3/11/17 O&A NYC ITS SATURDAY- ANYTHING GOES: Gay Parisian Gaîté Parisienne Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (1941) Featuring Leonide Massine And Frederick Franklin


Gaîté Parisienne (literally, “Parisian Gaiety”) choreographed by Léonide Massine  music by Jacques Offenbach and featuring Leonide Massine, Frederick Franklin, Nathalie Krassovska, Milada Mladova, Andre Eglevsky, Igor Youskevitch, Lubov Roudenko, Casimir Kokitch, and James Starbuck was film in 1941.  Continue reading

3/8/17 O&A NYC DANCE: Misty Copeland On Changing The Face Of Ballet

Misty Copeland said “I never thought I could make a career out of something I enjoyed doing something I was passionate about, something that gave me a voice”  Copeland is the first African Americans to become a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. Continue reading

3/7/17 O&A NYC INSPIRATIONAL TUESDAY- CELEBRATING WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: Judith Jamison- 22nd Kennedy Center Honors

Morgan Freeman introduces honoree Judith Jamison at the 22nd Kennedy Center Honors in 1999. Continue reading

2/20/17 O&A NYC DANCE: Geoffrey Holder- A True Renaissance Man (REPOST)

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Geoffrey Holder- a true renaissance man. Includes rare footage and interviews with wife Carmen de Lavallade and son Leo Holder.  Continue reading

2/16/17 O&A NYC DANCE- BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Bad Blood by Ulysses Dove

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Bad Blood received its World Premiere, in 1984 on Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal. Featuring music by Laurie Anderson (Gravity’s Angel and Walking and Falling) and Peter Gabriel (Excellent Birds) the work in an erotic tour de force battle of the sexes. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre premiered the work in 1986. It is one of seven Dove ballets in the Ailey Company repertoire.  Continue reading

2/14/17 O&A NYC DANCE- VALENTINE’S DAY: A Song For You- Dudley Williams/ Choreography Alvin Ailey

 

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In 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

2/10/17 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: 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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1/30/17 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Breakdance (1984)

Breakin’, released as Breakdance: the Movie or Break Street ’84 in some countries, is a  breakdancing-themed comedy-drama film directed by Joel Silberg and written by Charles Parker and Allen DeBevoise based on a story by Parker, DeBevoise, and Gerald Scaife. Continue reading

1/27/17 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