The Wonder Kids, a documentary about Paul and Arlene Kennedy's tap dancing school (Universal Dance in LA), makes its Easy Coast premiere on September 19th at the Village East Cinema and will feature a pre-show dance featuring narrator Dick Van Dyke, Savion Glover, and an all-star cast of dancers from the film. According to the press release:

...written, produced and directed by Jim Petersen and Pamela J. Richardson, "The Wonder Kids" is the inspiring story of a tiny dance studio that set out to save the art-form of tap-dancing, and not only produced many of the world's greatest dancers, but saved the lives of thousands of inner-city kids in the process.

Here's the trailer:

The Wonder Kids Movie Trailer

Jane Goldberg's new book, Shoot Me While I'm Happy: Memories from the Tap Goddess of the Lower East Side is now available. It features a foreward by the late Gregory Hines.

From the promo:
This is not a history of tap dancing. It is one determined woman's highly personal account of falling in love with and living the tap life. One of the linchpins behind the Great Tap Revival of the 1970s and 80s, Jane Goldberg tracked down, studied with, and performed alongside some of the tap greats of the twentieth century. In the process, she came up with a genre all her own: Rhythm & Schmooze.

A bonus DVD with: By Word of Foot: Tap Masters Pass On Their Tradition (1980) plus excerpts of Rhythm & Schmooze will be included, but only if you order the book through www.janegoldberg.org

Europe-based Tap pro Pascal Hulin offers up a new YouTube video of a funk tap piece he choreographed featuring tap dancers Dorel and Costel Surbeck.

CHICAGO TAP THEATRE PRESENTS: THE HOURGLASS AND THE POISONED PEN
A SUPERHERO TAP DANCE OPERA

JUNE 27-29, JULY 5, 6, 11-13 and 18-20
AT THE ATHENAEUM THEATRE STUDIO 3 (2936 N. SOUTHPORT)

CHICAGO- Chicago Tap Theatre makes history again when it presents the nation’s first superhero tap dance opera sequel this June and July at the Athenaeum Theatre Studio 3. Co-created by comic book artist Andrew Pepoy (inker of Batman, X-Men, and The Simpsons, among others) and CTT Artistic Director Mark Yonally, The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen follows The Hourglass, a superheroine endowed with powers she is struggling to understand as she battles the forces of evil embodied by the Poisoned Pen and other nefarious characters. Not just a strict sequel, this production also encapsulates last year’s The Hourglass in the Stop-Time Chronicles so that no one will be missing any important plot developments.

Bloch Dancewear is selling a new tap dance shoe developed in cooperation with tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith. The black patent leather shoe features a serious build-up on the sole and (probably) a phat sound. Order it online from the Bloch web site. Check out a close-up image in PDF format.

Long-time dancers Maurice Hines and Peggy Spina, and documentary creator Jean Bach, received Flo-Bert Life Achievement Awards at the 19th annual Tap Extravaganza yesterday in New York City. Read Melber Huber's background article on the ceremony.

Dr. Jimmy Slyde, one of the all-time great tap dancers, passed away early on Friday at his home in Hanson, Mass. He was 80. Savion Glover called Slyde "the Godfather of Tap" and "one of the true masters of the art form."

Here's the New York Times article

Some online resource links from Andrew Nemr:

Dr. Slyde's profile page in the Internet Movie Database.

An in depth biography posted as part of Dr. Slyde's 1999 NEA National Heritage Fellowship award, a Lifetime Honor.

A profile with links to audio and video content as part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.

The new documentary, Hollywood Singing and Dancing contains a lot of archival footage you've probably already seen, but the new commentary by some of Hollywood's musical legends, along with extended footage, makes it worth watching (look for it in your TV listings). From the promo:

For once, musical numbers are seen in their entirety, such as Fred Astaire's breathtaking tap dancing up the wall and across the ceiling and tiny Shirley Temple mimicking her beaming old black partner as they cleverly tap dance up the wooden staircase and back down again.