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Leonardo Sandoval
(choreographer, dancer, artistic director) Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval is renowned for blending America’s great tap tradition with Brazil’s rich rhythmic and musical heritage. A true dancer-musician, he is one of Dance Magazine’s “25 To Watch” for 2021. In 2015, with composer Gregory Richardson, he founded Music From The Sole, and their work has been presented at venues like Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center, and The Yard, Kaatsbaan, the 92Y, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim. In addition, he is a dancer with acclaimed tap company Dorrance Dance, touring across the US and abroad. Leonardo has also toured extensively as a solo artist, including at the National Folk Festival and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is deeply committed to community engagement and education, and has brought performances and workshop to schools, prisons, hospitals, and parks, including through partnerships with Lincoln Center Education and the National Dance Institute. |
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Gregory Richardson
(musical director, artistic director) Born to a family of musicians where everyone was expected to play and sing, Gregory Richardson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist and the co-artistic director of Music From The Sole. He is also the co-musical director of Dorrance Dance, with whom he has premiered original compositions at New York City Center on three occasions, most recently in collaboration with Bill Irwin. He has played with the band Darwin Deez at music festivals around the world including Glastonbury, Splendor In The Grass, Summer Sonic, and Donauinselfest. |
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José Carlos Cruzata Revé (musician)
José Carlos Cruzata Revé is a Cuban saxophonist from the city of Holguín, and studied at the National School of Art in Havana. He began his career as a member of several prominent Cuban jazz and salsa bands that played around the world, including with members of the famous orchestra of Juan Formel y Los Van Van, and with flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortez. José is currently teaching for the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance in New York City, where he is also working on his upcoming album, and collaborates frequently with Leonardo Sandoval and Gregory Richardson, including for their shows Music from the Sole and Partido, for which he also composed music. Josh Davis (musician)
Josh Davis is a multifaceted drummer, arranger and composer. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Josh is based out of New York City where he plays drums, records, teaches and tours with many bands in varied genres. He has toured throughout the U.S., Japan and Europe, playing well-known venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Blue Note, Smalls Jazz Club, Symphony Space, Sziget Music Festival, The Knitting Factory, Detroit Orchestra Hall, several Jazz Festivals and has appeared on MTV and VH1 and Time Out New York. He currently leads his own NYC-based jazz trio, which focuses on original compositions and arrangements of Jazz standards, as well as arrangements of classic Brazilian choros and sambas. Josh is also a music educator and private drum instructor throughout NYC and the surrounding areas. It is his belief that economic and educational disparity between peoples and communities must come to an end; especially in the case of children's access to fair education and technology. Josh is also music accompanist at the Joffrey Ballet School and the American Tap Dance Foundation in NYC. Brittany DeStefano (dancer)
Brittany DeStefano is a multi-form dancer from upstate New York. She studied under the mentorship of Nicole Aravena and Derick K. Grant, and later became an alumni of The School at Jacob’s Pillow for their tap programs of 2012 and 2014. Currently, Brittany is working with New York City based companies Dorrance Dance and Music From the Sole, where she’s had the privilege of performing at The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, Jacob’s Pillow, The Yard and Tap In Rio in Brazil. Other dance credits include Caleb Teicher and Company, Exhale Dance Tribe, Lisa Latouche's Tap Phonics, and Tap Kids. |
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Naomi Funaki (dancer)
Naomi Funaki is a tap dancer from Tokyo, Japan, currently living in New York as an IISP student of Steps on Broadway. She has performed with Caleb Teicher & Company and Dorrance Dance’s second company. She has danced at the first “Tap Family Reunion”, Vail Dance Festival, Fall For Dance (New York City Center), Works & Process (Guggenheim), Tokyo International Tap Dance Festival, and is an alumna of The School at Jacob’s Pillow tap dance program. |
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Noé Kains (musician)
Noé Kains is a pianist and singer currently based in NYC. He is classically trained and studied at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, the UK, and Israel, and has appeared in solo recitals, chamber music, and concertos. Currently he is especially interested in Brazilian music, especially choro and maxixe, and these forms' deep connections to dance, interests that he continues to explore with Music From The Sole. Roxy King (dancer)
Roxanne “Roxy” King is a tap dancer, teacher, and company director based in Washington D.C. Roxy received her dance training primarily at the Metropolitan School of the Arts, where she also teaches tap classes. Currently she is the Artistic Director of DynaMYTE which is the junior company of the Metropolitan Youth Tap Ensemble (MYTE). She has taught all across the US and Brazil, at festivals such as Riff (Dallas, TX), the D.C Tap Festival, and Tap in Rio. In 2017 Roxy attended the Jacob’s Pillow Tap Program, run by Michelle Dorrance, and Dormeshia, after which she was invited to be a guest performer with Dorrance Dance in The Blues Project. She started dancing with Music from the Sole in 2020. |
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Gerson Lanza (dancer)
Originally from La Ceiba, Honduras, Gerson first encountered tap dance after moving to New York City in 2001. Immediately after his first exposure to tap, he fell in love with the art form. He began his tap dance training under Omar Edwards at his studio “Harlem Tap,” and continued developing his craft at the Harlem School of the Arts, under the instruction of Joseph Webb. He has since taught and performed across the US and internationally including in Brazil, Poland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Spain. Highlights include a 3-month European tour with the Cotton Club Show, in which he was feature as a soloist, and dancing with Jason Samuels Smith, Josh Johnson, and Leonardo Sandoval, among many others. |
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Jalen Saint Phifer (dancer)
Jalen Saint Phifer (Brooklyn, NY) was recognized for creating “impulses of musicality and rhythm” in Dance Spirit Magazine, and received a special mention in the New York Times for his stylistic contributions during Dormeshia Sumbry-Edward’s, Derick K. Grant’s, and Jason Samuels Smith’s Tap Family Reunion 2018. Initially inspired by DeWitt Fleming, Jr. and Jared Grimes, Jalen trained at the American Tap Dance Foundation and The School at Jacob’s Pillow, and has performed for over a decade, with the Dorrance Dance Second Company, Michela Lerman’s ‘Love Movement’, Wynton Marsalis, and more, at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York City Center, and the Apollo Theatre. |
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Lucas Santana (dancer)
Originally from Pernambuco in the Northeast of Brazil, Lucas Santana started studying tap at 8 and has since appeared on some of the most important stages and TV shows in Brazil, including as part of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics celebrations. He is a frequent collaborator with Leonardo Sandoval both in Brazil and in the US, most recently appearing at the Yard and Tap in Rio in Partido. He currently lives in Florianopolis (Southern Brazil), where he teaches and performs as part of the Trupe Toe company, and continues to work with the group Afetos Sonoros in Rio. Lucas also holds a degree in philosophy from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro. |
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Gisele Silva (dancer)
Gisele Silva is a multi-form dancer dancer, instructor and choreographer from Brazil. Based in Los Angeles, Gisele is a member of the Syncopated Ladies, led by Emmy-nominated Chloe Arnold, and a dancer with Music From The Sole. In addition, she is on faculty at Debbie Allen Dance Academy and performing in a variety of TV shows and festivals. A few of her recent credits include Essence Fest in New Orleans, BET Experience in Los Angeles, NBA Halftime Shows, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theatre, Teatro Ipanema, and Kaatsbaan Summer Festival. From performing in Disney’s Viva Navidad parade to integrating ballet into music videos for Travis Scott, Gisele continues to diversify her solo career. She first performed with Music From The Sole in 2017, and has since danced in Partido and recently participated in the company's creative residency for its Guggenheim Works and Process commission. Ana Tomioshi (dancer)
Ana Tomioshi is a Brazilian multi-style dancer currently living in Washington, D.C.. She has performed in some of the most important theaters, dance, and music events in Brazil, such as São Paulo Municipal Theater, Joinville Dance Festival and Rock in Rio. Ana is also a 2014 alumna of The School at Jacob’s Pillow’s tap program. |
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Jennifer Vincent (musician)
Jennifer Vincent, bassist and cellist, has been an active force on the music scene in New York City for well over a decade. She plays and has played and toured with the likes of Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, the famed Boy's Choir of Harlem, Willie Martinez y La Familia, Son Sublime, the Xavier Cougat Orchestra, the Roberto Rodriguez Septet, Carmen Lundy, Harry Whitteaker, Jon Hendricks, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and many other jazz and Latin notables. A classically-trained cellist at Oberlin Conservatory, Jennifer is equally comfortable in the jazz, Latin-jazz, and traditional Cuban musical idioms. Her bass teachers include jazz icon Ron Carter, Andy Gonzales, Ed Bennett, Buster Williams, and Cuban bass legend Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez of the Buena Vista Social Club, with whom she traveled to Cuba to study with. Jennifer delves into music that utilizes West African, Japanese, and Middle Eastern influences with artists such as Sogbety Diomande from the Ivory Coast, the Pan-Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble, and Algerian pianist Maurice el Medioni's "Descarga Oriental", which won the 2006 BBC Music Award for Best World Crossover. |
Guest artists & Collaborators
Andre Imanishi (dancer)
Kathy Kaufmann (lighting designer)
Kathy Kaufmann is a New York City native, resident designer at Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church and a two-time Bessie recipient. She has worked with many esteemed artists including Meredith Monk, Eiko and Koma, Jacques D’Amboise, Vicky Shick, Reggie Wilson, Kota Yamazaki and Sally Silvers. She designs regularly for Dorrance Dance, National Dance Institute, Joanna Kotze, The Bang Group, Mariana Valencia, Rebecca Stenn, Rebecca Davis and Ephrat Asherie Dance. She was honored to be included in Curtain Call: Celebrating 100 Years of Women in Design at the New York Performing Arts Library and is a proud guest artist of Music From The Sole.
Kathy Kaufmann is a New York City native, resident designer at Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church and a two-time Bessie recipient. She has worked with many esteemed artists including Meredith Monk, Eiko and Koma, Jacques D’Amboise, Vicky Shick, Reggie Wilson, Kota Yamazaki and Sally Silvers. She designs regularly for Dorrance Dance, National Dance Institute, Joanna Kotze, The Bang Group, Mariana Valencia, Rebecca Stenn, Rebecca Davis and Ephrat Asherie Dance. She was honored to be included in Curtain Call: Celebrating 100 Years of Women in Design at the New York Performing Arts Library and is a proud guest artist of Music From The Sole.
Damian Quiñones (musician)
Damian Quiñones is a singer/songwriter, musician, and teaching artist. He's written music for television and film and performs regularly with his bands, Damian Quiñones y su Conjunto, and Analog Experimental. He was awarded "best score" by the NYU Short Film Festival 2013 for his soundtrack to the film Flood by Katy Scoggin. Quiñones currently works as a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Education in NYC, and has worked for Casita Maria and Hunts Point Alliance for Children.
Damian Quiñones is a singer/songwriter, musician, and teaching artist. He's written music for television and film and performs regularly with his bands, Damian Quiñones y su Conjunto, and Analog Experimental. He was awarded "best score" by the NYU Short Film Festival 2013 for his soundtrack to the film Flood by Katy Scoggin. Quiñones currently works as a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Education in NYC, and has worked for Casita Maria and Hunts Point Alliance for Children.
Serena Wong (lighting designer)
Serena Wong is a Brooklyn-based freelance lighting artist. Her designs have been seen at American Ballet Theater, Fall For Dance at City Center, Danspace, and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Most recently she has designed for choreographers Gemma Bond, Leonardo Sandoval, Caleb Teicher, and Jaamil Olawale Kosoko. She enjoys biking, beekeeping, and bread baking.
Serena Wong is a Brooklyn-based freelance lighting artist. Her designs have been seen at American Ballet Theater, Fall For Dance at City Center, Danspace, and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Most recently she has designed for choreographers Gemma Bond, Leonardo Sandoval, Caleb Teicher, and Jaamil Olawale Kosoko. She enjoys biking, beekeeping, and bread baking.