Danceworks on Tap’s Rhythmic Tribute to Founder Amy Brinkman-Sustache

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Photo by Christal Wagner

'Rythms Remembered' - Danceworks on Tap

Danceworks on Tap performs 'Rythms Remembered: A Tribute to Amy Brinkman-Sustache'

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Danceworks on Tap, the professional tap dance company founded by the late great Amy Brinkman-Sustache in 2000. Brinkman-Sustache was, in fact, a founding member of the entire, indispensable, multi-faceted Danceworks Institution back in 1992.

Under her direction, Danceworks on Tap (DOT) had presented a state-of-the-art tap dance concert every summer, until her death from cancer in 2024. Now, led by her daughter Gabrielle Sustache-Turner, and designed as a tribute to her mother Amy, the DOT summer concert made its comeback last weekend.

In her welcome speech, Sustache-Turner explained that each dance on the program was a reset by company dancers of one of their favorite works by Amy. They worked from memory and from videos of the original performances. Clips from those videos, from as far back as 2010, were screened for the audience as preludes to the live performances.

Fast Footwork

All 10 of the women dancers in the show had worked with Brinkman-Sustache for many years, many for over a decade. Sustache-Turner had danced with her mother since was seven years old. Each of them had performed in at least one of the works recreated for this concert. But the footwork is fast and complex. The video records were shot from enough of a distance to make it impossible to copy each tap precisely. The videos could, however, spur memories.

Sustache-Turner addressed that in her welcome speech, noting that her own memories of dancing as a child with her mom were much more about rhythms than detailed footwork. Hence this concert’s title, “Rhythms Remembered.”

But “rhythms” had a bigger meaning here. The dancers honored Brinkman-Sustache by showing her art in the largest sense: the music she chose, the spirit, the imagination, the discipline, stamina, and skills required, the devotion to pushing boundaries and exploring new styles.

And so, although the musical accompaniment was identical to what we’d seen in the video preludes, the live choreography was built more on the dancers’ memories of moves, feelings, sharings, and sounds.

Masterfully Alive

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Photo by Christal Wagner

Gabrielle Sustache - Danceworks on Tap's 'Rhythms Remembered'

Gabrielle Sustache-Turner performs during Danceworks on Tap's 'Rythms Remembered' a tribute to her mother, Amy Brinkman-Sustache

We saw several clips of dances not recreated in live performance, but that gave us Brinkman-Sustache’s art in some related way. Some drew audience applause, although there was no one on stage to receive it. In fact, in terms of impact, Rhythms Remembered provided ample evidence that there is absolutely no comparison between a documentary video and a live tap dance.

The live show was masterful, as I have come to expect from DOT. This comeback show was proof for me that while Brinkman-Sustache is irreplaceable, this company can have a brilliant future. Like Brinkman-Sustache, it will look to the past—the history of American tap dance born of African slaves and Irish immigrants, developed in vaudeville and theatre and films, lifted by new accompaniment, challenged by new pioneers—and to a future it will help create.

For me, this show was chance to remember that tap dance can be a form of percussion that lifts and unites a community. It holds the mind on rhythms and refreshes the brain. It’s high-level entertainment.

A surprise highlight of this show was a damn hot solo by baby boomer Bob Balderson set to a swinging instrumental rendition of “Laura.” One line of lyric was sung over the orchestra, changing “…that was Laura” to “…that was Amy.” Balderson’s endearing performance drew huge cheers from the audience.

Of the other 10 numbers, four were re-set by Sustache-Turner. We’d seen her in video dancing Just Du Et with her mom in 2012. Here she danced it solo, her original partner being irreplaceable. To open the show, she recreated Big Fun from 2011 on the full company. Her reset of Vibe from quintet with Amy in 2007 to quartet with Tina Wozniak, Rachel Payden, Kelly Ketocki Escoria, and herself, was another highlight with its lightening-like footwork. And Sustache-Turner gifted her all-ages Danceworks’ Performance Workshop students with That Man from 2014, a cute work by Sustache-Turner clearing just aiming to please.

Wozniak, a DOT member since 2003, reset the jazzy Sidewinder which she would have danced in 2006. DOT founding member Kelly Ketocki Escoria (2000), longtime members Rachel Payden (2006), Annette Smedeman (2010), and Holly Swenson (2012) also gave Amy’s art new life. Kathleen Grusenski (2008), Nicole Crew (2011), Kate Krause-Blaha (2016), and Faith Halaska completed this summer’s DOT dance family.

Payden’s reset of Sound of Sunshine from 2013 closed the show. Hard, intricate footwork by the whole company drew me back and forth between feet and faces, part of a community united by rhythm with all of its rewards—a perfect finale. Then, to huge cheers, Gabi ended the curtain call the way her mom always did, saying “Go out there now and be tappy.” I look forward to next summer’s concert.