#dance theater of harlem

[staticsnowfall]

michaela mabinty deprince (1995-2024)

🩰˚✧₊⁎

today, september 13th, 2024, the ballet world lost an extraordinary dancer and woman.

michaela mabinty deprince was born on january 6th, 1995, as mabinty bangura, in sierra-leone. she was orphaned, her parents passing to due to both direct and indirect causes of the civil war in her home country. she was demonized by her caretakers for her vitiligo, being called a “devil’s child”, and suffering from other forms of neglect and abuse. in 1999, deprince was adopted by an american couple along with another girl, and they were taken to new jersey, united states of america.

her hopes of becoming a ballerina had been planted when she found a ballerina on a magazine cover in her home country. she didn’t know of ballet at the time, but treasured the picture and dreamed of dancing. this dream blossomed into truth when she moved to the states, being put into ballet lessons soon after her arrival. deprince was a four-time participant in youth america grand prix, one of the largest ballet competitions in the united states. she was awarded a scholarship to study at the jaqueline kennedy onassis school of ballet, the associate school of american ballet theatre.

despite facing racial discrimination and other hardships in and out of the industry, deprince persisted in her dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer. in 2012, at the age of 16, she became the youngest member of dance theatre of harlem, and the next year, she joined the junior company of the dutch national ballet. she soon rose through the ranks, joining the main company and attaining the rank of soloist. she was the first dancer of african origin to ever join the company, and a shining advocate and role model for black women in ballet.

her other accomplishments include being an ambassador for war child holland, a dutch organization working to improve the wellbeing and resilience of children directly affected by war. she visited uganda and lebanon through the organization. she also appeared in beyoncé’s 2016 music video for ‘freedom’.

she will dance among all the stars in the sky. rest in peace beautiful michaela mabinty, you are already so missed. ♡

[dancersofcolor]

Alexandra Hutchinson performing as Dewdrop in The Nutcracker for New York City Ballet

Photos by Erin Baiano

[nofatclips]

Formwela 12 by Esperanza Spalding featuring Carmen de Lavallade

[crystallineirises]

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A post shared by Michaela Mabinty DePrince (@michaeladeprince)

Rest in Power my beautiful queen 😭

[gillianthecat]

I found this 8 minute documentary that Dance Theatre of Harlem put together about the creation of Creole Giselle.

https://fb.watch/rIsmkx_R7w/?mibextid=w8EBqM

[lexrambeau]

@ramdaughter

the fabulous arthur mitchell and dance theater of harlem

[timmurleyart]

Mambo trio. 🎹🎻🥁🎺🪘(mixed media collage)🎵

[whileiamdying]

#SelfPortrait #MalvinGrayJohnson Malvin Gray Johnson was active during the heyday of the #HarlemRenaissance of the 1930s. The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of #AfricanAmerican #music, #dance, #art, #fashion, #literature, #theater, #politics, and scholarship centered in #Harlem (in #NewYorkCity). Johnson simplified the #forms of his #subjects and occasionally emphasized his African past by including #African #imagery in his paintings. The compressed space in his Self Portrait speaks to Johnson’s profound awareness of #modernist compositional devices. The easel at the left side of the canvas identifies him as an #artist, and the #masks in the background make an assertive statement about his African #heritage. In 1934, the year he painted his self-portrait, Johnson joined the ranks of the #PublicWorksOfArtProject, the first of President #FranklinRoosevelt’s #NewDeal art programs, which paid artists a monthly stipend. Although the job lasted only six months, Johnson was finally able to paint full time. Ironically, the year proved to be Johnson’s most prolific but also the last of his short #life. #DailyArt (at United States) https://www.instagram.com/p/Co5PF4wvK0W/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[fatherlandnewyork]

Places Where You Can Experience African Lifestyle in New York

Whether it's visiting a significant historical landmark, a famed restaurant, an influential music venue, or a well-known museum, there are numerous opportunities to engage with the contemporary African lifestyle in New York.

[petervintonjr]

Today we celebrate the life and accomplishments of the "Godfather of Voguing," Willi Ninja. Born in 1961 Queens, New York, Willi was raised by an encouraging and supportive mother, Esther Leake, who not only encouraged his passion for dance but --significantly-- supported his own self-identity. While not able to afford dance lessons, Leake nevertheless took her son to ballet shows and other performances at places like the Apollo Theater, and Willi embarked on a self-taught path to dance greatness.

Borrowing heavily from the Harlem ballroom scene (and its established role as a socially safe space for Black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ alike), Willi mastering the singular art of voguing, a unique form of dance that blended fashion poses with precise martial-arts movements. In 1982 Willi founded his own dance troupe, the House Of Ninja, which --in keeping with Harlem ballroom tradition-- also served as a community safety net. The "Ninja" moniker was inspired by Willi's own interest and study of various martial arts. Willi rapidly ascended to stardom, perfecting and reinventing his dance techniques. By the 1990's Willi had landed appearances in music videos (including two with Janet Jackson), films, talk shows, and international runway shows; drawing attention from pop icons like Madonna and fashion moguls like Jean-Paul Gaultier. One 1991 appearance on Joan Rivers' show caused considerable buzz as he encouraged audience members to "walk" as if participating at a drag ball.

On this very date (June 9) in 1990, Jennie Livingston's inspiring documentary Paris is Burning, which features appearances by Willi and the House of Ninja, was released at the NewFest New York LGBT Film Festival. The film exposed Willi and his signature choreography to a much wider audience. Shortly after the film's premiere, Willi starred in Anthem, a critically-acclaimed 9-minute video directed by Marlon Troy Riggs.

Willi never neglected his own community, though --his rising stardom offered him a megaphone to advocate for many issues important to the LGBTQ+ community, among them HIV/AIDS awareness and fighting to end the relentless social stigma that accompanied patients with the disease. Willi himself died of heart failure due AIDS complications, in 2006.

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Olga (Ollie) Burgoyne

Olga “Ollie” Burgoyne, also known as Ollie Burgoyne-Calloway, was a singer and dancer specializing in Russian and other ethnic dances. She was also an actress and businesswoman who gained popularity during the Harlem Renaissance and left her mark as one of the most influential African American dancers and choreographers of that time.

Ollie Burgoyne was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 13, 1879. She was part Russian and part Creole. Ollie’s cousin, Ida Forsain, toured Russia and specialized in Cossack dancing. Influenced by Forsain, Burgoyne debuted at age 17 in John Isham’s Oriental America nightclub in Chicago in 1896. In 1901, at age 22, she embarked on an eight-year tour of Europe (Germany, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Hungary, and Russia) with seven singing and dancing girls known as the Louisiana Amazon Guards.

In 1903, Burgoyne briefly returned to the United States and joined the cast of the operetta In Dahomey, which was the first African American musical to be performed on Broadway. After her performance, Burgoyne formed Duo Eclatant with partner Asher Watts. She also founded the Burgoyne Musical Company.

During her years in Russia (1904-1914), Burgoyne performed in many prestigious venues, including the Krestovskiy Garden Amusement Park (St. Petersburg) and the Aumont Theater (Moscow). She also made side trips to Odessa in what is now Ukraine, Athens, Greece, Istanbul, Turkey, and Cairo, Egypt. She opened the Maison Creole lingerie store in downtown St. Petersburg (Russia), where she employed a staff of 27. In August 1914, while Burgoyne was vacationing in Marienbad, Austria, World War I broke out, and she was unable to return to Russia and thus lost her businesses and properties there.

Between 1914 and 1929, Burgoyne continued to tour mainly in western Europe. Her specialties were Brazilian, Spanish, and Russian dances, which she mastered while traveling. She briefly returned to the United States during this period, where she performed in New York City, Chicago nightclubs, and Harlem’s Lafayette Theater. In 1925, Burgoyne produced two dance revues, Darktown Strutters, and Harlem Strutters, in New York. She also appeared in ten Broadway productions between 1926 and 1937.

In 1931, Ollie Burgoyne was named one of the eight major dancers and choreographers of the Harlem Renaissance, part of an elite group that also included Hemsley Winfield, Edna Guy, Randolph Sawyer, Asadata Dafora, Katherine Dunham, Charles Williams, and Pearl Primus. In April 1936, when Burgoyne was 57 years old, she appeared in the play Mississippi Rainbow, performed at the Lafayette Theater. In the later years of her life, Burgoyne taught dance and worked periodically in the film industry, starring in movies such as Laughing (1930) and The Timid Ghost (1937). With a career spanning nearly 50 years, Ollie Burgoyne died on April 2, 1974, in Oxnard, California, at the age of 95.

[dancersofcolor]

Alexandra Hutchinson of Dance Theater of Harlem and India Bradley of New York City Ballet, profiled by the New York Times.

Photo by Ye Fan

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The 306 Workshop Group in front of 306 West 141st St., late 1930s.

The 306 Workshop Group, also known as the Harlem Art Workshop, was founded by artist Charles Alston. This group served to bring together Black artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Augusta Savage, and Langston Hughes, just to name a few. Located at 306 West 141st Street in Harlem, the Harlem Art Workshop provided these artists with both a meeting and work space. In the 1920s, Harlem became a coveted address. The neighborhood in New York City was synonymous with an outpouring of production in the visual arts, music, literature, theater, and dance that some began referring to the creative era as the Harlem Renaissance.

Famous artists of the Harlem Renaissance included: sociologist and historian W.E.B. Du Bois, writers Claude McKay, Langton Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston, musician Duke Ellington, and entertainer Josephine Baker. These artists strove to express their racial identity and pride.

Jacob Lawrence, an artist of the Harlem Renaissance, believed his paintings were “a portrait of myself, a portrait of my community.” The community he grew up around included artist and mentor Charles Alston and leading philosopher Alain LeRoy Locke.

The people of Harlem and their rich heritage were constant sources of inspiration for Lawrence. The community experience—its triumphs and tragedies, its dreams and disappointments, its pleasures and humility, collectively forged by the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Depression era—lives on in his paintings.

Photo & text: Phillips Collection

[jgroffdaily]

JONATHAN GROFF SETS 2025 BROADWAY RETURN WITH ‘JUST IN TIME’

by Philip Boroff

EXCLUSIVE: Newly minted Tony Award winner Jonathan Groff will play the 1950s and ’60s crooner Bobby Darin in a staged reading next month, ahead of a planned Broadway opening in spring 2025, people familiar with the musical said.

The reading of Just in Time will be directed by Alex Timbers (Moulin Rouge!). On Broadway, Tom Kirdahy and Robert Ahrens are set to produce the show, which tells the story of the short but eventful life of the popular performer, whose hits included “Mack the Knife,” “Dream Lover” and “Just in Time.”

Born Walden Robert Cassotto in East Harlem, Darin had rheumatic fever as a child that damaged his heart. He lived, he acknowledged, as if on borrowed time before his death at 37.

He led a new generation of swinging singers into the rock revolution of the 1960s. He also acted in movies, composed music, married the actress Sandra Dee and as an adult discovered that the woman he thought was his older sister was his mother.

“I went on YouTube,” Groff told reporter Elysa Gardner before a rehearsal of an early version of the show, presented as part of the 92nd Street Y ‘s “Lyrics and Lyricist” series in 2018. “I watched all these TV performances, from the beginning to the end of his career, and I was blown away by his versatility. The rock & roll and the standards, the dancing, the folk songs. The duets with George Burns and Judy Garland. His life was insane.”

Darin spawned many imitators, including Kevin Spacey, who played him in the biofilm Beyond the Sea. The ballad “Just in Time” was composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden for the musical Bells are Ringing. It became a hit for Dean Martin, among others, who was in the 1960 movie adaptation directed by Vincente Minnelli.

Besides Groff, casting wasn’t available. The reading isn’t affected by the monthlong Actors’ Equity strike intended to pressure the Broadway League to improve its Development Agreement with the union. Actors will be working under a contract negotiated with the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), an association of nonprofit theater companies.

Although the reading will be in New York, it’s under the aegis of Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, which is a LORT member.

In a charmed career, the 39-year-old Groff has performed in the Frozen films, the TV series Glee and three acclaimed Broadway blockbusters — Spring Awakening, Hamilton and most recently Merrily We Roll Along — each of which earned him a Tony nomination. (He won for Merrily.)

Groff was also the first Seymour in the hit off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, produced by Ahrens, Kirdahy and Hunter Arnold. Andrew Barth Feldman is currently playing the role.

In his moving acceptance speech at the Tony awards in June, Groff spoke about his love of the Broadway community and how “musical theater is still saving my soul.” Just in Time will aim for multigenerational appeal, as the young Broadway star sings 65-year-old standards.

Since the pandemic, older audiences have been slow to return to Broadway. If Just in Time is well received, Groff may be just the man to help bring them back.

**

Source: Philip Boroff in Broadway Journal.

Jonathan led a reading of the show on 15 March 2024 after rehearsing for a couple of weeks with the cast. Details below:

[gillianthecat]

Virginia Johnson as Giselle, dancing the mad scene in Dance Theatre of Harlem's Creole Giselle, filmed for television in 1987.