To complement our Hylton Presents series, we love sharing more intimate artistic experiences with our audiences in the 242-seat Gregory Family Theater. The Tray Wellington Band (2/24) is up next in our popular American Roots Series. This boundary-pushing bluegrass band is gaining momentum, having opened for Dan Tyminski and Joe Mullins and performed at premier festivals.
“My music tries to push the traditional boundaries within the folk genre,” Wellington said. “As a huge fan of jazz musicians such as the great Roy Hargrove and John Coltrane, I want my music to encompass the freeness and movement that other genres accomplish without feeling put into a box.”
In May 2022, Wellington released his debut full-length album, Black Banjo, to acclaim:
“I wanted to bring it to people, which is the idea of being yourself no matter what!,” Wellington said. “I think a lot of the time there is societal pressure to fit a certain mold. And for me, being Black and playing banjo is often looked at as odd by people, but I am doing what I love, and I will not let people's perception change that! I hope audiences will leave with a wider perception of what folk and bluegrass music could be if we take down these imaginary barriers we put in front of ourselves!”
In February, Gerson Lanza (2/27) dances his way into the Gregory Family Theater (and into our hearts!) as part of the Matinee Idylls series. In this unique performance, Lanza will tap dance accompanied by a five-piece jazz ensemble. This joyful artist has completed residencies at Lincoln Center, Jacob’s Pillow, and Strathmore, and has performed at The New York City Center, The Kennedy Center, and many other venues. We asked Lanza a few questions to learn more about his art.
What do you love about tap dancing?
I love that tap dance is not solely dance but it is also music. The percussiveness and the vibrations that travel within the embodiment of tap dance is so unique. It truly has been a place of refuge for me since my adolescent years, back during my first encounters with it in Harlem. It’s beautiful, because those beginning reverberations are what provided me with the confidence needed to walk into unfamiliar spaces and be okay with my visibility as an immigrant belonging to a more foreign culture navigating the United States. Tap has helped me find a home, a place to call my own.
How does your identity and culture influence your art and craft?
I think of the body as an archival tool. The rigor of training the mind and body while considering awareness of space, time, and music is what makes dance practitioners special and tap dancers superheroes. Honduras is a percussive country full of rhythm defined in folkloric sectors of indigenous Mayans, as well as in the African Diaspora that dwell in the coastal lands. Growing up in Honduras and raised in the neighborhood of Harlem, NYC has permitted many influences and legacies to register in my body in the way I create music and dance.
What do you hope people will get out of your performance at the Hylton Center?
I want people to feel the joy and magic tap dance offers. I want to invite the audience to understand its multiplicity and how it is a cross-disciplinary art form that blurs the lines between movement and music. I want people to feel the ancestral aura that is the magic of tap dance and its inability to leave behind cultural archives embedded in its genetics.
Don’t miss these upcoming performances and more in the Gregory Family Theater!