Try/Step/Trip

Powerful, provocative, poignant… and an incisively personal rumination on the ritual structures and strictures of faith — whether that be faith in the church, in the courts, in the prison system, in court-mandated rehab and recovery. Try/Step/Trip feels like a noteworthy benchmark in the history of the “hip hop musical” for two main reasons: Creator Dahlak Brathwaite’s distinctive autobiographical voice and Try/Step/Trip’s electrifying ensemble work.

Brathwaite’s confident compositional voice — lyric, musical, dramaturgical — anchors the heart and presence of this piece, allowing the extraordinary ensemble to soar beyond him. And soar they do. My mental list of Try/Step/Trip’s standout ensemblists quickly expanded to include nearly the entire cast but I must note Dante Rossi, whose distinctive presence and expansive skillset really caught my attention (and my imagination and my heart).

Truth be told, though, Try/Step/Trip becomes extraordinary because of its exhilarating elaboration of Black step dance as a choreographic vocabulary for music theatre storytelling. Toran X. Moore’s choreography — as shaped dramaturgically by (legendary) director Roberta Uno — lifts Brathwaite’s compelling narrative to the next theatrical level, where the action of any individual person/performer is always already part of a larger system…

Try/Step/Trip’s step work provides not only an exhilarating dance spectacle but also a powerful soundscape (especially as percussive counterpoint to Brathwaite’s words/music) and an unexpectedly emotional scaffolding for the dramatic arc of Brathwaite’s narrative. An extraordinary experience and noteworthy accomplishment.

Choreography by Toran X. Moore