Jason Samuels Smith

It's been said that the late Ann Miller could tap 627 times a minute. Jason Samuels Smith, a lightning-fast tapper himself, isn't likely to match that speed any time soon. But with his long dreads flying and his feet pounding out rhythms of Einsteinian complexity, the 23-year-old is following in the, well, footsteps of Savion Glover to help define a new generation of this quintessential American art form.

NEW YORK -- Recently on the Fox TV show "So You Think You Can Dance," there was a surprise: In between contestants, a guest artist named Jason Samuels Smith came out and tap danced, unaccompanied, for two minutes. With his goatee and dreadlocks, he seemed to fit in with the show's urban cool aesthetic, and his technique was clearly impressive -- amazingly fast, intricate. The audience shrieked. The judges stood to applaud.

NEW YORK -- Recently on the Fox TV show "So You Think You Can Dance," there was a surprise: In between contestants, a guest artist named Jason Samuels Smith came out and tap danced, unaccompanied, for two minutes. With his goatee and dreadlocks, he seemed to fit in with the show's urban cool aesthetic, and his technique was clearly impressive -- amazingly fast, intricate. The audience shrieked. The judges stood to applaud.

It's been said that the late Ann Miller could tap 627 times a minute. Jason Samuels Smith, a lightning-fast tapper himself, isn't likely to match that speed any time soon. But with his long dreads flying and his feet pounding out rhythms of Einsteinian complexity, the 23-year-old is following in the, well, footsteps of Savion Glover to help define a new generation of this quintessential American art form.

Tap dance great Gregory Hines was to have been the headliner at the first Los Angeles Tap Festival Saturday at Hamilton High School in L.A. Instead, the festival, presented by the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, will be dedicated to Hines, who died of cancer over the weekend.

If dancers are usually nothing more than sideshows or special effects in contemporary Hollywood, the annual American Choreography Awards allows them one long evening of delirious self-celebration and empowerment. Divided into eight categories, the awards honor achievements in dance on camera and often confirm the worst about the dancers' status quo. But the event itself is more a carnival of the dispossessed than a conventional, celebrity-laden trophy giveaway.

Here is the full list of winners from the 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. It includes the awards presented Sunday night on ABC and those that were bestowed Sept. 12. The Emmys are awarded by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and cover programming between June 1, 2003, and May 31, 2004. Programs Comedy series "Arrested Development," Fox. Drama series "The Sopranos," HBO. Miniseries "Angels in America," HBO. Movie "Something the Lord Made," HBO.

As much as every dancer strives to push the art form -- leaping higher, pirouetting faster and tossing off ever more buttery-soft landings -- there is one constant in dancers' lives besides the pull of gravity: the floor. Dancers have spent centuries performing on mostly wooden floors, floors affected by the vicissitudes of temperature, time and use, floors that warp, splinter and have no mercy, whether the steps executed on them are ballet, tap, flamenco or modern dance.

Writing Comedy series Mitchell Hurwitz, "Arrested Development" (pilot), Fox; Christopher Lloyd, Joe Keenan, "Frasier" ("Goodnight, Seattle"), NBC; Garrett Donovan, Neil Goldman, "Scrubs" ("My Screwup"), NBC; Michael Patrick King, "Sex and the City" ("An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux"), HBO; Julie Rottenberg, Elisa Zuritsky, "Sex and the City" ("The Ick Factor"), HBO. Drama series David Milch, "Deadwood" (pilot), HBO; Michael Caleo, "The Sopranos" ("Where's Johnny?"