Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancer and Baltimore School for the Arts alumna Jacqueline Green ’07 performs Ailey’s iconic solo Cry (1972). Continue reading
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Category: Dance History
3/20/20 O&A NYC SATURDAY MORNING CONCERT: Lark Ascending- Alvin Ailey Choreographer, Featuring Maxine Sherman and Roman Brooks
Lark Ascending set to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending- Romance for Violin and Orchestra with choreography by Alvin Ailey. The ballet made both its company and world premiere at New York City Center during the 1972 season. Continue reading
(Repost) 8/4/20 O&A NYC DIVA ALERT! RAINY DAY BONUS: Stormy Weather- Featuring Katherine Dunham And Her Dance Troupe
Stormy Weather is a 1943 film musical produced and released by 20th Century Fox. The movie is considered one of the best Hollywood musicals with an all African-American cast and serve to showcase of some of the top African-American performers of the time. Continue reading
11/7/21 O&A NYC MORE GOSPEL SUNDAY: Mourner’s Bench- Talley Beatty Choreographer
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.”
2/14/20 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY- CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Rainbow Round My Shoulder- Donald McKayle with Mary Hinkson
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
3/16/23 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY- WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: Excerpt of Banda with Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder (1957)
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
3/6/23 O&A NYC CELEBRATING WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: Deborah Manning in Cry- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Deborah Manning performs Alvin Ailey’s tribute to woman (especially our mothers) Cry (1971). Continue reading
1/3/20 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater- Revelations
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.
12/28/19 O&A NYC DANCE REVIEW: Fandango- Pure Magic
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
12/6/19 O&A NYC SHALLL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Momix Performs Fandango- Choreographer Lar Lubovitch
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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