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Irish Voice, United States - January 2, 2008
TAPEIRE TAKES TIMES SQUARE
Devine displays his riveting live percussive stepping.
By Paul Keating
RIVERDANCE
the juggernaut has floated the boat of so many talented
Irish artists basking in the aura of the Celtic
Tiger since the mid-nineties.
In particular, the Irish dancing world
has never been the same since an "afterlife"
emerged for those who poured years of sweat and
practice into what had become a competitive exercise
masked in a cultural ritual.
For that first generation of dancers
who populated the various Riverdance and Lord of
the Dance battering brigades, other outlets for
their artistry cropped up for those whose skills
gave them the confidence to match their love of
the dance.
Out of that milieu comes a young Clareman
named James Devine, who took on Broadway in November
and lived the dream of so many chorus liners who
want to see their own names up in lights as the
star of the show.
Gambling that New York audiences wanted
something more close and personal than the big shows,
he created his own vehicle called Tapeire. In doing
so he gave ample evidence that it wasn't such a
long way from Clare to here when your artistic expression
has universal appeal.
Over a 17-day stretch from November
9-26, Devine, 31, gave 26 performances of Tapeire
(www.tapeire.com) at the New Victory Theater on
West 42nd Street that drew over 8,000 viewers, one
of the best turnouts of their season.
The intimate space of 500 seats was
anxious to have a cutting edge talent like Devine
bring his cleverly conceived show built around rhythmic
tap with an Irish flair to its family-oriented locale
that helped reclaim the seedy area back in 1995
by offering a wide variety of informative and entertaining
programming.
That Tapeire did so in a brassy hip
hop style so commonplace in New York, in sharp contrast
to the glitz of the larger stage show spectaculars,
made it even more endearing and earthy.
Devine's pedigree (his mother Patricia
and grandmother Kathleen Sweeney were champion dancers)
showed the normal progression through the dance
world, though he excelled in competitions in Ireland,
Britain and North America up to the time when he
left the competitive arena winning championships
in each area by age 16.
He even bested Michael Flatley in
1998 - who earlier hired him for his first professional
dance job in the first Lord of the Dance company
- as a Guinness world record holder for taps per
second (38 to 35).
While performing in Flatley's show
at Radio City Devine was smitten by the new exposure
and treatment given to rhythmic tap dancing by Savion
Glover in Bring in the Da Noise, Bring in the Da
Funk. He returned to New York to study tap and concentrated
on representing the percussive side of Irish dance
as it influenced and was influenced by other genres
in tap.
Tapeire was Devine's vision first
tested at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the summer
of 2006 to critical acclaim, which encouraged him
to put together a full-fledged show incorporating
live music, so necessary and integral for his improvisational
footwork that the New York audiences enjoyed.
The spare performance stage effectively
utilized musicians Paul Jennings on a variety of
percussive instruments, including pots and pans,
electronic harpist Phamie Gow (both from Scotland
where Devine lives presently in Edinburgh) and Cape
Breton's leading cutting edge fiddler Ashley MacIssac,
a dance musician himself.
Devine's production was artistically
well conceived and executed in its exposure to the
natural rhythms and percussive panache of Irish
dance. His academic study at the University of Limerick
in electronic engineering gave him a modern command
of technical enhancements like live mini-video cams
that gave you a window on what the performers were
actually doing on stage, without distracting you
from it.
Also, the well-scripted slide show
backdrop fleshed out the historic journey Irish
dance had taken in Ireland through scenes old and
new that served as chapters in its evolution, with
focal points on sean nos dancing, the dancing master,
ceili and feis as Devine displayed his riveting
live percussive stepping to music or a-cappella.
One of the more poignant and personal
scenes was Devine dancing to the rhythm of old typewriter
keys artfully struck by Jennings while the script
appeared on the black wall. It emulated an early
childhood experience he had of exploring Irish dance
from his mother, a champion dancer and teacher,
until a brain tumor took her off her feet and into
a wheelchair, resigned to typing jobs that came
her way.
At the penultimate performance at
the New Victory, his proud parents Patricia and
Stanley Devine traveled over from Ardnacrusha in
southeast Clare just miles from Limerick City to
see their son star on the Great White Way.
Their dutiful son acknowledged their
support of his artistic endeavors as he journeyed
from the old to the new, including his new conversion
to the hip-hop fashions of today and so germane
to the success of this show. As only a mother could,
she acknowledged his artistic achievement of following
his dreams to Broadway.
It appears that his mother is truly
an inspirational blessing to James Devine, and no
matter where he roams her influence and encouragement
will never be far from his heart and performance.
Isn't that what the tradition
is all about, whether we view it from the
contemporary prism or looking backward?
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