Thursday, October 1, 2009

Savion Glover



Toe-tapping phenom, Savion Glover was born on November 19, 1973 in Newark, New Jersey. Before he even owned his first pair of tap shoes, Glover had a keen sense of rhythm, and would tap dance in his cowboy boots. Glover graduated from the Newark Arts High School and studied at the Broadway Dance Center in Manhattan. While attending the Broadway Dance center, Glover’s teacher set him up with an audition for a Broadway choreographer. The audition was a success, and a 10-year-old Glover landed a part on Broadway in The Tap Dance Kid.
In his mid-teens, Glover co-starred in the movie Tap (1989) with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr. By the following year, Glover became neighborly with the folks on Sesame Street when he joined the cast of the children's television show. Soon after, Glover starred as Young Jelly in the Broadway musical Jelly’s Last Jam, acting opposite former co-star and mentor, Gregory Hines, who played Jelly Roll Morton.

Before he was 20 years old, Glover had already achieved recognition and received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Outstanding Youth Award. However, his breakthrough role came in his early 20s, starring in and co-creating George C Wolfe’s musical, Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk (1996). Glover was recognized with a Tony Award for Best Choreography for the musical; and Wolfe received the Tony for Best Direction of a Musical. At age 15, Glover also received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in Black and Blue (1989), making him one of the youngest male nominees in the history of the Tony Awards.
Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk led to more recognition for Glover from other artists. Kenny G featured him in his “Havana” music video, and The Notorious BIG even mentioned him in his song “Living In Pain” from his 2005 posthumous release, The Final Chapter.

The new millennium saw Glover starring in Spike Lee's film Bamboozled (2000) along with more music projects, including collaborating with a string chamber orchestra and his band (The Otherz) to perform Classic Savion at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. In 2005, Glover took his show Improvography II, on the road; embarking on an eight-week cross-country tour and visiting 35 cities.

On his unique style, Glover has commented: "My style is young. Funk. I feel like it's one of my responsibilities to keep the dance alive, to keep it out there, to keep the style."
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