Gregory Hines: Singing and Dancing at Proctor's Theatre Hines, Gregory performer Concert 1994-11-16 Proctor's Theater First act comedian David Brenner. Second act rises with Hines opening with "the Rhythm is Gonna Get You" backed by two female singers and a six-piece band (the keyboardist alone playing two synthesizers and a grand piano). And they rocked. For a teasing refrain or two, Hines launched into the taps with close-to-the-floor paddle-and-rolls that were as fluent as the lyrics to the songs. But it was not any old floor. His is a specially-miked acoustic stage that allows every brush, glide or slide to be amplified. Hines is a tap dancer who, like a jazz musician, embellishes a melody with improvisational riffs. He's got the percussive phrasing of a composer, the rhythm of a drummer, the body and line of a dancer. He can fracture the tempo of a composer, throwing down taps like a handful of pebbles. He is also a people lover. After his opening song and some gulps of bottled water, he strolled into the house, shook some hands, introduced the tap dancer Peg Leg Bates, who was in the house, sang another couple of songs, then invited tap dancers to the stage to try out his new floor. It was a hoot and a holler. But with all the jokes and songs, it would have been nicer if Hines had hit that acoustic floor, that new floor toy alone and longer, pumping and grooving and laying out those metal sounds of his that sound like a one-man band. (Constance Valis Hill, "Hines Teasing and Tapping Makes the Grooves Glow" Albany Times Union Nov. 28, 1994.) Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html Gregory Hines (biography) loc.music.tdabio.106 tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.1657