Danceworks 'It's Tappening'
This dance “happening” marked the return from pandemic shutdown of the annual summer showcase by Danceworks on Tap, the longstanding company of tap dance pros and teachers from Milwaukee’s Danceworks, Inc. The title was meant as a shout of joyful relief: It’s Tappening!
The concert last weekend was a masterful presentation of the rhythm-based American art form called tap dance. There was much to marvel over in terms of skill, and with the inclusion of Indian classical dancer Cyenthia Vijayakumar and hip-hop dancer Wesley Turner, some smart surprises.
The concert began with a surprise. Danceworks on Tap’s co-founder and artistic director Amy Brinkman-Sustache hobbled slowly to the center of the Danceworks stage with a cast on one leg and supported by a walker. A recent accident involving stairs had caused the injury, but for me it somehow symbolized the crippling impact of the covid years on all the arts in town.
As her welcoming speech, Brinkman-Sustache had prepared a little comedy involving a missing scooter she’d meant to use in place of the walker, a fake cellphone call from someone offstage, and the subsequent arrival of her daughter, the company dancer and choreographer Gabi Sustache, astride the missing scooter. Just glad we were there to share her joy in the long-delayed concert, mom decided to stick to the walker. She sent her daughter off to dance.
Perfect Unison
Somehow mom had choreographed the opening number, Mnemonic. With no musical accompaniment to cue them, Gabi Sustache, Holly Heisdorf, Tori Isaac and Rachel Payden executed the rapid, complex steps in perfect unison, a warm example of life-giving interconnectedness. Their full-bodied, full-hearted rhythm-making energized and calmed the room. They set the stage for all that followed.
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A restaging by Danceworks newcomer Rich Ashworth of Laura, a dance by the jazz-age master James “Buster” Brown, followed. The accompaniment was an upbeat version of the American Songbook standard that shares its title. Isaac and Ashworth performed it as a duet, both tapping at speeds that made it hard to sit still. The audience was cheering even before it ended.
With the next piece, Colin Gawronski’s painterly lighting took on power it would hold for the rest of the program. Still There, choreographed by Sustache and performed by Sustache, Heisdorf, Kate Krause-Blaha, and Angela Weidner, was an engaging, ever-changing stream of percussive responses to music by Dirtwire.
Next was a duet titled Common Ground, choreographed and danced by Ashford and Vijayakumar, comparing his American tap dance with her area of expertise, Indian kathak dance. The accompanying music was Jugalbandi by Indianraga. Both styles depend on fast footwork—in tap shoes for him, barefoot for her. She’s a petite woman who brings every muscle to bear on each movement. He’s a big guy, virtuosic in his footwork but with a casual upper body. They find common ground in the power of rhythm.
Dancer and the Dance
Beyonce’s song Virgo’s Groove accompanied the next piece, choreographed by Isaac who performed it with Sustache, Krause-Blaha, and Weidner. Again, I was impressed by the complete absence of those time steps and flash moves so common in tap dance. Again, it brought peace.
Then Vijayakumar returned to dance Laya and Taal, with music and choreography by Guru Dr. Maya Rao. What could have been a teaching moment, a demonstration of Indian classical dance, was something so much better. We saw the complete connection between dancer and dance. It was there in her face and body. There was no climax, as in Western structures. Its series of episodes pointed toward eternity.
And Ashworth returned with Vibe, choreographed and performed by him to a song by Foy Vance of Northern Ireland titled Where Everybody Knows Your Name. I couldn’t take my eyes off his feet, tapping faster than any eye could follow. I’ve never seen the like of it. It added up to something passionate and moving, like a great drum solo.
What could follow? Well, the sheer delight of Rhythm Remix, a super-cool tap and hip-hop combo by Sustache and Wezley Turner. The tune was Treat ‘Em Right by Unwrapped. She wore tap shoes. He wore tennis shoes. She’s a member of the hip hop crew S.A.I.N.T.S. and very able to make hip hop tap dance utterly organic. Wezley was an excellent, if quieter, partner, adding beautiful B-boy flash.
Two works by Ashworth followed: Mountain Dew, danced in perfect sync without accompaniment by Isaac, Sustache, Wiedner, and Annette Smedema; and Darkest Space, danced by seven students from the Danceworks’ Tap Performance Workshop, shining in recital mode. The concert closed with Tina Wozniak’s Blue Krush danced by the professional company. What struck me in these last works was the family feeling onstage.
At the bows, Brinkman-Sustache hobbled back out with her walker to thank us and bid us to “go out there now and be tappy.”
