Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2010

Photo by Chris Betros

Taiko drums pound in the background while kids dance across the stage. But this is no ordinary performance—these are four young Japanese showing their tap-dancing skills at the Los Angeles Tap Festival. They were brought to the US courtesy of American television producer and scriptwriter Dean Hargrove as part of a project called Tap Dreams, which he hopes to turn into a reality TV series involving tap-dancing teams from all over the world.

While Hargrove’s name may not be known worldwide, there are probably very few people who haven’t seen the TV shows he has created, produced or written for: My Three Sons, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Columbo, Perry Mason and Diagnosis Murder, among many others. Yet he says he has more passion for Tap Dreams than just about anything else he’s done.

“For a long time, I had wanted to do a short film but I didn’t have any firm ideas,” says Hargrove, who was in Tokyo to film Japanese tap dancers at a Shibuya studio. “In 2004, I was thinking that there was traditional tap and the new funky, improvisatory tap, which people like Savion Glover have helped to make popular. So I made a short 14-minute film featuring new and old tap together in a number. That was called Tap Heat, and it played in a lot of festivals around the world.”

The late Gregory Hines had suggested doing a documentary showing kids all over the world doing tap, but at the time, Hargrove was busy with his television work. That changed last year.

“In February 2009, I thought it would be time to pursue this. [Renowned tap dancer and choreographer] Chloe Arnold and her sister were organizing a tap festival in Washington, DC. We held an open audition, and about 50 kids came in and we narrowed it down to two boys and two girls for the final.” Hargrove’s idea for the TV series involves these four finalists competing against crews from Japan and China. He also hopes to go to Brazil and Australia, then back to LA, Chicago and New York, where finalists will compete in one large competition by year-end.

Hargrove says he was impressed by Japanese tap dancers. “I wasn’t prepared for the quality I saw here. Tap dancing is an American art form, and even though it was brought over here in the ’30s, it is not something that we Americans tend to associate with Japan. The kids we saw are totally dedicated… When they are out of school, they are tap dancing, up to four hours a day. In Tokyo, we had around 50 at the audition, ranging in age from 6 to 24. When you talk to these young people, they feel that they are making their own music. A lot of them prefer it to hip-hop, which is interpretive.”

Tap Dreams has certainly given the 71-year-old Hargrove a new passion. “All my life, I’ve done a lot of television, almost entirely filmed dramas.

“I sort of stumbled into doing this, and I’ve never had a better time in my life. I still have a couple of TV drama projects brewing and I’ll probably have to do them, but given a choice, I’d just do this.”

Of course, Hargrove will always be remembered for those vintage TV series, some of which are now considered classics. “I always thought Columbo was a very good show. It has been a big hit in so many countries, including Japan. It holds up well. On the other hand, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. recently came out on DVD and I did some interviews for it, and I have to confess that I thought some of those episodes were better in my memory than they were when I saw them again.”

What does he think of the quality of TV shows today? “Obviously, the technical standards are much higher. However, I’m not convinced the storytelling has improved that much. In some cases, it is not quite as good. On CSI, which is a wonderfully done show, a lot of the time, the stories really aren’t quite that well constructed.”

As a producer and writer, Hargrove is often approached by aspiring actors. “Where I live in Brentwood, there is a restaurant I go to, and yes, you can end up getting a lot of 8 x 10 glossies. One woman got fired from her restaurant job because she was going around to too many producers and writers who had lunch there. She actually flagged my car down to give me some of her work.”

Chris Betros is the editor of Japan Today (www.japantoday.com).