11/7/21 O&A NYC MORE GOSPEL SUNDAY: Mourner’s Bench- Talley Beatty Choreographer


mourn2Talley 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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2/14/20 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY- CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Rainbow Round My Shoulder- Donald McKayle with Mary Hinkson

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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

Shall We Dance

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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

1/25/20 O&A NYC SATURDAY MORNING CONCERT- DANCE: City of Rain by Camille A. Brown

 

City of Rain by choreographer  Camille A. Brown performed by the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (2015). Continue reading

11/23/20 O&A NYC THROWBACK THURSDAY- DIVA ALERT!: Diana Ross – Muscles

Muscles (1982)  written and produced by Michael Jackson, and performed by Diana Ross.  Continue reading

(REPOST) 9/1/24 O&A NYC DIVO ALERT: Calvin Royal III- Hallelujah 

Hallelujah choreographed and performed by American Ballet Theater principal Calvin Royal III, directed by Andrii Didyk. Continue reading

1/8/20 O&A NYC WILDIN OUT WEDNESDAY: Brian Friedman & Yanis Marshall Heels Choreography- Britney Spears “Breathe On Me”

Brian Friedman’s Class at Millennium Dance Complex in Los Angeles 2014.  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. 

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