The sounds of tap shoes told a story on Friday night at the State Theatre.
The nationally-cast show, “Tap Kids, ” featured not only tap dancing, but took the audience through a plot about eight students in their senior year of high school.
The show opened with a roll call of the cast, with each of the dancers doing a short solo while their names were called.
From the beginning, the cast was set into stereotypical roles from high school.
“Tap Kids” did not have a traditional set, but instead had a screen behind the dancers that used a picture to set the stage.
The on-screen scenery moved at times to signify the casts’ movements that mimicked walking down a hallway. For this scene, lockers moved behind them.
Some of the props used in the show were metal chairs. Many times throughout the show, the cast danced around and on the chairs.
Another major prop was metal lunch trays. The dancers used these to signify their location in the lunchroom but also to tap dance on.
“Tap Kids” covered many pivotal moments in a senior year of high school. The cast acted out problems with romantic crushes, the big basketball game, getting detention, the school dance, and fears about futures, college and graduation.
Amelia Smith said her mother told her about the performance and she and her sister figured it would be fun.
“[We] thought it sounded good,” Smith (freshman-electrical engineering) said.
For a few scenes, a basketball was present and used not only as a scenery prop but also to make additional rhythm that was interlaced with the sound of tap shoes.
The performance did not have much of a script but instead acted out the plot through dancing.
Though there weren’t many words, many times the performance had audience members laughing.
No adult characters were physically in the show but a teacher figure was used when some of the dancers received detention. For these scenes a sound very similar to that which was used in the Charlie Brown cartoon represented the teacher. This element caused laughter to erupt from the audience each time it was used.
Though there was minimal speaking, voice-overs were used more than once. During a scene that was labeled “Career Day,” the voices of students discussing their future aspirations was played.
The show came to an end with the graduation of the cast. Dancers were adorned in robes and hats and in the concluding scene these hats were tossed into the air.
The performance ended with another roll call of the dancers where they were allowed to freestyle and solo. A final shout of “Tap Kids!” and a simultaneous fist pump came from the cast and signaled the end of the show.
The dancers were met with a standing ovation.
Bess Comerford said she thought the show was particularly interesting because she used to dance.
“I really liked the scene with the lunch trays,” Comerford (junior-Spanish) said. “[The show was] wonderful.”
Jessica Fox said she also appreciated the show because she is a dancer.
“I’m [always] excited to see kids my age dance,” Fox (junior-film and video) said.
