October 14, 2003
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
ArtAbounds
Boundary-breaking performances
co-presented by The Lobero and UCSB Arts & Lectures
Limited tickets remain for UCSB Arts & Lectures and The Lobero’s presentation of Savion Glover, the greatest tap dancer alive
Summary Facts:
- Savion Glover and Band
- Glover is acclaimed as the world’s greatest tap dancer
- Glover created and starred in the Broadway smash Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk
- Second of three ArtAbounds performances presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and The Lobero in 2003-2004
- Sunday, November 16
- 8 pm, Lobero Theatre, 33 East Canon Perdido Street, Santa Barbara
- Only remaining tickets: $250 for priority seating, pre-show dinner at the Four Seasons Biltmore’s La Marina Room and a post-show reception with the artists
- Tickets/information: Lobero Theatre Foundation at (805) 966-4946 x 611
Savion Glover, hailed as the greatest tap dancer alive, will perform with a four-piece jazz combo on Sunday, November 16 at 8 pm at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido Street, Santa Barbara. “Like Mikhail Baryshnikov or Michael Jordan,” The New York Times asserts, “Mr. Glover has raised the technical baseline of his field: maneuvers once extraordinary are now commonplace.” The only remaining tickets for this event cost $250 and include priority seating, a pre-show dinner at the Four Seasons Biltmore’s La Marina Room and a post-show reception with the artists. (Dinner tables for eight are available for $2,000.) This event is an ArtAbounds performance, presented by The Lobero and UCSB Arts & Lectures.
Performer, choreographer and director Savion (pronounced SAVE-ee-on) Glover came to international prominence in 1996 with his Broadway smash Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk. The Boston Globe raved about the show’s “dazzling stagecraft that brought new audiences into the theater and renewed the batteries of traditional theatergoers.” Noise/Funk earned Glover numerous honors including a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Choreography, two Obie Awards and two Fred Astaire Awards for his performance, as well as the 1996 Dance Magazine Choreographer of the Year Award.
Glover made his first splash quite young, starring on Broadway in The Tap Dance Kid when he was 12 and following that up with his film debut the next year in Tap, more than holding his own with co-stars Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr. He returned to Broadway and became one of the youngest performers ever to be nominated for a Tony for his role in the revue Black and Blue and maintained his success wowing audiences as “Young Jelly” in Jelly’s Last Jam, again with Hines, who played Jelly Roll Morton grown up.
Younger audience members most likely recall his regular appearances from 1990-1995 on PBS’s enduring Sesame Street. In 1997 he created a dance company, NYOTs (Not Your Ordinary Tappers), with which he toured nationally and internationally. Glover performed for President Clinton in Savion Glover’s Stomp, Slide and Swing: In Performance at the White House for PBS and in Savion Glover/ Downtown: Live Communication in the Variety Arts Theatre in New York City.
In 2000 Glover portrayed a homeless man chosen to star in a surprisingly popular minstrel-based TV show in Spike Lee’s scathing satire Bamboozled. He also toured the nation with Footnotes, the Concert, featuring tap legends Jimmy Slyde, Buster Brown and Diane Walker.
Savion Glover will teach an Advanced Tap Class and take part in a Meeting the Masters reception on Monday, November 17 at 7 pm at the Marjorie Luke Theatre, 721 E. Cota Street, Santa Barbara. It costs $15 for the general public and is free for K-12 students with ID. This event is sponsored by the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation SAGE program, the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance and the Marjorie Luke Theatre; for information and to make a reservation, please phone 805.966.6950.
The performance by Savion Glover and Band is the second of three ArtAbounds event of the 2003-2004 performing arts season. An innovative partnership between UCSB Arts & Lectures and The Lobero, ArtAbounds permits both presenters to bring to Santa Barbara international artists of the highest stature that neither could present on its own. This project is funded in part by the Audience Development and Marketing Grant Program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission. The remaining ArtAbounds performance for this season will be Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Tuesday, March 2.
The performance by Savion Glover and Band is supported by Michael Towbes and sponsored by the Santa Barbara News-Press.
The only remaining tickets for this event are $250 for priority seating, a pre-show dinner at the Four Seasons Biltmore’s La Marina Room and a post-show reception with the artists. (Dinner tables for eight are available for $2000.) For tickets or more information, call the Lobero Theatre Foundation at 966.4946x611, or visit online at www.lobero.com.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.