"Tap Dogs" review: A lot of tapping

Performed with a six-member all-male cast, "Tap Dogs" is an aggressive show designed to prove that dancing isn't for sissies.

The touring show, which opened its two-day run at the Gallo Center for the Arts tonight, features a lot of kicking, stomping and manly showing off.

There's no story, dialogue or anything to watch except tapping for 80 minutes with no intermission. While Friday night's audience gave the show a rousing standing ovation, the show was a little tedious at times for me. I mean how much tapping can you really take?

The guys were all fit and looked good in their casual dress of jeans, plaid shirts, baseball hats and boots. They tapped in water, up and down ladders, up and down a pyramid of platforms and even upside down. They tapped in spotlights and tapped in the dark with flashlights. They also tapped with welding sparks flying across the industrial stage.

They beat out synthesized drum sounds on platforms and trade rhythms back and forth with an onstage percussionist. Sometimes they kicked their rhythms to techno disco music.

The show builds excitement in the beginning by pulling down a screen low so all you see is the tapping feet of the performers. In a moment of questionable low humor, a stream of liquid is shown falling on to their shoes.

First performed in Sydney, Australia in 1995, the production is too much like "Stomp," which played the Gallo Center for the Arts not long ago, but not as creative. But for fans of tap, the show provides much to admire.

"Tap Dogs" runs at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday Sept. 19 in the Gallo Center's Rogers Theater. Tickets are $45-$89; 338-2100 or www.galloarts.org.

- Bee arts writer Lisa Millegan
www.twitter.com/lisamillegan