Tap dancer Danny Nielsen brings the rhythm to Vancouver Cantata Singers ROAM concert
Diverse program features songs that evoke feelings of wanderlust, including new arrangements of “Roam” by the B-52s and Billy Joel’s “River of Dreams”
Vancouver Cantata Singers.
Vancouver Cantata Singers present ROAM at the Annex on March 1 at 7:30 pm
AT THE HEART of the Vancouver Cantata Singers’s latest concert is a one-of-a-kind collaboration: the choir will be performing alongside Calgary-born, Vancouver-based tap dancer Danny Nielsen.
Called ROAM, the program will be made up of folk songs from across Nordic countries, the U.K., North America, and South America that all celebrate themes of wanderlust and travel. One of the pivotal songs featured is “Roam” by the B-52s, arranged by Vancouver Cantata Singers artistic director Paula Kremer and Jonathan Wiltse. According to Kremer, including the hit single in this concert was a no-brainer for the choir.
“When I mentioned the idea of a show called ROAM to the choir a year ago, a few of the singers spontaneously burst into that song,” Kremer says. “And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that would be neat to actually have “Roam” on ROAM!’ I couldn’t find a choral arrangement of it anywhere, so I made one up. I was able to then create breaks and make it actually designed for Danny and us.”
The idea to collaborate with Nielsen came when Kremer saw him perform at the Scotiabank Dance Centre last May with pianist Kristian Alexandrov and upright bassist Miles Hill. It had the feel of a joyful jazz concert—Nielsen wasn’t just a dancer, but another musician tying the tunes together.
Danny Nielsen.
Kremer connected with Nielsen after the show to learn more. The dancer was a founding member of M.A.D.D. Rhythms Canada under the direction of Lisa La Touche, and has toured with Shay Kuebler’s Radical System Art in Telemetry; but as it turns out, he had never collaborated with a choir, and the Vancouver Cantata Singers hadn’t performed with a tap dancer before, either. The performance that audiences will see at the Annex on March 1 will be an entirely new endeavour.
“In four of our pieces, Danny will be dancing with us, so in that sense it provides another element,” Kremer says. “It’s as if there’s a percussion element that’s so beautiful and visual at the same time. I mean, I love tap—it’s instrumental, it’s rhythmic. His feet are an instrument, and then his whole body moves in a sense, almost like a conductor would gesture.”
Aside from the concert’s titular B-52s tune, Nielsen will tap with the choir through the Brazilian song “Tico-Tico no Fubá” arranged by José Mena Polo, the vocal-jazz piece “VoiceDance” by Greg Jasperse, and an arrangement of Billy Joel’s “River of Dreams” by Vancouver Cantata Singers member Sam Dabrusin.
Paula Kremer.
The program will feature an additional 15 songs performed only by the choir. Among the works in store are “Rêve pour l’hiver” by Norwegian composer Frank Havrøy with words by French poet Arthur Rimbaud, a dreamy piece about a couple that embarks on an intimate journey together in a pink carriage; English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’s version of the beloved folk song “The Turtle Dove”; and Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla’s 1965 nuevo tango-style “Milonga del Angel”, arranged by Javier Zentner.
There will also be a few quirky tunes thrown into the mix, such as “Goats”, a Welsh folk song about counting wandering goats, arranged by choir member Chris Doughty. Another fun addition is “El Hambo”, a Swedish folk-dance song by Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjarvi that was partially inspired by the Swedish Chef from The Muppets.
Ultimately, audience members are in for true musical variety with the ROAM program.
“At times when the choir is singing, there’s discovery, there’s beauty, there’s warmth,” Kremer says. “But there are also quite a few irreverent works, and so I hope they have a sense of joy and fun singing together, and exposure to some of these other styles of music that the Vancouver Cantata Singers may not have performed as much. And of course, just the awe and the brilliance and the visual of the sounds that Danny can do with his feet with our music, and how that fits together, I think will be exciting.” 
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