Only in New York? Maybe.
The dancers climbed up an eight-foot ladder to reach the flat roof where organizer Laraine Goodman had set up tap mats and a sound system. Lights shone up from below, silhouetting dancers against a purple-sequined backdrop. Anyone with the inclination was welcome to get up and dance.
When I arrived at about 8:00, the show had been going for three hours, and all of the traffic had dispersed to the suburbs, but there were still about a dozen people leaning against the metal lane divider across the street, watching.
Goodman, who directed and produced Vaudeville 2000 at New York's La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, said she was inspired by the play on words, and the idea of feet being used to dance and promote pollution-free transportation.
"I used to work as a pedi-cab driver," she says. "And we've got some good human-powered energy here."
Besides renting pedi-cabs and providing training for drivers, the Hub rents scooters, bikes, skates, and electric vehicles, says owner George Bliss. The Hub has been at its current site for the past year.
"We used to be a gas station, so it's poetic justice," Bliss said.
But the audience seemed much more awed by the tap improvisation of Michele Marino-Lerman than by any transportation ironies.
"It's completely surreal," said spectator James Pittendrigh.
But then again, maybe not so surreal. After all, the streets were where tap began.
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