogs and is writing a book about his creative journey.
Mickey Davidson, dancer, teacher, choreographer has worked with Sounds in Motion Dance Company, Norma Miller’s Lindy Hoppers, Frankie Manning, Charles “Cookie” Cook, Buster Brown, Harriet ”Quicksand” Brown, Savoy Swingers, Roots of Brazil, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Ahmed Abdullah, Oliver Lake and Ntozake Shange, among others. She is primary choreographer for her company, MICKEY D. & FRIENDS, a group of dancers and musicians exploring the relationship between music and dance. She does numerous residencies for schools, community centers along with staff development workshops. Ms. Davidson taught Jazz Dance and Tap as Artist-in-Residence at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut for seventeen years.
Bernice Brooks has been a professional drummer for over forty years. She has toured nationally and internationally playing jazz, gospel, and blues rhythms, working with Tito Puente, Patti LaBelle and Gregory Hines. She is active in the tap community, drumming for NY Tap City and the NY Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day’s Tap Extravaganza, where she received a Flo-Bert Award in 2015. She is an educator/artist-in-residence in the tri-state area teaching buckets, samba, reggae, traditional drumming and video production. She has a passion for music, working in every genre, her secret to success in a male-dominated industry.