STOMP returns to the Lied Center March 6-7

STOMP, the international percussion sensation, returns to the Lied Center for Performing Arts March 6-7.

The exhilarating eight-member group will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 6, and 2 and 7:30 p.m.  Saturday, March 7. Tickets are available at http://www.liedcenter.org, the Lied Center Box Office at 301 N. 12th St., or by calling 402-472-4747. UNL students can obtain tickets at a 50 percent discount with a valid NCard.

From its beginnings as a street act in the United Kingdom, STOMP has grown over the past 20 years to include performances in more than 50 countries and in front of more than 24 million people.

Created by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, STOMP continues its impressive run with four global productions: the ongoing sell-out production at New York's Orpheum Theatre, a permanent London company, and North American and European tours. Throughout its life, the show has continued to change by creating new material; this year, it will incorporate two new pieces.

An overwhelming success marked by rave reviews and sell-out engagements, STOMP has earned an Olivier Award for best choreography in a West End show, a New York Obie Award, a Drama Desk Award for unique theatrical experience and a special citation from Best Plays.

In addition to the stage honors, STOMP has earned an Academy Award nomination, four Emmy nominations and an Emmy Award for its acclaimed HBO special "Stomp Out Loud," The group has made several noteworthy TV appearances including the London 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony, the Academy Awards, "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood" and a series of award-winning international commercials. 

The performers “make a rhythm out of anything we can get our hands on that makes a sound,” said co-founder/director Cresswell.  A unique combination of percussion, movement and visual comedy, STOMP has created its own inimitable, contemporary form of rhythmic expression. Both household and industrial objects find new life as musical instruments in the hands of an idiosyncratic band of body percussionists.  It is a journey through sound, a celebration of the everyday and a comic interplay of characters communicating through dance and drum.

Synchronized stiff-bristle brooms become a sweeping orchestra, eight Zippo lighters flip open and shut to create a fiery fugue; wooden poles thump and clack in a rhythmic explosion. STOMP uses such unconventional instruments as dustbins, tea chests, radiator hoses, boots and hubcaps to fill the stage with a compelling and unique act.

Writer: Carrie Christensen, Lied Center for the Performing Arts