O & A- A Conversation With Choreographers Thaddeus Davis and Tonya Wideman-Davis : past-carry-forward Debuts April 23, 2014

By Walter Rutledge

pcf rep

Dance Theatre of Harlem will begin their New York season April 23 at the Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center.  Choreographers Tanya Wideman-Davis and Thaddeus Davis have created past-carry-forward  a work that considers the legacy of the Great Northern Migration of African Americans. Continue reading

Shall We Dance Friday: Dudley Williams- I Wanna Be Ready (1986)

Shall We Dance

dudleywilliams

In a long, brilliant career, Dudley Williams worked with such artists as Martha Graham, Talley Beatty, and Donald McKayle. Most significantly, he was a member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for more than forty years. Although Williams retired from that company in 2005, some months before his 67th birthday, he still teaches at the Ailey School. He also makes guest appearances as a teacher at the Martha Graham School. “[Dudley Williams is] amazing—an inspiration to everybody, a real poet with movement.” –Alvin Ailey from Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey.

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(Repost) 4/1/14 O&A NYC DANCE: Martha Graham – Appalachian Spring and Rite of Spring

By Walter Rutledge

appalachian-spring

The recent all too-short season of the Martha Graham Dance Company at New York City Center was a resounding artistic success. The company performed two programs of Graham classics and stunning new works by Nacho Duato and Andonis Foniadakis. The Saturday March 22 evening program included two Graham classics Appalachian Spring (1944) and Rite of Spring (1984).  Both works reinforced the fact that Graham was not only as a master craftsman, but also as an artist with a strong sense of classic form, structure and design. Continue reading