Music From The Sole Brings I DIDN'T COME TO STAY to the Joyce

New York City's Music From The Sole will make its Joyce debut in its latest evening-length work, I Didn't Come to Stay. The exploration of the origins and worldwide influence of tap dance set to live original music will play The Joyce Theater from January 30-February 4. Tickets, ranging in price from $12-$72 (including fees), can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org. 

 

New York City-based company Music From The Sole celebrates the history and influence of tap in its Joyce debut, the evening-length I Didn't Come to Stay. Infusing their work with samba, house music, and additional forms of percussive dance, the company of eight dancers and five-piece band takes audiences on a journey through the lineage of tap dance and its connections to other Afro-Diasporic dance forms. Commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim in 2020, the piece was first supported through a pioneering bubble residency in summer 2020. Led by Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and bassist/composer Gregory Richardson, this Carnival fever dream embraces shared roots across the diaspora to reflect on what shapes their cultural and artistic identity. In an invigorating display of talent across artistic mediums, I Didn't Come to Stay celebrates the joy, depth, and virtuosity of Black dance and music.

 

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ABOUT MUSIC FROM THE SOLE

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. As part of its mission to bring tap, America's original vernacular dance, to new audiences, the company appears as both a dance company and percussive-led band at dance and music venues, including recently at Lincoln Center, Jacob's Pillow, Vail Dance Festival, The Yard, Caramoor Jazz Festival, Harlem Stage, Bryant Park, and the Guggenheim. They partner frequently with organizations like the National Dance Institute and Lincoln Center Education, engaging with communities across NYC and beyond through dance and music activities.

 

Leonardo Sandoval (Artistic Director & Choreographer, Dancer) is a Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer 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 was recently commissioned a new 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 received a 2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise, as well as a 2022 NYSCA/ NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography.

 

Gregory Richardson (Artistic Director, Band Leader) is a 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, BAM, 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.

 

ABOUT The Joyce Theater

The Joyce Theater Foundation (“The Joyce,” Executive Director, Linda Shelton), a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community for more than four decades. Under the direction of founders Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, Ballet Tech Foundation acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea. Opening as The Joyce Theater in 1982, it was named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to build the theater. Ownership was secured by The Joyce in 2015. The theater is one of the only theaters built by dancers for dance and has provided an intimate and elegant home for over 475 U.S.-based and international companies. The Joyce has also expanded its reach beyond its Chelsea home through off-site presentations at venues ranging in scope from Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, to Brooklyn's Invisible Dog Art Center, and outdoor programming in spaces such as Hudson River Park. To further support the creation of new work, The Joyce maintains longstanding commissioning and residency programs. Local students and teachers (1st–12th grade) benefit from its school program, and family and adult audiences get closer to dance with access to artists. The Joyce's annual season of about 48 weeks of dance includes over 300 performances for audiences of over 100,000.

 

The Joyce Theater presents the return of Music From The Sole in I Didn't Come to Stay from January 30-February 4. The performance schedule is as follows: Tue-Wed 7:30pm; Thu-Fri 8pm; Sat 2pm & 8pm; Sun 2pm. Tickets, ranging in price from $12-$72 (including fees), can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org. 

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