By Walter Rutledge
This weekend dance is front and center.We have dance and dance cinema downtown, we also music in the nightclub Harlem tradition at the Apollo. These are a few of the events happening around the city and in our community.
Working Women, the one-night only concert from last summer’s Gotham Dance Festival, returns to The Joyce for an expanded four-performance series Wednesday, January 30 through Sunday, February 3. The performances will feature works created by some of America’s most intriguing and beloved female choreographers. The program features new works and audience favorites by Camille A. Brown (solo from Mr. Tol E. Rance); Carolyn Dorfman (Keystone); Monica Bill Barnes (Luster); and a special performance of Janis Brenner’s Contents May Have Shifted, performed by Holley Farmer. The series will also present world premieres by Kate Weare, Loni Landon, Jane Comfort, and Sidra Bell (performed by BODYTRAFFIC).
The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street. Performances are on Wednesday at 7:30pm; Friday at 8pm; Sunday at 2pm and 7:30pm. A Dance Chat will immediately follow the Friday 8pm performance. Tickets are $10-39 and are available at www.joyce.org.
The Apollo Music Café will begin the Apollo Theater’s Black History Month festivities this weekend with two performances. Rebecca Naomi Jones on Friday, February 1, Patrice Covington and B. Slade on Saturday, February 2; doors and bar open at 9pm and Performances begin at 10pm. Tickets are $20 general admission and A-List advance price $15 until midnight the day before performance. Tickets can be purchased at the Apollo Theater Box Office, telephone by calling Ticketmaster (800) 745-3000, or online at Ticketmaster.com.
Broadway’s own Rebecca Naomi Jones (American Idiot and Passing Strange) is a singer who emanates an emotional charge as memorable as the thrilling music she sings. This evening of storytelling through song captures with piercing intensity the dizzying roller coaster of life’s highs and lows rendered by an artist with a big Broadway voice that slides from playful to poignant.
R&B, soul and Broadway songstress Patrice Covington who has dazzled audiences in unforgettable theatrical performances, offers selections from her recent release Life Feels Good Right Now, including classic R&B, country juke joint and Motown tunes. B. Slade, formerly known as Tonex, is a two-time Grammy nominee and eight-time Stellar Award winner whose undeniable talents include being the first African American male to star in The Who’s Tommy.
Dance on Camera Festival returns for the 17th consecutive year from Friday February 1 through Tuesday February 5 at the Francesca Beale Theater, 144 West 65th Street. This year’s lineup includes fascinating documentaries with an exciting and diverse array of dance films and programs, including a bevy of in-person appearances and premieres. The festival will present about everything from ballet-dancing triplets to Finland’s enfant terrible of the accordian, a two-part celebration of dance-turned-filmmaker Shirley Clarke, the 50th anniversary of the great flamenco film Los Tarantos, Passing The Torch: The Legacy of Jose Limon and Anna Sokolow and the festival’s first foray in to the glamourous and virtuosic genre of ice dancing with an introduction by skating legend Dick Button. Presented by Dance Film Association and Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In conjunction with this year’s festival, an exhibit of striking black and white images by Finnish/American photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen will be on display in the Furman Gallery of the Walter Reade Theater. Tickets are $13 general admission $9 for students/seniors. For Ticket and other information go to www.filmlinc.com, www.dancefilms.org or at the theater box office.
As always thank you for letting me share my world with you.
In Photo: 1) Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake 2) Camille A. Brown 3)Rebecca Naomi Jones 4) B. Slade and Patrice Covington 5) Anna Sokolow
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To read about dance one can not help but to be reminded of two icons Katherine Dunham and Eartha Kitt. I had the great honor of meeting them both on their visit to beautiful Minneapolis.They both could dance their way into anybody,s Heart!