Collective Listening Project

Tap Dancer Caleb Teicher Selects

Playlist No. 6

About the Playlist

April 7, 2020
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Tap Dancer Caleb Teicher was set to make his PUC debut on the Performances Up Close series with pianist Conrad Tao on Tuesday, April 7, 2020 but the concert was canceled due to Covid-19.  About the playlist he curated for us, Caleb says,”There’s something analogous between the elements of tap dance and of piano: both have rhythmic play, momentum, power, delicacy, and embodiment.” Caleb shares the music that has shaped and continues to inspire his dance and his life.

ABOUT THE PLAYLIST

I chose three recordings with remarkable piano performances and one more for poetic reasons.

1. A live recording of Nina Simone’s breakout performance at Town Hall in 1959 that spurred my fandom of her haunting vocals and exquisite musicianship.

2. Pianist Glenn Gould’s tender performance of the second movement in Bach’s Concerto No. 5 — while working on a choreographic project to this music, I ate/slept/bathed in this recording.

3. Finally, the poetry of Billie Holliday’s “God Bless The Child” that has spoken to me during the pandemic. I’m not a person of any particulary denomination, but the lines speak for themselves: Momma may have / Poppa may have / But God bless the child that’s got his own / That’s got his own.

4. Ray Charles irresistible blues groove on “What’d I Say, Pt. 1 & 2” that has inspired decades of dance parties in apartments and in dance-halls.

-Caleb Teicher

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