Visit for the schedule and details.Ī particular highlight comes on April 6, 2022, with a livestream of Paul Taylor Dance Company in Kurt Jooss’ The Green Table, to mark the 90th anniversary of the most anti-war of all ballets. There’s more dance coming online from the 92nd St Y. I’m not sure that I learned anything new, though, which I most certainly did with the unexpected delights elsewhere, notably the Bach.Īnd it’s back to the Goldberg Variations, and where Tao and Teicher came in, as Counterpoint slowly winds down. The pair intertwine beautifully, their phrasing coming together as one in what is admittedly a very happy coming together of jazz and Broadway, both building to an impressive finale. Both Tao and Teicher give the Gershwin classic the virtuosic treatment. I suspect that most people’s favourite segment would be Rhapsody in Blue, however. So accurate was Teicher, adding some body percussion and a few vocalisations to the tap, all perfectly in tune with the composer’s score, that you could hear the music in your head, even though there was actually no accompaniment. There’s a little easy-going chat along the way as both performers also get their own solo moments: Tao on a finely detailed playing of Schoenberg’s Waltz from his Five Piano Pieces, and the second movement Minuet from Ravel’s Sonatine and Teicher in the ‘Cole and Bufalino Soft Shoe’, and one of the highlights of the show, the well-known final movement (‘Turkish Rondo’) of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No.11. The duo also performed an excerpt from their Bessie award-winning show More Forever, which features Teicher’s own choreography, albeit in a version not seen in the show. This includes in the couple’s teaming up in an exuberant interpretation of Art Tatum’s ‘Cherokee’, which features some fast time step combinations from Teicher. In the Bach, Teicher’s tap owes a lot to soft shoe but, elsewhere, rhythms are bashed out in a manner more like most would expect. A similar approach is taken later with a gentle Brahms intermezzo. It’s beautiful, calming and feels very respectful. There are spins, but always graceful, and often seemingly in slow-motion with a sense of suspension. As the dance starts, Teicher’s shoes drag and feet scrape as they create long sounds as equally soft as those from the piano. At first, Teicher just sits, then stands, as if in thought or perhaps tuning into what is coming from the piano. The show opens and closes with Tao softly playing the soulful aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. But so neatly does the tap and piano combine that you feel some sort of sixth sense must be at play, Tao and Teicher somehow knowing what the other wants, needs and is going to do, and being able to respond accordingly. In interviews, Teicher has revealed that Counterpoint allows for a certain amount of improvisation and spontaneous creativity. ![]() There is depth, and there is lots to get the thought juices and imagination going, but if you would rather just sit back, relax and enjoy, you can. It’s also a show that doesn’t insist on a lot from the viewer. They look like the long-time friends that they are. Even online, you can see and feel the pleasure in their performing together. The overall feeling is of a sort of private artistic conversation that we are lucky enough to eavesdrop on. Teicher’s happy casual dress of dungarees over a white t-shirt sets the tone. ![]() ![]() Caleb Teicher (right) and Conrad Tao in Counterpoint
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