Music From the Sole: Partido
Tap Dance and Live Music
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2023 at 8:00PM
VENUE Matthews Theatre
RUN TIME 60 minutes with no intermission
OVERVIEW
This ensemble of dancers and musicians, like a samba bateria during Carnival, is quickly gathering fans who are attracted by its percussive call to good times.
New Yorker
Since their first performances in 2015 at Baltimore’s Creative Alliance, Music From The Sole has celebrated tap dance'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). The tap dance and live music company comprise 15 dancers and musicians that tour across the U.S. and abroad, embracing tap’s unique blend of sound and movement. Led by dancer/choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and bassist/composer Gregory Richardson, the group has made recent appearances at Lincoln Center, Caramoor Jazz Festival, and the 92nd Street Y, among others. They are 2022 resident artists at Chelsea Factory, and recently premiered new works commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim.
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. A true dancer-musician, he was one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” for 2021, the recipient of a 2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for CreativePromise in Dance, and a 2022 NYSCA/ NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography. In 2015, with composer Gregory Richardson, he founded Music From The Sole, and their work has been presented at venues like Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center, and The Yard, Kaatsbaan, the 92Y, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim. In addition, he is a dancer with acclaimed tap company Dorrance Dance, touring across the US and abroad. Leonardo has also toured extensively as a solo artist, including at the National Folk Festival and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is deeply committed to community engagement and education, and has brought performances and workshops to schools, prisons, hospitals, and parks, including through partnerships with Lincoln Center Education and the National Dance Institute, where he was the inaugural artist in residence.
Gregory Richardson (Artistic Director, Musician)
Gregory Richardson is a composer, performer, and multi-instrumentalist focusing on upright, electric bass, and guitar. Along with Leonardo Sandoval, he's the co-creator and artistic director of Music from the Sole, as well as the musical director of the award-winning tap dance company, Dorrance Dance. As a composer for dance, he has premiered original compositions at The Guggenheim, BAM, The Joyce, and several times at The City Center of New York, most recently in collaboration with actor Bill Irwin. Gregory has participated in creative residencies at Lincoln Center Education, Jacob’s Pillow, The Yard, National Dance Institute, Guggenheim's Works and Process, and KaatsbaanCultural Park. Other credits include performing with Toshi Reagon in her opera of Octavia Butler’s“Parable of the Sower,” touring with the indie band Darwin Deez, and playing with Grammy Award-winning artists, Keyon Harrold and Marcus Gilmore.
Q&A following the performance moderated by Michael J. Love with Leonardo Sandoval and members of Music From the Sole