We're Dancing While Black. And we're golden.

Were you at BAAD! last night for Paloma McGregor's Dancing While Black panel (Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Greg Tate and cultural anthropologist Aimee Cox with moderator Shani Jamil) and the amazing performance that followed? If so, I'm sure you walked out of there with more inspiration, motivation and energy than most people would know what to do with. And I'm hoping you know what to do with it, because we all benefit when you do. Live your life like it's golden.

If you didn't get there last night, you might miss a chance to buy a ticket for tonight's repeat of the performance. It's a smallish space, and clearly the artists know lots and lots of supportive folks. But give it a try.

The set features developing works by emerging dancemakers

• Adia Tamar Whitaker and Brian Polite
• Ebony Noelle Golden

and Rashida Bumbray's right shout Run Mary Run

Also, today, BAAD! hosts a full day of Dancing While Black master classes. Click here for information or call BAAD! at 718-918-2110.

Four artists talk about dancing while Black

Artist Talk | Dancing While Black: Collective(s) Action

with HNYPN Artist-in-Residence 

Paloma McGregor

Dance artist Paloma McGregor

Thursday, February 13 (7pm to 9pm)

An evening with the founders of Ase Dance Theatre Collective, Dance Diaspora Collective and The Body Ecology Performance Ensemble, who have developed potent, virtuosic performance practices rooted in cultivating collectivism. In a field that is so often individualistic or product-driven, how and why are Rashida Bumbray, Ebony Noelle Golden and Adia Tamar Whitaker making contemporary performance work aligned with community building? Join us in experiencing their work and vision.

This event is free and open to the public. A photo ID is required to enter NYU buildings.

Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics
20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor, Manhattan
(map/directions)

Panel: In praise of praise dance

Praisedance

a panel exploring the role of Black dance in Black spirituality

Thursday, May 24 (6:30-8:30pm)

Rashida Bumbray, Nafissa Shariff, Brian Polite and Michael Manswell wax kinetic as they explore the role of black dance forms, including ring shouts, traditional Old Mali folk dance, House Music dance, and Afro-Caribbean dance in Black worship and everyday transcendence. This salon is part of “Roots and Stars”, the Caribbean Cultural Center’s (CCCADI) newest program series exploring African Traditional Religions while illuminating Black spiritual practices.

Presented by Caribbean Cultural Center in association with International Communications Association

Admission: $10 at the door

Location:

Dwyer Cultural Arts Center
258 St. Nicholas Avenue, Manhattan
(Enter on 123rd Street between St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard)
(directions)

Hollering space in the African diaspora

The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

presents

Hollering Space: Ring Shout and Leadbelly Tribute

featuring two special performances:


RUN MARY RUN
Rashida Bumbray and the Dance Diaspora Collective
with Special Guest Adenike Sharpley
music by Matthew Hill and Christian Almiron

Leadbelly’s Last Dream
featuring Terence Etc. and The Et Cetera

Tuesday, November 29
Doors open at 7pm.

@Dwyer Cultural Center
258 St. Nicholas Avenue (on the corner of West 123rd Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Admission: $10 (free for kids)

RUN MARY RUN
Rashida Bumbray and the Dance Diaspora Collective
With Special Guest Adenike Sharpley
music by Matthew Hill and Christian Almiron

For the premiere of her new dance work, RUN MARY RUN curator and choreographer considers the complex intersections between inspiration, re-interpretation, and creative process, using the harmonic ideas and tonal vocabulary of the McIntosh County Shouters—master ring shout artists—as a point of departure. Developed in collaboration with and performed by the Dance Diaspora Collective with special guest master dancer, Adenike Sharpley, and the Dance Diaspora Collective take us on a ride through the cosmologies of the Low Country, Geechie Sea Islands, Tennessee Blues, P Funk, and Hip Hop relating the shout to the history of Black music as well as to her personal development as a choreographer.

Leadbelly’s Last Dream
Terence Etc. and the Et Cetera

Leadbelly’s Last Dream is a musical experience during which Terence Etc. and The Et Cetera relive the last dream of legendary southern folk musician Leadbelly. Through Blues inspired re-imaginings of Terence's compositions.

For more information, call 212-307-7420 ext. 3008 or email.

Artistic couch surfing

The Serial Sleepover Artist
by Penelope Green, The New York Times, April 13, 2011

With a nice cameo appearance by The Kitchen's Rashida Bumbray!

Shim Sham like a butterfly

Shim Sham -- Tonight! 7pm! Free!

Hosted by Roxane Butterfly
Featuring the Theo Hill Trio

Curated by Rashida Bumbray

This jam is open to tap dancers of all levels and concludes with the famous Shim Sham Shimmy, the hoofers’ international anthem. So come enjoy the show or bring your shoes and join the jam!

Roxane "Butterfly"

Based in New York and Barcelona, French-born tap dancer Roxane “Butterfly” was given
her name by the late legendary be-bop hoofer Jimmy Slyde. Known for her Worldbeats projects that merge a range of musical influences including flamenco, Central African, Indian, classical, and experimental jazz with tap dance, Butterfly hosts this free open jam session in which some of the finest of New York City’s rhythm tap community come together to share and showcase their moves.

Having started her 25 year career in France, Butterfly has shared the stage with generations of tap greats including Slyde, Gregory Hines, The Nicholas Brothers, Tamango, and Savion Glover. She is known for her collaborations with musicians working in a range of diverse musical forms.

The Kitchen -- 512 West 19th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), Manhattan (directions)

Shim Sham time!

Shim Sham 

an opent tap jam session presented at The Kitchen

curated by Rashida Bumbray

Monday, October 4, 7pm

Admission: Free. No reservations.

Some of the finest performers in New York’s rhythm tap community come together to share and showcase their moves.

An accomplished tap dancer, vocalist and jazz musician, Alexandria Bradley will host this season’s installment of Shim Sham. From a tap dance family, she started her fifteen-year career at a young age and has shared the stage with generations of tap greats including Jimmy Slyde, Ted Levy and Savion Glover. The evening will also feature the live music of the Orrin Evans Trio featuring Evans on piano, Leon Boykins on bass, and Jonathan Blake on drums—and promises to make for a dynamic gathering of rhythmic exchange. The jam will, as always, wrap up with the famous tap routine, the Shim Sham Shimmy, led by Bradley.

The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), Manhattan

Jason's angels rock The Kitchen

Let's keep this short and sweet, since you don't really have a lot of time to get tickets for Charlie's Angels, the tap dance production created by Jason Samuels Smith, given its New York premiere at The Kitchen. Curator Rashida Bumbray--who taps herself and has brought a wonderful tap jam to The Kitchen--seems intent on making this home for experimental arts a place to see a classic art swing out its juiciest experiments. Well, Samuel Smith's experiment--after three years in development--turns out to be a doozy.

The angels in question are celebrated tap dynamos Chloé Arnold, Michelle Dorrance and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and the Charlie in question is Parker. The mission? To faithfully tap out the notes and rhythms in Parker's bebop, no matter how devilishly fast and complex.

Do they do it? And how! They get it done, note for note, and with Arnold's irrepressible radiance, Dorrance's punkish footwork, and Sumbry-Edwards's mastery and elegance. And they do it, mainly, in high heels--backwards, forwards, side-to-side.

Highlight's include the trio's powerhouse opening ("Donna Lee"), freer-swinging audience faves like "Half Nelson (original take 2)" and "Cheryl," Sumbry-Edwards's flowing "Embraceable You," and the amazing closer, "Salt Peanuts."

The show also boasts excellent lighting by Sue Samuels, intricate, imaginative costuming by Gingie McLeod/Dindi Designs, spoken word by Craig 'muMs' Grant, and the delicious saxophone playing of Stacy Dillard in evocative interludes. Just under an hour, it moves so swiftly that, when it's over, you'll be left blinking in amazement.

So, get over there! There are two shows today: 3pm and 8pm. Here's the info/ticket link.

Cookin' in The Kitchen

It's a Shim Sham shame if you did not get to see, just to name a few, Sarah Reich, Michaela Lerman, Jason Samuels Smith and--be still, heart--Tamango, tap's sly master of grace and fluidity, cooking up a mess of tap dance at The Kitchen. All that plus the irrepressible MC-ing, storytelling, opinionating, mesmeric performing and overall moral leadership of Harold Cromer, who commanded the night like a five-star general. Can we maybe seriously pressure curator Rashida Bumbray to schedule this Shim Sham jam more than just once per season? Not enough. Not nearly enough joy in our lives these days.

A great one passes

Since I never travel with my laptop and pretty much stay away from Internet cafes--vacation means "getting away from"--I had to find out about Dr. Jimmy Slyde's passing the old-fashioned way, from radio. The minute I twirled the dial and discovered Flagstaff's local NPR station, I heard the announcement. That was a strange feeling--to be away from New York City where I know the news hit hard and touched off much discussion. Rashida Bumbray's May 23 launching of Hoofers' House at The Kitchen (in partnership with The Studio Museum in Harlem) was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Slyde, and his performing was powerfully invoked by video artist Rashaad Newsome. The dance goes on.

In any case, if you haven't read it already, here's Claudia La Rocco's Times obit and a 2001 photo of Dr. Slyde by the great Jack Vartoogian.

Catching up with New York

Back from the powerful earth of Arizona, I managed to haul my jetlagged self to Hoofers' House at The Kitchen (curated by Rashida Bumbray and MC-ed by Jason Samuels Smith) on Friday night and to La MaMa Moves Festival's "Dancing Divas" evening on Saturday evening (curated by Nicky Paraiso and Mia Yoo and featuring works by Vicky Shick, Jodi Melnick, Pam Tanowitz, Barbara Mahler, Sally Silvers and Sara Rudner). Lovely, sensitive and interesting moments were in good supply at La MaMa Annex, but the mamadiva who moved us most had to be Rudner, one of my dance-crushes from way back, whose Positions--The All Star Variation was a true, openhearted gigglefest. I loved its extravagant size, its combination of the serene and the silly, its total lack of taking itself seriously. My kind of extravaganza with amusing performances from John Scott and Chris Yon among a bevy of downtown dance beauties, Rudner among them. Look for my Hoofers' House review on DanceMagazine.com sometime down the line.

Rashida Bumbray: Body and Soul podcast

The Kitchen, located in Chelsea, and The Studio Museum in Harlem have a couple of exciting things in common. Both centers herald innovation in the arts. And now both have Hoofers' House--an intimate tap jam session celebrating tap dance on the cutting edge. Rashida Bumbray--who co-founded Hoofers' House at SMH and now serves as Assistant Curator at The Kitchen--joins me to talk about this new partnership and The Kitchen's upcoming free event, hosted by master tap dancer/teacher Jason Samuels Smith (May 23).

BIO

Rashida Bumbray is a dancer and curator living in Harlem. While Bumbray's primary dance form is tap, she has studied with international dance masters of various forms in Brazil, The Gambia, and London. Her personal work combines her passion for dance and visual art in the interest of creating and presenting work that interrogates society and inspires transformation.

Bumbray has been Assistant Curator at The Kitchen since Fall 2006. Previously she enjoyed a five and half year tenure at The Studio Museum in Harlem, as Curatorial Assistant and Exhibition Coordinator. She is co-founder and curator of Studio Sound, the Studio Museum's lobby music installation which featured new works by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), Marc Cary, and Charlie Dark’s The Black Atlantic Project: a musical chain letter. Recently she co-curated the exhibition Mai-Thu Perret: An Evening of the Book with Debra Singer and has organized several music events at The Kitchen, including new concert works by Pheroan akLaff, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Guillermo E. Brown, Min Xiao-Fen, and Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber. She is also the co-founder of Hoofers’ House, the Studio Museum's quarterly jam session for tap dancers, which is now co-produced by The Kitchen.

EVENT

Hoofers' House, May 23, 8pm. Free. For details, visit The Kitchen site (link below).

LINKS

The Kitchen
http://thekitchen.org

The Studio Museum in Harlem
http://www.studiomuseum.org

Jason Samuels Smith
Divine Rhythm Productions
http://www.divinerhythmproductions.macwebsitebuilder.com/
JasonSamuelsSmith.html

Body and Soul is the official podcast of InfiniteBody dance blog at
http://infinitebody.blogspot.com. Subscribe through iTunes or at
http://magickaleva.hipcast.com/rss/bodyandsoul.xml.

(c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

MP3 File