Bridging the Gap Between Social and Stage Dancing, Caleb Teicher and Eyal Vilner Offer ‘A Very Sw!ng Out Holiday’

‘A Very Sw!ng Out Holiday’Through December 15Joyce TheaterAs a music guy gazing across the ballroom floor at the world of dance, it’s always seemed to me that there’s a somewhat major distinction between two different kinds of dancing: Social dancing, as enjoyed by couples in a supper club, is inherently a different animal from the dancing that is done on a stage. In recent years, no team has done more to bridge the gap between the two than a dancer and choreographer who is the leader of a collective called the Braintrust, Caleb Teicher, and a bandleader, saxophonist, and composer, Eyal Vilner. Last year, they presented “Sw!ng Out,” in which Mx. Teicher did a brilliant job of transforming one of America’s most celebrated vernacular and social dances — the lindy hop, or swing dancing, as it is generally known today — into a theatrical experience, performed and presented in the essentially same way as ballet and modern dance.“A Very Sw!ng Out Holiday” is the latest edition of that show, only this time there’s a substantial amount of seasonally specific content both visually and musically. In fact, it begins with Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” a 1948 work that has already led multiple lives. First, it was a novelty showpiece for Pops-style symphonic orchestras; then it was appropriated as a Christmas song, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish; now it has been translated by Mr. Vilner into swing time, with solos by trumpeter Wayne Tucker and trombonist Mariel Bildsten. Even though the piece is in a solid 4/4, Mr. Vilner and his nine musicians played it with a rhythm suggestive of the easy, rocking beat of horses trotting across the snow. This allows the dancers to clap their hands on the beat and the audience to do the same.The program was divided between pieces featuring the full ensemble of 12 dancers, sometimes forming six couples, and others using smaller groups or, in one case, a shifting lineup of dancers in solo, duos, trios, and other combinations. The latter piece was Mr. Vilner’s original, “Rabbit,” which I might have assumed was inspired by Johnny Hodges and his role in Duke Ellington’s orchestra except that it seems much more indebted to Count Basie. In fact, it could have been a countermelody to “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” which was heard later. For the next two numbers, the 10-piece ensemble was joined by vocalist Imani Rousselle, who sings in an agreeable, tuneful, and understated style reminiscent of both Samara Joy and Cécil McLorin Salvant. She took the stage with a lightly swinging arrangement of Frank Loesser’s “What are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” The cast provided an immediate answer: Dancing, what else? She stayed on for the immortal “St. Louis Blues,” at first rendered in a deliberately archaic two-beat and then something closer to the habanera rhythm that composer W.C. Handy utilized when the song was new in 1912. There also were gruff, bluesy solo interludes for the baritone saxophonist, Jay Brandford, the most veteran of the players. As six dancers moved in a pair of threesomes, the Handy blues gradually morphed into another Vilner original, “Ain’t Got Nobody (But You).” Then, the leader moved to center stage alongside dancer Breonnea Jordan. At this point, it was difficult to say if it was Ms. Jordan who was moving to Mr. Vilner’s sax solo or if he was following her every little movement with his horn. In the end, it must have been a little bit of both.As with the instrumental solos, key moments in the dances were also improvised, which was made clear during a section wherein all the dancers tossed their names into a hat and Mx. Teicher picked one out at random, whereupon the two quickly flew into a largely spontaneous routine. There was more Christmas content, both vocal and instrumental, including an irresistibly swinging treatment of Raymond Scott’s “Christmas Night in Harlem,” which, like “Sleigh Ride,” started as a band number that became a holiday song thanks to a lyric by the same Mitchell Parish. Ms. Rousselle also made “Winter Wonderland” sound hipper than I’ve heard it in a long time. Mr. Vilner further treated us to a flute solo in a slow waltz time, which gradually faded into an a capella dance punctuated aurally only by taps and claps.For a finale, the entire ensemble moved to accompaniment in which the band moved freely from “Jumpin’ at the Woodside” to “Peanut Brittle Brigade,” Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s swinging adaptation of the “March (in G Major)” from Tchiakovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” “A Very Sw!ng Out Holiday” is essentially 70 minutes of tightly packed yuletide fun, enhanced by the dancers in Christmas sweaters and the occasional Santa hat. After a well deserved intermission, the performance is capped by a 30-minute second set in which the more daring in the house have the chance to join the dancers and each other on stage as the orchestra plays. For some, this part alone will be well worth the price of admission.

Bridging the Gap Between Social and Stage Dancing, Caleb Teicher and Eyal Vilner Offer ‘A Very Sw!ng Out Holiday’

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