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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5/27/16 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

5/20/16 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

5/13/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Theme & Variations- Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov (1978) American Ballet Theatre

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Theme and Variations received its world premiere at New York’s City Center on November 26, 1947, danced by Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch. George Balanchine’s plotless ballet with its glorious choreography and glittering costumes is a vision of the Imperial Ballet in its heyday at the Maryinksy Theatre.  A second production with costumes by Desmond Heeley,  premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, on April 17, 1978, with Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov in the leading roles.

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5/6/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: La Valse (1951) Featuring Tanaquil LeClercq and Nicholas Magallanes

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George Balanchine choreographed Maurice Ravel’s La valse in 1951. Ravel wrote La valse, poème chorégraphique pour orchestre (a choreographic poem for orchestra), between February 1919 and 1920. The music premiered in Paris on 12 December 1920. It was conceived as a ballet but is now more often heard as a concert work. The work has been described as a tribute to the waltz, and the composer George Benjamin. Continue reading

3/18/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Paul Taylor- Promethean Fire (Toccata & Fugue)

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Promethean Fire (2002) danced to the music of three of Leopold Stokowski’s famous Bach transcriptions (Opus 116). The ensemble work is one of Paul Taylor’s six ballets set to the music of the baroque master. This excerpt is the first movement choreographed to the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor.   Continue reading

3/11/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Jerome Robbins- Dances at a Gathering

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“The ballet stays and exists in the time of the music and its work. Nothing is out of it, I believe; all gestures and moods, steps, etc. are part of the fabric of the music’s time and its meaning to me.” – Jerome Robbins

Dances at a Gathering

Choreography: Jerome Robbins (1969)
Music: Chopin
Pianist: Ryoko Hisayama
Opéra de Paris (2014)

Ludmila Pagliero – en rose
Amandine Albison – en mauve
Nolwenn Daniel – Amarelo
Aurélie Dupont – en vert
Charline Giezendanner – en bleu
Mathieu Ganio – en brun
Karl Paquette – en violet
Josua Hoffalt – en vert
Emmanuel Thibault – en rouge brique
Christophe Duquenne – en bleu
Nolwenn Daniel – en jaune

3/4/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet Balcony Scene – Featuring Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun

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Balcony scene from John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet featuring Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun with music by Sergei Prokofiev. Continue reading

5/26/23 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Dudley Williams- Alvin Ailey’s Love Songs

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d90704264383da96da61f51bc870f967In 1972, Alvin Ailey created the elegiac solo Love Songs for dancer Dudley Williams. The  sixteen minute solo, composed in three sections includes A Song for You by Donny Hathaway; Poppies by Nina Simone; and He Ain’t Heavy, He’s my Brother by Donny Hathaway. Many  thought of the work as the male equivalent of the female solo Cry (1971). Continue reading

2/19/16 O&A NYC THEATRE: Maurice Hines- Tappin Thru Life

By Walter Rutledge

Shall We Dancetappin_thru_life_a_lMaurice Hines presents Tappin Thru Life, at the New World Stages (340 West 50th Street), an entertaining mix of song, and dance peppered with Hines winning blend of tongue in cheek comedic realism. The evening chronicled his career in show business, which spans over six decades (beginning at age five). Septuagenarian (plus two) Hines charmed and cajoled the audience with unabashed panache, creating a clap along good time from beginning to end. Through a series of autobiographical anecdotes accompanied by song, dance and a mosaic/collage of multiple projected images Hines reveals a life spent “walkin the walk” or in Hines case “tappin thru life”.

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