That Old-Time Charm: Jared Grimes Puts Tap on Top
Walking down the street, like other New Yorkers on a frosty afternoon, Jared Grimes wears a hat and coat to ward off the cold. He talks on his cell phone to ward off lost time. A busy day, just like many others, lies ahead. Still on his phone when he enters the coffee shop, he has an easy familiarity about him as he looks over, nods and smiles. He hangs up, sings a few words of the jazzy song playing over the shop’s radio and says, "Hello." This is our introduction, but its clear in an instant that he is as natural and approachable with everyone—no need for stuffy formalities.
The words "tap dancer" wouldn’t begin to describe Grimes’ capacity, but this title is certainly a good place to start. It’s definitely the dancing, maybe the singing and acting, or simply just the magnetism of his comfortable charm that has already made him a success. He has toured with musical artists, produced dance shows, acted in movies and recently danced at the Kennedy Center to kick-off the Inauguration. But it was absolutely the tap dancing that got Grimes started; it all flourished from there.
Born in Jamaica, Queens, he stated dancing at age 3 to expend his surplus energy. Rather than using prescriptions like Ritalin to calm him, his mother opted for a more organic approach: dance.
“I started doing a little ballet; didn’t really like that. My dad was like, ‘Don’t make the boy do what he doesn’t want to do,’ because I didn’t want to wear the stuff,” Grimes laughs. “Jazz was cool, but tap, it made noise and it was loud. I was a little kid, so I wanted to be loud and rowdy and make noise.”
Tap took a front seat, as Grimes’ mother had him try many different dance styles and classes. It quickly became his focal point. With the careful guidance of various teachers, he took his dancing beyond technique, exploring tap’s multidimensional history.
Beginning with a teacher everyone called “Auntie,” he found himself mesmerized by tap. His mother, a dancer and teacher, also made a lasting impression. He remembers sitting in the audience as a child, watching his mom on stage and thinking, "Wow that’s my mom!" Once he moved to North Carolina, he learned about the contributions of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Ginger Rodgers. Also influential in Grimes’ dance education was Gene Medler, of the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble.
“He gave me the whole shebang, everything. He really educated me about anybody who was anybody in tap throughout history, and also the present, which I didn’t really know about,” Grimes says. “After Gene it was like, ‘Fly, fly away Jared. Do your thing.’”
Grimes has an energetic quality and his enthusiasm is palpable. He takes a moment to wave to a puppy outside the window. He has showmanship just sitting in his chair, from a tug at the brim of his hat to animated hand gestures.
He began cultivating this trait at a young age, first performing in “Showtime at the Apollo” when he was 10 years old. “I did ‘Sweet Georgia Brown,’ and some girl beat me. She was singing gospel," he says. In addition to TV shows, he did Coca-Cola and department store commercials as a young adult, usually tap dancing.
Later, Grimes toured with the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, gaining unique experiences and self-evaluation. “It brought me back down to earth,” says Grimes of his confidence, although, making a point to mention his mom raised him well and taught him to be humble. “When I started going around to St. Louis, Chicago and New York, you start seeing all these other kids that were my same exact age and were just as good, maybe better. And I was like, OK, it’s time to work,” says Grimes. “I’m one of those people, I’ve always wanted to be the best, different and the best…in my own direction.”
Photo by Jaqlin Medlock
Touring presented him with some challenges and battles with insecurities. These are always lessons necessary to individual growth. This is when he realized the importance of learning different styles and techniques, something that would later become his singular distinction in the entertainment world.
When Grimes moved to New York City, he took classes taught by hip-hop star Rhapsody. He describes her as a mentor, showing him the way “outside of his tap shoes.” A motivational teacher, she pushed him down the right path, polishing his technique.
At 18 (his first year in New York), Grimes auditioned at Broadway Dance Center for a spot in Rhapsody: The Company, a troupe undefined by a specific style of dance. He performed with the company for a number of years, returning from his travels and rehearsing right before a performance.
In 2001, he was recognized as the Donna Reed Foundation National Scholar after their weeklong workshop in Denison, Iowa. Although receiving the award was wonderful, Grimes vividly remembers the acting classes.
“It was fun, it was far, it was like arts camp, and I was the best kid in camp,” says Grimes. “It’s like, when you go to camp and something like an award or trophy happens, but you remember that girl from camp or something like that. You go to camp and you learn all these things, but there’s that one thing that really sticks out. For me, it was acting class.”
In New York, Grimes landed his first big role in the 2005 movie “Little Manhattan.” Though it was a dancing role, it did not involve tap. He proved he was able to book jobs utilizing all the skills he had learned. “It was one of the first jobs that I was there with all jazz dancers and theatrical dancers, and I was able to get a job out of just being me,” says Grimes.
Afterward, he appeared in “First Born,” and is now awaiting the release of “The Mark Pease Experience” (starring Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman), which has given him an opportunity to show his comedic side.
All the while, he continued in his dance aspirations, working with Justin Timberlake’s choreographer Marty Kudelka, whom he had been a long-time admirer. Last minute and originally on his way to class at Marymount Manhattan College, he auditioned for Mariah Carey’s tour. The producers were looking for just one dancer, and Grimes landed it.
However, his first love, tap, has certainly granted him the greatest revelations. The first time he performed with Gregory Hines, he was 16 years-old. In class, Hines selected him to perform one of his combinations. They traded back and forth for a little over a minute. “I had a conversation with my feet with one of the greatest tap dancers to ever grace this earth,” recalls Grimes. “I mean, at that point I could get hit by a bus, and I’d be good.”
The star power and charisma that made Hines so great interests Grimes. Hines, along with Sammy Davis, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, were multi-talented. They could do it all, but tap was their catalyst and passion. Grimes looked back on that moment dancing with Hines, realizing he wanted to be like them rather than a “commodity of the moment.” He wanted to give audiences something fresh, something innovative and something dynamic.
“It was about the energy, and I was always fascinated by how [Hines] and Sammy used to light up a room without even doing anything. I asked myself, 'Do I have it? I don’t know if it’s there. Can I get that? Can you buy it somewhere?' But I was always fascinated with that first.”
Grimes’ style combines both hip-hop and tap. To him, they are two distinctive elements that come together and compliment each other. Tap helps his rhythm and musicality while hip-hop allows him to better engage the audience.
“Sometimes when you’re tap dancing you can get caught up in just making music. You’re not really drawing the audience in, which are not how old tap dancers used to dance because they actually used to dance. For a while we just tapped without the dance,” he says.
This is the direction Grimes is going, and what he believes should become the next standard of tap. “We have to do more than just tap to get through doors, break barriers down; having people finally notice tap dancers again because we don’t just tap. Tap dancers are at the bottom of the food chain, and I feel like in order to get to the top we have to eat every meal, and eat it well so that we can sit on top.” Now a teacher at Broadway Dance Center (something many in their 20s can’t put on their resume), he got his teaching legs by substituting Rhapsody’s classes. Grimes was able to attract followers of his own, and upon her return was given his own classes.
His recognition has reached a much larger scope. On January 19, 2009, Grimes performed at the Kennedy Center for President Obama’s Inauguration. On stage with Wynton Marsalis and his quintet, he danced before hundreds of people.
“I get there and backstage it’s all celebrities, and I’m like, 'It’s time to throw down.' And it was fun,” says Grimes. “We did ‘Sweet Georgia Brown,’ ironically, but it was a different version from when I was little.”
Although President Obama could not make the performance, Grimes was honored and excited to be a part of the event, especially live with master musician Marsalis. “I was like, 'You know what Jared, you are going to D.C. around one of the biggest historical moments and you’re performing in the name and respect of the first African-American president.'"
With these substantial career highlights in tow, Grimes still has a lot of ideas ahead. After all, he is only 25. He is currently choreographing a Cirque du Soleil show, which opens at the Beacon Theatre in New York City in 2010. A show catered to virtuosity, it features tap dancers that can sing, act and perform comedy.
“I set out to bring the industry to me when I came to New York, and it’s a perfect example of how, if you work hard and you stay strong in a certain direction things will actually present themselves,” he says of his newest endeavor.
A style all his own and the dedication to match, Grimes has set out to blaze new trails. Individuality has always been the difference between good and great. “I remember sitting in my apartment and I was like, 'By the time I’m 23 something big is going to happen.' Then, I remember five minutes later being like, ‘Ok maybe 25.’ I’m 25 now and I’m on schedule. I’m trying to put tap dance back on top.”