‘Blues Project’ commands the stage with joyous tap
Complaints that dance performances are getting a bit too long are common, so let’s salute a production that leaves you hungry — make that, ravenous — for more. That would be the local premiere of Dorrance Dance’s “The Blues Project,” which flew into Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater on Thursday, March 16, a co-production of the center and San Francisco Performances. You’ll go years before you see tap dancing of this intensity. What an hour.
Unfortunately, artistic director
Dorrance Dance’s “The Blues Project”: Elizabeth Burke (left), Christopher Broughton, Byron Tittle, Claudia Rahardjanoto, Nicholas Van Young (behind Rahardjanoto), Karida Griffith.
Michelle Dorrance was ill and canceled her appearance; she is expected to return for the remainder of the run. But her absence, while regrettable, was not fatal. Dorrance’s cover Elizabeth Burke did just fine in the ensembles. But collaboration is what “The Blues Project” is all about. Toshi Reagon is the earthiest of vocalists; her fourmember band BIGLovely sets an irresistible rhythmic carpet. In the ensembles, you stop wondering who inspired whom and just yield to it all.
The roster of nine dancers
includes some leaders in the field — Dormeshia SumbryEdwards and Derick K. Grant, for two — and several performers whose stars are on the rise. The whole group opens with an ensemble marked by such rhythmic idiosyncrasy and contrapuntal complexity that the very density of 18 pounding feet proves momentarily disorienting. Then Juliette Jones steps out of the band and grabs a fiddle, and suddenly it’s hoedown time, with four couples tapping their way across the stage.
A message emerges: Tap is a way of seeing the world. The call-and-response style of Reagon’s singing fuses with tap echo effects and the occasional tap challenge. But it’s all so good-natured (no turning the back on the audience, as the young Savion Glover used to do) that you give in.
There’s a nice contrast here between the ensembles (for which Dorrance, Grant and Sumbry-Edwards take credit) and the improvised solos, wisely interspersed among the group efforts. Alone, the performers allow their sensibilities to shine. Sumbry-Edwards has been one of my favorites for years. Here, in a shining white dress, she commanded the stage, navigating space with the most assured of techniques, attacking the floor with both heel and toe.
On the other hand, Grant takes a few chances as he kicks out and threatens to collapse at any minute. Gifted with a stiletto technique, Karida Griffith introduces elements of African choreography, and I enjoyed Claudia Rahardjanoto’s brief solo. The other dancers were Christopher Broughton, Byron Tittle and Gabe Winns Ortiz.
In her notes, Dorrance writes of the importance of tradition in music and dance. After these captivating 60 minutes of “The Blues Project,” it would not be impertinent to suggest that Dorrance may yet deliver a tradition of her own.