7/29/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Mikhail Baryshnikov In Twyla Tharp’s One For My Baby

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Mikhail Baryshnikov pays tribute to one of his idols, Maya Plisketskaya at the American-Soviet Cultural Exchange Festival: Hommage A Plisetskaya (1988). He performs Twyla Tharp’s One For My Baby sung by Frank Sinatra written by Johnny Mercer & Harold Arlen. Continue reading

6/8/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Swan Lake- III Act- Sylvie Guillem, Manuel Legris, Cyril Atanasoff

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The Swan Lake III Act pas de trois in Rudolf Nureyev’s version with Sylvie Guillem, Manuel Legris and Cyril Atanasoff from the 1988 Paris Opera Ballet production. Continue reading

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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5/20/16 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

4/8/16 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Arthur Mitchell’s Barrier Breaking Creole Giselle

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Arthur Mitchell’s Creole Giselle performed by the Dance Theatre Of Harlem (DTH), and set the traditional story of Giselle in 1841 Louisiana broke barriers with this all African American adaptation.  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