Ribbon-cutting ceremony for Quaâ€s Creative Art Center: Community leaders joined owner Naquasha Hawkins for the grand opening of Quaâ€s Creative Art Center at 275 Broadway.  The new business has classes and studio space for kids, adults, and seniors.  The center offers arts, crafts, science, dance, and cooking. Among those in the photo from left to right are State Assembly candidate Will Sampson, owner Naquasha Hawkins (with ceremonial scissors), City Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski, and Council Member At-Large Juan Perez.

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Our interview with Samuel Pott

 By Sally Deering

The Jersey City dance company Nimbus Dance Works†repertory of dances blends contemporary with classical and newbies with professionals; and Artistic Director Samuel Pott likes it that way.

Nimbus Dance Works celebrates its 10^th season in Jersey City this year with new works by guest choreographers, a performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and a brand new dance studio on Third Street. The school has expanded tremendously since the move from the Barrow Mansion and class registration is in full bloom for the spring session which begins Feb. 2^nd.

Pott founded the company with the mission to “focus work on the intersection between high-level dance and innovative ways of involving communities and audiences” and he has stayed true to that mission. Nimbus has a lush repertory of dances and its resident company performs regularly in New Jersey, New York and regionally. Nimbus dancers are top-tier drawn from companies like Ballet Hispanico, Ailey II, and the Martha Graham Dance Company, where Nimbus company member and Pottâ€s wife PeiJu Chien-Pott is a principal dancer. Nimbus†annual performance of JERSEY CITY NUTRACKER casts student dancers from local schools in pivotal roles, and in addition to Pottâ€s choreographies, Nimbus commissions international choreographers like Pedro Ruiz (Cuba/USA), Huang Yi (Taiwan), Korhan Basaran (Turkey), and Xiao-Xiong Zhang (Australia/Taiwan) to create dances for the company.

Nimbus Dance Works offers Hudson resident, both kids and adults, a high level of artistic excellence and guided by Pottâ€s vision, the company continues to provide inner-city kids opportunities to learn and perform dance to spark their individual creativity and inspire a life-long appreciation and involvement in the arts.

RVO: Samuel Pott, how would you describe Nimbus Dance Works†style?

SP: Weâ€re a contemporary dance company. The dancers are all highly trained in ballet and modern dance which are the backbone of technique for the work we do. Itâ€s also very theatrical depending on the piece. We try to do work with great music, from jazz to classical to contemporary. Our company is made up of seven dancers and three apprentices.

RVO: Howâ€s the school doing at the new location?

SP: The move from Barrow Mansion to our new studio on Third Street was a big move for us, and enabled us to build up the school quite a lot. We now have classes for kids, adults and a pre-professional program. We focus on ballet and modern dance. That gives students a strong base and real preparation if they want to pursue dance professionally or in college dance programs. Theyâ€ll have the foundation that will really benefit them. In addition, we have dance programs after-school and during school in 11 schools. Educationally weâ€ve been able to keep expanding and giving children the opportunities to see performances and take classes. We have a lot of kids that perform in (the annual holiday show) JERSEY CITY NUTCRACKER.

 RVO: Why do you think itâ€s important to teach dance to inner-city kids?

SP: When I was dancing with ballet and modern dance companies it was an amazing experience in an artistic sense, but one thing I saw over and over was that audiences were largely made up of senior citizens. Audiences were diminishing and it was becoming increasingly hard for these companies to draw young audiences. So what I wanted to do with Nmbus was find a way to connect with people who didnâ€t feel like the world of concert dance was open to them or representing them. And thatâ€s young inner-city kids. Those underserved audiences have the most potential to have their lives changed through dance. Those who have discretionary income to see ballet, theyâ€re going to have plenty of options available to them no matter what. Whereas the audiences we try to reach and the community we try to reach, they donâ€t have a lot of other options available to them. I thought that was a compelling reason to focus our attention on how to bring dance into their lives. Teaching children dance to not just to teach them about the art form, but what it means to take something seriously, invest in themselves.

 RVO: Are you trying to get a permanent performance space?

SP: Jersey City is growing so fast, its cultural organizations are being left behind. We still lack performance spaces and funding for the cultural organizations that are here in Jersey City. Itâ€s lacking compared to other areas in the country. We have luxury high-rises, but youâ€d have a hard time pointing to one cultural group in Jersey City thatâ€s established financially. I donâ€t think thereâ€s one organization in Jersey City that has a budget over $300,000. It would be great to see Jersey City promote its own arts groups, support them financially and help spread the word.

RVO: What are the companyâ€s plans for its 10^th season?

SP: Weâ€re trying to propel the companyâ€s profile to another level. Weâ€re doing a show at BAM in May. Italian choreographer Luca Veggetti is creating a new piece for us. Weâ€ll be going up to Vermont in March and western Massachusetts for out-of-town engagements. Weâ€ll be performing at Drew University at the end of April. In the spring, we will present two important historic modern dances, LYNCHTOWN from 1936 by Charles Weidman, one of the early pioneers of modern dance. Itâ€s a political piece based on when he witnessed a lynching in his home town in Nebraska. Weâ€re also doing a company premiere by Pearl Primus. She did a piece in 1942 called STRANGE FRUIT, a solo dance about a woman expressing her grief and anger about a racial killing. These two pieces are important historically and get people talking about issues. I think itâ€s important to keep the audience entertained and feel theyâ€re glad they came out and bought a ticket. Ever since the start of the company, I have focused on how we move beyond pure entertainment and make an impact on the audience and community.

For more info:

Nimbus Dance Works

209 3rd Street

Jersey City

(201) 377-0718

www.nimbusdanceworks.org

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Sally Deering

1, 2, 3, 4 – thatâ€s all you the time you have before your hips are swinging, wrists are flicking and you are caught up in the joyful dance known as Bollywood Funk.

Professional dancer and teacher Ayesha Khanna blows the roof off the Grassroots Community Space in Jersey City when she turns on the music and her students take to the dance floor for her one-hour Bollywood Funk dance class.  Bollywood Funk encompasses a mix of jazz, hip-hop and fusion dance moves choreographed to the beats of Bollywood movie soundtracks with an added sexiness that takes Bollywood dance to a whole new and exciting form of expression.

“Bollywood is not a dance form, itâ€s a Hindi film industry,” Khanna says. “Bollywood films can have any type of plot, but in every Bollywood film there are 4-5 songs and each character is introduced through their song.”

And in Bollywood, every song is a concept – love, anger, revenge, patriotism – and has its own dance number. It may be a patriotic song, but when Khanna choreographs it Bollywood Funk-style, itâ€s a new and energetic presentation. The 12 dancers at a recent Saturday class were learning steps to a routine to the Bollywood song “Indiawale” (the electronic version) by composer Vishal Shekhar – and seemed to be having a blast.

Khanna, who is a classically trained dancer and studied Kathak in India, was a member of Ashley Loboâ€s Danceworx dance troupe and on the verge of a Bollywood career when she landed a role in the 2004 film “Dhoom”.  Instead of staying in India, in 2005 Khanna decided to move to New York and marry her fiancé. She started Bollywood Funk NYC in 2007 and teaches in Manhattan and Jersey City.

“I had the privilege of learning from the best,” Khanna says. “Itâ€s important to learn technique, discipline and the respect the dance floor demands – and respect for your guru. In India, they are second to your parents.”

The Bollywood Funk NYC dancers have performed Flash Mobs at the Grove Street Plaza in Jersey City; and in Times Square, New York City, the New York Governorâ€s Ball, and just recently at Madison Square Garden where they performed at the opening ceremony for the NBAâ€s Liberty basketball team.  In October, they perform at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan.

“Dance needs to come from your soul,” Khanna says. “Every movement needs to mean something.”

A student at Bollywood Funk for 1-1/2 years – and a member of the troupe – Abhishek Shivkumar says he enjoys learning from Khanna and that dancing has helped him in his work as an IT Consultant.

“Itâ€s so enjoyable to dance with Ayesha,” Shivkumar, 29, says. “The creativity that goes into the dancing is so great. We go from jazz into hip-hop – itâ€s so many forms of dance and even after two hours, she gives the same energy. I loved Bollywood dancing as a kid, and now dance has driven me better into my IT world. It helps me in my work. Ayesha teaches me a step that challenges me. I go to work and there are challenges.”

Zenobia Dotiwala, who works as a project manager for a research consulting company is one of Khannaâ€s Bollywood Funk instructors and also takes class with Khanna.

“I feel like Iâ€m most myself when I come to class,” Dotiwala says. “It gives me the chance to express myself. I like Bollywood Funk because it has a Western influence on Bollywood music which I love so much.”

Each class is a progression of a choreographed dance that the students perform for friends and family at the student performance night. Fees are 5 classes for $89; 10 classes for $160 and 20 classes for $260.

“We exist, hence we express,” Khanna says. “Give dance a chance. Whatever youâ€re feeling, instead of bottling it up, use dance as therapy.”

Bollywood dancing delivers a special message, too. Khanna says: “The message is whoever you are, you can dance with us. Thatâ€s why Bollywood is so popular in America.”

After class, Grassroots Community Space director Chelo Mercado swept up and got the space ready for the next group. At Grassroots, there are weekly classes in Zumba, Pilates, Egyptian Dance, Martial Arts, Yoga and even a Cute Ukes ukulele class for kids. And every 3rd Friday of the month, Mercado hosts a Drum Circle. Founded by artists and supporters of the arts to enrich the communityâ€s quality of life, the venue provides a meeting place for people who want to convene, share ideas and explore different aspects of the human experience.

“This is an arts incubator,” Mercado says. “You bring your art, your energy and your love, and weâ€ll support you.

For info:

Bollywood Funk NYC in Jersey City

www.bollywoodfunknyc.com

jc@bollywoodfunknyc.com

(212) 502-7997

Class Schedule:

Tues: 6-7 pm, 8-9 pm

Thurs: 6-7 pm, 7-8 pm

Sat: 12-1 pm

Grassroots Community Art Space

54 Coles Street

(Downtown) Jersey City

www.grassrootscommunityspace.com

The post Dance like a Bollywood Star -Bollywood Funk Dance Dance Classes Rock Grassroots Community Space in Jersey City first appeared on River View Observer.

By Sally Deering

 It may seem like an adventurous task – presenting 5,000 years of Chinese culture in one show – and thatâ€s exactly what Shen Yun 2012 sets out to do on Wednesday Jan. 11^th –to – Sun, Jan. 15^th, at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. Prepare to be dazzled!

 Told through dance, music and song and performed in more than 100 cities around the world, Shen Yun is a collection of short performance pieces that interpret the legends of Chinese cultureâ€s creation and history over 5,000 years.

One of the writers and Master of Ceremonies is Leeshai Lemish, who has been with the Shen Yun Performing Arts troupe, based in Orange County, New York, since its inception in 2006. Lemish has emceed more than 400 Shen Yun performances in English and Chinese, has traveled with the show all over the world and calls Jersey City home.

 “We have 90 performers and that includes a dance company – 40 to 50 dancers – a full orchestra, vocalists, technical crew and we have three companies that size that tour at the same time in the states and all over the world, ” Lemish says.

 Shen Yun features traditional Chinese culture and each year itâ€s a brand new show of dancers in beautiful costumes; singers and an orchestra that blends the sounds of East and West with thunderous drums and classical Chinese instruments. Shen Yun is a visual spectacle of music and dance performed in front of spectacularly vivid and colorful backdrops.

 “One of the themes in the show is the ancient belief that Chinese culture was divinely inspired and passed down from the heavens,” Lemish says. “You see it through the ethnic and folk dances – loyalty and courage, compassion and tolerance – and all the themes that run through folk tales. This culture has five thousand years of history and since the Cultural Revolution a lot of this has been destroyed.”

Although Shen Yun performs all over the world – this year Shen Yun performs at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco and Le Palais Des Congres in Paris, France – China has banned it.

“The company is not allowed to perform in China,” Lemish says. “The Regime, there 60 years, is trying to destroy Chinese culture. In the Cultural Revolution they were targeting traditional culture and thousands of years have been wiped out.”

Shen Yun preserves Chinese heritage through the traditional dance, music, costumes and storytelling. The folk tales and legends; the idea of self-refinement where people in their daily lives try to align themselves in a higher purpose and connect the human realm with the heavenly realm, this is the spiritual side to the performance Lemish says. And those stories are told through Classical Chinese dance and music with traditional Chinese instruments and costumes like imperial dragon robes, warriors†armor and attire worn by the Manchurian, Tibetan, Dai, Mongol, and Uyghur groups.

An excerpt posted from the companyâ€s website, www.shenyunperformingarts.org explains the history of the stories told in Shen Yun: “Shen Yunâ€s mini-drama pieces draw upon stories and legends that span Chinaâ€s history from the Yellow Emperor and through the Tan and Song dynasties and all the way to the modern day. A unique feature of Chinese civilization is that its history has been documented and passed down uninterrupted for 5,000 years, sometimes in vivid detail. This provides Shen Yun with vast source material, making it possible to revive this ancient culture on a present-stage.

In less than ten minutes, Shen Yun dances recount ancient myths, bygone heroes, or celestial paradises. Whether set in the past or in contemporary China, every dance embodies traditional Chinese values. Ideals of loyalty, filial piety and veneration for the divine are cherished and celebrated. Heroes are extolled for their compassion and tolerance as much as (for) their courage or determination when facing adversity.”

“China is a big part of all consciousness, ”  Lemish says.  “Few people in the west know much about it.  We may know about the human rights issues, but go all the way back to the traditions. If you understand the history and background, you have a much stronger context to understand. ” 

 Lemish, who was born in Ohio and grew up in Israel – co-hosted the kids†TV show “Learning Chinese is Fun,” produced in Taiwan, and has published articles on China in English and Chinese. He holds a Bachelorâ€s Degree in Asian Studies from Pomona College in Claremont, California and a Masterâ€s Degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Lemish says his passion for Chinese culture goes back to his college days playing baseball.

 “I was a pitcher and I was getting into the mental side of the game, ” Lemish says.  “All top atheletes in any sport say itâ€s 90 percent mental. I tried guided imagery and meditation, yoga, Zen and Tai Chi, I became interested in Chinese philosophy, religion and culture. ”

In 2011, Shen Yun performed for Royals in London and to packed houses in Asia, and received standing ovations at Lincoln Center in New York. Visit the website and youâ€ll read reviews by stars like Cate Blanchett: “…it was exquisitely beautiful,”  and fashion designer Donna Karen who said, “Shen Yun is like taking a journey to China.”

Shen Yun performs at Lincoln Center Jan 11^th through the 15^th and then the show travels on to Washington D.C., San Francisco and Paris, France. It may not be welcome in China, yet, but Shen Yun  has a loyal following here in the states and around the world, offering us westerners a glimpse into a culture whose calendar dates back 3,000 years from ours. That, in itself, is interesting — add music, dance, costumes and sets – and thatâ€s Shen Yun.

Wed. Jan, 11th – Sun. 15, 2012

Shen Yun 2012

Lincoln Center The David H. Koch Theater

20 Lincoln Center New York, NY 10023

For more info : 1-888-974-3698

www.shenyunperformingarts.org

 

The post RARE CHINA-Shen Yun 2012 presents 5,000 years of Chinese Culture at Lincoln Center – 5 Nights Only! first appeared on River View Observer.

 The Benson Ridge Project, a relative newcomer in the Hoboken music scene, has organized a schedule of local talent to perform for the 2010 Hoboken Artist’s Studio Tour at Green Mountain Coffee.

Something for Everyone

Joining the annual Hoboken Artist’s Studio Tour for the first time, Benson Ridge, aka Al Festa has organized two jam packed days of live performances and workshops featuring jazz, rock, blues, county folk, tango dance demonstrations and a visual art exhibition featuring the paintings of Santiago Cohen and Anthony Dinallo at Green Mountain Coffee, 302 Monroe Street in Hoboken New Jersey 07030.  All performances are free. Refreshments will be donated by our generous sponsors.

Schedule

Saturday, November 6^th

12-3pm   Jazz saxophone master Oscar Feldman presents a showcase of Jazz performances by his students.

3-3:30pm   Sandra Antognazzi Tango presents a free tango lesson.

 3:30-5pm.  Observe an intermediate

Tango dance class in action.

Sunday, November 7th

1pm     Benson Ridge

2:30     The Locals

4pm     Zone

5:00      Tango Performance

5:30     The Benson Ridge Project

  Al Festa began the Benson Ridge Project in January 2010 to provide opportunities for musicians to “get out there and do what they love – perform in front of an appreciative and well fed, well behaved crowd”.  The Project’s mission is to share good feelings with friends, give musicians a showcase to perform and to eat good Italian meatballs (from his Grandma’s secret recipe).  According to Al, key words that define the Benson Ridge Project are inclusion, tolerance, instincts (listen) and innovation.  www.bensonridge.com
Oscar Feldman created quite an uproar by the end of the nineties with his impressive recording debut as a leader El Angel. Known for his splendid tonalities and melodically outstanding charts, the Argentinean native demonstrates his superb skills on alto, tenor and soprano saxes, while employing a wide range of Pan-American references, from straight ahead to tango to candombe to samba to mambo.

Sandra Antognazzi Tango was recently featured on the cover of Reporttango / The New York Tango Magazine and the German tango magazine Tangodanza. Jennifer Dunning from the New York Times highlighted her artistry by mentioning Sandra Antognazzi’s strikingly quiet, powerful presence, which made each stretched calligraphic pose count…

The Locals recorded a terrific little record in the 80’s that lives on today as a cult hit IN JAPAN! Lou Selmi, drummer says,” we put this record out with the help of friends and never made another record, but we still have an albums worth of studio stuff on half inch master tape. 

Zone  is a musical quartet including multi-instrumentalist Michael Moss on tenor sax, flute, soprano sax, and bass clarinet; Mel Nusbaum on keyboard; Lou Selmi on drums; and Robert Edwards on bass. Playing creative original material and standards, and featuring intense improvisations, hypnotic rhythms, free jazz, blues, and imaginative sound vibrations, ZONE is ready to take listeners on a journey into their own inner and outer sonic realms.

 Santiago Cohen Started his career as a designer when he studied Communication Design in Mexico. He continued his education at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY where he earned his MA. He has made many illustrations for major newspapers and magazines like The NY Times, The New Yorker, Boston Globe, and Washington Post etc. His latest work is an epic autobiographic series of paintings, which are posted at Ex-Vida project: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=2410

 Anthony Dinallo attended Fordham University where he studied psychology and art. Through his studies Dinallo was exposed to Surrealism which would later become a strong influence in his work. He is current work is defined by his growing interest in the changing American political consciousness.  Dinallo resides in Hoboken, NJ and exhibits at Paula at Rigoletto in Weehawken, NJ.

 Contact: Al Festa- 201 798-1919

afesta@msn.com

The post Hoboken’s Newest Wrangler of DIY Music, Dance and Visual Culture, Presents a Showcase of Local Talent first appeared on River View Observer.

by Sally Deering 

 In the 1920s, when Shirley Temple tapped into America’s hearts with her bouncing ringlets, ruffled crinolines and shiny black tap shoes, mothers from Canarsie to Kenosha trundled their daughters off to their local dance school dreaming of their baby girl’s name in lights. Nowadays, child stars go by first names like Britney, but the local dance school still thrives as the only training ground for kids who dream of a dancing career.

 One local dance pioneer who has kept the stage lights burning in her neighborhood dance studio for the past 34 years is Diane Dragone, Artistic Director of The Kennedy Dancers, a professional dance company and dance school that stands in the wings of New York City.  Through her school and with her years as a teacher and choreographer, Dragone has trained and enriched the lives of thousands of inner-city kids – some who became professional dancers — and she has brought modern and classical dance performances to the multi-cultural and economically-diverse Hudson community.

 On Friday and Saturday, May 7 and 8, dance-lovers will have the opportunity to see Dragone’s dynamic troupe perform when The Kennedy Dancers take the stage at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind in their beautiful theater space on Summit Avenue in Jersey City. This Spring Dance Concert will feature contemporary choreographer Sean Curran’s “Force of Circumstance,” and three Dragone choreographies:  “Caven Point” – about a Jersey City encampment during WWII; “La Dolce Vita,” Dragone’s valentine to her Italian heritage with songs by Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin and Louis Prima; and the World Premiere of “My Obsession with Cats,” – a choreography that’s close to Dragone’s animal-activist heart.

 A successful business-and-Renaissance woman, Dragone runs a dance company and school, choreographs , raises a family, performs community outreach and rescues stray animals – all in a day’s work. And at the heart of it all, she is a dancer teaching others the “language of dance” so that they may feel the thrill she has known twirling across the stage, leaping into the air and springing into a dance partner’s arms. 

 “Dancing is ageless, I believe that,” Dragone says, sitting at her desk while a teen ballet class is in progress in her studio on Central Avenue.  “Everybody can dance; you have to break through those inhibitions.  Dancing can be a healing process. It’s excellent for your body, mind and soul.”

 FELINES AND THE REPERTOIRE

The Kennedy Dancers performances on May 7 and 8 in the theater at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind will feature the professional company and the Inner-City Youth teen company composed of students who have trained with Dragone since they were toddlers in tights and taps. One of the highlights of the program will be Dragone’s “My Obsession with Cats,” a choreography about the felines Dragone adores and rescues with the help of her husband, teacher and professional videographer Tom Horan and their children Gigi, 17, and Danny, 15.

 “Cats are beautiful, their movement is beautiful and their personalities are all distinct. They’re a great source of inspiration for dance because they move in many ways,” Dragone says while her two studio cats Sylvester and Silvio are busy cat-napping near her desk. “There have always been cats in my life from the time I was little.”

 Dragone has choreographed hundreds of dances and currently, The Kennedy Dancers perform about 30 dances from the repertoire in venues throughout the tri-state area. Committed to bringing dance to all members of the community, Dragone offers ballroom and exercise classes to seniors; ballet and tap to toddlers and adolescents; ballet, tap and hip-hop to teens and ‘tweens and Zumba and Yoga to adults. A certified dance teacher by the New Jersey Department of Education, Dragone has taught special education dance at Hudson County Schools of Technology and brought dance to children and adults with physical and learning disabilities at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind in Jersey City.

“They loved the dance classes,” Dragone says of the children with disabilities. “It was very emotional for our teachers because some of these children are encapsulated in their own world or they never really experienced creative movement before and you could see they loved dancing. If you can’t see very well and you’re afraid to move, this was a really freeing experience.”

 That program lost its funding. So did the program teaching dance to incarcerated teenagers at the Hudson County Juvenile Detention Center in Secaucus, which was funded by the New Jersey Council on the Arts.  Dragone hopes someone will come up with the funding to reinstate both programs. The students looked forward to it, she says.

 “I think dance gave them something beautiful and challenging,” Dragone says.

 A LOAN TO BUILD A DREAM ON

Creating beautiful and challenging dances was the most important thing to Dragone back when she first opened her studio in 1976 with money she saved and a loan from her parents Anne and Daniel. It was a tiny, bohemian studio on Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City that her dad helped her paint and where she used her training as a dancer and her certification as a teacher to teach ballet, tap and jazz to kids and teens. 

 “The dance students are the mainstay of a company,” Dragone says. “You’re developing young minds and bodies and your goal is to give them an aesthetic, enjoyment and a sense of physical accomplishment. The beauty of dance inspires children and adults to keep coming back to the dance studio.”

 And if the students can’t come to the studio, then Dragone goes into their living rooms with the cable-TV show she hosts and produces with her husband, Tom.  “Dance Vista,” features interviews and choreographies by contemporary dance artists and, after 13-years on the air, the show is now seen on cable stations throughout New Jersey and New York.

 THE STUDENTS’ SUCCESS

Many of The Kennedy Dancers’ students go on to professional dance careers and Dragone is thrilled by their successes. One former student is performing in the musical “Buddy” in London’s West End; another is currently in a show at the La Mama theater in New York.  One dancer joined the Miami Ballet, one is with the Martha Graham dance company and another is featured in the Julie Taymor film, “Across the Universe” – and those are just recent accomplishments.

 “I’m thrilled for them and proud of them,” Dragone says. “I love it.”

 Determined to bring The Kennedy Dancers to new heights, Dragone’s choreography “God Bless America,” was recently named a finalist in the NJN Hispanic Dance competition to be held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in May. And last year, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts gave Dragone and The Kennedy Dancers an Award for Excellence for their outstanding work and Dragone’s compelling choreography.

 THE DANCER IN HER SOUL

So, how does a choreographer make dances? What comes first, the movement or the music?

 “I see people walking down the street, kids dance around, the windshield wipers move;” Dragone says, “I sit in the car listening to the radio and someone walks by to the rhythm of the music – all things can inspire your dances.”

 And that goes for cats, too.                                                                                         

 The Kennedy Dancers present their Spring Dance Performances on Fri, May 7 and Sat, May 8 at St. Joseph‘s School for the Blind 761 Summit Ave, Jersey City.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door; $18 for students and seniors with ID.

Call 201-659-2190 for tickets and class information or visit www.kennedydancers.org.

 

 

 

 

 

The post COVER STORY-Leading The Kennedy Dancers first appeared on River View Observer.