Colburn School Zipper Hall – February 21, 2026
Let’s start by saying I LOVE a good tap number. I have occasionally left a musical saying “It’s was good, but it could have used a tap number.” I also love jazz of many kinds so when Julie suggested we attend “Jazz On Tap” at the Hollywood Bowl last year, I was all in. And what a disappointment that was. We just hated it. So when I saw the description for Colburn’s Tap Fest, I had mixed feelings. I consulted with my coworker and fellow jazz AND tap enthusiast Emma and she took one look at the flyer and said, “I know Derek…and I know Sam…” so we decided to give it a try.
It was wonderful. I had a smile on my face from beginning to end. Emma picked me up and we made our way Downtown. There was an event at the Colosseum. I wish I would have checked. I checked Crypto.com/Staples Center and it looked fine. Even with traffic crawling on the 10, we made it with about 15 minutes to spare. We parked across the way at Disney Concert Hall as was recommended by Colburn and it was super easy to enter from Lower Grand as is my custom for WDCH events. We paid our $10 and parked in my usual spot on level 6. When we exited WDCH, we went toward the Music Center to get to the cross walk and then realized we should have gone toward the Broad, but it only cost us half a block. I’d gotten our $35 seats in Row D. Next time I will go up 2 or 3 rows because as you can see, we were pretty close to stage level. For a tap concert, that’s good though. We were also right at foot level.
This show was a showcase for the Colburn Tap V class of advanced tappers. This is a thing Colburn does – they bring in professionals to perform alongside their students. My guess is that the students also had a master class with the pros. The evening opened with a jazz quartet playing Waltz For… followed by an introduction by Johnnie Hobbs III. The Tap V students took the stage and danced to Popular from Wicked and they really were great. Up next Johnnie Hobbs danced to Blue Skies and then Josette and Joseph Wiggan treated us to Swingin’ ‘Till the Girls Come Home. Tap V was back for Recordame followed by Johnnie Hobbs, Denise Scheerer and Melinda Sullivan performing Footprints. We had Circling Back performed by Derek Grant and Sam Weber, I Only Have Eyes for You with Josette Wiggan, Cheek to Cheek with Johnnie Hobbs and Melinda Sullivan, Invitation with Joseph Wiggan, Green Dolphin Street with Derek Grant and Ariel with Sam Weber before the entire ensemble returned for Eddie’s Bounce/Shim Sham. It was all great. Like I said, I didn’t stop smiling through the entire show, which turned out to be 1 hour long. Short and sweet. We waited around with everyone’s parents and grandparents for the stars to come out because as it turned out Emma knew Josette as well and wanted to say hello and I was STILL home by 9:30. I might go again next year. Now that Colburn knows I’m interested I have been absolutely bombarded with emails about upcoming shows, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty of notice.