Ballade: The Rain Song

The 36th annual Battery Dance Festival opened tonight with poetry reading by Riyadh Mohammed and dancing by Hussein Smko.

The piece is a part of the “Combating Islamophobia Through Spoken Word and Dance” project, established by Battery Dance as a tribute to Adel Euro — a young and inspiring Iraqi dancer, mentored by Battery Dance, but tragically killed by a suicide bomb in July 2017. For more information, visit Battery Dance.

“Ballade: The Rain Song” (World Premier)
Speaker: Riyadh Mohammed
Dancer/Choreographer: Hussein Smko
Poetry: The Rain Song by Badr Shakir al-Sayyab
Photography: Jason Chuang

Puffs

Puffs: the Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic.

A Harry Potter parody, so funny and hilarious, that I couldn’t stop laughing from the beginning to the end. If you’ve read and re-read the Harry Potter books and seen the movies at least 5 times each, you need to see this play!!

Do you know the three wizarding students who went to Hogwarts, became best friends, learnt magic, and tried to save the world?

Yup! Wayne, Megan, and Oliver! Wait. You haven’t heard of them? Well, me neither until tonight. They’re the three Hufflepuffs who “just happened to be at Hogwarts” in the same seven years as Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Puffs is a parody about the other students, a story of what it feels like to be secondary characters in someone else’s story. Most of all though, it’s about the most powerful magic in the world… love! ❤️

Other memorable moments include Susie playing all the signature Harry Potter moments (refreshing to see an actress play the part and she did a fabulous job). Ron as the red broom. Hermione as the messy wig. Students watching the Tri-Wizard Tournament (“We’re just watching a lake”). All the 90s pop music since Harry Potter did go to school in the 90s. The sorting hat. References to both the books and the movies (“The headmaster looks different this year”, the ginormous fifth book, Wayne’s light saber in the “Weird Mirror”).

Peridance Contemporary Dance

Lovely dance performance and improvisation by Peridance Contemporary Dance Company at Summer in the Square this afternoon at Union Square Park.

“Dia-Mono-Logue” (top)
Choreography: Igal Perry
Dancers: Katherine Currier, Greta Zuccarello, and the Peridance Contemporary Dance Company
Photography: Jason Chuang

Dance improvisation (bottom left)
Dancer: Eriko Sugimura
Photography: Jason Chuang

“YOUnited” (bottom right)
Choreography: Marlena Wolfe
Dancers: Peridance Contemporary Dance Company
Photography: Jason Chuang

Bolshoi Ballet: The Taming of the Shrew

Part three of National Dance Day: Bolshoi Ballet at the Lincoln Center!

I also took ballet in the morning but no photos. So just three posts for happy #nationaldanceday. Hope you had a great one, too!

Happy National Dance Day

Happy national dance day! Hope you are all having a great dance-filled day. The Isadora Duncan Dance Company is performing at Alice Austen House this evening, if you’re out by Staten Island or simply want to enjoy a lovely dance performance by the ocean before sunset!

Dancers: Lori Belilove and the Isadora Duncan Dance Company
Photography: Jason Chuang

#nationaldanceday

Bei Mir Bist du Schön (Reprise)

Paul Taylor American Modern Dance presents “Company B”

“Company B” ended where it began with a reprise of “Bei Mir Bist du Schön.” However, underneath all the jumps and jives, was America really the same after everything that took place?

“Company B”
Choreography: Paul Taylor
Dancers: Paul Taylor Dance Company
Photography: Jason Chuang

#lcoutofdoors #paultaylordancecompany #ptdc #ptamd #moderndance

There Will Never Be Another You

Paul Taylor American Modern Dance presents “Company B”

As the stories of “Company B” continued and as America became further drawn into World War II, we once again were confronted with the realities of the war. Here are Heather McGinley and Sean Mahoney with the sorrows of losing a loved one in “There Will Never Be Another You.”

“Company B”
Choreography: Paul Taylor
Dancers: Heather McGinley, Sean Mahoney, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company
Photography: Jason Chuang

#lcoutofdoors #paultaylordancecompany #ptdc #ptamd #moderndance

Rum and Coca-Cola

Paul Taylor American Modern Dance presents “Company B”

We were treated to hit songs of the 1940s including “Rum and Coca-Cola” by the Andrews Sisters. The song lyrics, based on a calypso (not the jump but a style of Afro-Caribbean poetry), tell the stories of American G.I.s in Trinidad. Accompanied by the Duchess‘s singing, here’s the amazing Eran Bugge and the boys!

“Company B”
Choreography: Paul Taylor
Dancers: Eran Bugge and the Paul Taylor Dance Company
Photography: Jason Chuang







Oh Johnny Oh Johnny Oh!

Paul Taylor American Modern Dance presents “Company B”

More of the 1940s American life. Here is “Oh Johnny Oh Johnny Oh!” by the Andrews Sisters where every girl in town is crazy about a certain little lad… featuring James Samson as Johnny and the Duchess on the mic.

“Company B”
Choreography: Paul Taylor
Dancers: James Samson and the Paul Taylor Dance Company
Photography: Jason Chuang