Danny Nielsen’s In Conversation borrows from concerts and explores tap dance’s musicality
Enhanced with lighting and video, premiere finds Vancouver tap star connecting with pianist-percussionist Kristian Alexandrov and pushing far beyond jazz standards
Danny Nielsen
The Dance Centre presents Danny Nielsen’s In Conversation at the Scotiabank Dance Centre on May 23 and 24 at 8 pm
VANCOUVER’S DANNY Nielsen has been a leading light on the Canadian and international tap scene since his early 20s, his mad technical skills and musicality taking him to high-profile stages from Portland to Zurich. He collaborated with contemporary dance artist Shay Kuebler and his Radical System Art on Telemetry, a style-mashing production that toured for three years. In New York City, he was cast as a lead in Derick Grant’s What is This Thing Called Love?.
That brings us to a house party he attended this year, where he says some people gave him a “weird” look when his friend mentioned Nielsen was a tap dancer. At which point the host hauled out a flat board onto the floor for Nielsen to show his stuff.
“So I did something and they were like, ‘Oh, that's more like foot percussion!’ And I’m like, ‘Yes: exactly that!’” he relates to Stir.
It says something that, after decades of excelling in tap, Nielsen still finds himself expanding people’s preconceptions about the form—as he’ll do with his upcoming premiere In Conversation. The show will in many ways bring the artist full circle, while pushing beyond jazz standards, at the Scotiabank Dance Centre.
“You know, it just needs to be seen more,” the dancer says good-naturedly about tap, speaking over the phone between rehearsals. “Because the level right now across the globe is just so hot—the musicianship, all of it. I’m just trying to do my part, and pulling people into what it is so we can expose them to more.
“People have a connotation attached to tap dance that’s completely disconnected from what it actually is, until they see it and actually hear it and feel it,” he adds. “And once they do, their perception changes very quickly.”
Nielsen will get to the root of that body-as-instrument possibility again in In Conversation. The show draws on the simple idea of a tap dancer in conversation with a pianist—and then runs with it in new directions. Nielsen likens the show to a concert—a fact emphasized by lighting and video design by Jack Chipman (who’s conjured magic everywhere from Vancouver Opera to Electric Company Theatre). The collaboration with veteran pianist and percussionist Kristian Alexandrov will include new takes on old tap-dance standards as well as original compositions that draw across genres from jazz to rock.
Like so much of what Nielsen does, the show pays genuine homage to the past while innovating in exciting, viewer-friendly ways. In fact, he reveals the piece was first inspired by a well-known old clip he watched of tap legend Dr. Jimmy Slyde “in conversation” with jazz pianist Barry Harris.
“It’s an hour of them playing together and it’s iconic,” Nielsen marvels. “For me, it kind of represents really the relationship and the exchange between jazz and tap dancing, and the level of musicianship, the respect they both have for each other is unmatched.”
Cue Alexandrov, whom Nielsen met accompanying tap dance at the beginning of his career in Calgary. “He also plays percussion, so on some songs, with one hand, he’s going to be playing piano, and with the other hand, he’s going to be playing the drums,” Nielsen says. “So it gives it a lot of layering—and for me, also, just trading with him as a percussionist gives another meaning.” (Additional rhythmic layering comes courtesy of Miles Hill on bass; Texas’s Matthew Shields, of Postmodern Jukebox and Tapestry Dance Company, directs and gives creative consulting, turning it into a full-fledged production.)
For audiences accustomed to tap dance, and the innovative, next-level skills of Nielsen’s practice, it’s a chance to check in with an assured artist at a point in his career where he’s deeply in touch with his roots, while as willing as ever to push into new territory.
“I'm still young in terms of the length of careers that some of the men and women have been who have gone before me, but you know, I'm by no means young anymore,” he allows. “It's also just interesting to have your dancing evolve into a place where you have a lot more honesty in your work and a lot more patience. Yeah, I just I feel honoured. I mean, the show’s called In Conversation, and it really is about the conversation.” 
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