James Devine'S Rhythmic Dance

James Devine's Rhythmic Dance

On Thursday, November 29, 2007, James Devine performed his Tapeire - Driven by Rhythm Concert at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts to an extremely welcoming audience in Miami, Florida. After weeks of searching for the perfect performance that would interest me, I found fourth row tickets on eBay to a sold-out concert of James Devine--the fastest tap dancer in the world. With Devine being a dancer and his own choreographer, he showed many of his phenomenal impromptu steps while the audience continued to clap for more. The use of technique, lighting, rhythm and dynamics during the entire performance bring in the audience to make the feeling extraordinary and remarkably memorable.

It is visible that the technique that James Devine demonstrates could not be achieved in a few years. Devine had his first dance lesson when he was only eight years old. As he followed in his mother's footsteps, James Devine began to love music and dance. His mother was a champion dancer, but had to stop her dancing when she was diagnosed with an illness in her legs. Even though she had her illness, she began to teach her son the wonderful techniques of dancing. By the age of fourteen, Devine had won many world dancing titles and continued to consecutively win them. In the early 1990's, James Devine even began to teach dancing lessons in Europe, Australia, and North America.

Soon after, a very famous dancer, Michael Flatley, asked him to perform in his new show, "Lord of the Dance." After the show, James Devine began dancing on his own and created his own style of tap dancing. His new style involves Irish music and speed dancing, which he calls Tapeire. A common way to describe Tapeire is a show of Stomp with a Celtic twist. Since he became well known with Flatley, shortly after, he began performing his marvelous shows.

In the beginning of the performance, the lights in the room are lowered and the stage gets darker. He begins to dance to a simple beat and his musicians continue to play simple beats on their instruments. All of a sudden, they stop playing and all of the lights are turned off. A piercing bright light suddenly shines on James Devine. He begins to dance even faster while jumping up and down and moving from left to right. The sound of his shoes on the wooden floor gives you a chill. Then all of a sudden he stops and the music slowly begins again as