92NY Presents Music from the Sole: Partido
The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center’s 2022/23 Mainstage Series continues with Partido this Thursday, December 22. Partido is an evening-length work of tap dance, body percussion and live music that explores the convergence of percussive dance with contemporary urban dance and music in the US and Brazil. Developed for Music From The Sole, and initially spurred by Leonardo Sandoval’s experience as an Afro-Brazilian immigrant in the United States, the piece celebrates and highlights the deep connections between Afro-rooted culture in both countries, connecting tap with styles like samba and house dance through shared rhythms and footwork.
Partido is the synthesis of our artistic relationship: Leonardo lives and breathes Afro-Brazilian rhythm and music, which he has incorporated into his dancing and choreography, to create such a distinctive voice, and Gregory is fluent in a wide range of musical styles, from funk, soul, and rock to house. Working together, and in collaboration with the dancers and musicians, they compose music-driven choreography and movement-driven music, incorporating the percussive dance music to the rest of the instrumentation from the start. The music and movement they make digs into each of their backgrounds and trajectories, and especially into their understanding of tap’s essence as a crossing point for Black dance and music. Partido was their first full piece exploring these themes explicitly. It was first presented as a work in progress at The Yard in 2019, and the current version premiered in November 2021 at Harlem Stage.
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 and 2022/23 Harkness Dance Center Artists in Residence Leonardo Sandoval (2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise) and 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.
Partido choreography is by Leonardo Sandoval, with improvisation by the dancers. Music is by Gregory Richardson, Leonardo Sandoval, José Carlos Cruzata Revé, and Noé Kains. Featured dancers are Naomi Funaki, Orlando Hernández, Leonardo Sandoval, Lucas Santana, Gisele Silva, and Ana Tomioshi
Partido runtime is 55-60 minutes (varies due to improvised segments). The performance is in 92NY’s Kaufmann Concert Hall and Thursday, December 22 at 7:30 pm ET and available online for 72 hours starting at noon on Friday, December 23. Tickets begin at $20 and are available here.