For the decade before the pandemic, I enjoyed the annual concerts of Danceworks on Tap, the professional tap dance company founded and directed by Danceworks co-founder Amy Brinkman-Sustache. At the concert’s return last summer, Brinkman-Sustache, wearing a cast on her leg and a walker, hobbled onstage to greet us. She’d fallen, she explained. Then she slipped right into a highly hilarious skit she performed with her daughter, dancer/choreographer Gabrielle Sustache. At the final applause, Mom hobbled back out to thank us for coming and to make us laugh one more time with this final exhortation: “Now go out and tap dance.” Those are the last words I have from her. She died of cancer last month.

As a tap artist and teacher, she was up to date with every new idea and development in the dance form, and I’m sure she contributed a lot to it. In performances and interviews, she taught me that American tap dance has its roots in the dances of African slaves and Irish immigrants. Her clever, surprising, and often breathtaking performances honored that history.

Now the Danceworks on Tap concert has been transformed into a DanceLAB series called Rhythmic works under the artistic direction of Christal Wagner. Rhythmworks: Mosaic Movements was presented last weekend. This included a film compilation by Wagner showing Brinkman-Sustache at work over the years.

The entire concert was dedicated to her. Along with great tap dancing, there were contemporary pieces of African dance, hip hop, flamenco, kathak and K-pop, danced by professionals, students and community groups for audiences of all ages. I was reminded that the performing arts were born from ancient drums, songs and dances that opened souls to the unspeakable.

Danceworks’ black-curtained studio theater was empty except for a worn hardwood floor. As always, lighting designer Colin Gawronski worked wonders with modest equipment.

Dancing barefoot

The opening number, Exoduswas danced barefoot by choreographer Prince Andrean and dancers Akanke Davis Attiya Muhammad and Nura Pollard. He was accompanied by Mamady Keita, a djembe drummer from West Africa, and by the voice of a black immigrant to the USA, who described his quest for respect and power. The great jazz singer Nina Simone provided the soundtrack, followed by the explosive “This is America” ​​by the Homeboyz..”

Prince Andrean (Andrean Maxwell) has danced with the Ko-Thi African Dance Company in Milwaukee, among others, in both the youth and adult groups. He has traveled the country learning African and European classical dance styles, and his choreography draws on all of that. It is incredibly fast, full-bodied and highly theatrical. The dancers took on the roles of hard-working black immigrants who are very aware of their challenges.

Virtuoso dance

The aptly titled Flamenco and Kathak It followed. It was choreographed and performed by flamenco expert Kerensa DeMars in hard-soled high heels, and Kathak experts Varsha Prasad and Cyenthia Vijayakumar danced barefoot. DeMars has trained in Spain for over 10 years, performs internationally, and runs Studio K Flamenco in Milwaukee. Later in the concert, she returned with a solo work of pure flamenco virtuosity, titled Back to the waterStomping and clapping in rhythms that express nature’s wildest possibilities.

Vijayakumar was trained in India and is the founder and artistic director of the Aarambh Kathak Dance School in Milwaukee. Prasad is a dancer, teacher and movement therapist based in Bangalore and Coa, India. They also returned to dance The trip And Charurangvirtuoso examples of the Kathak style, with the later character break ending with a pantomimic basketball game. Prasad also danced a mysterious, sensitive solo, Waves of time.

Complicated, syncopated

Danceworks on Tap presents Good to go, Choreography: Tina Wozniak, who was joined on stage by her longtime collaborators Gabrielle Sustache, Nicki Platt, Holly Heisdorf, Kate Krause-Blaha and Kelly Kotecki Escorcia. I admire her intricate, syncopated tap dancing that never repeats itself. It’s a celebration, not a show-off. It’s there to be shared.

Danceworks’ jazz master Gina Laurenzi choreographed Forward with all our strength with their jazz workshop students. The young dancers showed what a body can achieve when given the chance and the space.

Alex Vanissaveth teaches South Korean K-pop dance at Danceworks. He also leads Milwaukee’s K-pop performance group MkeMe Crew. His workshop performed a dazzling show dance and his company performed two of them. I was encouraged by the fearless dedication of these young dancers.

Richard Ashworth has an international resume in dance styles of the African diaspora. He created Wading through deep waters for Danceworks Tap Workshop members Andrea Thiel Svoboda, Jenni Taylor, Chelsea Robinson and Franceszka Lesniak. The water swept me away.

Gabrielle Sustache choreographed groove for seniors Melissa Henningson, Lily Nielsen and Lorelei Wesselowski of the Danceworks Youth Performance Company. It looked like fun. I wanted to join in. What if…? A highlight of the concert was a brilliant hip-hop duet by Sustache and Wezley Turner, a graduate of the Marquette Nursing School who masters the form. The Getdown by Danceworks on Tap ended the show to thunderous applause. The program note reads: “For Mom.”