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CNN Live Today

Bring in Da Tap

Aired October 01, 2002 - 11:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: What you are looking at here is something that's been the hottest ticket in whatever town it's been. Right now, the town is Hotlanta, right here. "Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk," this 1996 Broadway production that tells the story of the history of black America and the language of rhythm, has earned four Tony Awards, one of them by the co-creator and co-choreographer Savion Glover.
Now, check this guy out. Savion Glover's all grown up, and he's brought the hit back for another national tour. The tap dancing phenomenon has gone from protege to mentor. He's actually got a little sensation of his own, as he went around the country, 13-year- old Cardee (ph) Williams, who is a featured performer in the production, and as you can see, folks, they join us right in Atlanta.

Good to see you guys.

SAVION GLOVER: Good to be here. Thanks for having us.

HARRIS: And I know you guys have got to be kind of tired, because you've been working on this show every single night.

GLOVER: A little bit, just a little bit. You know, we have a day off on Mondays, and we play such an intense basketball game, that it's a little jarring, but we win.

HARRIS: You know, that's one thing I'd like to see, some tap dancers playing basketball. Talk about putting some good moves on somebody.

GLOVER: Yes, man, the understudies, you know.

HARRIS: You call this guy "Big Coop." Where does "Big Coop" come from?

GLOVER: Big Coop. Whenever you look, you can start with the shoes, you can start with the mentality. It's all big, you know what I mean. I call him Big Coop, because in this world of dance, when you have, you know, a young cat coming up like this man, then, you know the intention is he has big shoes to fill. So I call him Big Coop because it's big.

HARRIS: now that's a lesson that you learned from personal experience?

GLOVER: Yes, sir.

HARRIS: And you passed it on?

GLOVER: Yes, just passing the information on, passing the joy on, you know.

HARRIS: Good deal.

The show itself is all about passing information. It's about 300 years of African-American history, but as I understand it, the idea behind the show is not just for African-American audiences?

GLOVER: Exactly. It's our show like it's a Japanese person's show, like someone from Australia -- wherever you're from, it's about the history in America. We just tell it from our point of view.

But I was told you can't tell one people or one person's culture without involving anyone else's. So it's everyone's story. We tell it through song and dance.

HARRIS: Now Big Coop, how did you get tied up in all of this? By the way, shouldn't you be in school right now? shouldn't you be in school.

GLOVER: Tutor right in the cut.

HARRIS: There you go, tutor is here, so there you go, it's all covered. How did you get him tied in together? It he too hard of a teacher on you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's all right. He's not too hard. He's cool. But he gets me.

HARRIS: Yes?

GLOVER: Does he get inside your head?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he can.

HARRIS: Now, you have been doing this show now for five, six years now? Six or seven years?

GLOVER: Yes, with a little hiatus in the middle. About five years.

HARRIS: Did you get a chance to work on any other projects in that time. I mean, this can't be all that you do.

GLOVER: Sure, sure, sure, sure. From Broadway to now, we've done -- we did a footnote -- a tour together called "Footnotes," which involved great dancers, the late, great magnificent Buster Brown, Jimmy Sly, Diane Walker. With these same guys, man, like Candy, you know what I mean, we hooked up, and now we put them through the rough. We forced them to do good shows, great shows.

HARRIS: You're working with some good material here, because as I understand it, Big Coop here, your big break in stardom was you actually took the Apollo crowd and schooled them? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

HARRIS: Now folks who are not familiar with the Showtime at the Apollo. This is a rather interesting program, lots of brothers and sisters late at night who follow the theater. If you can win that crowd over, you can you win everybody over. You must be a pretty bad dude if you can put the Apollo crowd in your hands? Nothing to say to that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

HARRIS: You guys are going to leaving here in Atlanta and going on the road from here. Where do you go from here?

GLOVER: From here, we go on to Boston. Chicago, where do we go, L.A., you know, Detroit, Flint, Michigan, all these type places. We're booked up until well until 2003.

HARRIS: For those who have the show coming to the city, what is the one part of the show they should not miss? Is there any part of the show that sells the message more than any other part?

GLOVER: I think when you see me come out and take my bow, you don't want to miss that. It's so great. No, I think the whole show is like one of those movies like if you miss the beginning, you're kind of lost until maybe intermission, but you want to get whole thing, you want to get from beginning to end, you want to -- you don't want to stay too far into intermission.

HARRIS: I wish we could get the whole thing from beginning to end here, but I am going to step out of way, because as we go to break, you guys have got to give us something, just give us a little piece of something that we can take home with us from the show.

GLOVER: OK.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 1, 2002 - 11:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: What you are looking at here is something that's been the hottest ticket in whatever town it's been. Right now, the town is Hotlanta, right here. "Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk," this 1996 Broadway production that tells the story of the history of black America and the language of rhythm, has earned four Tony Awards, one of them by the co-creator and co-choreographer Savion Glover.
Now, check this guy out. Savion Glover's all grown up, and he's brought the hit back for another national tour. The tap dancing phenomenon has gone from protege to mentor. He's actually got a little sensation of his own, as he went around the country, 13-year- old Cardee (ph) Williams, who is a featured performer in the production, and as you can see, folks, they join us right in Atlanta.

Good to see you guys.

SAVION GLOVER: Good to be here. Thanks for having us.

HARRIS: And I know you guys have got to be kind of tired, because you've been working on this show every single night.

GLOVER: A little bit, just a little bit. You know, we have a day off on Mondays, and we play such an intense basketball game, that it's a little jarring, but we win.

HARRIS: You know, that's one thing I'd like to see, some tap dancers playing basketball. Talk about putting some good moves on somebody.

GLOVER: Yes, man, the understudies, you know.

HARRIS: You call this guy "Big Coop." Where does "Big Coop" come from?

GLOVER: Big Coop. Whenever you look, you can start with the shoes, you can start with the mentality. It's all big, you know what I mean. I call him Big Coop, because in this world of dance, when you have, you know, a young cat coming up like this man, then, you know the intention is he has big shoes to fill. So I call him Big Coop because it's big.

HARRIS: now that's a lesson that you learned from personal experience?

GLOVER: Yes, sir.

HARRIS: And you passed it on?

GLOVER: Yes, just passing the information on, passing the joy on, you know.

HARRIS: Good deal.

The show itself is all about passing information. It's about 300 years of African-American history, but as I understand it, the idea behind the show is not just for African-American audiences?

GLOVER: Exactly. It's our show like it's a Japanese person's show, like someone from Australia -- wherever you're from, it's about the history in America. We just tell it from our point of view.

But I was told you can't tell one people or one person's culture without involving anyone else's. So it's everyone's story. We tell it through song and dance.

HARRIS: Now Big Coop, how did you get tied up in all of this? By the way, shouldn't you be in school right now? shouldn't you be in school.

GLOVER: Tutor right in the cut.

HARRIS: There you go, tutor is here, so there you go, it's all covered. How did you get him tied in together? It he too hard of a teacher on you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's all right. He's not too hard. He's cool. But he gets me.

HARRIS: Yes?

GLOVER: Does he get inside your head?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he can.

HARRIS: Now, you have been doing this show now for five, six years now? Six or seven years?

GLOVER: Yes, with a little hiatus in the middle. About five years.

HARRIS: Did you get a chance to work on any other projects in that time. I mean, this can't be all that you do.

GLOVER: Sure, sure, sure, sure. From Broadway to now, we've done -- we did a footnote -- a tour together called "Footnotes," which involved great dancers, the late, great magnificent Buster Brown, Jimmy Sly, Diane Walker. With these same guys, man, like Candy, you know what I mean, we hooked up, and now we put them through the rough. We forced them to do good shows, great shows.

HARRIS: You're working with some good material here, because as I understand it, Big Coop here, your big break in stardom was you actually took the Apollo crowd and schooled them? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

HARRIS: Now folks who are not familiar with the Showtime at the Apollo. This is a rather interesting program, lots of brothers and sisters late at night who follow the theater. If you can win that crowd over, you can you win everybody over. You must be a pretty bad dude if you can put the Apollo crowd in your hands? Nothing to say to that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

HARRIS: You guys are going to leaving here in Atlanta and going on the road from here. Where do you go from here?

GLOVER: From here, we go on to Boston. Chicago, where do we go, L.A., you know, Detroit, Flint, Michigan, all these type places. We're booked up until well until 2003.

HARRIS: For those who have the show coming to the city, what is the one part of the show they should not miss? Is there any part of the show that sells the message more than any other part?

GLOVER: I think when you see me come out and take my bow, you don't want to miss that. It's so great. No, I think the whole show is like one of those movies like if you miss the beginning, you're kind of lost until maybe intermission, but you want to get whole thing, you want to get from beginning to end, you want to -- you don't want to stay too far into intermission.

HARRIS: I wish we could get the whole thing from beginning to end here, but I am going to step out of way, because as we go to break, you guys have got to give us something, just give us a little piece of something that we can take home with us from the show.

GLOVER: OK.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com