When Jesse Cahill and Amika Kushwaha take to the stage, anything could happen.
They’re armed with their instruments of percussion: his drum kit, her feet. And once they let loose on their jazz-meets-kathak performance, their musical journey could take them – and their audience – just about anywhere.
Cahill and Kushwaha are one of the many unique duos taking part in Great Pairings – Eyes on the Future, a Sunday evening performance at Massey Theatre that’s part of its 65th anniversary celebrations.
The gala, which includes comedy, music, theatre and dance, spans cultures and generations as it brings a variety of familiar and less-recognized local performers to the stage in duos.
Cahill and Kushwaha’s pairing came about thanks to the Massey Theatre’s executive director, Jessica Schneider, who proposed it to both of them.
Both leapt on board with enthusiasm – though both admit that they were feverishly YouTubing each other’s work the night before their first rehearsal, just to try to get a better sense of what the other performer’s art form entailed.
Kushwaha notes that, though she’s done many collaborations with dancers in a range of other styles, this is her first experience teaming up with a drummer in any non-Indian genre.
And for Cahill, as the practitioner of a relatively modern art form – the drum kit as we know it has been around for only a century or so – it was somewhat intimidating to be paired with an artist like Kushwaha, since kathak dance – a North Indian form of classical dance – goes back many centuries.
The two quickly found common ground in the musical language they share: that of rhythm.
“Rhythm is rhythm. We can read each other’s rhythms really well,” Kushwaha notes.
The audience can expect to see trade-offs between the two art forms, as Kushwaha brings Afro-Cuban and beebop rhythms to life with her feet and Cahill explores Indian rhythm patterns with his drum kit.
The two artists also found commonality in the improvisatory nature of their respective disciplines.
“I guess what we’ve done is put together a collection of rhythms from her dance practice and my music practice to create a piece that invites improvisation,” explains Cahill, who’s lived in New West for the past six years. (FYI, the better-known half of his household, at least in New West, is his wife: Kelly Proznick is the head of the fine and performing arts department at New Westminster Secondary School.)
“I like spontaneity,” Kushwaha says, noting that improvisation is inherent in kathak dance. “We have been groomed to improvise, and that complements the jazz very well.”
Which means that their performance, although planned and rehearsed extensively in advance, will never end up being exactly the same twice.
“There’s an element of risk in it,” Cahill says. “There’s always an element of musical risk playing in a jazz context. You’re seeing how far you can take an idea musically.”
Great Pairings is onstage Sunday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Massey, 735 Eighth Ave. Other featured performers include Sayer Roberts, Daniel White, John Oliver, Thomas Lamont, Jolene Bernardino, Royal City Youth Ballet, Cassius Khan and more.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors, $5 for children 12 and under. See www.masseytheatre.com or call 604-521-5050.
