It could be described as Welsh Border on quality Speed without the sticks, by someone who doesn't know Morris Dancing and is bad at analogies. Tap Dogs put the power, the humour and the raw macho energy back into tap as the Olivier Award-winning choreographer Dein Perry and his lads perform tap and percussion routines unfettered by any rules or restrictions. The 6-man Australian team tap, glide and positively stomp to an original score with all the pulsating energy of a pneumatic road drill.
To call it just tap overlooks the iron discipline and genuine Terpsichorean skills their burly choreographer has instilled into this testosterone troupe. There is little music used in the performance as it is driven by the diverse rhythms of stamp-stamp-stamp! The're not wearing farty tap shoes : these are Blundstone Boots!
The audience were dancing and stamping with the team; this is beefcake with a difference! Certainly there seemed to be many women in the audience, and the dancers had to shed some clothing to release the heat generated. It may be sexy, but its damn good dance!
In one routine, taking a leaf from the book of Morris Dancing, they use power tools, power grinders mainly, not your nancy Morris chainsaws! Bumping and grinding into the set, they release showers of sparks in time with their complex percussive patterns.
In the first scene they open with a dancer urinating on the boots of the other dancers
which they spray into the crowd. Near the end of the performance they are stomping in a
trough of water, cooling their raised sinews and about half of the audience. I've not seen
dancing so exciting since, well, last week actually. Much Wenlock will never be the same
again!
No ties, no tails - just tap.