Plastic buckets and tap shoes - now that's entertainment!
May 20, 2013 at 7:22 PM
It is possibly hard to even imagine, but out there, right now, there are people who find the notion of manufacturing and retail plastic buckets somewhat uninspiring. I know… who are these people? These poor, poor people, who lack the vision and creativity to see the potential in the humble plastic bucket? Well luckily, there are others out there who have demonstrated a bit more forward-thinking creativity - the kind of blue-sky thinking that separates the creative genius from the man in the street. Which, interestingly, is actually where we’ll find these musical maestros…
You may well have heard of the dance troupe “Stomp”. A huge West End smash (literally), Stomp performers dance and perform music with the sort of instruments you might expect to find in your local alley – dustbins, dustbin lids, brooms. Stateside, they have adopted the same idea of street instrumentation, but using a good old-fashioned plastic bucket; the bigger ones, used for mixing plaster.
In Minneapolis, Rick and Andy Ausland have evolved a unique street act – Buckets and Tap Shoes - which they have performed outside the city’s sports arenas for almost a decade, purely for the benefit of fans heading to the game. Innovative plastic-percussionists, as well as drumming out rhythms, these two brothers also dance off against each other – tap, ballet, hip hop, modern dance – whatever takes their fancy and matches the beat of the tubs.
After performing their act at various fringe festivals, this year the brothers – equipped, of course, with their plastic tubs – have reached the hallowed halls of the city’s famed Cowles Center, with an entertaining show that mixes dance with beats; skits on commuting with surf rock music numbers. So, the limits to what can be down with a plastic bucket are limited to only one thing – the imagination.
And with street theatre there is, of course, one further use for the plastic bucket: it makes a handy container for the pound coins or dollar bills thrown in, to reward the buskers for their efforts!
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