Review: Music From the Sole brings a party to the Joyce Theater
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, November 22, 2024


Review: Music From the Sole brings a party to the Joyce Theater
Ana Tomioshi, foreground left, and Naomi Funaki with fellow Music From the Sole dancers in “I Didn’t Come to Stay” at the Joyce Theater in New York, Jan. 30, 2024. The group, led by Leonardo Sandoval and Gregory Richardson, leans into tap’s oneness of dance and music for “I Didn’t Come to Stay.” (Andrea Mohin/The New York Times)

by Siobhan Burke



NEW YORK, NY.- The Joyce Theater has rarely felt as electric as it did Tuesday, when 14 musicians burst through a door at the back of the house, singing and drumming as they paraded through the audience toward the stage. Within seconds, the crowd was clapping and cheering, some people on their feet.

That party spirit persists throughout “I Didn’t Come to Stay,” the latest evening-length work by Music From the Sole, a talent-packed tap and live music ensemble led by Brazilian choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and American composer Gregory Richardson.

Tap, in any context, is at once a form of dance and music, and the company leans into that oneness, setting up porous relationships between the five-piece band and the nine dancers, all of whom consider themselves musicians. Early on, the band members leave their instruments to gamely join the dancers in a passage of body percussion — sneakers and loafers and flats stamping alongside tap shoes. Later saxophonist José Carlos Cruzata Revé wends his way through a cohort of dancers, as if it’s right where he belongs.

“We are not trying to think of ourselves as a dance company or a band — we are something that is in the blur,” Sandoval has said.

There is a skillful blurring, too, in Sandoval’s melding of movement traditions, an approach that accents tap’s African diasporic roots, teasing out Afro-Brazilian connections in particular. Flashes of samba, house, Lindy Hop and Orisha dances (which honor Yoruba deities) punctuate a steady stream of percussive footwork, a blending reflected in the soulful layers of Richardson’s original music, composed with Sandoval and the band. (Sandoval and Richardson met while working with tap innovator Michelle Dorrance and began their collaboration busking in New York.)

The hourlong work unfolds against a simple geometric backdrop, part of Kathy Kaufmann’s holistic lighting design: a circle and a triangle that, as they change hues or fade or reappear, suggest a sunset or a moonrise, the transition of day into night into day. The bright prints and slinky fabrics of Dede Ayite’s costumes evoke 1970s fashions. Sandoval has called the show a “Carnival fever dream” and “celebration of celebrations”; commissioned during the depths of the pandemic, it’s a tribute to being together, to hanging out — and maybe to staying out all night.

The company showed a shorter version of “I Didn’t Come to Stay” at Fall for Dance in 2022. (The title comes from the prologue of Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”) Could the energy of that 15-minute-or-so piece stay afloat through an evening-length work? Smartly, Richardson and Sandoval have added more shading, essential moments of softening, silence and stillness. A barefoot duet for Sandoval and Gisele Silva, their torsos undulating as they scoop and knead the air, feels like a meditation and, as it builds to a call-and-response with Revé, like a religious ritual.

The performers share an easy rapport, out of which distinctive personalities shine through. Tightly choreographed group sections, full of satisfying unison, open out onto improvisatory solos and duets — like a friendly faceoff between Naomi Funaki and Gerson Lanza, brilliant speed and precision emanating from two very different bodies. In an engrossing, too-short solo, Sandoval skates backward in big, lanky strides with a buoyancy that makes his movement look like magic.

As the work progresses, its structure meanders slightly, as if trying to stretch itself to an hour. The final moments don’t have quite the punch of the opening. But with this crew, even meandering is a joy.



‘Music From the Sole’

Through Sunday at the Joyce Theater, joyce.org

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

February 2, 2024

Rubin Museum, haven for Asian art, to close after 20 years

The power of Cute: Sweet, cuddly and taking over the world

5 takeaways from the Sotheby's art fraud trial

394 hot dog ice sculptures later, he quit his day job

Jef Geys exposes "the hidden, what one thinks one sees," in exhibition opening at WIELS

Exhibition explores the gray area between object and concept, 'If a tree falls in the forest, is it a chair?'

Who will have the biggest Grammy night?

Mike Stasny's artistic tribute unveiled at Underground Atlanta

'Painting the Persianate World: Portable Images on Paper, Cloth and Clay' opens at SCMA

The secret of Thomas Mann's translator

RR Auction's February auction showcases presidential treasures and historical memorabilia

BAM exhibition 'Washi Transformed' presents the artistic alchemy of Japanese paper in contemporary expression

Salon Art + Design announces Nicky Dessources as Executive Director

'Helen Glazer: Walking in Antarctica' opens in the Fairfield University Art Museum

Solo exhibit of work of Ken Schiano now on view at Carla Massoni Gallery

Can a piano capture the grandeur of Rachmaninoff's symphonic music?

Review: Music From the Sole brings a party to the Joyce Theater

Leather and lace for the Queen of Pop

Anne Edwards, bestselling 'Queen of Biography,' dies at 96

Tributes pour in to Chita Rivera on Broadway, where she reigned

Minute-long soap operas are here. Is America ready?

Universal Music Group threatens to remove music from TikTok

Unlocking Marketing Success: Harnessing Appy Pie AI Design Tools for Dynamic Marketing Materials

Famous Paintings: Timeless Masterpieces Brought to Life

Navigating Personal Injury Claims with a San Diego Personal Injury Lawyer

Why Roads are Turning Dangerous for Pedestrians?




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful