Suidy Garrido 

Suidy Garrido is warm. She is the flamenco dancer who is the sun of Spain, radiating a balminess that tickles one’s skin, but leaves one certain that she is capable of unleashing a scorching burn.
 
Certainly, she stands out as the bailaora with flair, but her show at MassMoCA on Saturday night showed that Garrido, her dancers and musicians are also polished and tight. Suidy Garrido Flamenco Company is refined, a group of hypnotists whom the audience was happy to fall under its precisely staged spell.
 
The shine of her woven 100-minute show was obvious in the four backup dancers who accompanied her. Their first appearance, dragging chairs behind them, rattled with synchronized stepping that framed Garrido and echoed her rapid foot falls Their dances with canes, fans and fringed shawls was also choreographed with exactitude. Garrido had everything in hand.
 
Garrido, of course, endearingly spun her own tale with a smile. The rapid polyrhythms pounded by her sole and heels demanded all attention. And of course, like all gorgeous bailaora, she topped her dancing with the arms that transformed her into a swan or butterfly. She flew above her raging feet.
 
Her musicians were impressive – especially guitarist Jose Luis de la Paz whose strumming sounded like three guitars. No one can get more from the wood and wire than he.
 
I liked that Garrido didn’t fall into the flamenco trappings. Aside from the lighting at the start, no one was dressed in the ubiquitous red, nor were there any castanets (however, I did miss them) and Magela Herrera’s flute played a strong role – transporting the listener to an ancient time. Garrido also ended the evening in slacks – not something one sees on American stages where audiences are used to seeing trains of ruffled skirts.
 
There were also no male dancers, which was also unfortunate. Her company, based in North Miami, does include them. But this version of her show appeared scaled down with fewer dancers, like a cost saving measure.
 
It was also difficult to see as the museum’s Hunter Center did not deploy its platform for raised seating. This was a terrible idea because to fully enjoy flamenco, or any type of dance for that matter, one should see the feet. There was some live video to accompany the dance, but it was infrequent. I stood up, when needed, in the back.
 
Regardless, the sights and sounds of Garrido and company was sweetly gratifying.

Savion Glover reveals tap dance is more than a sound in "The Last HooFeR STaNDinNG."

​I must admit, I’ve never been a huge fan of jazz tap or Savion Glover. I know that his talent is massive, but his rambling rhythm shows with his interacting with the musicians more than the audience has always annoyed more than entertained.
 
Thus, it was with some trepidation that I returned to his performance on Saturday night at the Egg. I’m so glad I did because this time Glover didn’t hide behind or play to the other musicians – he was it.
 
As expected, the rhythms of his versatile and musical feet astounded. But this was a new Glover, one that dropped his shield to reveal a human struggling with issues of loss and mental health. His dancing, once just simply impressive, is now a stereo system on high volume, blasting out the message to listen to the patter as if it were a healing balm. And he convinced us that this is so.
 
“The Last HooFeR STaNDinNG, an 80-minute work, is a reminder that his slender frame is heir to a long line of dancers who pioneered and perfected the art. Through their feet, the artists at the Hoofers Club in Harlem, was a language that not all in today’s social media-obsessed world can bother to be cued into.
 
As that time period’s sole survivor, Glover has a lot to share. But knowing audiences don’t always understand the language, he accompanied his dancing on a center-stage platform with an interpreter who spoke the words his feet were conveying.
 
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The evening opened with a plaintive alto saxophone, played by Jalin Shiver, beckoning audiences to come close. Glover, on the drums, (yes he plays drums too) accentuated his call by hitting an occasional note until the saxophone faded and Glover’s urgent drumming consumed all.
 
After about 10 minutes, the music stopped, he laced up his shoes, the drum set was hauled away and Glover took centerstage. With the exception of one sip of water, he danced for an entrancing hour uninterrupted. With just a heartbeat and a church bell tolling as his soundscape, his feet, and his interpreter (Tatum Thompson or Dr. Voice 4 Now) shared the lessons and his devotion to the sound that was offered by his mentors – mainly Jimmy Slyde. More importantly, he seemed to note that the lessons of the heart and mental health were the most crucial to learn.
 
Cast in a red light, Glover looked to be on fire – as if to say this is an emergency. Dr. Voice 4 Now tries to “talk him down” as he expertly mimics the steps of the legendary members of the Hoofers Club – including Lon Chaney, Sandman Sims, Buster Brown, Chuck Green and Gregory Hines.
 
The program left me knowing that the Tap Dance Kid has grown up. As the last hoofer standing, he honors his predecessors and that in itself is healing for heart, mind and soul.
 
As the scrim came down on his dancing, the show’s narrator Divad Sanders or D.tHa’ScHiZ stepped forward to ask for no applause. Silence is a sound too. As the last hoofer standing, Glover knows all too well.