Live performance returns to the Music Center, and being a face in the crowd rarely feels this good. A dispatch from the scene.
About halfway through a tap dance performance on the Music Center plaza in downtown Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power building behind the outdoor stage lights up like a lantern. Each empty office, blazing electric orange, is a reminder of how the city’s core hollowed out during the pandemic.with its fifth and final Dance at Dusk show featuring queen of tap Dormeshia. “The Super Villainz: A Tap Dance Act for the Modern Age” awakens L.A.
About 150 audience members sit in 39 pods, each with up to four people. The pods are staggered in taped-off yellow squares across the plaza. A bottle of water has been placed by each metal folding chair, and no other refreshments are allowed or provided. This last part doesn’t seem to bother the audience, most of whom appear content just being there — in a public space, surrounded by others, experiencing a live performance after a 14-month pandemic-induced drought.
A socially distanced audience took in a live dance performance on the Music Center Plaza in May 2021.Before the dancing begins, a recorded voice greets the audience and explains the safety protocols. Cheers and hollers ring out. Signs encourage audience members to text “dance” to 55741 to receive a program on their device.
The performance is a joyful eruption of movement and sound, punctuated by the rhythmic tippity-tap-tap of amplified metalsoled shoes against the propulsive tempo of a live jazz quartet. Dormeshia, Jason Samuels Smith and Derick K. Grant electrify the crowd with jaw-dropping, complex footwork that looks impossibly effortless.
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