7/4/20 O&A NYC BACK TO AFRICA WITH WaleStylez: Top 10 Best Traditional African Dances

African traditional Dances refers mainly to the dances performed by the cultural communities found in continent. Communities use these dances to teach, to socialize, ceremonies and for celebrating festivals and moaning funerals while Some dances are exclusively used for spiritual or religious practices.
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6/15/21 O&A NYC INSPIRATIONAL TUESDAY: Life After Paris Is Burning

Paris is Burning is a 1990 documentary featuring the NYC ballroom scene. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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7/3/20 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Lazarus by Rennie Harris (AAADT)

Ailey All Access presents Rennie Harris’ Lazarus. It’s the Company’s first ever evening length work shown in two acts. Through hip-hop dance, Harris reflects on Alvin Ailey’s life and addresses the racial inequities America faced when the Ailey company was founded 1958 and still faces today. Watch it now through Thurs, July 9 at 7pm EDT. Continue reading

8/21/21 O&A NYC DIVO ALERT TRIBUTE: Faison, Godreau and Williams- Road of the Pheobe Snow

Divo Alert! George Faison, Miguel Godreau and Dudley Williams dance in an excerpt from Talley Beatty’s The Road Of The Pheobe Snow with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Continue reading

6/29/20 O&A NYC BACK TO AFRICA WITH WaleStylez: Triplets Ghetto Kids Dance to Rotimi Ft Wale – “In My Bed”

Triplets Ghetto Kids is an NGO (Inspire Triplets Ghetto Kids) Based in Kampala, Uganda founded by Kavuma Dauda. Continue reading

6/26/20 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: A Hymn for Alvin Ailey- A Documentary Film

The documentary film A Hymn for Alvin Ailey goes behind the scenes of Judith Jamison’s Hymn and gives you a look at Alvin Ailey’s life from the perspective of those who knew him best. Continue reading

6/18/20 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Donald Byrd’s Greenwood- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Greenwood, Donald Byrd‘s fifth Ailey commission draws on the Company’s theatrical roots and legacy of addressing social injustice. The work’s title references a 1921 tragedy that happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s segregated Greenwood District. At the time, it was one of the country’s most affluent African American communities, known as Black Wall Street.
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6/18/20 O&A NYC EVENTS: Sneak Preview of Hanging Tree- Juneteenth is African American Independence Day

By Walter Rutledge

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. This observance should hold the status of an African- American Independence Day. Juneteenth 2020 will take place on Friday; and to commemorate the 155 anniversary of independence Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet Dance Company of Brooklyn and NYC Summerstage with present a virtual celebration entitled Hanging Tree. This virtual event will take place on Friday June 19, 7pm on Summerstage YouTube.

The production brought together the talents of dancer James “Banks” Davis, musician Talu Green, vocalist Marcelle Davies Lashley, poet Carl Hancock Rux, choreographer/director Jamel Gaines and members of the Creative Outlet family. Mothers and fathers performed with sons and daughters, brothers and sister, nieces and nephews, and present and former company members brought love, creative, reverence and community to the steps, plaza and base of the Doric styled Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument in Brooklyn’s Fort Green Park. Immediately following the performance there will be a panel discussion lead by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancer/choreographer Hope Boykin. 

 O&A NYC attended the filming of the presentation and brings you a sneak preview of Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet’s Hanging Tree.

Preview Hanging Tree: A Juneteenth Celebration

On June 19th, 1865 a regiment of Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas. One of Granger’s first order of business was to read to the people of the city a document entitled General Order Number 3. The proclamation began:

“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”

Juneteenth honors the memory of all people who have broken the chains of  oppression and dehumanizing servitude. It is celebration of those who have the obtained  freedom, either through the joys of emancipation or the unfortunate inevitability of death. On Friday June 19 we wish you all a joyous Juneteenth and a happy African- American Independence Day.

6/17/20 O&A NYC WaleStylez DANCE PARTY: Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring- The Shed

Watch Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray and the D.R.E.A.M. Ring dancers in a virtual performance inspired by the desire to rediscover self in this moment of isolation and confinement. Continue reading