It’s FRINGE time! The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, one of my favorite times of the year, is when the city explodes with performances of all kinds, big and small. The festival runs Sept. 7-24 and features more than 1,000 performances by national, international and Philadelphia-based artists of all disciplines. For three weeks, these innovators fill public and private spaces across the city with non-stop wild creativity. I’m partial to the dancers, like festival favorite Brian Sanders, the insanely creative Gunnar Montana and the talented Men On Tap. I spoke to one of the tappers, Chris Hatfield, as he was stepping into his shiny shoes for rehearsal.
Okay, let’s start at the “tap.” See what I did there? Where are you originally from?
I am from Southwest Philadelphia. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, though there was a short window, when I was up in Reading to go to Albright College. But except for that, I’ve been basically in Philadelphia.
What were you studying?
Biochemistry.
Funny. I do mock patient work over at Drexel. We assume characters and symptoms for med students and one of my fake personalities is a biochemist. Tell me something about the family.
I’m from a small family. It was just myself, my mother and my grandma. We lived with my grandma while my mom worked and other than uncles and cousins and other extended family, that was about it.
What was a favorite dish that your grandmother made?
My grandma was all about her roast beef on Sunday. That was always a big deal in the house. We did it just about every Sunday. Sometimes, some of my uncles would come down for that too. That was a favorite dish of hers to make. She was Pennsylvania Dutch, so a lot of good cooking!
Yum! You’re making me hungry. What’s a trait you think you might have inherited from your mom? And what did she do?
A trait that I inherited from my mom? Hmm, throughout her working life, she always had a drive to be the best she could be at what she was doing. I saw her do that in the financial world and then when she transitioned to become a school teacher. [She was] always preparing or over-preparing and working just really hard to be the best you can so you can be in service to other people.
So mom was a teacher?
Yeah, in the last, I guess third of her career. She transitioned from the financial world to the education world.
Well, that’s admirable. What was little Chris like? What would mom say?
I guess I was kind of shy. I’m not really sure what she would say. I could be funny. I could be shy. I never really thought about it to be honest.
What were some extracurricular things you liked doing when you were younger?
I played basketball for a little while when I was around 10 or 11. I did that for about three years. I spent a lot of time in YMCA camps, so we hiked and did things like that. We had a big thing for baseball too. It was a common bond I had and still have with my mother and was something she had with her father. I’ve been going to Phillies games since I was like four years old. Even now, we have a partial season plan for the Phillies games. We’re going to a game tomorrow. Outside of that, I like movies, a lot of reading, sci-fi and horror.
Tell me a little bit about coming out. When did you first start acknowledging it?
I think I always knew. I just didn’t know how to deal with it. I started coming out a little bit in college, but I didn’t fully come out until my mid 20s. It was a different time, especially with AIDS in the ’80s, which made everything not as exciting as it should have been. There was a lot of concern. I had friends that got AIDS and friends that died. So that may have had me be more cautious about it. I didn’t fully come out until I was about 25. Also, when I think about it, the other thing that probably held me back was that when I was younger in junior high, I was bullied a lot for being different. I probably would have come out more when I was in college, but it was a very slow process, figuring all that out.
Did the fact that you just had your mom and grandma factor in?
I think so a little bit. I sort of had a plan that I was gonna wait until I was on my own and a certain age but then in college, they were very conservative. Like very Republican kinds of crowds. Reagan was in office and that wasn’t great. He’s where all our problems started during the AIDS epidemic, so it took me a long time to kind of figure myself out.
What did you do after college?
I started working in the chemical industry, primarily working in chemical plants. I started up at the old Allied Chemical site right off of the Bridge Street exit up in Bridesburg. I worked there for about a decade and then I got another job at another Honeywell site in Delaware. I worked for Chemours which is basically the chemical wing of DuPont spun off into a new company.
When did you first tap? Was that how you first got involved in the arts?
No, I was in choir and did some singing in elementary school. I remember we sang the theme from “Welcome Back, Kotter.” I think it was in fourth grade.
That’s a great song!
Yes, I was always in choirs — the church choir, junior high choir, in high school and college. And when I left college, I still sang in the church choir for a while. I also did a little stint of theater and community theater in college and in my early 20s. Once I came out and was in the Philadelphia scene, I found the Spruce Street Singers. This was 25, probably almost 30 years ago. You had the Gay Men’s Chorus and Spruce Street and at that point, the Gay Men’s Chorus was more serious. Spruce Street was more campy, so I gravitated more towards them. And they had a group called “Men On Tap” and at every concert, they would have a skit or performance. I watched them do the tap dancing and I was curious about it. Wayne Marquardt was in Men On Tap and he also sang with the chorus, so I asked him about them. He invited me to a rehearsal and I’ve been tapping with them ever since.
How long did it take you to get proficient? How hard is it to tap dance?
It’s a lot of balance. You have to get used to the shoes, and get used to making the different rhythms with the shoes. There’s the front taps and back taps. It’s just a lot of balancing and coordination. And once you get that down, you can play with it and expand on it.
I never really thought about balance factoring into tap. Rhythm, yes. But not balance.
There is a lot of rhythm, but it’s also about balance because you’re shifting your body weight between your feet, and you have to be able to keep it fluid so you don’t fall. Just like regular dancing, or even ballet, you’re shifting your body weight, but now you’re doing it with metal taps on your shoes. You have to make certain sounds and rhythms or polyrhythms, which are more complex movements and that can be tricky.
Tell me about the show that’s happening with the Fringe.
Well, the show is the 30th anniversary of Men On Tap. It’s a retrospective of some of the best numbers that our audience seemed to like the most. So maybe a dozen different segments. And it’s also reflective of the history of the group, so there’ll be numbers from members that have been there much longer than I have. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
It sounds like it.
The other aspect of what sort of inspired me to get into tap dancing is that I also play rugby. And so I used tap dancing similar to the way they used to teach ballet to football players. It helps with coordination and balance.
So you’re a bit of a jock!
I am! And it was a surprising thing. I wasn’t really one until I discovered rugby like 20 years ago and that seemed to have stuck. It’s been a lot of fun.
So do you have to be slightly crazy to play rugby?
Totally, totally. I’m still playing and I’m like 54! And there’s no mouthguard and no padding. You just do it! It’s so much fun. We’re practicing tonight, though I’m not playing much until the tap show is over. I promised everyone I wouldn’t get hurt before the show.
I’m a big (American) football fan, but when I saw a rugby match for the first time, I thought, “Now THESE guys are tough!”
I used to watch American football until I played rugby. Now, I get so bored. I’m like, “You’re taking another break! It’s five minutes into the game!” With rugby, you just keep going. There’s no stoppage unless somebody gets hurt.
What is a crazy mishap that happened with you on stage? And what was a best moment?
Well, crazy mishaps happen all the time. It can be forgetting a piece of choreography, or a piece of costume that doesn’t behave. We worked on a Christmas show and we were all dressed up like Nutcrackers with big hats. So I had a dance turn, and I turned but the hat kept going and ended up backwards, so I couldn’t see! There’s always something that’s going to go wrong. Most times, the audience doesn’t even know. They think it’s part of the show, so you just go with it.
A favorite performance? We went to São Paulo, Brazil in early 2016. Our director/choreographer of 29 years, Corinne Karon, knew someone there and we were invited to tap dance during a carnival. A whole bunch of us went down with our families. We learned a whole piece with both characters and costumes, and had to sing in Portuguese. It’s like the Mummers Parade, but so much bigger! They had these long runways to tap on that almost looked like a NASCAR speedway with crowds on the sides. We were tap dancing until two o’clock in the morning in 95-degree weather and it was televised on international television. It was probably one of the best experiences in my life.
You said you went down with your family. Are you partnered?
Yes. My partner, Randy, and I have been together about 21 years. He came with me and we took my mom too. It was a great experience. We have friends in Brazil now. Mom’s been coming on these trips the last couple of years. I’ve taken her on some of the rugby trips when we go abroad too. She went to Sydney in 2014. She went to Amsterdam in 2018, Ottawa last year and next year, the plan is to go to the international tournament in Rome in 2024 named after Mark Bingham, the player who died in 9/11.
You a world traveler, sir?
Yeah, I can be a little busy. There’s so many things you can imagine to do in Rome, whether it’s your “DaVinci Code” adventure or your Stanley Tucci adventure with food. We’re looking forward to it.
So obviously coming out to Mom has been OK?
Yes, yes. She’s involved in most of my life. She’s a big supporter and comes to all of the rugby games. She comes to see the choir. She comes to tap dance shows, and she’ll be at the anniversary performance too.
Nice. All right, let’s do some totally random questions. When you were a kid, did you have any posters on your wall?
I did. I had a poster of the rock band Queen. The first real rock concert I saw was Queen in 1982. I got to see Freddie Mercury on their last US tour. It was great. I still remember everything.
How many hats do you own?
I probably own at least three dozen! I have mostly baseball caps. I have some leather caps. I have a cowboy hat. I’ve got hats from rugby. I end up collecting hats and end up with more than I probably should have.
Where do you lack discipline in your life?
I guess where I lack discipline is probably in taking breaks. I’m good at being really busy and planning things, but I’m not always good at taking a break and hitting the pause button from it all. And I probably could be a little neater.
Favorite holiday?
I LOVE Halloween! A few years ago, pre-COVID, I had a set of decorations on my front lawn and I dressed up as a killer clown and hid in with the decorations. As trick-or-treaters (or their parents) approached my house, I would slightly move and freak everyone out! I love embracing the spirit of the holiday and interacting with the kids and teenagers.
Something that gets better with age?
Music. I love music and as the years go by, I appreciate the good stuff even more. I like Prince. He died in 2016. He was probably my favorite. It really hit me. It’s the one celebrity death that took me years to get over. But now, they’re re-releasing the super deluxe edition of the “Diamonds and Pearls” album in October, so I’ve been immersing myself back in that era and it’s such great music. I don’t think people appreciate how good it was. And it has aged really well.
I think the same could be said about us!
Men On Tap will perform two shows at 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sept. 16 at the William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St. For more information, visit https://phillyfringe.org/events/men-on-tap.