IN CLOSE QUARTERS Mainly Jazz Dance Co. with guest appearance by TAPS Adams Pool Theater April 22-24

Have you ever heard a really good song on the radio, started to jam and then realized that your sad interpretation of the monkey could do no justice to the music? At last weekend's Mainly Jazz recital the dancers did what all of us wish we could do--dance the way the music intended us to dance.

The name of the concert "In Close Corners" was certainly justified--the Adams Pool Theater does have a rather intimate ambiance. The dancers managed to take this all in stride, though, using the aisles and risers with remarkable grace. The music was loud and well suited to the complicated hip-hop and jazz moves that are Mainly Jazz's style. Between the charming chair-dancing routine in Salt and Pepa's "Shoop" and a seductive rendition of Janet Jackson's "Velvet Rope," there came a point in the performance where neither Salt nor Pepa nor Ms. Jackson herself could have better choreographed the dancing to the words, melody and soul of the music.

Taps, a relatively new dance troop specializing in--you guessed it--tap dancing joined the troupe for this performance and was equally enchanting. The feet were fast, the click of the shoes faster and the audience the fastest of all to acknowledge their skill. And alas! those darn toothy smiles! These dancers all looked like they were actually having fun gyrating on the stage, an exceedingly far cry from the tense grimaces otherwise normal people might display if forced to dance the Macarena at a spring formal. And those smiles made all the difference.

Most of us readily acknowledge that we have a handicap for dancing, and those of us who don't admit it are usually the ones most guilty of starting just one more round of the Electric Slide. "Close Quarters" made all of us rhythmless people grateful (and perhaps a wee bit jealous?) that dancing can look so much like, well, dancing.