Olga El - Page 2

Walking into the lobby, we were immediately engrossed in a lavish and slightly anachronistic atmosphere. Vintage brass and the chatterings of splendidly-adorned socialites filled the soundscape. My guest and I allowed ourselves to be absorbed into a crowd of masked-revelers being escorted into an unknown area, by unknown forces. Most of the night was a game of simply discovering what to do next.

On August 12, 2017 A Harlem Hafla will take place at the Harlem School of the Arts featuring workshops by renowned North African folk dancers Donna Mejia and Somra El Nubia followed by a showcase featuring performers of color from across the U.S. I caught up with the organizer of A Harlem Hafla, Brandy Heyward, to learn more about this unique event and the inspiration behind it.

Easily navigating the fusion of music, dance, multimedia and traditional theater The Hypokrit Theatre Company's mission is to 'embody the rich cultural complexity of the world we live in.' Whether reimagining Western classics with multicultural aesthetics or presenting classics from around the world to Western audiences, their work is admirable in its ability to communicate universal human experiences.

If any performance embodied the spirit and amplified it in the theater it was Otea Maka, Taura O Te Here and Otea Moena performed by Lei Pasifika and choreographed by Makalina and Carol Leogite, Mahealani Uchiyama and Moena Maiotui respectively. Filled with joyful shrieks and chirps, vigorous hip circles and accents and a rainbow of costumes, this triptych of dances was an unapologetic celebration of female energy and emotion.

Experimental and beautifully composed, Songs of the Soul Beams is a theatrical musical cycle by Felix Jarrar (composer, musical director, pianist) and Brittany Goodwin (librettist, stage director, Persephone) that fuses elements of opera, musical theater and dance in order to explore coping with death. The show made its debut on Sunday, June 4th in the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Fisher-Hillman Studio. I was excited to have the chance to catch up with the promising, young directors of the show and learn more about their process.

Leave it to Pilobolus to restore a bit of your faith in humanity. Beauty, diversity and teamwork are integral to their communal and genre-bending creative process, each piece daring and completely different from the next. Their run at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts opened on November 16th, 2016 and closes on December 4th.

The Hetrick-Martin Institute is the oldest and largest LGBTQ youth-focused organization, serving over 2000 youth annually by providing daily meals, health services, academic support, career preparation, artistic enrichment, support for homeless youth and more. It is also the birthplace of the Harvey Milk High School. One of the most popular programs at HMI is the Kiki Lounge where Vogue dancers, from all backgrounds and experience levels, get to 'slam their backs' as part of a thriving dance scene.

Svb Rosa showcases twelve vignettes that embrace the divine feminine through video art, spoken word, interlacings of original and popular music and dance fusion rooted in vocabulary from women-created Middle Eastern and North African dance traditions. It is the latest production from Lunaris, a group that seeks to 'physically manifest the workings of the soul and spirit through the art of dance, ritual and theater.' Each piece is representative of a branch on the Kabbalistic tree of life and heavily incorporates symbolism from Western ceremonial mysticism.

Ballet, Belly Dance... birds? Desert Sin's latest production Cloud Cuckooland: A Story About Death is a multimedia melange of music, dance, puppetry and aerial arts with sprinklings of spoken word all set against a backdrop of constantly shifting projections.

Khasan Brailsford is a professional dancer who's worked with mega stars such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, Katy Perry and more. He has toured the world with these artists and he has been featured in shows such as the MTV Music Awards, Dancing with the Stars and Ellen.

The debut of the Aakash Odedra Company's RISING at the NYU Skirball Center featured four works by four choreographers, all performed solo by Odedra. All four pieces proved Odedra to be an incredibly talented dancer who can easily shift and merge styles, though the similarity in tone for much of the night may have shortchanged our access to the full range of Odedra's abilities.

'As a kid, I was a competitive dancer and got involved with musical theatre as an ensemble dancer in community theatre productions. I struggled for years because I was a dancer and I had breasts and big hips. I was pressured to lose weight and there was a stigma around my body because, you know, I just wasn't thin. I think I internalized that and started equating body and eating with worthiness. One of the reasons we are utilizing dance and movement so much in Embodi(ED) is because we are talking about the body, its limitations and the limitations society puts on different bodies - so it's only appropriate that we explore this through movement and utilizing the body.'

The house was full on the opening night of Dada Masilo's Swan Lake at the Joyce and I quickly realized why. The ballet boasts incredible energy, attitude, innovation and diversity rarely seen in a typical ballet, all without sacrificing an engaging story and superb technique.

The interaction between Brown and her equally hardworking partner Catherine Foster portrayed a multidimensional mix of African-American culture and urban girlhood not often accessible to those without a similar background. There was a sense of sisterhood and innocence not often seen in mainstream portrayals of African American youth. However, the piece did not limit itself to depicting the idyllic.

I ventured from the city to see Kulu Mele at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia. Kulu Mele is a cultural institution celebrating dance and culture from West Africa and its diaspora in the Americas. The theme of this show was Senegal.

An air of serenity, mysticism and beauty is evoked in the U-theatre's Beyond Time. Directed by Liu Ruo-yu; choreographed and composed by Huang Chih-chun the work felt like a glimpse into other dimensions.

As the title implies You We Us All explores that which binds humanity, from the seeming ubiquity of shallow, Western pop-culture to archetypal human values and experiences embodied literally on the stage as the characters Hope, Virtue, Time, Death and Love.

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with actress Cece Suazo-Augustus. Ms. Cece is many things: an Honduran/Cuban adoptee, transgendered, driven. 'I won't stop until I win a TONY. If you can perfect theatre, everything else comes easily.' She goes down a list of African-American TONY award winners. It's this goal, she says, that keeps her in theatre and keeps her humble.

The Full Spectrum Theatre Company, founded by its artistic director Suzie Cho, is dedicated to telling 'All-American' stories with diverse casts. David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole, which tackles universals such as family and grief, was a fitting choice for the company's inaugural production.

Helen Lawrence is a noir, neo-classic complete with blonde femme fatales, men on the run, corrupt cops, seedy murders, street-smart sex workers, witty jargon and a consistent flow of humor. Post WWII-era Vancouver is projected in grayscale on a screen that mildly obscures the onstage actors basking in the light of the moody blue screen behind them.