April 14-20, 2005

dance

Have Tap, Will Travel

by Deni Kasrel

dance review

I have never been to Haiti. However, last week I felt like I was there, at least spiritually, thanks to Urban Tap's Kandansé. Deftly integrating dance, music and video of the Caribbean, the program transported viewers to a warm, tranquil, sometimes fun, other times funky place, where sound, vision and movement seamlessly mesh to form an exhilarating sensory experience.

The piece, whose title is a Creole word meaning "can dance," begins with a man entering a stage full of congas, horns and a drum set. Gingerly walking around, one hand perched flat over his eyes, he appears to be on the lookout for something or someone. Soon another man, this one singing as well as seeking, ambles in. More follow. Each picks up a plastic container filled with paint — one holds blue, another red, another yellow — and then pours the container onto a design located front and center on the floor. The process sets up a tone of ritual and community that pervades the entire performance.

The mood elevates when Tamango, a joyous tap dancer whose facile gestures combine traditional, street and freestyle movement, enters the scene. Kicking and shuffling with virtuoso panache, he nevertheless seems almost nonchalant. He lets the intricate steps speak for themselves; there's never a sense of "hey, look at me doing all this fancy footwork." This relaxed vibe is soothing and welcoming.

Kandasé's connection to voodoo and the spirit world is reinforced when a colorfully garbed masked stilt-walker appears uttering high-pitched cawing sounds. The imposing fanciful figure stomps about and performs deep backbends, handstands and one-legged spins. Then while waving hands made of horsehair, he exhorts the audience to join in a verbal call and response. Next comes a dance-off between Tamango and the stilt-walker where the giant one impresses with his ability to match the hoofer's complex moves, if not exactly in style, almost nearly in sonics.

Akin to Urban Tap's prior production presented at the Kimmel Center, Full Cycle, Kandansé's dance and music is complemented by visuals projected on a large back screen displaying landscapes and abstract images — this time there's a good deal of Rorschach-like psychedelia — as well as creative live-action projections. The piece is heavily improvised, with Tamango and the musicians engaging in a lively collaboration steeped in bebop and island rhythms that, while obviously drawn around a preconceived structure, largely come across as loose and liberating.

KANDANSé April 8, Tamango's Urban Tap, Kimmel Center