Tag: Dance

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2/24/15 O&A Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center Begins Spring 2015 Season (revised)

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By Walter Rutledge 

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Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC) begins their 2015 performance /presenting season with its on-the-edge PEEKS-Works in progress choreographers showcase February 26, 7:30pm at The Actors Fund Arts Center, 160 Schermerhorn Street in downtown Brooklyn. This on-going, year-round program presents works-in-progress by emerging New York City-based choreographers and dance companies, with a special emphasis on artists of color, women and the LGBT community. The performance is free to the public; of course donations at the door are always welcomed. Continue reading

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2/19/15 O&A Ronald K. Brown and Evidence, A Dance Company- 30 Years In The Making (Part One)

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By Walter Rutledge

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Ronald K. Brown and Evidence, A Dance Company will celebrate the 30 anniversary of the company February 24 through March 1 at the Joyce Theater. Brown realized his gift as a choreographer and his desire to express him by making dances at the  beginning of his dance career. At age 19, when most dance artists are concentrating on performing, Brown formed Evidence Continue reading

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2/13/15 O&A Shall We Dance: Lloyd Knight – A Dancer’s World

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Shall We Dance

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One of Martha Graham’s most memorable quotes, “It takes ten years, usually, to make a dancer. It takes ten years of handling the instrument, handling the material with which you are dealing, for you to know it completely.” This year marks Lloyd Knight’s tenth year with the Martha Graham Dance Company. His ascent through the ranks of the company culminated with Knight becoming a principal dancer prior to the 2015 New York City season. Continue reading

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(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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(REPOST) 2/6/15 SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Appalachian Spring- Celebrating the 90 Anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company

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Shall We Dance Graham Letter to World 1

To celebrate the 90th Anniversary Season of the Martha Graham Dance Company April 14th, 15th, 16th and 18th at New York City Center O&A NYC Magazine reposts Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring.

Appalachian Spring premiered on October 30th, 1944, at the Library of Congress, Coolidge Auditorium in Washington DC, with Martha Graham dancing the lead role. Created during the darkest days of War World II Graham wanted to create inspiring art that came out of the American experience.  Graham spoke of the work, “To be great art… it must belong to the country in which it flourishes, not be a pale copy of some art form perfected by another culture and another people”. Continue reading

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2/1/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Excerpts from Alvin Ailey’s Revelations

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GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Revelations tells the story of African-American faith and tenacity from slavery to freedom. This enduring classic is a tribute to that tradition, born out of the choreographer Alvin Ailey’s “blood memories” of his childhood in rural Texas and the Baptist Church. Continue reading

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1/2/15 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Storyboard P- An Urban Storyteller

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Storyboard P has pushed street dancing in a darker, more mature direction of urban storytelling he calls Mutant. The twenty-three year old Brooklyn dancer  combines jarring feats of contortion, pantomime, floating footwork and simulated levitation. His choreography, most of it improvised, has a wide range of influences: Jerome Robbins, especially his work in West Side Story; the Nicholas Brothers, whose acrobatic tap-dancing routines amazed Fred Astaire in the nineteen-forties; and, above all, Michael Jackson.  Continue reading

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12/19/14 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Just Dance 2015 Bollywood Santa – XMas Tree

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Just Dance 2015 Bollywood Santa – Xmas Tree: The dance appears to take place on a frozen lake with snow covering the area around it. It also takes place during the night and elephants and elves appear. A huge snowy Christmas Tree also remains in the background throughout the routine. Continue reading

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12/12/14/ O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Radio City Rockettes

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Shall We Dance

The Rockettes in the "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" in the Radi

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is an annual musical holiday stage show presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The show features over 140 performers, lavish sets and costumes and an original musical score. Since the first version was presented in 1933, the show has become a New York Christmas tradition seen by more than a million visitors a year. The 2014 show is scheduled to run from November 7 to December 31, 2014. Continue reading

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11/25/14 O&A Dance: Complexion Contemporary Ballet …In The Beginning (Part 3) An Interview With Christina Johnson

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By Walter Rutledge

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As Complexions Contemporary Ballet begins the second week of their two-week season tonight at the Joyce Theater we continue our conversation with Christina Johnson. The season commemorates the 20th anniversary of the company, Out and About NYC Magazine looks back through the eyes of artists who there at the beginning. Continue reading