Sizzlin' at SummerStage

On my way home from last night's SummerStage performance in Central Park, I looked up to the stars and thought, "You guys up there must really miss those dancers!" The latest incarnation of Jelon Vieira's Dance Brazil is a gathering of stars from the highest realm. The performance they set before an overflowing crowd--so overflowing and so headstrong, in fact, that one burly security guard quickly gave up on trying to shoo people out of the center aisle--might be the finest I've seen Vieira command, and I've been a fan of his from the early days when he partnered with the late, great Loremil Machado to popularize capoeira, Brazil's martial art dance, in New York.

Ritmos ("rhythms"), premiered this year, is an extended celebration of capoeira with Riverdance-like breadth and accessibility, grounded in modern dance and reminiscent, in the boldness of its composition and stagecraft, of the work of Alvin Ailey. Indeed, Ailey was one of Vieira's mentors and the man who, back in the '70s, encouraged him to found DanceBrazil.

Featuring an extraordinary live performance by music director Tote Gira's band, the work unfolds seductively, introducing hints and snippets of capoeira sparring into long, sometimes langourous passages of choral movement abstracted from capoeira's acrobatic warrior moves. It is like a dream of capoeira, one that teases, gradually taking on speed and intensity until we are finally given what we're longing for...and then, with Brazilian generosity, given a whole lot more than we could ever expect. Vieira's dancers--ten men and one woman, all handsome and magnificent--bring the rhythm to life with bodies that stretch, hurtle, spin, flip, and tumble in endless, inventive variations. But, to be truly suitable for the increasing sophistication of Vieira's choreography--they have to be more than just excellent athletes and capoeiristas; they also have to be fine contemporary dancers and have stage presence to burn. It's all there.

IMPORTANT: If you get a chance today--and if the weather holds--race out to East River Park (Montgomery Street to East 12th Street, FDR Drive), and you can see DanceBrazil on a bill with Kids Dance at 3pm. Take the F to East Broadway and head east to the Ampitheater. But try to get there early! It's free!

Max Pollak and Rumba Tap--with his RumbaTap musicians and the guesting, powerful Paul Carlon Octet--opened last night's SummerStage show on a charming note. Pollak, the Austrian-born tap dance/body percussion wiz, assembled a suite of numbers representing his cross-cultural blending--like Gankino Afrokan, Pollak's new tap, Bulgarian, Mozambican stew. That piece might sound complicated but it's a simple joy, a happy folk dance for a whole United Nations of folks.

The production featured longtime collaborators and new additions, like the wonderful Carson Murphy and Warren Craft. All of the dancers were in good form, but it was especially fun to see longtime Pollak partner Chikako Iwahori let loose and rock out to Tito Puente in Pa' Los Rumberos in a way that I've never seen her do, and to see her smile from the soul. Kudos to Iwahori, too, for this production's splendid and flattering designs for the women's elegant costumes.

Pollak is a jazzy Damballah with a scorching intensity, especially in his Afro-Cuban solos. (Have a little taste, but for a better experience, see him live.) But it would have been wonderful to hear more of what his feet had to say, which is, after all, the point of tap dancing. But at SummerStage, the music, although righteous in its own right, covered over a lot of the foot sound. Nevertheless, Pollak's show put us all in a chipper mood for the long (and rewarding) evening ahead with DanceBrazil. Let's look forward to where he'll take us next.