BWW Dance Review: CALEB TEICHER & COMPANY Invites Audiences to a Night of Premieres

On September 29, 2016, Caleb Teicher & Company welcomed audiences to an intimate evening of new work at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College. As a Bessie award winner for Outstanding Individual Performance, Teicher has been making a name for himself not only as a performer, but as a choreographer. This one-night-only engagement was made possible with support by Queens College as part of the City University of New York (CUNY) Dance Initiative and an artistic residency at the American Tap Dance Foundation.

The evening began with the New York premiere of a witty duet entitled Small and Tall. It takes on a humorous play on the dancers', Lindsey Jones and Macy Sullivan, height as one is small and the other is tall. I loved it! I found myself and the entire audience laughing throughout the piece as the dancers became the odd couple of the 21st century. Teicher brings his background of musical theater and social dance beyond tap in this jazzy piece. It also looked like the dancers were having a lot of fun as there were several moments they exchanged smiles. Bravo Mr. Teicher!

The next and most anticipated piece of the evening, was the world premiere of his newest work Variations. Choreographed to Goldberg Variations, Teicher creates a new and charming interpretation of a classic. I enjoyed watching his sense of musicality and humor throughout the work, which I found to be very intriguing. He struck a good balance of tap and the music. I loved the ability of the dancers to manipulate the rhythms of the music with their feet in different ways- whether dancing loud or soft, with the melody or against it, or making sounds with or without the taps. I personally found the oppositions to peak my interest throughout the piece. It may not have been flashy with the footwork, but boy are these sounds clean, crisp, and just amazing. People keep telling me that tap is dead, but I guess they haven't seen Caleb Teicher & Company, because they would know that statement is truly mistaken. Teicher was joined onstage by the skilled Brittany DeStefano, Gabriel Winns Ortiz, and Byron Tittle.

I appreciated the atmosphere as Teicher invited audiences for an intimate gathering with the seats and audience members both on the stage for an up close and personal performance. So often the dancers can be far removed, leaving the crowd behind. But here, you had no choice but to be engaged! I also welcomed the idea of keeping things simple and making it about the sounds of the taps and the talent of his dancers.

Teicher is not new to the dance scene. He is most notably known for his work as a performer with Dorrance Dance and The Chase Brock Experience in addition to appearances in Irma La Douce at City Center Encores! and the BB Promotion's international tour of West Side Story. If that weren't enough, this performance showcased his rather rare artistic genius and showed why he was named one of Dance Magazine's 2012 "25 to Watch!"

CUNY Dance Initiative is an artistic residency program providing New York City based choreographers and dance companies both rehearsal and performance space. Piloted back in 2013, the project started in response to findings in the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's "We Make Do" report alluding to the need for affordable dance rehearsal space in New York. This provides artists with a unique opportunity to create new work, while making use of the underutilized performing arts centers and other spaces found on the CUNY campuses throughout the city. Now in its' fourth year, the program has expanded to 12 campuses and has subsidized and facilitated almost 70 residencies with many more to come.

Caleb Teicher in Caleb Teicher & Company's "Variations" Photo Credit: Dominick Totino Photography

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