(Repost) 2/25/16 O&A NYC DANCE: Mourner’s Bench- Talley Beatty Choreographer

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Talley Beatty choreographed and performed Mourner’s Bench in 1947. It represents the anguish and loss for former slaves, now free men, killed during the Reconstruction Era at the beginning of the rise of the Klu Klux Klan. Beatty explained to me, “People were murdered by the Klan and at daybreak their relatives would find their bodies in the fields still covered in the morning dew.”

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9/15/14 Reflections on Katherine Dunham and Lavinia Williams (part one)

By Noel Nantambu Hall

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 Katherine Dunham laid some sturdy foundations in arts and education that would not only benefit her era, but mushroom through the years and inspire new foundations and further growth. Education and the self-reaffirming power it wielded on an individual, group or society had clearly evidenced itself on her development and growing consciousness in the mid-nineteen thirties, and at the forefront were dance and anthropology. Continue reading

Fred Benjamin Memorial Planned for Saturday, August 23, 2014

By Walter Rutledge

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There will be a memorial service for dancer, choreographer and teacher Fred Benjamin on Saturday, August 23rd; 6:30pm at Saint Peters Church, 619 Lexington Avenue at the corner of 53rd Street. Friends, colleagues, former students and company members will speak including Gina Ellis, Marilyn Banks and Mercedes Ellington. The memorial will not present Benjamin’s choreograph through live performance, instead film and photos will be presented. Prior to the start of the service there will be a wine toast to Benjamin, who died of organ failure on December 14, 2013 in Manhattan. He was 69.  Continue reading

1/9/16 O&A NYC (REPOST) Bambi and Thumper – Diamonds Are Forever featuring Trina Parks- The First African American Bond Girl

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Trina Parks was born on December 26, 1946 in Brooklyn, New York. Her father Charles Frazier, was a renowned tenor saxophonist with Cab Calloway’s orchestra. Parks majored in modern dance at the New York High School of Performing Arts. She also studied with Katherine Dunham and subsequently joined Dunham’s professional dance company in 1964. Additional concert dance credits include Donald McKayle, Anna Sokolow, Talley Beatty, Geoffrey Holder, Eleo Pomare and Rod Rodgers. Parks performed in numerous Broadway productions as a vocalist and dancer, including a lead role in the 10th anniversary touring production of Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies. She was the first African- American Bond girl Thumper in the 1971 James Bond classic Diamonds are Forever. Continue reading

Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center: Dancing The Single Life (part 1)

By Walter Rutledge

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The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center opened their three-day New York season at the Actor’s Fund Arts Center, 160 Schermerhorn Street, with the first installment of Dancing The Single Life. The concert features five solo works by five choreographers Germaul Barnes, Gierre Godley, Amy Grant Hall, Jason Herbert and Christopher Rudd. It was an evocative evening of dance works by cutting edge dancer makers. Continue reading