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 it lineage to forms like house dance and passinho (Brazilian funk). Led by Brazilian dance/choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and by bassist/composer Gregory Richardson, their work embraces a blend of sound and movement, with a mission of bringing tap dance, America’s vernacular dance form, to new audiences. Since their first performances in 2014, Music From The Sole has appeared at the Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, Tap in Rio, and the Vail Dance Festival.

Music From The Sole’s I Didn’t Come to Stay blurs the line between concert dance and musical performance, celebrating tap’s roots in the African diaspora with a mix of Afro-Brazilian, jazz, soul, house, and Afro-Cuban styles. In this work, Sandoval and Richardson lead eight dancers and a five-piece band in a performance that explores tap’s lineage and connections to other Afro-Diasporic forms. Together, they lead a Carnival fever dream that embraces shared roots across the diaspora to reflect on what shapes their cultural and artistic identity and celebrates the joy, depth, and virtuosity of Black dance and music. “An unforced crowd-pleaser, original and true to itself” (The New York Times).

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