It’s Time to Stomp!

Who says you need a twelve thousand dollar drum set to play percussions?  Who says you need drums at all?  Stomp wowed the crowds two decades ago with the most unique arrangement of rhythm instruments the world has ever seen.  Garbage cans and their lids, oil drums, street signs, household items such as brooms, tableware, fans and even the kitchen sink, all have their musical qualities according to the rules of Stomp.

It’s more than just rhythm.  Their amazing choreography is made up of dance, acrobatics, and humorous skits, all seemingly aimless, yet perfectly synchronized.  Their props are the kind of things you might find in an alley, or in a clapboard shack; startling in their simplicity for a world that has gotten used to dazzling stage effects and electric light shows.  Sometimes, they swing from ropes attached to harnesses.  Sometimes the only swinging they do is the fancy footwork of their thirty-member cast.

This incredible theatrical performance has its humble beginnings in Brighton, of the United Kingdom. Using nothing more than body movements and inanimate objects, between the years of 1991-1994, the super-powered group of innovative performing artists tapped and skipped, jumped and crashed their way through onto stages in Sydney, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Dublin and stormed the halls of New York.  In 1994, they won an Obie award and a Drama Desk award for most unique theater experience.

“Most unique” almost sounds like an understatement.  They are a sensation like no other, when even the rattling of newspapers can perform its own music and create its own choreography.  What first began as a group of street artists became a mark in the world of art and music, performing at the Sydney Opera House in 2007, and at the Royal Festival Hall in London all in the same year.

Now they are back on tour, with new skits, new sounds, new dance routines and new reminders that we don’t need a symphony orchestra to make music, and we don’t need dazzling backdrops to be entertaining.  All we need is a feeling for rhythm, a little bit of gusto and an ability to stomp.  Coming live to New York, get ready for some of the most original, diverse and adrenalin rushed performances under the sun.

Categorized in: Theater