Dancing like somebody is watching

LACONIA — Demi Remick was born in Laconia and grew up in Gilford, but her love of dance — rhythm tap, specifically — took her away at a young age, and has since brought her around the world. This week, though, her art form is bringing her back to the city, as part of Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, playing at the Colonial Theatre on Thursday, July 28.

Postmodern Jukebox is a musical revue show that takes current pop songs and imagines if they were performed by bands of bygone eras. Luckily for Remick, the show also includes a tap dancer, and, as she said, it’s one of the best jobs currently available for someone with her skill.

Remick, 26, said she was drawn to dance as a girl and started learning at studios in the Laconia area. One of the instructors organized a rhythm tap exhibition for the students, and Remick said her life was changed by that show. She was 9.

“It was like a waterfall effect,” she said. She started seeking out tap festivals, then became “obsessed,” she said, with one dancer in particular, Michelle Dorrance, who was so taken with the young dancer that she hired her to join Dorrance Dance when Remick was 15 years old.

That meant that Remick, barely a teenager, had to move to New York so she could begin her professional career.

A career in tap dance is “kind of insane,” Remick said. Unlike other dancers, who sign on with a company for decades, tap dancers are freelancers, who find work as performers, teachers and choreographers. The upside is that she’s “always doing something different,” and that she can continue to work in tap for the rest of her life.

Around the same time that Remick was getting to know her new life — which included studying all kinds of dance, while also performing as part of evening shows, and teaching at festivals around the country and world – Scott Bradlee was in his basement studio in Queens, fiddling around with an idea that would soon turn into a phenomenon. A pianist bent on proving that the songs of tomorrow would have also been great yesterday, he arranged contemporary hits for 1920s jazz, or in the style of Irish folk songs, then invited his musician friends to perform them and post them to YouTube.

It became a phenomenon, and along with thousands of views, his videos also attracted bookings from around the world, sparking the need to put together a band.

“Historically speaking, big band jazz used to always have a tap dancer,” said Remick. She wasn’t exactly trying to get that job — another dancer held that role for several years — but she said she knew it was a good gig.

“I would say this is one of the most coveted jobs as a tap dancer. You get to improvise at the highest level you want, you get to work with live musicians, you get to tour the world, and you get to get paid,” Remick said.

When the previous dancer asked to move on, she left behind a list of names and phone numbers for Bradlee to consider. He watched Remick’s videos online and liked what she could do. She said his text came to her phone out of the blue, she had no idea he was looking for a new tap dancer.

“I got a text on my lunch break, ‘Do you want to jam?’... I ran to his studio, he played ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ and I improvised,” she said. That was 2017, and she’s been tap dancing with Postmodern Jukebox ever since.

“I got to see Australia, New Zealand, all of Europe, Canada and all of the U.S. many times over,” Remick said. “I’ve done so many tours I can’t even count.”

Tap dance is one of the uniquely American performance arts, Remick said. It was created by a mix of marginalized residents of the Five Points District of New York, when African-Americans and new immigrants from Ireland crossed cultures. Keeping true to the tradition, she said she improvises every step of every performance, so no two shows are the same.

Even so, Remick said the show in Laconia might be special, as she has the chance to bring her big-city friends home for one night.

She said it’s a family-friendly show, and appeals to both fans of older music styles and to people who are only familiar with pop music of today. “It’s entertaining for all ages and all musical interests,” she said.

Remick suspects that it was just luck, or maybe an eventuality, that the tour would stop in her hometown.

“I don’t think they know I’m from here,” she said. But her people from home certainly know she’s coming. “Everyone from town is messaging me on Facebook, ‘I’ve got my tickets!’ My parents are super excited,” she said.

How about her?

“I don’t really know how it’s going to feel until I walk onto the stage. I’ve done maybe 400 shows with Postmodern Jukebox, so I don’t know how this one is going to feel.”