5/3/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: BattleFest 35- D Money vs Doc

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BattleFest League Extreme Street Dancing came from the gritty streets of Brooklyn (that’s the gritty streets before gentrification). The style is part structured dance, improvisation, contortion and acrobatics, while remaining 100% testosterone charged. BattleFest is a dance battle sports leagues for extreme street dancers. 

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5/28/16 O&A NYC ITS SATURDAY- ANYTHING GOES: Stormy Weather- Featuring Katherine Dunham And Her Dance Troupe

It is Saturday

Stormy Weather poster with Lena Horne

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

5/27/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Gregory and Maurice Hines

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Gregory and Maurice Hines, Harlem natives and child entertainers  were the sons of Alma Iola (Lawless) and Maurice Robert Hines, a dancer, musician, and actor. Maurice began his career at the age of five and Gregory at age two. Both studied tap dance at the Henry LeTang Dance Studio in Manhattan. LeTang recognized their talent and began choreographing numbers specifically for them patterned on the Nicholas Brothers. Continue reading

5/24/16 O&A NYC DANCE: The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC) Kicks Off 40th Anniversary Season With PEEKS Tonight

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The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC) will kick off their 40th Anniversary season with its works-in-progress showcase entitled PEEKS on Tuesday, May 24, 8pm at the Faison Firehouse Theatre (6 Hancock Place). THPAC offers choreographers an opportunity to present dance works in varying degrees of development in front of a live audience. An audience talkback, which provides constructive feedback for both dancers and dance makers follows the showing. Choreographers Marshall Swiney and Walter Rutledge will presents works at this PEEKS showcase.  Continue reading

5/23/16 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Cell Block Tango and When You’re Good to Mama From Bob Fosse’s Chicago

Hollywood Mondays

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Chicago (2002) the musical comedy-drama film adapted from the satirical stage Bob Fosse musical of the same name. Both the movie and the stage play explore themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Jazz Age Chicago. The film stars Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere and Catherine Zeta-Jones and also features Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly, Christine Baranski, Taye Diggs, Colm Feore, Mya Harrison and Desmond Richardson.  Continue reading

5/21/16 O&A NYC SATURDAY MORNING CONCERT: Nureyev and The Joffrey Ballet in Tribute to Nijinsky (1980)

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NUREYEV and the Joffrey Ballet/In Tribute to Nijinsky, the Dance in America broadcast, debuted on March 9, 1981. Recorded in August 1880 in Nashville the program presented a collection of three ‘reconstructed ballets had been seen in a special limited run on Broadway. For television, the dances have been supplemented with biographical comments on Nijinsky by Dale Harris and snippets of interviews with Rudolf Nureyev. Continue reading

5/20/16 O&A NYC SHAll WE DANCE FRIDAY: Sherezade (2002)- Kirov Ballet Feauturing Svetlana Zakharova and Farukh Ruzimatov

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Scheherazade premiered on June 4, 1910, at the Opéra Garnier in Paris by the Ballets Russes. The choreography for the ballet was by Michel Fokine and the libretto was from Fokine and Léon Bakst. This ballet provoked exoticism by showing a masculine Golden Slave seducing Zobeide who is one of the many wives of the Shah. Continue reading

8/26/24 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Air-otica From Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz

By Walter Rutledge

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All That Jazz is the semi-autobiographical fantasy film based on aspects of Bob Fosse’s life and career as dancer, choreographer and director. The  musical film was directed by Bob Fosse with screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse.
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5/15/16 O&A NYC GOSPEL SUNDAY: Gospelfest 2016

By Walter Rutledge 

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Gospelfest 2016 – Honor Thy Mother took place on Saturday May 7th, 2016 at the Prudential Center (25 Lafayette Street, Newark, NJ). The event produced a two-fold celebration; it is both the ultimate gospel music extravaganza and a wonderful tribute to our mothers. The Mother’s Day Eve event has become a day long gospel event for the entire family and community.  Continue reading

9/24/17 O&A NYC ITS SATURDAY- ANYTHING GOES: Maya Plisetskaya Dances Bolero (Choreography by Maurice Béjart) And The Dying Swan

It is Saturday
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Maya Plisetskaya, Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Bolshoi Ballet, danced Maurice Bejart’s Bolero set to the famous Ravel score in 1975. Plisetskaya created a stunning theatrical experience. What makes the piece so compelling is that although Plisetskaya may be accompanied by dozens of other dancers mirroring her movement, the first and only focus is on the prima ballerina herself.  Continue reading