Tapper Great Omar Edwards has His Say
Brotherhood of Tap
Though new works like “Paradise Square” serve up a new perspective on the history of tap dancing and more than hints at its relationship to other forms of dance, tap is too often relegated to a bygone era. In order to explore the future of tap and its continued relevance, I sat down for an up close and personal interview with two of today’s modern masters — Omar Edwards and Michela Marino Lerman.
Just as the Nicholas Brothers passed down the lineage of tap to the Hines Brothers, Both Maurice and Gregory can be credited with bridging the connection between great tappers of the past and current dance and musical trends of today. Among their many disciples is Savion Glover who was a student of Gregory Hines. Glover went on to be considered one of the greatest tap dancers in the history of the artform. He even introduced new elements including a fresh pounding style called “hitting” to the dance form.
Another artist shaping the art today is the dancer and musician extraordinaire Omar Edwards — a shining star in a class all by himself. With his unique tap dancing style of “foot music” or “Afro Feet”, two terms which the dance artist himself coined. Edwards has performed on numerous stages throughout the USA, and in more than 20 countries around the globe. I caught up with this creative powerhouse on a sunny April day while he was walking his cache of canines in northern New Jersey.
I asked him, How how did you started in show business as a tap dancer?
Edwards: My story is quite interesting. Delving into how I got into show business, an old friend, a jazz aficionado, once told me that I had slipped in through the side door. That is exactly what happened.
Edwards, now 46 years old, has a centered calm about him, even while sharing the rough realities of his upbringing. He rewound his story for me, starting with my mom.
Edwards: My mother was a heroin addict in New York, but she came to America from West Africa. She was born in West Africa
Edwards was just ten years old when his mother succumbed to her addiction. His father, a certified genius. In his lifetime, he earned six master degrees. In Edward’s words, my father was a “ghetto genius who, because of his level of intelligence, remained on the FBI’s watchlist for years.” Caught in the wicked webs of poverty, his father became a victim in a robbery. He decided to represent himself in that court case. That decision resulted in his losing his case. He ended up spending 20 years behind bars.
Edwards: Losing my mother at ten was devastating. But luckily, my grandmother, who was a head nurse at a hospital, took me in. She owned a co-op in Far Rockaway, New York and gave me a middle-class upbringing. So, I literally grew up on the beach.
Edwards recalls the day his grandmother showed him a newspaper clipping of Savion Glover. She told him that the tap dance kid was his cousin.
Edwards: I thought it was cool. But I was so confused. I had only seen Alfonso Ribiero in the television commercials, and knew absolutely nothing about how Broadway worked.”
Edwards’ grandmother and Savion’s grandfather are sister and brother. Edwards knew his grand uncle Wilbert as the traveling pianist-singer who visited annually to tune his grandmother’s piano. Edwards admits that his relationship with his cousin Savion was always strange. He recalls an encounter they once had at a family reunion.
Edwards: I was on the piano at uncle Wilbert’s house trying to play the theme music to “The Pink Panther”. All of a sudden, this hand reaches over me and plays the part I was struggling with. I looked up, and it was Savion. He walked out of the room. He never said a word. That sums up the nature of our relationship for the past 35 years. Our relationship was weird. He was very aloof, very cool-hearted, and sometimes, mean-spirited. He’s three years older than I am, and I’ve always felt that he only allowed me to be around because of his mom.
Edwards was 12 years old when he saw Sammy Davis, Jr., Gregory Hines, and Savion Glover on the cover of Jet Magazine. He read the inside story, and went to see Tap, the 1989 dance film.
Edwards: That was it. I was hooked for life! I saw the movie and instantly knew that I could tap dance. I grew up a Jehovah’s Witness. One day after my grandmother and I left Kingdom Hall, I started crying. When we got home, I called my “aunt,” who was Savion’s mother, and told her I wanted to tap dance. I met her the following day at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway, for a matinee performance of Black and Blue.
The musical would go on to win a coveted Tony Award in 1989 for best choreography and a best actress award for the late, great R&B artist Ruth Brown. Performing in the show were Bunny Briggs, Jimmy Slyde, Linda Hopkins, and Dormeshia, whom Edwards would later marry.
Edwards: I was thrust in front of 13 and 14-year-old dancers who had already been working on Broadway for years, earning $1500 per week. Luckily, the doorman, John, whom I will always remember, would allow me to go backstage every night. I learned the dance the way the old-timers did. I watched and studied everyone.
Out of that Omar was allowed to sit in on a class being taught by Savion at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City.
Edwards: I was a novice, an absolute beginner, thrown into his intermediate dance class. The entire class would go right, when I went left. They’d go left, when I went right.
This was, in essence, a sink or swim method of exposing the young Omar to the world of Tap. A lesser man might of walked out with his dreams dashed by the teasing he had to endure.
Edwards: They nicknamed me the “sauce man” because whenever I danced in a group, I got lost in the sauce. I was a joke for a long time. One day, Savion came and told me I had to stop taking his class. He said I was wasting money. I was twelve and a half years old, and those words left me heartbroken.”
That was when Edwards took to the boardwalk and developed a personal relationship with the dance and the boardwalk at Far Rockaway. For the next couple of years, it was just him, his radio, tap shoes, and the boardwalk. It all paid off big time.
In 1994, Edwards met and partnered with Daniel B. Wooten, Jr., They auditioned for television’s popular Star Search show, and won first place thirteen times.
Edwards: Danny and I were at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York, when we were declared the Star Search Grand Prize winners. With that came some fame and much more work. It opened doors for me. I was hired to go on tour with Black and Blue. During the tour, Dormeshia and I were dance partners for all of our numbers, and I got to work with the great Henry Le Tang.
In 1998, Edwards released a tap dance album titled “Tap Dancin’ Is Music.” With that, he became the first tap dancer who was also the bandleader.
Edwards: I have had a love affair with the music of dance. There are people who dance better than I do. But they cannot express themselves the way I can through dance. At the end of the day, show business is all about storytelling.
Edwards was a featured dancer in the Broadway show Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk, and was featured in the musical movie “Camp”. He also starred as the legendary Sandman on the television show “Showtime At The Apollo”.
I asked Edwards, what do you consider your greatest achievement so far?
Edwards: have a home and wonderful children. At this point in my life, I don’t need much. The last journey for me is inner—inner engineering and meditation. Right now, I’m working with young men in the juvenile detention centers. I’m doing something called “arts therapy” where I go in with a musician and have conversations with the young men. At some point the tap shoes come out.
I can feel Edwards centered calm as if he was watching distant waves from the shoreline of his youth. What’s next on the horizon for Edwards? He casually mentions that he’ll be performing in “Hamlet” at Columbia University’s Forum Theatre.
Sensing his reflective mood, I ask him what words of advice would he give to a 12-year-old Omar Edwards, now? “Don’t change a thing, kid. You’re a good guy.”
Innovative dancers like Edwards and his unique personal style are not the only thing that is changing tap dancing today. An elite group of women are joining their ranks. I caught up with one of them after her recent show, Once Upon a Time Called Now at the Joyce Theater in New York.
(click HERE for part III)