1/8/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Pas de Quatre’ – Alicia Alonso, Carla Fracci, Ghislaine Thesmar and Eva Evdokimova

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Pas de Quatre, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot in 1846 to music by Cesare Pugni, caused a sensation with both critics and public at its London premiere in 1847. One reason for its success was that it brought together four of the greatest ballerinas of the time. In order of appearance in the work, the ballerinas were Lucile Grahn, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni, with this order being according to age. This cast only performed four times together.  Continue reading

12/18/15 O&A Shall We Dance: Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland- Nutcracker Grand Pas de Deux

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During the 1977 Christmas season, CBS brought Mikhail Baryshnikov’s highly acclaimed American Ballet Theatre production of Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet The Nutcracker to television. The production has remains the most popular and most often shown television production of the work in the U.S.  Mikhail Baryshnikov performed the title role, with Gelsey Kirkland as Clara.
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12/4/15 O&A NYC Shall We Dance Friday: Jill Scott – Back Together featuring Complexion Contemporary Ballet

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Jill Scott has release her latest music video Back Together. While Scott isn’t in the video herself, the theatric clip features dancers from Complexions Contemporary Ballet breathe life into relationships broken by misunderstanding, the death of a loved one or personal issues. Continue reading

(Repost) 11/27/15 O&A NYC Shall We Dance Friday: Sylvie Guillem- Boléro

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One of Maurice Bejart’s most noted works, Bolero shows a woman dancing hypnotically on a tabletop. Sylvie Guillem performed its sinuous caressing and beckoning movements as if she were making incantatory gestures as a high priestess of an erotic ritual. Men seated motionless on chairs at the sides of the stage fall under her spell and slowly come to life. As Ravel’s familiar score mounts to a mighty climax, they dance around the table and at last jump on it to join the woman. The ballet is a remarkable image of awakening desire. Continue reading

11/13/15 O&A NYC Shall We Dance Friday: Missy Elliott – WTF (Where They From) ft. Pharrell Williams

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Missy Elliott has returned in spectacularly weird style in the vibrant, clever video for “WTF (Where They From),” her new single with Pharrell. The clip opens with a handful of New Yorkers already singing along to “WTF” and goes on to feature the rapper and a rotating cast of dancers working locations around the city. Though the concept is simple, the execution is far from it. Continue reading

Missy Elliott – WTF (Where They From) ft. Pharrell Williams

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Missy Elliott has returned in spectacularly weird style in the vibrant, clever video for “WTF (Where They From),” her new single with Pharrell. The clip opens with a handful of New Yorkers already singing along to “WTF” and goes on to feature the rapper and a rotating cast of dancers working locations around the city. Though the concept is simple, the execution is far from it. Continue reading

4/24/15 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Bunny Briggs – Duke’s Dancer

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Bunny Briggs says he was born dancing: “When I finally faced the world my legs were kickin’. They let me loose, and I just started dancin’ . Just started right out dancin’. And been dancing ever since.” He was born on Lenox Avenue and 138th Street in Harlem, New York. At the age of three his mother took him to the Lincoln Theatre to see his aunt Gladys, who was a chorus girl. After seeing the dapper Bill Robinson perform at the Lincoln he rushed home to say, “Mamma, I want to be a tap dancer”. 

Bunny Briggs with Benny Carter Orchestra

After appearing at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1960 with the Duke Ellington band, Briggs became known as Duke’s Dancer. Briggs became the chosen soloist in Ellington’s Concert of Sacred Dance, in David Danced Before the Lord, which premiered at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco (September 16, 1965). Dubbed by Ellington as “the most superleviathonic, rhythmaturgically-syncopated tapsthamaticianisamist”.

Bunny Briggs Performs Come Sunday from Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert of Music

Briggs was nominated for a Tony Award in 1989 for his work in the Broadway show Black and Blue, he also appeared in the Gregory Hines film Tap in 1989. In 2002, Briggs received an honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts in American Dance by Oklahoma City University in 2002, honoring him as one of the nine doctorates of Tap Dance.

Dr. Bunny Briggs in Black and Blue

10/9/15 O&A NYC Shall We Dance Friday: Jose Limon- The Moor’s Pavane

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The Moor’s Pavane in a Studio-filmed performance of Jose Limon’s landmark 1949 ballet featuring Jose Limon, Betty Jones, Lucas Hoving, and Ruth Currier. 

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12/31/21 O&A NYC Shall We Dance Friday (Repost): Banda (excerpt)- Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade

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Geoffrey Holder’s Banda dance debuted in the 1954 Truman Capote/Harold Arlen musical House Of Flowers. Holder the Baron of The Cemetery (based on the Haitian Loa of Death Baron Samedi) and received both a performer and choreographer credit in the program. The Broadway musical takes place somewhere in the West Indies during Mardi Gras weekend. Continue reading

9/18/15 O&A NYC Shall We Dance Friday: Maurice Béjart- La Sacre du printemps (1970)

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Le Sacre du printemps (1959) is a milestone in the history of dance, and  choreographer Maurice Béjart approached the work with great courage. His version full of new meanings, physicality and sensuality became a universally recognized success.  “Human love, in its physical appearance, symbolizes the act by which God creates the cosmos, and the joy it brings. Let this ballet be bare of all picturesque artifice, let it be the hymn to the union between man and woman at its deepest level, between heaven and earth, the dance of life and death, let it be as eternal as spring!” – Maurice Bejart Continue reading