Startin' somethin'

Judy Hussie-Taylor's Danspace Project is going all out, busting out the pleasure, the humor, the joy. No shame in this, my friends, because in godawful times--which is definitely where we find ourselves now--we need to hold on to what's best about us as humans, or what's the point?

Dancer-choreographers Michelle Dorrance and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards are sharing a show--curated, with wicked glee, by David Parker--that explodes St. Mark's Sanctuary with the excitement of tap dance. I cannot say for sure that tap dance has never shown up at Danspace Project but, certainly, it has never shown up there quite like this.

So, first reason to go, if you can get in: Parker and his artists are making dance history. Second reason: If you don't know these two women--and, if so, where the hell have you been?--it's time to catch up with them. They be slammin'. There's Sumbry-Edwards, a paragon of authority and earthy glamour, the woman who taught Michael Jackson to tap dance and pays tribute to him here with her Blood on the Dance Floor ensemble. The punk-geek Dorrance, with her stylistic penchant for all things goofy, off-kilter and marginal, brings a fresh explorer's vision to dance-making within an art form with closely held traditions, and she's got serious chops as a dancer, too.

I insist that you become acquainted with young dancers like Cartier Williams (a mighty bantam) and Caleb Teicher (oh, my...what grace, what ease, what potential stardom) as well as rangy, mile-high Ryan P. Casey and his wonderful partner Elena Steponaitis who dance Dorrance's rag duet in Dorrance's a petite suite.

Tickets are sold out, but there's a waiting list! Check it out here.

Danspace Project
St. Mark's Church
Second Avenue and Tenth Street, Manhattan