Featuring Mason Artist-in-Residence Soles of Duende artists Amanda Castro and Ryan Stanbury

This music-centered workshop explores the creative engine that powers percussive dance and live composition. Led by Tap artist Amanda Castro and musician-composer Ryan Stanbury, participants discover how rhythmic ideas are shaped, expanded, and brought to life through shared musical understanding. 

The class focuses on riding rhythmic waves (listening for groove, pulse, and tension) and learning how musical architecture supports both improvisation and structured choreography. Ryan will guide participants through foundational musical concepts that help dancers “hear” form: phrasing, transitions, motif development, and dynamic mapping. Amanda will demonstrate how tap dancers interpret and respond to those structures, using footwork as both instrument and narrative tool. 

Together, Amanda and Ryan break down the collaborative flow between dancer and musician when creating new scores, how to exchange ideas, communicate needs, troubleshoot, and build a cohesive rhythmic language. The workshop emphasizes that musical references, shared vocabulary, and, above all, artistic chemistry remain the most essential ingredients in co-creating percussive work. 

Open to dancers, musicians, and interdisciplinary artists, this session offers practical tools and a deeper understanding of how rhythm-based partnerships come alive. 

This workshop is free, but registration is required.

This residency is made possible through the generous support of the Hylton Performing Arts Center Endowment and the Hylton Center Education Initiative, supported in part by Amazon Web Services and BION.

This engagement of Soles of Duende is made possible in part through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo credit: Erin Patrice O'Brien, courtesy of Soles of Duende.

Don’t miss Soles of Duende in their performance Can We Dance Here on Saturday, February 21 at 8 p.m. Purchase tickets