The Bay Area Rhythm Exchange

They were part of the 2011 Bay Area Tap Festival presented by Stepology at the Herbst Theater. It was the perfect venue to showcase the artists.
As a tap dancer wannabe and enthusiast, it was very enjoyable to see the dancers perform to primarily smooth jazz.
In addition to this group, the program included the Barbary Coast Cloggers.
The show ended with a shim sham finale where folks in the audience could go up to the stage and shim sham. No wonder some folks came with backpacks to change into their tap shoes.
It was a very nice performance.

Well, I just thought it was great. I mean, great enough to think about writing a review for it 9 months later! The choreography was fun, a different variety of acts kept the audience engaged and the mood was light… and DID YOU KNOW at the end they invite everyone up on stage to do the Shim Sham at the end of the performance… even though I was wearing cowboy boots. Woo hoo! Can’t wait for BARE 2009!!!

Although there were some talented dancers, the choreography was self indulgent and boring in general. Even the best dancer in the group, the talented Deborah Mitchell, used up most of her time on stage doing a badly written rap homage to her mentor that didn’t even include dancing. Overall, the talent was mixed and the show came off as amateurish on the whole.