The Copasetics at Saratoga Performing Arts Center Myers, LeRoy performer Cook, Charles "Cookie" performer Brown, James "Buster" performer Myers, LeRoy performer Roberts, Henry "Phace" performer Simms, Louis performer Concert 1989-08-03 Saratoga Performing Arts Center Little Theater August 3-4, 1989 The Copasetics at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, with Charles Cook, Buster Brown, Bubba Gaines. The fraternity of black tap dancers brought the Little Theatre audience at Saratoga Performing Arts Center to their feet with applause. After a chorus of "Take the A Train" all five-in-a-row stroll onstage and begin their Walkaround. Emcee Leroy Myers preps us for the lesson on tapology-- the science of tap dancing. His logic is that if you can walk you can tap dance-- but don't kid yourself-- no one can walk better than these guys-- Charles "Cookie" Cook demonstrates a time step he'll hum "thanks for the buggy ride" until song and feet sound like a trotting horse. James Buster Brown, Baby Phace Roberts, Leslie Bubba Gaines and Louis Simms Carpenter work hard on a round of the B.S. Chorus, they settle down to rest with a chair dance, this time only the ankles and feet do the walking. Then they're up on their feet again, doing some fast-talking. Buster Brown alternating a tender rendition of Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" with funny jokes about the way people walk in New York City and finishing with a socking "Cute" his masterpiece of rapid-fire syncopations. There are two kinds of tap stylists: one stays up on the toes, the other rooted to the floor: examples given by Cook and Simms; Bubba mixes his expertise with a jump rope and tapping (he used to be a welterweight boxer) they break the time barrier, suspending it, re-accenting it, to make tap the most audible of dances. The Copasetics are serious, true-blue American time-busters who have liberated the four-square, oom-pah meter into an emerald-cut prism of sound. And you can't get any more patriotic than that. (Constance Valis Hill, "Everything's Copasetic on dance floor at Spa" Daily Gazette, Schenctady, NY August 5, 1989). Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Hill, Constance Valis: Constance Valis Hill, personal collection of tap dance materials. (). Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html James "Buster" Brown (biography) loc.music.tdabio.30 LeRoy Myers (biography) loc.music.tdabio.140 Charles "Cookie" Cook (biography) loc.music.tdabio.58 LeRoy Myers (biography) loc.music.tdabio.140 tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.607