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.”
Donald McKayle’s 1959 masterwork, Rainbow Round My Shoulder, is acclaimed as a modern dance classic. A searing dramatic narrative, it is set on a chain gang in the American south where prisoners work, breaking rock from “can see to can’t see.” Their aspirations for freedom come in the guise of a woman, first as a vision then as a remembered sweetheart, mother, and wife. The songs that accompany their arduous labor are rich in polyphony and tell a bitter, sardonic, and tragic story. It was created for the Donald McKayle Dance Company, and has been in the repertoire of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Batsheva Dance Company and Dayton Contemporary Dance, among others. The cast in the video excerpt includes Donald McKayle and Mary Hinkson. Continue reading
By Walter Rutledge
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) 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
Deborah Manning performs Alvin Ailey’s tribute to woman (especially our mothers) Cry (1971). Continue reading
Alvin Ailey’s masterwork Revelations (1960), one of the most recognizable modern dance works, remains a powerful testament to the human spirit. This cast includes Marilyn Banks, April Berry, Kevin Brown, Gary DeLoatch, Ralph Glenmore, Deborah Manning, Renee Robinson and Dudley Williams.
By Walter Rutledge
Actress, author and burlesque entertainer Gyspy Rose Lee once said, “If a thing is worth doing, it worth doing slowly… very slowly”. Fandango by choreographer Lar Lubovitch embodies Lee’s philosophy and more. Instead of flashy flurries of movement, the sensual duet performed by Danica Paulos and Clifton Brown; and set to Maurice Ravel’s contemporary classic chestnut Bolero, smoldered with a steady and intense heat. Continue reading
Set to Maurice Ravel’s classic Bolero Momix dancers Mia Babalis and Sylvaine Lafortune perform choreographer Lar Lubovitch’s Fandango directed by Barbara Willis Sweete with conductor Charles Dutoit.
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By Walter Rutledge
Masazumi Chaya, affectionately called Chaya, has been a part of Ailey organization for almost half a century. Chaya joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1972 during an era we refer to as the Golden Age of Ailey. During Chaya’s fifteen years as an Ailey dancer he distinguished himself as an intense performer; who excited audience with an almost effervescent abandon. Continue reading
By Walter Rutledge
Michelle Fleet has been affiliated with the Taylor organization since 1999. During her twenty-year association she has been a member of Taylor 2 (1999- 2002) and a seventeen-year member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The Bronx native talked with Out and About NYC Magazine Editor-in Chief Walter Rutledge about her career, favorite roles, and future ambitions prior to her final season (October 29 through November 17 at Lincoln Center’s Koch Theater) as a member of the Taylor company. Continue reading
The Dance of the Village Elders are back ! This time we exercise, dance and just have fun through the zoom platform or in-person at R.A.I.N. Nereid 
The Dance of the Village Elders are back ! This time we exercise, dance and just have fun through the zoom platform or in-person at R.A.I.N. Nereid 
