‘STOMP’ will be in Scranton June 1-2
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
If you were on a quiz show, and someone asked you to name five percussion instruments, what would you say?
Drums, of course. Most people would probably think of drums. Then, what? Cymbals? Xylophone? Tambourine? Gong?
But what if someone said hubcaps? Garbage can lids? Wooden poles? Brooms? Zippo lighters? And pipes?
You might guess that person had just seen “STOMP,” where eight cast members use a variety of everyday items to create an almost magical display of percussive sound and rhythm.
“My favorite things we use are brooms,” said Jasmine Joyner, a professional dancer and cast member who will soon take part in two shows at the Scranton Cultural Center, set for 7:30 p.m. June 1 and June 2.
“We also use huge tires that we wrap around our bodies,” she said. “We use pipes that make nice sounds; they have different rings. And poles. We use a pole and a hammer handle together.”
“With ‘STOMP,’ we do a lot of call-and-response,” Joyner said, explaining the cast doesn’t use their voices but might clap out a rhythm with their hands or stomp one with their feet and encourage the audience to clap or stomp the same sequence.
“I love being in tune with the audience and being able to interact that way,” she said.
With two roles to play in “STOMP,” Joyner said the first is “called Bin Bitch. She is the girl that hangs out with the guys, able to do anything the guys are able to do. Guys may be scared of her or cool with her. The second role is Cornish. She’s more quirky, fun, spunky, and theatrical. She gets to wear fun hairstyles like mohawks or pigtails and wacky costumes in different colors and layers. I’m doing that as more of a dancer.”
Asked which she prefers, Joyner said she feels more comfortable onstage with Bin Bitch. “I have that strong demeanor,” she said. With Cornish, “I have to think a lot more with how I bring out my characer.”
Joyner’s early dance training included lessons at Jenn’s Studio I in Queens, N.Y., which her mother ran.
“My mom was my first tap teacher,” Joyner said, proudly noting her mother has seen “STOMP” probably “thousands of times,” and was delighted to see, after the 18-month hiatus the pandemic imposed, “how much I had grown.”
Not being able to perform for a year and a half “put the fire under me to do better and to do more,” she said, speaking in a telephone interview from West Virginia, where the traveling show performs this week.
During the pandemic Joyner said she took a job that was the exact opposite of dancing with “STOMP.”
“I worked for a call center, so I went from something super physical to sitting and talking on the phone. And instead of working 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., it was regular 9 to 5. I’d never done that before. I also had to speak more than I ever did before. In the show, we don’t speak at all.”
Joyner, who earned a bachelor’s degree in dance from SUNY Fredonia, also worked at two afterschool dance programs during the hiatus, teaching youngsters to dance.
Her advice to beginning dancers? “Just keep going and strive for what you want. Sometimes you’ll be discouraged but keep going. Make sure all your hard work is for you, and not for other people.”
The two shows at the Scranton Cultural Center were postponed from January, and tickets purchased for those shows will be honored. If you don’t already have tickets, they are available at scrantonculturalcenter.org or 570-342-7784.
Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT