How silly, she thought. When Janne Eraker (41) came to the Netherlands twentyyears ago to study Modern & Jazz at what was then still called the RotterdamDance Academy (now Codarts University of the Arts Rotterdam), the Norwegianhad to master mandatory tap dance steps. What could be fun about that? But herteacher turned out to be well versed in all steps and techniques and Erakergot a taste for it.
She learned how to draw two sounds from one leg movement, how to create aswinging rhythm by touching and not touching the floor with your metal soles,and how a toe-heel-toe-heel forward differs from a toe-heel-toe-heelbackwards. And also how to fly a bit by spreading your arms and shifting yourweight properly. ‘Tap means that you always and everywhere know exactly whichleg you are standing on and where your body weight is moving. You have to makesure your knees don’t lock. You can’t cheat with your balance,’ she says viaZoom from Oslo, to which she returned after further education in New York.
Next week the Norwegian will perform with her tap dance improvisation trio OneSmall Step in Rotterdam, with guest bassist Bruno Ferro Xavier da Silva, andin Amsterdam, with guest tap dancers Peter Kuit and Marije Nie. She presentsher first album Gol Variations , which was recorded entirely on the basis ofimprovisations. Because, yes, Eraker’s tap dance sounds great on CD and vinyl.After years of study and experimentation, she has become a dancingpercussionist. ‘I use my dance background to become a better musician. I liketo really move and feel the taps all over my body.”
Tap dancer Janne Eraker in ‘Rhythm is a Dancer’ (2019)Sculpture Martine Petra
She learned in America that tap dance can also be music, from minimal to jazzand from slow to swing. ‘As a black art form, tap is strongly linked to therichness of jazz culture.’ Eraker was taught by senior specialist HeatherCornell, founder of the renowned Manhattan Tap, among others.
It sometimes makes her sad that people tap dance, except at the Singing inthe rain romanticism of film star Fred Astaire, especially reminiscent of the’rather square’ Irish folk dance, in which the lower part of the body rages atlightning speed while the torso remains imperturbably straight. MichaelFlatley made it a world hit in seven minutes in 1994, when he was allowed topresent the intermission number of the Eurovision song contest organized byIreland. Although the American has since retired – his legs made him a multi-millionaire – his Lord of the Dance and Riverdance are still touring theworld. Last week Lord of The Dance was still in the New Luxor, in the springRiverdance will come to Ahoy with an anniversary show.
Not that Eraker has anything against folk dance, on the contrary. As the childof a Norwegian pastor, she often accompanied her German mother, a gynecologistwho filled her spare time with folk dance training in the Balkans. ‘Forexample, I was occasionally allowed to participate in Bulgarian folk dances.’
What she especially dislikes is the spectacle content of these kinds ofperformances. “They turn it into competitive entertainment. It revolves aroundthe hardest and fastest tricks with a lot flash steps. Lots of records, lotsof noise.’
She herself is part of a medium-sized German tap dance group, the SebastianWeber Dance Company, which creates theatrical dance performances on themessuch as the beast in man or modern folklore. Eraker is also making progress asa choreographer. She made a solo performance for herself, Rhythm is a Dancer(2019), in which she unravels the basics of tap dance steps in order toreassemble them in a contradictory way. And she has created an experimentalsolo for tap dancer Helen Duffy, a cross between a film noir and Japanesehorror. In Tap Noir , who is coming to the Motel Mozaïek festival in thespring, she creates suspense with a mountain of dazzling light from threestroboscopes. “You hear her drumbeats as you see Helen hanging alone in theair.”
She may be the only professional tap dancer in all of Norway, an exporter ofmodern jazz pop par excellence, Eraker has no regrets that she returned toOslo in 2017 with husband (visual artist Michiel Jansen) and daughter (thensix months old) . Since 2012, Norway has been supporting the top freelanceperforming artists with a fantastic system: The Alliance for Actors andDancers currently ensures income for 54 dancers and 54 actors, even when theyare not on stage. ‘You are selected on the basis of the amount of work, no onejudges about quality. You have to provide a mega schedule full of contracts,posters and program booklets as proof. But once you are employed by thisalliance, you will also continue to be paid for days on which you do notperform but invest in your profession, for example through travel,experimentation and research. Ten years ago, following the example of Sweden,they started with ten dancers and ten actors, now there are almost six timesas many. I can now build a sustainable professional career as a tap dancerwithout falling far in income every time I don’t have a job.’