Savion Glover treats the stage like a drum to redefine modern tap dance
In short: Savion Glover does not just dance; he plays the floor. By treating the stage as a percussive instrument, he creates a heavy, rhythmic style he calls young and funk. From child prodigy to Broadway visionary, Glover has spent his life honoring tap legends while forging an entirely new, complex artistic language.
Born in 1973, Savion Glover was identified as a musical talent early by his grandmother, Anna Lundy Lewis. His training was a masterclass in lineage; he was mentored by tap icons including Gregory Hines, Henry LeTang, and Jimmy Slyde. LeTang famously dubbed him the Sponge for his uncanny ability to absorb complex techniques rapidly. Despite this traditional grounding, Glover developed a distinct, percussive approach. He describes his style as funk—a rhythmic pulse that demands the listener ride the beat. When choreographing, he improvises by feeling the stage, searching for specific spots that produce varied acoustic textures, from deep bass tones to sharp, tom-tom-like sounds.
Glover’s career is marked by a relentless drive to both preserve and evolve the art form. He famously performed a backflip into a split at Honi Coles' memorial, a move he rarely executed but performed to keep Coles' specific style alive. This sense of responsibility defines his work. In his 1996 hit Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, he blended historical techniques into an exultant, original brew that critics praised as a landmark in dance and theater. His influence is so profound that dancers have informally named a specific timestep the Savion Glover Timestep, a testament to his technical impact on the field.
Beyond the stage, Glover has been a dedicated educator, founding the HooFeRz Club School for Tap in Newark and creating the dance company NYOTs. His work spans film, television, and Broadway, including choreography for the motion-capture penguin Mumble in Happy Feet. Whether he is performing for presidents or teaching students how to hit—a term he uses for the expressive power of a tap sequence—Glover remains committed to a state of joy. As George C. Wolfe noted, Glover’s genius lies in his ability to maintain this emotional complexity without the compromises that earlier generations of tap dancers were forced to accept.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Savion Glover
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