Phil Brooks Finds his Rhythm
Chicago Tap Theatre apprentice Phil Brooks is on the verge. “His career is taking off,” says Brooks’ current director and Chicago Tap Theatre founder Mark Yonally. “It’s inspiring.” But being “on the verge” is a process; where it leads is unknown.
Yonally first noticed Brooks, then 18—“a gangly guy” with “good feet and personality”—at the Annual New Mexico Tap Dance Jam held each spring at the University of New Mexico. But Brooks first encountered Yonally as a sophomore at his first Jam. “I had only been tapping for a year-and-a-half. Mark taught a routine. Everyone started doing it, but I said, ‘That’s ridiculous, it’s too hard.’ I freaked out and left.” But the challenge of the rhythms stayed with him.
Brooks was born in Tucson, AZ. When he was 10, his mother, a licensed massage therapist, moved him to New Mexico while she studied to become a doctor of oriental medicine and herbology. “I couldn’t stand it there,” he declares. “New Mexico is laid back; it’s a place to retire to. It’s beautiful, but not a place to grow up. There’s nothing for a 10-year-old boy to do, no stimulus.” By eighth grade they lived in Santa Fe. Across the street was Strictly Dancing Ballroom. From his window Brooks could see the dancers. He fell in love with dancing, and the studio with him, providing free lessons and training for DanceSport competition. At 16, with his supportive mother’s blessing, he took off for the Holiday Dance Classic. Alone on the Las Vegas strip, he competed in Bronze Level waltz, swing, tango and foxtrot. He took first place. Brooks chuckles a moment, as he often does when telling his story. Then, with the modesty of someone who doesn’t quite realize his own talent, says, “It’s a sport without many young men. The pickings were slim to judge against. But dancing, being on my own, it was super exciting.”
He discovered tap in the theater department of Capitol Academy Performing Arts (CAPA) high school in Santa Fe. He was working tech for "A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine" when he glimpsed the first step of the opening number—running flaps. “I freaked out it was so great! After the show I had someone teach me. I went home; in bare feet, on the carpet, I practiced until I could do them perfectly.”
A neighborhood school scholarship took Brooks to his first Jam 60 miles away in Albuquerque. Bril Barrett, Director of M.A.D.D. Rhythms, taught a section of his hip-hop "Nutcracker." Brooks discovered his feet could play a melody and rhythm tap rocked his world. Together M.A.D.D. Rhythms and Chicago Tap Theatre offered two contrasting but equally intriguing types of rhythm tap. Barrett favors “a heavier, percussive style that you can hear and feel it in your body,” Brooks explains. Yonally’s style is “lighter, more melodic and bright. If there was a band Brill would be drummer and base, Mark the sax and flute." Brooks vowed to move to Chicago. “I figured I’d adapt both to my style and be that much better off.”
Brooks spent a year as a dance major at New Mexico State University, but tap was only an elective. So Brooks “decided school would always be there.” On June 11, 2005 Brooks moved to Chicago with a “hefty savings account” and a retail job he had secured. But, Brooks’ “hefty savings account” didn’t last long in Chicago; taking classes at both M.A.D.D. Rhythms and Tap Theatre exhausted it in three months. Barrett took him under his wing, trading work for classes and putting him in the Wreck Shop Crew, an apprentice company. He stayed with M.A.D.D. Rhythms for two-and-a-half years. He mastered the harder movements and complex rhythms of the invitation-only advanced class taught by Jumaane Taylor. Preparing for a new show, Barrett asked Brooks to join the company.
But Brooks had begun thinking about what Yonally had to offer. Wanting audition experience, he took a chance auditioning for Yonally the week before Barrett’s proposal. Yonally offered him an apprenticeship. Telling Barrett “was a rough experience,” Brooks says. He was walking away from someone who had supported him, giving up a chance to become a full-fledged company member. But, "it was my next step,” says Brooks.
P. Brooks & CTT photo by Josh Hawkins
The first year with Tap Theatre was intense, stressful. During his first company class Brooks flashed back to the class he’d walked out on as a teenager. Eleven other students filled the studio his first day “and it was like, holy moly, their feet were so clean, the sound so clean, it was so darn hard. I’d stay after rehearsal and go over and over the steps until I got them. That’s what it takes. There’s no way I’m going on stage and making the company, or myself, look bad. You have to be a team player. If Mark chose me, I’d better dish it out. I worked my butt off that first year. I still don’t feel entirely comfortable.”
Learning choreography is not easy for Brooks, though he thinks his struggles make him a better teacher. “The first and second time, picking up is a challenge. Once I get it, know where the weight changes and steps are, it’s fantastic. I can do it over-and-over flawlessly.” There have been improvements along the way that hint that this may change. When he first started tap improvisation, Brooks says he would fall off of the rhythm. Now, “I’m very rarely off beat and I’m working on my phrasing. My phrasing didn’t used to make sense; it was a long, run-on sentence.” I’m focusing “on phrasing that the audience, as well as other tappers, will understand. When you’re putting on a show you want the audience to be with you.”
His ballroom training helps. “I believe that every dance [training] uses different areas of your body and strengthens others. I learned awareness, balance, structure and frame from partner dancing, all stuff you need in tap. Your frame is a good balance source, you can’t let it break, once it breaks the dance folds.” Yonally says this awareness keeps Brooks “open to the audience, chest up.” Ballroom dance also taught Brooks, who suggests all dancers take ballroom lessons, to think ahead. “As the lead you have to think a fraction of a second, three-to-five steps ahead to what’s next. It’s like chess. In competition, even though the routine is choreographed, when there’s 89 to 100 dancers on the floor you have to be so aware.”
Brooks brings some unique talents to tap, says Yonally. “Fun to ‘play’ with,” he’s “one of those people who’s really attentive, uncommonly conscientious, works hard, but can keep things light; he cracks people up. And he’s a brilliant, beautiful beat-boxer. So we’ve created a couple of pieces around his beat-boxing. And he’s a talented improviser. Even though Tap Theatre is a choreography-based company it’s a tool I draw on. I think it’s a big part of who he is as a tapper.” Brooks showed all these skills in “Mixology," a live jazz and tap show by Chicago Tap Theatre, during an improvised duet with Yonally featuring Brooks’ beat-boxing. Following the first performance the “audience went crazy.”
“I hoped I was good,” laughs Brooks, “but the experience was awesome. When I saw the video I realized how far I’ve come. I was on point that night, it was a great feeling.”
Improvisation is “near to my heart,” says Brooks. “I love it. I started improvising with M.A.D.D. Rhythms; it’s an integral part of their work. I’m always improvising. It's so much fun growing your improv. Your feet are another instrument for whatever song is on whether it’s Coldplay, or hip-hop, or R&B. Improv is an epic, a song. When you’re tapping you’re complimenting and you’re one with the music. It’s amazing! Sometimes my improvising is a problem. My girlfriend will be talking to me—she’s learning—I’ll be looking at her and I’ll be listening, but my feet are moving to a rhythm in my head. I don’t recommend it,” he laughs.
“Dance is not easy,” says Brooks, “but it’s so rewarding, so worth it. I can’t express it in words, but I love this art form so much.”
Brooks continues to apprentice in Yonally's Chicago Tap Theatre and to seek out new opportunities to share his talent and passion. Beginning January 5, with Barbara Yokom, Joffrey Ballet Academy director, Brooks will design and teach the new Academy’s tap program. Asked what he’ll tell young dancers Brooks replies, “You have to know that you’re not in it for the money, there is no form of dance where you can be in it for the money. But you gotta’ follow your dreams, you gotta’ be passionate. If you have passion, that’s all you need. That big raise? It doesn’t compare to a smile on a sidewalk."
And he’s only 24 years old.