For over a century, choreographers have taken live performance music and added dance, in ballets comparable to “The Spirit of the Rose” or “Les Sylphides.” Visible motion complemented pre-existing music.
Genres the place dancers make music with their toes are extra intrusive propositions, imposing an additional musical layer over the composer’s unique intent.
However, it has been efficiently accomplished with flamenco. In 1983, María Pagés added it to Bizet in Carlos Saura’s movie “Carmen,” and three years later, the 2 reconceived Falla’s “El Amor Brujo” as a flamenco ballet.
Faucet dance and classical music collaborations haven’t loved such excessive visibility, however which will very properly change with pianist Conrad Tao and faucet dancer Caleb Teicher.Within the duo’s sold-out Friday efficiency in Baker-Baum Live performance Corridor in La Jolla, Bach, Brahms and Mozart had been embellished with time steps, shuffles and turns.
The present, titled “Counterpoint,” started with Tao softly and soulfully sounding the aria from Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.” Teicher sat beside an 8-by-8-foot wooden platform. I questioned how faucet dance may presumably be added to Bach’s chic melody with out ruining it.
About midway by means of the primary a part of the aria, Teicher stepped onto the platform and silently spun. He turned on one shoe like an ice skater, dragged his toes to create smooth unbroken sounds, and as Tao ended the primary part, Teicher quietly tapped out the closing notes of the phrase with Tao. Teicher gently accompanied the remainder of the aria with spins, drags and punctiliously chosen tapping that revered Bach.
The same method was later taken with Brahms’ Intermezzo in E main, Op. 116, No. 4.
A extra typical pairing of jazz and faucet occurred in a finger-busting efficiency of Artwork Tatum’s conception of “Cherokee,” enhanced by Teicher’s time step combos. Elsewhere Tao improvised a jazz-like tonal piece with free-style footwork from Teicher.
An excerpt from Tao and Teicher’s prolonged dance work “Extra Without end” allowed us to see Teicher’s choreography, ably executed by him.
Might faucet have complemented Tao’s beautiful, detailed renditions of Schoenberg’s Waltz from his 5 Piano Items, Op. 23 or the Minuet from Ravel’s “Sonatine”? Maybe, however these moments got fully to Tao.
Teicher had solo spots. He carried out Brenda Bufalino’s model of Cole and Atkin’s Soft Shoe with out the unique music, a slowly swinging rendition of “Taking a Likelihood on Love.” He demonstrated that there was ample music within the fashionable choreography alone.
In a program spotlight, Teicher tapped out Mozart’s “Turkish Rondo” with no extra accompaniment than his occasional good-natured scat singing. For the ending, he danced out the rhythms of this well-known work, permitting the viewers to produce the music in their very own heads.
The viewers favourite was Tao’s virtuosic association and efficiency of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” enhanced by Teicher’s happy merger of jazz and Broadway tap styles.
All through, Tao was a musical grasp of many various kinds. His cool confidence was a great foil to Teicher, whose demure stage persona erupted into exuberant dancing.
Lately, La Jolla Music Society has broadened the number of music it presents. This live performance, the primary in its ProtoStar Modern Sequence, was a success with the viewers, and maybe factors the best way to extra inclusive occasions that herald individuals who won’t in any other case attend a classical recital.
Hertzog is a contract author.
