8/7/15 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal

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Smooth Criminal is the seventh single from Michael Jackson’s 1987 Bad album. Jackson originally wanted to make the music video in the western genre, but he later decided after watching “The Third Man” with Director Colin Chilvers to change it to a 1930s gangster style. Jeffrey Daniel of the soul music group Shalamar co-choreographed the Smooth Criminal video with Jackson and Vincent Paterson, who was a back-up dancer in Beat It and Thriller.

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The dance sequence of the video in the 1930s style lounge (and Jackson’s white suit and fedora) pays tribute to the Fred Astaire musical comedy film The Band Wagon. Jackson and some of the dancers around him perform a seemingly impossible forward lean. For the video, this was done using harness cables. To accomplish this maneuver for stage performances, though, Jackson co-patented a hitching mechanism which was built into the floor of the stage and the performer’s shoes.

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Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal

7/24/15 0&A Shall We Dance Friday: Bessie Schönberg- How to Look at Dance

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Bessie Schönberg (1906-1997) a distinguished and beloved educator in the dance arts,  speaks to a class of interns at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the summer of 1989. She discusses the art and technique of how one can watch dance as an audience member. Schönberg offers insight into how one can prepare oneself to view new dance, find an entry point or “handle-bar” into the content, and how to build an appetite for the multitude of dance forms. Continue reading

12/1/23 O&A SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY- WORLD AIDS DAY: Lar Lubovitch- Duet from Concerto Six Twenty-Two

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Duet from Concerto Six Twenty-Two is set to Concerto in A for Clarinet and Orchestra, K. 622 by  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Choreographer Lar Lubovitch premiered this work on his company, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, at the Municipal Theatre in Angers, France on December 12th 1985 on dancers Sylvain Lafortune and Edward Hillyer. The work was performed at the first Fire Island Dance Festival, which has become the annual summer fundraising centerpiece for Dancers Responding To AIDS Continue reading

7/14/15 O&A Inspirational Tuesday: Misty Copeland- Dancing Her Dreams

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Misty Copeland stopped by The View on July 6th to discuss her promotion to Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theatre. Copland becomes the first African-American dancer to achieve principal status. In addition O&A NYC Magazine includes Copeland’s 60 Minutes Interview. Continue reading

7/3/15 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: The Lake section of Alvin Ailey’s The River- American Ballet Theater with Cynthia Gregory and Marcos Paredes

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The Lake section of Alvin Ailey’s The River featuring music by Duke Ellington, with American Ballet Theater Cynthia Gregory and Marcos Paredes.  The ballet was first performed by American Ballet Theater (ABT) on June 25, 1970 to highly enthusiastic reviews. Continue reading

6/29/15 O&A Dance: Souls Of Our Feet Dance Festival Continues Tonight

By Walter Rutledge

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The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center concludes their 2015 Souls Of Our Feet Dance Festival with two events Monday, June 29 and Tuesday, June 30 at the Actors Fund Arts Center 160 Schermerhorn Street in downtown Brooklyn, 7:30 pm. On Monday the third dance presentation will featured three New York based Hip Hop companies, Full Circle Souljah, Jendog/YalinDream and Special Ops/Flatbush Bullies. Tickets for this event are $20 and can be purchased online at wwwthelmahill.com and at the box office prior to the performance.

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Each group brings a different favor of this American art form that was born in urban NYC. Full Circle Souljahs, under the direction of Bronx native Rokafella, blends Hip-Hop with traditional dance styles and compositional forms to produce dances ranging from pure street dance to concert style urban dance narratives. Jendog/YalinDream are a music with a message duet that combines rap, spoken word and hip hop imagery. Special Ops/Flatbush Bullies mixes flexing, bone breaking, and break dance in a street battle format , this high-energy “in your face” style will make you want to bust a sag and pull your hoodie over your head. In Lieu of a formal post performance Q&A, each company director will provide brief statements detailing their organization’s mission and aesthetic philosophy.

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On Tuesday June 30 at 7pm the series will conclude with A Dancer’s Life, a conversation with dancer Loretta Abbott. Abbott, whose career spans over six decades. Abbott holds the distinction of dancing the Wade In The Water section of Alvin Ailey’s masterwork Revelations with Ailey himself (she was Ailey’s last partner). In addition to concert dance she was in the original Broadway cast of Purlie, Raisin and Liza With A Z. Abbott will discuss her career and artistry with Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center Artistic Advisor, and Out and About NYC Magazine Editor in Chief Walter Rutledge.

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Abbott and Rutledge will open the evening with a duet entitled Sentimental Reasons. The work choreographed by Rutledge and commissioned by Dancers For A Variable Population 10027 Project is a tribute to the partnership of Abbott and the late Al Perryman. Named the Dynamic Duo they had special onstage chemistry, and impeccable comedic timing. This free event will include a closing night reception. For more information visit thelmahill@msn.com or call (718) 875- 9710. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6/22/15 O&A Picks Of The Week June 21- June 27: Art, Dance, Film, Music, and Theatre

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Summer is finally here! And it has ushered in a whirlwind of arts events. We have fine art, dance, film, music and theatre; something for everyone. Here are a few of the many events happening in the city that never sleeps guaranteed to keep you Out and About. Continue reading

9/22/17 O&A Shall We Dance: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers – Top Hat

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Top Hat was the most successful picture of Astaire and Rogers’ partnership (and Astaire’s second most successful picture after Easter Parade), achieving second place in worldwide box-office receipts for 1935. While some dance critics maintain that Swing Time contained a finer set of dances, Top Hat remains, to this day, the partnership’s best-known work. Continue reading

Litefeet: Sound of the Subway’ Is a Documentary on New York’s Underground Music and Dance

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Litefeet is a rising music genre and style of dance that has become increasingly popular within the New York subway scene.  The genre is highlighted by 100-BPM tracks as well as an acrobatic take on old school b-boy moves and pop-locking. Due to the energetic nature of the music and the moves, police have begun cracking down on the scene, leaving artists sometimes struggling to cope. Continue reading