Sound, visual blend in piano-dance collaboration – JH News&Guide
2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the premiere of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” (Feb. 12, in New York City’s long-defunct Aeolian Hall), so naturally it is everywhere. In fact, the Grand Teton Music Festival already presented it once this season, with guest pianist Michelle Cann and the festival orchestra.
On Thursday it will offer the piece again, but in a version audience members are unlikely to have experienced before: Pianist-composer Conrad Tao, who New York Magazine called “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music,” will play the solo piano arrangement alongside dancer-choreographer Caleb Teicher’s percussive tap-dancing.
Their take on “Rhapsody” is part of their “Counterpoint” program, which runs the gamut from J.S. Bach and Johannes Brahms to Bud Powell and even in-the-moment improvisation — a show they have been presenting across the country for about four years.
“I think for audiences that are used to a traditional music concert, this offers something really unique, in that there’s dance,” Teicher said from their home in Brooklyn, New York. “This way of relating across different genres is unique.”
Likewise, those accustomed to traditional dance performances find “Counterpoint” unique.
“Lots of dance has live music, but the dance is not treated as music in itself,” Teicher said. “I think we give people another perspective or lens to experience a music performance and a dance performance.”