Movement and drums meld in Rhythm Dance In-Fusion

It starts with the rhythm. Fingers tap on a tightly stretched drum skin. Heads sway in a larger pattern. The dancers don’t come out on stage so much as they sashay gently out of the wings dressed mostly in white, festooned with beads and jiggling jewelry. The outfits seem calculated to enhance the notion of motion, to amplify each sway of their bodies.

They move in unison and then, at some unseen signal, the pattern changes as they whirl around each other.

The scene is The Olive Mediterranean Grill, 3850 E. Sunset Road, where drummers and dancers gather from 8 to 9:30 p.m. every fourth Tuesday at Rhythm and Dance In-fusion.

The production values are basic, but the audience doesn’t seem to mind. The stage is simply one end of the restaurant cleared of tables. The wings are a few tables off to one side. After a few songs it becomes apparent why there doesn’t seem to be a real separation between the audience and the performers.

There isn’t one.

The dancers beckon the audience to the dance floor. Within minutes a dozen people in their street clothes are swinging to the beat among swirling silk scarves and bangles.

Deborah and Joshua Levin organize the monthly event. Deborah teaches dance from her Sunrise-area home studio and her top students perform at Rhythm and Dance In-fusion as the New World Rhythmatists. Joshua is an anthropology teacher at the College of Southern Nevada.

“He’s my Renaissance guy,” Deborah said. “He’s a painter, sculptor, percussionist and scholar.”

Among the courses Joshua teaches are “Drums in Culture” and “Art in Cross-Cultural Perspective.”

The couple discovered their love for music and dance separately. Deborah was in band and color guard in high school and continued with independent color guard groups after graduation. Later she took a day job and danced on weekends.

“I tried Western dance, ballet, jazz, modern, but found it very competitive,” she said. “It would take people a year to learn your name and speak to you in class. I got into belly dancing because it’s communal.”

Deborah discovered her first belly dance instructor while doing home health care. One of her clients was an amateur photographer, and belly dancers were among his favorite subjects. One day he handed her a flier for a local class, and she’s never looked back.

“I was very fortunate that my first teacher was very community-oriented,” Deborah said. “It was exactly what I was looking for.”

For Joshua, finding drumming was literally a discovery.

“I was at an event in the mountains of New Mexico. It was a re-creation of a medieval type thing,” he said. “I heard drums in the distance and started to walk towards it.”

The sound led him to a copse of trees with a curving path between them. He followed the arching trail until a clearing opened up with a huge roaring bonfire. Around the fire were drummers improvising a complicated rhythm and people dancing in costumes.

“Suddenly an older woman appeared out of a tent, dressed like I could only imagine (how) Isis looked,” Joshua said. “I was blown away that what I was seeing was not a performance but a shared experience.”

That shared love of the communal experience led Deborah and Joshua to each and to Las Vegas.

“We met Jeff and Abby McBride while working festivals with them,” Deborah said. “They had a community here already, and Joshua was getting his Ph.D. and was offered a job here. We knew it was where we wanted to be.”

From 8 to 11 p.m. every third Thursday, The Olive Mediterranean Grill is also home to Jeff McBride’s “Wonderground,” a collection of artists, magicians, specialty performers and dancers. Deborah and The New World Rhythmatist dancers regularly appear there. While there is no cover charge for the Rhythm and Dance In-fusion show, the “Wonderground” cover charge is $10.

“We believe in community art,” Deborah said. “Life should be imbued with art. Art has gotten removed from the everyday. It’s treated like a commodity. You go to see it like a show, but most people don’t participate in art as just part of being alive.”

Joshua agrees.

“What appeals to me is that it’s a way to connect to each other without words,” he said. “In the process, we make art.”

Though food or drink purchases are appreciated, there is no admission charge to the Rhythm and Dance In-fusion show. The group’s next performance is scheduled from 8 to 9:30 p.m. May 28. For more information, visit facebook.com/nwrevents. The Olive can be reached at 702-451-8805.

Contact Sunrise/Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 702-380-4532.