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Arts and Theater
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Black Tie
International:
Destiny Rising Gala
Performance |
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NYCB's Tiler Peck
& Robert Fairchild perform The Man I Love from Balanchine's Who
Cares.
Photo by:
Eduardo Patino
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Dance World
Stars Turn Out for Destiny Rising
Gala Performance Dazzling
Evening of Dance Benefits NYCDAF Scholarship Fund
Young Dancers Make New York Debuts
on the Stage of The Joyce
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(New York, January 16
2012)…The NYC Dance Alliance Foundation (NYCDAF) celebrated
its first anniversary at The Joyce Theater with a dazzling
evening of dance artistry “Destiny Rising” featuring
outstanding NYCDA alumni, the dynamic choreography of NYCDA
faculty and special guest performances by stars of prominent
dance companies, all to benefit the NYCDAF College
Scholarship Program.
Monday evening’s gala
performance certainly lived up to its title, as audiences
were treated to magnificent performances by well known
alumni and tomorrow’s dance world stars. With a cadre of
young dancers – some only 14 – these future stars executed
performances that were astonishing in their level of
technique, polish, poise and passion. Many of the performers
who made their Joyce Theater debut are NYCDAF scholarship
winners.
Launched by Joe Lanteri,
Founder & Executive Director of The New York City Dance
Alliance, the foundation last August distributed an
astounding $2.8 million in scholarships to promising young
dancers at NYCDA”s Summer Convention last year.
As a result, The Joyce was
packed to the rafters with aspiring young dancers many from
colleges participating in the NYCDAF Scholarship Program
including Marymount Manhattan, Philadelphia’s University
of the Arts and Mercyhurst. They were there to cheer on
their fellow students and celebrate an organization whose
mission is the empowerment of young professional dancers
through education.
The fast paced evening
directed by Lanteri jumped into high gear with a
sinuous and sensuous contemporary piece titled “In the
Beginning” choreographed by NYCDA faculty member Lauren
Adams and set to music by NYCDA alum Angela
Brickhouse. Gillian Abbott. Jakob Karr, David
Norworthy, Ida Saki, Corey Snide and Lea Ved were
featured.
Joe Lanteri welcomed guests
and in his opening remarks recapped the successes of the
past year and shying away from raising the bar once again
shared his belief that NYCDF would surpass its scholarship
grants in 2012 thanks to new corporate and foundation
interest in the program. He then brought out the young
troupe of dancers from Plumb Performing Arts Center in Arizona to perform a brilliant work by
Thang Dao.
Kamber Hart, Shae Hart,
Jordan Pelliteri, Dorie Reiter
and Jacqueline Verge were featured in the beautiful
piece.
Ballerina Catherine
Hurlin currently at the
Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre twirled
her way into everyone’s hearts with a charming piece “Flames
of Paris” from the original choreography by Vasily
Vainonen. The applause was deafening. (Catherine
celebrated her 16th birthday performing with
NYCDA in Orlando this weekend. She has been with NYCDA
since age 7)
Next up was STEPS Repertory
Ensemble performing “Knead” an athletic and fresh piece
created by 2011 Astaire Award nominee Benoit-Swan Pouffer.
Dancers were Clara Belenus, Landes Dixon, Jesse Dunham,
Marielis Garcia, Ricky Kuperman, Kyle Mullins and
Mindy Upin.
A special guest performance
by alumni 3X NYCDA champion Melissa Hough and 2x
Champion Garrett Smith, both with the Houston Ballet
dancing Smith’s choreographic debut ”Unseen”. Set to
Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” the premiere enraptured
the crowd.
Still another NYCDA alumnus
Jason Parsons contributed “Without Sinking” set to
music by fellow alumna Angela Brickhouse. The work
featured NYCDA alumnae Noreen Carruthers, Kate Harpootian
& Addison Reese.
Following this, the
incomparable Camille A. Brown with slouch hat pulled
down over her face danced her own solo piece “The Evolution
of a Secured Feminine” originally commissioned in 2011 for
Alvin American Dance Theater. Set to tunes by Betty
Carter and Nancy Wilson, the piece via Ms. Brown
has great humor and power.
The University of the Arts
Dance Ensemble of Philadelphia performed an excerpt from
“Variations and Improvisations” based on William Forsythe’s
“The Vile Parody of Address” This excerpt was self curated
by UArts dancers and alumnae and was based on a performance
from the Winter Dances 2011 Forsythe Project directed by
Douglas Becker. Dancers included several NYCDA
alumni Noelle Cotler & Patrick Cubbedge and Brett
Lockey, Emily Royston, Tommy Schimmel & Ashleigh
Whitworth.
Special guest artists New
York City Ballet stars Tiler Peck and Robert
Fairchild, both NYCDA alumni performed the gorgeously
provocative “The Man I Love” from “Who Cares” created by the
genius George Balanchine and set to the music of
George Gershwin.
Former American Ballet
Theater prima ballerina Susan Jaffe made a special
onstage appearance in support of NYCDAF’s mission and was
greeted with a thunderous ovation when she came to the stage
and spoke of the importance of education. Jaffe recounted
her own experience of retiring and trying to determine what
she should do next as all she really new was dance. She
underscored the importance of a college education to the
crowd who showed their agreement with lusty and loud
applause.
Lanteri next presented a
brilliant video montage of the past year’s activities that
pointed up NYC Dance Alliance Foundation’s life changing
impact on the young dancers who participated. Young David
Flores of Costa Rica now
attending Marymount on a scholarship he received at last
summer’s convention was charmingly eloquent in the effect
NYCDAF had and continues to have on his life.
3 X NYCDA champion & the
first recipient of The Astaire Scholarship this past year
Corey Snide
took to the stage and endeared himself to the audience with
his story of moving forward in achieving his life dreams by
studying at Julliard.
The finale was a visually
stunning, eye-popping piece by award winning choreographer
Abdur-Rahim Jackson which opened with a small
mountain of bodies, stage right that began writhing
sensually before sliding to the floor and taking off on a
high energy romp around the stage. Essaying Jackson’s exotic
moves was a veritable army of young dancers from Marymount
Manhattan Dance Company that included Zoey Anderson,
Sarah Buscaino, Alessandro Cottone, Mia Deweese, Elizabeth
Dunn, John Dwyer, David Escoto, Sindy Folgar, Andrew
Fountain, Sarah Haarmann, Corey Hathaway, Holly Jones,
Alexandra Lyons, Torrey, McAnena, Daniel Moore, Armando
Morales, Brian Murray, Matthew Roberts, Kaitlyn Salisbury,
Austin Sora, Danielle tamburro, Caitlyn Taylor and
Britney Tokumoto.
Dance companies featured
included STEPS Repertory Ensemble, Marymount Manhattan
Dance Company, University of the Arts Dance Ensemble
and special guests Foundation Star Supporters and
Plumb Performing Arts of Arizona
Among the crowd giving the
entire cast a very well deserved standing ovation were CTFD
Executive Director Alexander Dube, Dance Magazine
Editor in Chief Wendy Perron, Fred & Adele Astaire
Awards producer Patricia Watt, philanthropist Jean
Shafiroff, choreographer Scott Jovovich,
playwright Jenny Lyn Bader, designer Berry Brown,
actress Cassandra Seidenfeld, performer
Michael-Demby Cain, choreographer Abdur-Rahim
Jackson and his wife Alvin Ailey dancer Olivia Bowman
Jackson, Dance Spirit Deputy Editor Allison
Feller, Complexions Artistic Director Desmond
Richardson, NYCDA faculty member Kenny Easter and
hundreds more.
An engaging an informative
talk back featuring the NYCDA alumni and special guests
followed the performance. Led by
Joe Lanteri the panelists included Donna
Faye Burchfield (University of the ARTS Dance Dept.
head), Katie Langan (Marymount Manhattan
Dance Dept. head, Lauren Adams (NYCDA
faculty/choreographer), Claire Livingstone
(Steps on Broadway(, Melissa Hough
(Houston Ballet), Garrett Smith (Houston
Ballet)
After the final
round of applause, the elated guests and dancers trooped
across the street for an after party at
Chelsea hotspot
hot-spot Nisos for cocktails and a delectable Greek
feast laid out by proprietor Steven Antonatos. There
Joe Lanteri, NYCDA managing director Leah Brandon and
General Manager Travis Fritsche greeted guests and
accepted much deserved kudos for an extraordinary evening
that will go far to assist the dance stars of tomorrow. They
also received gushing thanks from the many young dancers who
made their New York stage debuts at
The Joyce!
Meanwhile, some of those
stars of tomorrow sneaked out of the party for some
surreptitious smokes and a visit to the neighboring
Pinkberry Yogurt!
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