Dance

A&I Gives Sneak Peek At 2024 Festival

by | Mar 29, 2024 9:18 am | Comments (5)

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Jazz vocalist Samara Joy, an A&I headliner this year.

Shakespeare in circus, choral fusion, climate activism and optimism talks, making your own empanadas: this eclectic mix of events and more is part of this summer’s International Festival of Arts and Ideas, which is returning with a full schedule of programming that covers just about anything an arts and culture lover would have a taste for — and maybe something they have never tasted before.

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Atwater Thanksgiving Brings Fair Haven Together

by | Nov 21, 2023 11:01 am | Comments (6)

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F.A.M.E. Middle Schoolers from dance Cumbia with their senior citizen counterparts in Fair Haven.

Fair Haven school kids filed into the Atwater Senior Center to keep their senior counterparts company in advance of Thanksgiving — and to dance cumbia with New Haveners like 73-year-old Yvonne Sheppard, who said the celebration was less a loneliness intervention than it was a special occasion among a vibrant city full of friends.

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Student Artists Run Like Aliens & Bankhead Bounce

by | Nov 1, 2023 8:16 am | Comments (1)

In Ty Scurry’s advanced drama class …

…and Carissa Kee's dance class, at New Haven Academy.

In a dim and costume-filled drama classroom at New Haven Academy, time slowed down as an alien ran away from two space cadets looking to capture it.

Time then sped up, and back down again, as theater educator Tyheed Scurry gave the student actors a lesson in tempo. 

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MLK Storyfest Centers Black History

by | Jan 16, 2023 12:42 pm | Comments (0)

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Hanan Hameen of Dance and Beyond Sunday at New Haven Museum.

Through words, music, and movement, storytellers, drummers, and dancers offered dozens of families a chance to find their place in the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., the broader causes of social justice he dedicated his life to, and the rich culture he came out of. 

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Royal Rhythms Rolled Out For 3 Kings Day

by | Jan 6, 2023 9:58 am | Comments (1)

Brian Slattery photos

Movimiento Cultural drummers and dancers liven up Wilson Library.

Kids making crowns for themselves, with and without parental aid.

As Movimiento Cultural Afro-Continentals drummers played driving rhythms and singers instructed families in the traditions of bomba, one young dancer learned fast about the ways that she could converse with lead drummer Kevin Diaz during the ongoing library-hosted Three Kings Day fest. 

She made a gesture, and Diaz, fully attentive, responded with a crack from his drum. She gestured again, and he responded in kind on his instrument. The smiles that passed between them needed no words to convey their meaning.

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Winterfest Wows At Betsy Ross Arts Showcase

by | Dec 16, 2022 5:19 pm | Comments (1)

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Eighth grader Dakarai Langley leads "Would Anyone Care?" dance about suicidal awareness.

With a look of defeat, Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School (BRAMS) eighth grader Dakarai Langley lifted his left foot and dangled it over the edge of an auditorium stage as a song shook the dark room with the lyrics: Would anyone cry if I finally stepped off of this ledge tonight?”

And then Langley kept dancing, proving to everyone in the room before him just how lucky this city is to have this young artist call New Haven his home.

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Hispanic Heritage Takes Center Stage At Career High Fest

by | Oct 24, 2022 8:51 am | Comments (1)

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Erika Zelocuatecatl: "When we get together as diverse as we are, we come as a united chorus."

Maya McFadden Photo

Career students perform "Latino Moves" at Friday's fest.

The sounds of salsa, bachata and merengue filled Hill Regional Career High School alongside a host of Spanish-language pride as staff and students celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month.

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Long Wharf Theatre "Comes Home" To Audubon

by | Oct 17, 2022 10:45 am | Comments (7)

Karen Ponzio photo

Long Wharf Theatre leaders at Audubon St. fest Saturday.

Lucy Gellman / New Haven Arts Paper photo

Bidding adieu to 222 Sargent stage on Friday.

Audubon Street burst into party mode Saturday as Long Wharf Theatre celebrated its move from a Sargent Drive stage to offices downtown — as well as the beginning of a new itinerant model of presenting works across various locations in Greater New Haven.

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Rhythm Exchange Makes Music To Move On The Green

by | Sep 30, 2022 9:13 am | Comments (1)

Duvall.

Amanda Duvall, of the New Haven-based dance studio Baila Con Gusto, danced a solo salsa on the stage of the New Haven Green Thursday afternoon with a heady mixture of strength and grace. As the music churned out its unstoppable rhythm, a sense of joy and play surged through her, a smile never leaving her face even as the moves became more athletic. Her enthusiasm, it turned out, was contagious. Five minutes later dozens of people, adults and high schoolers alike, would join her and Baila Con Gusto co-instructor Jason Ramos in a dance and history lesson that deepened understanding as it taught steps.

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Alexis Robbins Taps Into Community

by | Sep 28, 2022 8:25 am | Comments (1)

Leigh Busby Photo

Alexis Robbins.

Tap dance is an indelible form of American art, a practice we have all seen on screens little and big, but have you ever seen it done in a public park? And have you ever thought, Hey, I wish I could do that?” Tap dancer and choreographer Alexis Robbins is here to tell you that you can see it and practice it, on a stage and in a park, right here in New Haven in the days and weeks to come. 

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Drag Rides The Edge For Pride Week

by | Sep 15, 2022 9:44 am | Comments (5)

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Iridessa Søul LaFlare performs for PRIDE.

Host Maddelynn Hatter broke in the crowd at Gotham Citi Cafe on Orange Street Wednesday night by establishing a few guidelines regarding drag shows.

If you ever know any drag queens, you know the most important rule — other than to be able to paint your face — is to be kind,” she said. All of the queens have passed the test. They are very kind. Which is good, because I am an awful person.”

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HeArts Beat For Justice

by | Aug 29, 2022 9:17 am | Comments (1)

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Rev. Jeremiah Paul.

The Rev. Jeremiah Paul, pastor for Hamden Plains United Methodist Church, held his hand high as he spoke to the crowd assembled to hear him at Hamden’s Town Center Park on Friday evening. His audience were members of his congregation, but also from the greater New Haven community, a mix of languages, ages, cultures and creeds. Among them were artists selling their pieces and food truck vendors feeding the people. 

We had a little rain shower, which I consider a blessing from the heavens,” he said amiably. With the sun out, the show was ready to start.

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Rhythm Exchange Connects West Bengal To West River

by | Aug 19, 2022 9:20 am | Comments (0)

Brian Slattery Photo

Rania Das moved gracefully across the stage set up on the New Haven Green Thursday afternoon, her gestures precise yet fluid, graceful and controlled. They were about practicing a tradition that began in India over 2,000 years ago. They were telling a story, about a prankster god getting into mischief. But they were also about crossing thousands of miles, halfway around the world, to make connections to people here in New Haven.

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25th Annual Gospel Fest Transforms Goffe Street Park Into Church

by | Aug 15, 2022 9:50 am | Comments (2)

Scott Troublefield and New Vision.

Far out behind the crowded audience at Goffe Street Park, beyond still the stragglers who spread out among the opposing baseball diamond’s outfield, tucked just inside the entryway of the third-base dugout, a woman with gray hair and blue Nikes called out: Amen!”

The Sunday sun had set, but the sound of gospel from the stage still echoed as far as Crescent Street. The woman, silhouetted by the park floodlights, said she was taking her church from all the way back there.

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School Of Drum And Dance Brings Back The Beat

by | Jun 9, 2022 8:45 am | Comments (1)

Brian Slattery Photos

Seny Tatchol Camara, giving instructions on how to strike the drum.

On a recent Saturday, the main hall of Yale’s Afro-American Cultural Center echoed with the sound of drums, playing driving, intricate rhythms together — compelling enough to bring someone in off the street to ask if she could join in. She was in luck: the drums were part of an African drumming and dancing class offered by the New Haven School of African Drum and Dance, which, after a long Covid-imposed hiatus, has resumed, holding classes Saturday afternoons and Monday evenings for the forseeable future.

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