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Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents "Music From The Sole: I Didn't Come to Stay"

Company:
Works & Process at the Guggenheim

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, is proud to present the world premiere of Music From The Sole: I Didn't Come to Stay, choreographed and composed by Leonardo Sandoval and Gregory Richardson, with additional contributions from company members on April 11 and 12, 2022 at 7:30 pm. Taking place in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Peter B. Lewis Theater at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, all programs invite audiences to embrace artistic process and uniquely blend performance highlights with insightful artists' discussions.

Tap, percussive dance, samba, house, and live music come together in the world premiere of I Didn't Come to Stay, commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim and first supported with a bubble residency in summer 2020. In the work, Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and bassist and composer Gregory Richardson lead eight dancers and a five-piece band in a performance that explores tap's lineage and connections to other Afrodiasporic forms. Together the pair embrace shared roots across the diaspora and reflect on racial and cultural identity, while also celebrating the joy, strength, depth, and virtuosity of Black dance and music.

On April 11, Melanie George, Associate Curator and Director of Artistic Initiatives at Jacob's Pillow, will moderate a post-performance discussion with Richardson and Sandoval. Tiffany Rea-Fisher, dramaturg for I Didn't Come to Stay, will moderate a discussion with Richardson and Sandoval on April 12. 

I Didn't Come to Stay was supported with a Works & Process LaunchPAD "Process as Destination" residency at Catskill Mountain Foundation from February 28 through March 12, 2022, with an in-process showing for the local community. For more information, visit catskillmtn.org.

Throughout the pandemic, Works & Process continued to provide opportunities for artists and pioneered the bubble residency to support their work safely. The spring 2022 season will feature the official world premieres of works created by New York artists – many representing historically marginalized performing art cultures – and incubated during the peak of the pandemic inside 2020-21 Works & Process bubble residencies. Alongside the commissions, Works & Process will present performance excerpts of and artists discussions about new works prior to their premieres at leading organizations including BAAD!, BAM, Boston Ballet, Federal Hall, Glimmerglass Festival, The Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Ballet. 

 

WORKS & PROCESS TICKETS 

$35, $15 partial view. Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available for purchase online only at worksandprocess.org.

House seats may be available for $1,000+ Friends of Works & Process. To purchase house seats, email friends@worksandprocess.org. House seats may be released to the public before performances.

 

Health and Safety Information

Every audience member must be fully vaccinated and will be required to show proof in person of vaccination authorized by the FDA or WHO against COVID-19 before entering the theater. Proof of vaccination may include a CDC Vaccination Card (or photo), NYC COVID Safe app, New York State Excelsior Pass, NYC Vaccination Record, or an official immunization record from outside New York City or the United States. Full vaccination is defined as being two weeks or more after receipt of the second dose in a two-dose series, or two weeks or more after receipt of one dose of a single-dose vaccine.

Visitors over the age of 18 will also be asked to show a photo ID.

At this time, children under the age of 5, for whom there is currently no available vaccination, will not be permitted to attend this performance regardless of the vaccination status of their guardian.

Bring your three-ply face mask, N-95, or equivalent to keep yourself and one another safe. All individuals will be required to wear a face mask at all times.

There is no coat check; please do not bring bags.

Do not attend if in the ten days leading up to the performance, you have tested positive or experienced COVID-19 symptoms or come into close or proximate contact with a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case. If you are unable to attend due to COVID-19 exposure, please contact boxoffice@guggenheim.org in advance of the performance.

An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public environment where people are present. Those visiting the museum do so at their own risk of exposure.

 

I Didn't Come to Stay is commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim, and has been supported by a summer 2020 Works & Process bubble residency at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park. This culminated in preview performances that were among the first outdoor performances permitted by New York State. I Didn't Come to Stay was featured in a Works & Process at Lincoln Center video performance and received a Works & Process LaunchPAD "Process as Destination" residency at Catskill Mountain Foundation, with additional residency support by The Yard, Jacob's Pillow, and Chelsea Factory. I Didn't Come to Stay is a National Dance Project Production Grantee and has received support from The O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.

I Didn't Come to Stay was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This project is funded, in part, through a Seed Fund for Dance grant from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, thanks to the support of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation.

Music From The Sole is supported by Dance/NYC's Dance Advancement Fund, made possible by the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

Works & Process has received support from the U.S. Small Business Administration Shuttered Venue Operators Grant and Paycheck Protection Program and NYC Employee Retention Grant Program.

 

Leonardo Sandoval

Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval is renowned for blending America's great tap tradition with Brazil's rich rhythmic and musical heritage. A true dancer-musician, he is one of Dance Magazine's "25 To Watch" for 2021 and the recipient of a 2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise in Dance. In 2015, with composer Gregory Richardson, he founded Music From The Sole, and their work has been presented at venues like Jacob's Pillow, Lincoln Center, and The Yard, Kaatsbaan, the 92Y, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim. In addition, he is a dancer with acclaimed tap company Dorrance Dance, touring across the US and abroad. Leonardo has also toured extensively as a solo artist, including at the National Folk Festival and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is deeply committed to community engagement and education, and has brought performances and workshops to schools, prisons, hospitals, and parks, including through partnerships with Lincoln Center Education and the National Dance Institute, where he was the inaugural artist in residence.

 

Gregory Richardson 

Gregory Richardson is a composer, performer, and multi-instrumentalist focusing on upright, electric bass, and guitar. Along with Leonardo Sandoval, he's the co-creator and artistic director of Music from the Sole, as well as the musical director of the award winning tap dance company, Dorrance Dance. As a composer for dance, he's participated in creative residencies at Lincoln Center Education, Jacob's Pillow, The Yard, National Dance Institute, Guggenheim's Works and Process, and Kaatsbaan Cultural Park. He's received grants from New Music USA and premiered original compositions at The Guggenheim, BAM, The Joyce, and several times at The City Center of New York, most recently in collaboration with actor Bill Irwin. Other credits include performing with Toshi Reagon in her opera of Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower," touring with the indie band Darwin Deez, and playing with Grammy Award winning artists, Keyon Harrold and Marcus Gilmore.

 

Music From The Sole

Music From The Sole is a tap dance and live music company that celebrates tap's Afro-diasporic roots, particularly its connections to Afro-Brazilian dance and music, and its lineage to forms like house dance and passinho (Brazilian funk). Led by Brazilian dancer/ choreographer Leonardo Sandoval (2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise) and by bassist/ composer Gregory Richardson, their work embraces tap's unique nature as a blend of sound and movement, incorporating wide-ranging influences like samba, passinho, Afro-Cuban, jazz, and house. Since their first performances in 2015 at Baltimore's Creative Alliance, Music From The Sole has grown to a group of 15 dancers and musicians, touring and engaging with communities across the US and abroad. They have received support from the New England Foundation for the Arts (2021 National Dance Project grantees), New York State Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Jerome Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, and Dance/ NYC, and were recently commissioned new works by Works & Process at the Guggenheim. As part of its mission to bring tap dance, America's original vernacular dance form, to new audiences, they appear as both a dance company and a percussive-led band at dance and music venues. Recent credits include appearances at Lincoln Center, Jacob's Pillow, The Yard, Kaatsbaan, Portland Ovations, Caramoor Jazz Festival, Bryant Park, the 92Y, and Tap in Rio; they are 2022 resident artists at Chelsea Factory. Highlighting a commitment to community-centered artistic practice, the company partners frequently with organizations like the National Dance Institute and Lincoln Center Education, engaging through dance and music with communities across NYC and beyond.

 

Works & Process at the Guggenheim 

Described by The New York Times as "forward thinking" and "an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process," since 1984 Works & Process has welcomed New Yorkers to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed performers and creators of the performing arts. Led by Producer Caroline Cronson and Executive Director Duke Dang, Works & Process nurtures and champions new works, shapes representation, amplifies underrepresented voices and performing arts cultures, and offers audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Artist-driven programs blending performance highlights with insightful discussions are, when permitted, followed by receptions in the rotunda, producing an opportunity for collective learning and community building while also helping to cultivate a more inclusive, fair, and representative world. Approximately fifty performances take place annually in the Guggenheim's Frank Lloyd Wright–designed, 273-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. Annually Works & Process produces a program at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain as well. In 2017 Works & Process established a residency program inviting artists to create newly commissioned performances made in and for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. In 2020 Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions was created to financially support 84 new works and over 280 artists and nurture their creative process during the pandemic. To forge a path for artists to safely gather, create, and perform during the pandemic from summer 2020 through spring 2021, Works & Process pioneered and produced 250 bubble residencies supporting 247 artists, made possible through the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. On March 20, 2021, after over a year of shuttered indoor performances and with special guidance from New York State's Department of Health, Works & Process was the first cultural organization to reopen live, indoor ticketed performances in the rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.