Backed by a Jazz Quintet, Tap Master Is as Big as All Outdoors

Originally billed as "Savion Glover and Guests," this show could have become "All Savion All the Time"—surely to no one's complaint. Tap's hero certainly gave another one of his life-altering performances, inspired by the great quintet he's dubbed the Others, galloping to "Inchworm," threading sound through the floor to gentle reggae, rethinking notions of time and homeland in his clear, shapely "Stars and Stripes Forever for Now." But suddenly, up from the audience rose a tyke named Mecca (age unknown) who charged the stage and wouldn't turn it loose, delighting in his ability to jump and stomp with watchers. And Glover's sidekick Marshall Davis Jr. drilled the wood with something of the matter-of-fact toughness of his early mentor, Steve Condos. Davis's momentary duet with Glover—who should be called "Butterfly," but someone else got there first—was the perfect blending of air, fire, water, and earth.