Friendly Hines does it all during dazzling performance in Orono

If you’re ever planning to go to a Gregory Hines show, here’s a tip for you. Take your tap shoes because Hines is such an audience-centered entertainer, that he may just invite you up to do a few ball-change steps with him. At least that’s what he did Saturday night at the Maine Center for the Arts, where he appeared with his band, back-up singers, and tap-a-tap-tap shoes for an evening of song and dance.

Halfway through the hour-long show, Hines invited six local tappers to take the stage with him and do a few dance combinations. He asked each dancer to do his or her favorite step, which he then performed, too. And then the group danced in a line together. “Follow me and good luck,” he said as they took off tapping. And, really, they could have all been old friends for all the smiles and good humor passed between them.

It was one of those moments that completely humanizes a star like Hines, who periodically reached into the audience to shake a hand or talk with people. One couple began looking for its front-row seats 50 minutes into the show. They began at one end of the theater, and their seats were at the opposite end of the row, so Hines tiptoed along with them and tossed good-natured jabs their way.

Most of the interaction he had with the audience was spontaneous and conversational, such as when he told about his visit to Bangor Mall and how one woman called out, “I recognize you. You’re Arsenio Hall.”

Later, during one of his tap solos, which he performed on a raised wooden stage at the front of the main stage, the audience began to applaud his prodigious tapping. He silenced them by screaming, “Not yet!” And a second time, when the applause began to rise, he quieted the clapping again by saying, “Soon!” Finally, when he was finished, he looked out to the audience and said, with an exhausted smile, “NOW!” And the house roared with appreciation.

In a era of specialization, Hines is one of those rare performers that excels in a number of artistic talents. He can sing and dance and be genuinely warm and real with a group of 1,600 people. With the accompaniment of a slick band — guitars, synthesizer, keyboards, drums, and bongos — and two bodacious back-up singers, Hines sang “stuff that deals with love” including smooth jazz, reggae, “The Power of Love,” and “The Heart of Rock’n’Roll.”

The overwhelming aspect of Hines’ show, however, was not so much his tapping, which was, tops, of course. It wasn’t just the music or the truly satisfying, New York-style of entertainment he offered.

Rather, it was watching a stageful of people happily doing exactly what they want to do, and doing it remarkably well. If anything was disappointing, it was that the show was entirely too short. An hour is simply not enough time to spend with Hines and his friends. But it was the most exciting hour that the Maine Center offered during the now completed summer season.