Four dancers mid-kick on blue-lit stage in colorful outfits, with a guitarist and cellist behind.

Music from the Sole Stages a Joyful ‘House’ Party

by Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
July 8, 2026

When the vibrant tap and live music ensemble Music from the Sole makes their Mondavi Center debut on April 3, they will celebrate both tap’s roots in the African diaspora and its evolving expression as America’s original vernacular dance.

Tap dance sits among jazz and Indigenous arts as a uniquely American art form. It’s no accident that the Mondavi Center featured tap in our 26-27 season lineup as we looked at ways to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.Jeremy Ganter, Executive Director

Music from the Sole was founded in 2015 by Brazilian dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and American bassist and composer Gregory Richardson to explore tap’s unique nature as a blend of sound and movement. The ensemble incorporates wide-ranging influences such as samba, jazz, funk, Afro-Brazilian rhythms, house, soul, rock and Afro-Cuban traditions.

Two dancers tapping while drummer plays against blue backdrop

“Like America itself, tap dance is a cultural mosaic, notably influenced (like jazz) by West African rhythmic traditions, as well as step dancing and other folk dance forms from Europe,” Ganter says.

The ensemble’s latest piece, House Is Open, Going Dark, is inspired by the close, almost domestic relationships that artists create when working and living together. Within a set of five wooden tap dance floors evoking a home, dancers perform as musicians and musicians move with the dancers, blurring the lines between art and life—and inviting the audience in.

“Living fully in the musical and choreographic moment is part of the ethos of Music from the Sole, and what fuels their playful and improvisatory spirit,” Ganter says.