Sunset Wednedsays: Music From The Sole

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Tap, percussive dance, samba, house and live music come together in I Didn’t Come to Stay, commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum and first supported with a bubble residency in summer 2020. In the work, Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and bassist and composer Gregory Richardson lead eight dancers and a five-piece band in a performance that explores tap’s lineage and connections to other Afro-Diasporic forms. Together the pair embrace shared roots across the diaspora and reflect on racial and cultural identity, while also celebrating the joy, strength, depth and virtuosity of Black dance and music.

Choreography
Leonardo Sandoval, with improvisation by the dancers

Music
Gregory Richardson with Leonardo Sandoval, José Carlos Cruzata Revé, Josh Davis, Noé Kains, Jennifer Vincent

Dancers
Naomi Funaki, Orlando Hernández, Roxy King, Gerson Lanza, Leonardo Sandoval, Lucas Santana, Gisele Silva, Ana Tomioshi (Dance Captain)

Band
José Carlos Cruzata Revé, Josh Davis, Noé Kains, Gregory Richardson, Jennifer Vincent

Costume Design
Dede Ayite

Dramaturgy
Tiffany Rea-Fisher

Choreographic consultants
Gisele Silva, Lucas Santana

Music From The Sole is a tap dance and live music company that celebrates tap's Afro-Diasporic roots, particularly its connections to Afro-Brazilian dance and music, and its lineage to forms like house dance and passinho (Brazilian funk). Led by Brazilian dancer/choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and by bassist/composer Gregory Richardson, their work embraces tap’s unique nature as a blend of sound and movement, incorporating wide-ranging influences like samba, passinho, Afro-Cuban, jazz and house.

Since their first performances in 2015 at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance, Music From The Sole has grown to a group of 15 dancers and musicians, touring across the US and abroad. They have received support from the New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, New Music USA, and Dance/ NYC, and recently premiered new works commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim.

As part of its mission to bring tap dance, America's original vernacular dance form, to new audiences, they appear as both a dance company and a band at dance and music venues. Recent credits include appearances at Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, the Guggenheim Museum, The Yard, Kaatsbaan, Portland Ovations, Caramoor Jazz Festival, Bryant Park, the 92NY, and Tap in Rio. They are 2022–23 resident artists at the 92NY, and partner frequently with organizations like the National Dance Institute and Lincoln Center Education, engaging through dance and music with communities across NYC and beyond.

Leonardo Sandoval (Artistic Director & Choreographer, Dancer)
Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval is renowned for blending America’s great tap tradition with Brazil’s rich rhythmic and musical heritage. He founded Music From The Sole with composer Gregory Richardson in 2015, and he has been a core member of Dorrance Dance since 2014. As a solo dancer and choreographer, he has appeared at the National Folk Festival, Caramoor Jazz Festival, and he recently created a work as part of composer Philip Glass’ 85th birthday celebrations. A true dancer-musician, he was one of Dance Magazine’s “25 To Watch” and is the recipient of a 2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise, and a 2022 NYSCA/ NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography.

Gregory Richardson (Artistic Director, Band Leader)
Gregory Richardson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist focusing on upright and electric bass, and guitar. He is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Music From The Sole, and the musical director of Dorrance Dance. As a composer for dance, he’s created work at Lincoln Center Education, Jacob’s Pillow, The Yard, National Dance Institute, Works & Process, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Joyce, and New York City Center, most recently in collaboration with actor Bill Irwin. Recent credits include performing with Toshi Reagon in her opera Parable of the Sower, touring with indie band Darwin Deez, and playing with Grammy-winning artists Keyon Harrold and Marcus Gilmore.

Dede Ayite (Costume Designer)
Dede Ayite is a two-time Tony nominated costume designer. Her Broadway credits include American Buffalo, How I Learned to Drive, Chicken & Biscuits, A Soldier’s Play, Slave Play, American Son, and Children of a Lesser God. Select Off-Broadway: Merry Wives (The Public); The Secret Life of Bees, Marie and Rosetta (Atlantic); By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Signature); School Girls… (MCC). Awards: Obie, Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, and Jeff Awards.

José Carlos Cruzata Revé (Band)
José Carlos Cruzata Revé is a NY-based saxophonist from Holguín, Cuba, and a founding member of Music From The Sole. After studying at the National School of Art in Havana, he began playing with prominent Cuban jazz and salsa bands, like Juan Formel y Los Van Van and flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortez. He has taught for the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance, and is currently working on a new album of original music, Árbol Genealógico.

Josh Davis (Band)
Josh Davis is an NYC-based multifaceted drummer, arranger and composer. Originally from Detroit, Josh has toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Brazil and Japan, playing a wide variety of genres at venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Blue Note, The Kennedy Center, Sziget Music Festival, and Detroit Orchestra Hall. He currently leads his own NYC-based jazz trio and co-leads The New York Gremmies, an original instrumental surf-rock trio. Josh joined Music From the Sole as one of the original band members in 2016.

Naomi Funaki (Dancer)
Naomi Funaki is a tap dancer from Tokyo, Japan, currently living in NYC. In addition to Music From The Sole, she has performed with Ayodele Casel, Dorrance Dance, and Caleb Teicher & Company. She is an alumna of The School at Jacob’s Pillow 2017 tap program. Other recent credits include Tap Family Reunion, Vail Dance Festival, Dance Against Cancer (Lincoln Center), Ayodele Casel & Arturo O’Farrill and “Chasing Magic“ (Joyce Theater), and “Infinity” in Tokyo.

Orlando Hernández (Dancer)
Orlando Hernández has performed around the US and abroad, including at On the Boards, the Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, the Guggenheim, City Center, the Royal Theater Carré (Amsterdam), and La Casa Ruth (Puerto Rico). In addition to his work with Music From the Sole, he is a member of the company Subject:Matter and dances with Michela Marino Lerman’s Love Movement and Danny Fisher-Lochhead’s Tap Quartet.

Noé Kains (Band, Company Manager)
Noé Kains is an NYC-based pianist and singer. He studied at Brussels’ Royal Conservatory, the UK, and Israel, and has appeared in solo recitals, chamber music, and concertos. Recent credits include performances at the Guggenheim, Jacob’s Pillow, Walters Arts Museum, The Yard, and The Glass Etudes, in celebration of Philip Glass’ 85th birthday. Noé holds a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of St Andrews, and was a research astronomer until returning to music full time.

Roxy King (dancer)
Roxanne “Roxy” King is a tap dancer and teacher based in Washington, D.C.. Roxy trained at the Metropolitan School of the Arts and the School at Jacob’s Pillow, and has since taught at festivals across the US and Brazil, including Riff Dallas, DC Tap Festival, and Tap in Rio. She started dancing with Music from the Sole in 2020, and has also performed with Love Movement and as a guest with Dorrance Dance.

Gerson Lanza (dancer)
Originally from Honduras, Gerson fell in love with tap dance shortly after moving to New York City in 2001. He trained under Omar Edwards and with Joseph Webb at the Harlem School of the Arts, and has since taught and performed across the US and internationally including in Brazil and around Europe. He is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of Maryland, and is a 2021-22 artist in residence at the Strathmore Arts Center.

Tiffany Rea-Fisher (Dramaturg)
Tiffany Rea-Fisher is a National Dance Project winner, 2022 Toulmin Fellow, John Brown Spirit award recipient, and was awarded a citation from the City of New York. She is the Artistic and Executive Director of EMERGE125, has been commissioned by companies like Dance Theater of Harlem and Dallas Black Dance Theater, and presented works at the Joyce and the Apollo. She curates the Bryant Park Dance Summer Series, providing free art access to thousands.

Gisele Silva (Dancer)
Gisele Silva is a LA-based multi-form dancer, instructor and choreographer from Brazil. In addition to dancing with Music From The Sole, she's a member of Chloe Arnold’s Syncopated Ladies and Viver Brasil Dance Company. She performs regularly on TV and tours all across the US. Recent credits include New York City Center, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, Harlem Stage and recently-released Apple TV+ musical film, Spirited.

Lucas Santana (Dancer)
Originally from Pernambuco (Northeast Brazil), Lucas Santana started studying tap at 8 and has since performed across Brazil, on TV, and, with Music From The Sole, at Jacob’s Pillow, The Yard, Harlem Stage, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim. Lucas also directs the group Afetos Sonoros in Rio, holds a philosophy degree from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, and is pursuing a master’s degree in Theatre at UdeSC in Florianópolis.

Ana Tomioshi (Dancer, Dance Captain)
Ana Tomioshi is a Brazilian multi-style performing artist, choreographer and instructor, currently based in Washington DC. She is an alumna of The School at Jacob’s Pillow’s tap program and has performed at The Kennedy Center, São Paulo Municipal Theater, The Yard, Harlem Stage, Portland Ovations, Battery Dance Festival, and Rock in Rio. Ana also dances Sole Defined, directed by Quynn and Ryan Johnson, and is on faculty at the Metropolitan School of the Arts.

Jennifer Vincent (Band)
Bassist and cellist Jennifer Vincent has been an active force on the NYC music scene for over two decades, playing and touring with the likes of Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Willie Martinez y La Familia, Carmen Lundy, Harry Whittaker, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Her teachers have included jazz icon Ron Carter, Andy Gonzales, Ed Bennett, Buster Williams, and, in Cuba, the legendary Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez of Buena Vista Social Club.

I Didn’t Come to Stay premiered on April 11, 2022 at the Peter B. Lewis Theater, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY.

I Didn’t Come to Stay is a commission from Works & Process at the Guggenheim and was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The piece’s creation was also supported by a 2022 grant from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, a 2022 APAP ArtsForward grant, and a Seed Fund for Dance grant from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, thanks to the support of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Music From The Sole is supported by Dance/NYC’s Dance Advancement Fund, made possible by the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Ford Foundation, and by grants from New Music USA and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

The work was created with the support of a summer 2020 Works & Process bubble residency at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, as well as residency support in March 2021 from The Yard, an April 2021 Pillow Lab residency at Jacob’s Pillow, a 2022 Creative residency at Chelsea Factory, and a March 2022 Works & Process LaunchPAD “Process as Destination” residency at Catskill Mountain Foundation.

Music From The Sole is supported by Dance/NYC’s Dance Advancement Fund, made possible by the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Ford Foundation, and by the New York State Council on the Arts.

Wave Hill
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Gabriel de Guzman, Director of Arts & Chief Curator
Betsey Perlmutter, Curator of Performing Arts

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