Ayodele Casel and Arturo O'Farrill team up at The Joyce

Tap dancer Ayodele Casel
(photo: Michael Higgins)

Ayodele Casel + Arturo O'Farrill
The Joyce Theater
September 24-29

As I take my seat at the Joyce, a couple of audience members to my left peruse their programs, making note of the fact that tap artist Ayodele Casel has cast herself among her ensemble in all nine dances on the bill. It doesn't faze me. I know Casel. That one--given the Yoruba name for "joy has arrived"--has energy to burn.

This season's particular display of joy, though, surely comes from the victory of sharing her prestigious first full-length program at The Joyce with six-time Grammy-winning Afro-Latin jazz musician Arturo O'Farrill. The woman who once created a solo tap show called While I Have the Floor (Spoleto Festival, 2017) took another floor this time to foreground cultural pride (she is Black and Puerto Rican). Both Casel and O'Farrill are in top form here--as introduced by Scalular, the sharp-edged, scintillating world premiere ensemble piece that opens the night. Their respective arts clearly grow from the same seed. The deep, intuitive communication and affection between these master artists could be easily read throughout the theater.

If you need any reason to be convinced that tap belongs in a bond with Afro-Latin jazz, buy a ticket to this show. As offered by O'Farrill and Casel, the combined music endlessly cascades like a crystalline stream over a long stretch of rocks, sparkling, glinting in sunlight. It gives life. Casel, in particular, finds innumerable delicate, exquisite facets to bring forth in sound--nothing expected or stale or slapdash; her discipline is steely--and she's joined by a diverse, talented young ensemble that includes Naomi Funaki, Dre Torres, Luke Hickey and Andre Imanishi. If I wished for anything at all, it might be a second program with juicy challenges for spirited artists like Hickey or Imanishi, in particular. Both look game for anything, grounded in good training and inspiration.

But I do love this program with its easy-going interlude where Casel tells of going from being a Ginger Rogers fan girl to her revelation at Fazil's--legendary, dearly-departed dance studio--when the entry-level tap she'd mastered fell embarrassingly short of the hoofer's mark. And with its feminist shout-out to Girl Power everywhere and, especially, to the once-overlooked women of color in tap's history, like Jeni LeGon. And O'Farrill and Casel's embrace of everything from Bach (Chromatic Fantasy in D Minor) to Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck and Wayne Shorter.

A grand new leap forward in Casel's career, this show is a must-see if you can manage to get a ticket. I suggest you don't delay.

Arturo O'Farrill (pianist/composer)
Keisel Jiménez (percussion)
Zack O'Farrill (drums)
Ivan Renta (saxophone)
Bam Bam Rodriguez (bass)
Kali Rodriguez-Peña (trumpet)

Carolina Gonzalez Mama (vocals)

A Broadway Foundation Leaders-in-Training (2019-2020):

Sasha Arteaga
Samaria Dalling
Karime De La Cruz
Mckayla Faye
Jasmine Mendoza
Vanessa Pavia Fuentes
Amani Varney

Betsy Chester (lighting)
Daniel Erdberg (sound)

Ayodele Casel + Arturo O'Farrill continues through Sunday, September 29 with 8pm performances through Saturday and a 2pm Sunday matinee. For information and (hurry!!) tickets, click here.

The Joyce Theater
175 8th Avenue (corner of 19th Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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Cuba's Malpaso Dance Company returns to the Joyce

Scene from Trey McIntyre's Under Fire,
performed by Dunia Acosta, Maria Karla Arujo and Tahimy Miranda
(photo: Yi-Chun Wu) 

Besides the new thaw in relations between Washington and Havana, there's another big Cuban story in the news--the return of Malpaso Dance Company to eager US hosts at The Joyce Theater. Last year, the Joyce helped the company make its first trip out of Cuba and first landing in the states. New York was charmed especially by the combination of this young but tremendously capable ensemble and the choreography of our own Ronald K. Brown.

This season, New York premieres of Under Fire by another US dancemaker, Trey McIntyre, and Despedida/Farewell by Malpaso's artistic director Osnel Delgado offer a telling contrast. Both works are fresh to the troupe, premiered just this year, but only one appears to have already taken firm root in muscles and bones.

Osnel Delgado (standing rear) with his company in Under Fire
(photo: Yi-Chun Wu)

Set to unvarnished country folk by Idaho singer-songwriter Kelsey Swope (aka Grandma Kelsey or, now on Facebook, Bijoux), Under Fire commands the stage, re-imagining every molecule of space on and above it. The air seems a thick-ish, malleable, animated substance immediately surrounding the dancers' bodies. Not just transitioning from step to step, dancers acknowledge space as partner and platform. Legs hitching up, arms hooking over, using superb flexibility and facility throughout their bodies, they pair up or group up, swirling or twisting around one another in remarkable chain reactions. McIntyre's flow across the stage seems endless and endlessly inventive.

Under Fire's interesting backstory concerns McIntyre's decision to disband his own Boise-based company to pursue independent projects within and outside of dance. One night, he made a bonfire of his old documents. Clearing away the charred paper, he discovered untouched materials beneath. The sight of those remains--he called them "pristine"--recalled his own search for authenticity. In Swope's ragged voice--especially her chilling delivery of Dolly Parton's "Jolene"--I hear another sign of longing for what's true, what's essential, even when it scares you.

Under Fire fits so handsomely on Malpaso's bodies that I can only hope McIntyre, as he moves on in life and artistry, will maintain strong ties with these Cuban dancers--and with dancemaking.

For the score for Despedida/Farewell, Delgado partners again with Arturo O'Farrill, Mexico-born son of Cuban jazz legend Chico O'Farrill. O'Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble perform live, a feast in itself. In fact, their music is such a tasty feast that one wonders why Delgado did not turn his dancers loose to feed on it.

Make no mistake, they dance this thing. They're good but muted and blunted while O'Farrill's music struts out and busts out all around them, confident in its energy. As in Under Fire, pliable Joan Rodriguez, forceful Dunia Acosta and Delgado himself make the looking rewarding, but Under Fire provides the more persuasive introduction to every one of Malpaso's dancers.

Dancers: Osnel Delgado Wambrug, Daile Carrazana Gonzalez, Taimy Miranda Ruiz de Villa, Randy Cívico Rivas, Maria Karla Araújo, Joan Rodriguez Hernandez, Dunia Acosta Arias, Manuel Durán Calzado, Isvel Bello Rodriguez, Beatriz García Díaz

Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble: Arturo O'Farrill (piano), Vince Cherico (drums), Carlo de Rosa (bass), Carly Maldonado (percussion, bongos), Rafi Malkiel (trombone), Ivan Renta (tenor sax), Tony Rosa (congas), Adam O'Farrill (trumpet, replacing Jim Seeley)

Malpaso Dance Company continues at the Joyce through Sunday, March 8. For the complete schedule and ticket information, click here.

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue (corner of 19th Street), Manhattan
(directions)