Bill Evans founded the tap jams in 1999 to bring world class artists together with local artists and regional dance studios. The new Jam, directed by Jackie Oliver, opened for a 10th year at Keller Hall on Friday, with three of Evans’ classic pieces full of wit, inventive style and enormous variety. Young dancers from the National Dance Institutes of both Albuquerque and Santa Fe performed energy-packed choreography by Jackie Oliver and Ben Nathan.

   The  Rhythm Tap Ensemble opened with Evans’ “Freddie the Freeloader,” to music by Miles Davis. Groups entered slowly, with smooth lunges and lifted arm gestures before stepping out in sequences of mini-solos. A counterpoint of rhythms developed in three lines of dancers, who then melded into two circular patterns.

    These eight dancers were joined later in the concert by former Ensemble members and artists from New York City and Austin, Texas, Misty Owens and Brenna Kuhn, as well as Albuquerque’s Wendy Barker and Sara Hutchinson.

    The closing “Yes, Indeed!” revealed the new Ensemble in a four part suite featuring Evans’ inventive use of chairs, and drummer Stuart Smith’s  comic du-wop accompaniment on stage. Terrific technique blended with a comic progression of sight stunts.   

  Owens’ solo, “A Night in Tunisia,” to music by Dizzy Gillespie, used a strong, forceful percussive attack, with light sideways jumps. Musicians Jeff Brown and Stuart Smith complemented her intricate rhythms in a percussive give-and-take.

   Seventeen young ladies from the Fishback Studio spun and kicked into many fast-changing formations in a 1950s Radio City rendition full of vigor and style, to “Swing Out” by Duke Ellington.

   Ensemble member Robbie Peterson choreographed and danced “Where did my Baby Go” with impressive technique, but needs work on his dramatic and personal projection to an audience.

   Wendy and Zane Barker, with pianist Jeff Brown, danced a Mozart variation on a French nursery rhyme, “I will speak to you, Mama,” but to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Titled “Twink,” the duet began with simply stated gestures and developed rhythmically into a jazzy variation on the theme. It ended with a charming tableau of father’s head resting and listening on the future mother’s abdomen.

  Ben Nathan, who works with NDI-New Mexico students, and formerly with NDI under Jacques d’Amboise in New York, performed “Improvisation,” a classy little solo framed by moves and taps of students Guy Mannick and Jesse Martinez seated on chairs. Nathan and Brown created the music, with Brown on piano.

   Classic choreography by Cholly Atkins, Honi Coles and Bill Robinson, “A Sweet Suite,” brought the expanded Rhythm Tap Ensemble on stage with a soft blues section, a fast, foot-brushing, finger snapping second part, and a third section with Kuhn, Oliver, Owens, Hutchinson and three men.

   Albuquerque NDI students appeared in the second half of the program with choreography by Oliver that was full of fun and space devouring combinations. “The Foot Percussionists,” featuring Donne Lewis and percussionist Stuart Smith, was performed mostly on a small platform with lots of dynamic and loud percussion, but the recorded music in the background confused the rhythmic structure on stage.

  Nathan’s Santa Fe NDI kids, older and a bit more experienced than the Albuquerque group, danced “Sudz” with a cluster of fast tapping heels at center stage.

   Oliver’s rendition of an excerpt from Evans’ “Gershwin Preludes” was a delight to watch with lyrical, full body expression of the melodies, while her feet tapped out the bass rhythmic structure.

   Kuhn developed a warm, open relationship with her audience in “Fly Me to the Moon,” a solo with Jeff Brown on piano playing the song by Bart Howard. It was a rhythmic conversation that grew into unison rhythms. Kuhns’ clear focal changes delineated her motifs.        

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