Cain Park - Evans Amphitheater

14591 Superior Road

Cleveland Heights, OH

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 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 across the US and abroad. They have received support from the New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, New Music USA, and Dance/ NYC, and recently premiered new works commissioned 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 band at dance and music venues. Recent credits include appearances at Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, the Guggenheim Museum, The Yard, Kaatsbaan, Portland Ovations, Caramoor Jazz Festival, Bryant Park, the 92NY, and Tap in Rio. They are 2022-23 resident artists at the 92NY, and partner frequently with organizations like the National Dance Institute and Lincoln Center Education, engaging through dance and music with communities across NYC and beyond.

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 Mellon Foundation.

Commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim, I Didn’t Come to Stay was created with the support of 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 (2022), 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.

Photo: Titus Ogilvie-Laing