Music from the Sole is a New York City-based tap dance company that blends live music, choreography and improv to create unique shows. With music by composer Gregory Richardson and choreography by choreographer director Leonardo Sandoval, the group crafts performances that take an audience on a journey.
In “I Didn’t Come to Stay,” the group will explore and celebrate the beautiful complexity of Black dance and culture. The show, which is May 23 to May 26 at the Emmett Robinson Theatre at the College of Charleston, is an ode to the African diaspora it often draws from in its work.
“We made this piece in the peak of the pandemic,” said Sandoval. Along with three other members of the company from Brazil, he said they were longing to be together at Carnival. “It feels like a Carnival fever dream — like a Carnival party at home in Brazil.”
Brazilian roots, American rhythms
While tap doesn’t really play a role in Carnival – or even in Brazilian culture – it does add another layer to the performance.
“Tap is not uncommon in Brazil, but we see it more as an instrument playing a percussive line within the music for us,” Sandoval said.
Online videos of performances by Music from the Sole drive this point home. The tap adds a central beat that the musicians can follow or riff on, especially during more improvisational moments.
Every show leaves room for the unexpected
Improv is another key part of the company’s approach: while choreography is set for each show, the show allows space for spontaneous creation, even in the music.
“There is a strong, resilient influence,” Richardson said. “A lot of us are from the States but also all over the Americas, so there’s a lot of hip-hop and jazz influence, too — a lot of ways that are laid out for people to have the form of composition and put improvisation within it.”
The group makes this happen in two ways: First, the dancers and musicians watch each other to feel out how long a section should last. Second, there’s a more scripted approach — everyone knows there is “16 bars or maybe a guitar solo” worth of space to improvise.
“We work a lot in the jazz school of improvisation over structure,” Richardson said.
Dancer Lucas Santana helped Sandoval create one of the pieces in the show using improvisation.
“We did a whole night of improv and choreography in the same night, at the same time,” he said. “So maybe it’s not onstage, but the improv is in the spirit of the thing. It’s the free spirit of creation.”
The piece Santana and Sandoval worked on together is not a tap piece — it’s samba de gafieira, a Brazilian partner dance that evolved from ballroom dance.
“I wanted to do this specific dance because I had this memory of my mom and my aunts dancing together,” Sandoval said. “I only had this thought because the music Greg and the other musicians were putting together, it literally sounded like samba de gafieira. Lucas was actually leading me, watching the video of my mom and aunt and improvising off of that.”
Support system offstage shapes what happens on it
There’s a strong sense of community in the company, whether it’s taking inspiration from family members dancing at home or spending time together on the road. Music from the Sole operates like a family in a lot of ways. Richardson said many company members are immigrants, and for financial, time or green card reasons, it’s not easy for them to visit home.
“We spend a lot of domestic time together too — like in Spoleto, we are there for a week sharing rooms and a residence,” he added. “So the community aspect just comes through in the show and composition.”
While the show was created during the pandemic, certain themes related to the current presidential administration cannot be overlooked.
“Most of our concern comes from the financial side and grant distribution and how that could be affected,” Richardson said. “We definitely feel uncertain.”
While there are valid concerns following recent financial cuts to arts programs, they are not fearful that the actual art the company produces will be affected.
Richardson said if someone ever suggested they tone down the show’s identity, the company wouldn’t comply: “ ‘Better not make it too Black or too queer’ — we just wouldn’t do it.”
Santana agreed. “With ‘I Didn’t Come to Stay,’ it’s like one sparkle of hope, or a dream — something different than what we are living right now,” he said. “I like this idea of art creating this moment of suspension. It’s definitely not a political show, but it feels relevant now in a way.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO: “I Didn’t Come to Stay” will run May 23 to May 26 at the Emmett Robinson Theatre at College of Charleston.
Madey Lynch is is an arts journalism graduate student at Syracuse University.
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