Search results for: "derick k. grant"

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY (in order of how strongly it hit me) Polaris, by Crystal Pite with 6 Kidd Pivot dancers and 60 NYU Tisch Dance students. Massive. Inventive. Shocking in its brutal beauty, masterful in its craft. It was part of “Thomas Adès: Concentric Paths—Movements in Music,” commissioned by Sadler’s Wells in 2014, brought to NYC […]

Tap is overflowing with talented dancers, but is the genre itself overlooked? Jared Grimes, here in After Midnight, is one of the few tap stars seen on Broadway recently. Photo by Matthew Murphy, courtesy After Midnight.  Early this century, I decided to write a history of tap dancing. That history turned out to be even […]

Even while tapping with live accompaniment, Samara Seligsohn shows that she is the musician in charge. A percussive chameleon, she can alternate between impeccably crisp rhythmic bursts and delicate melodies, displaying both effortlessness and athleticism. Several burgeoning tap troupes in New York City have already claimed her, and now she’s starting to find her own […]

Gene Kelly in Singin’ In the Rain. Courtesy Turner Entertainment.   Every summer the enterprising American Tap Dance Foundation gathers top tappers for a dynamic week of performances and classes. This year the all-star faculty includes Chloe Arnold, Brenda Bufalino, Michelle Dorrance, Derick K. Grant,  Claudia Rahardjanoto, Billy Siegenfeld, Jason Samuels Smith, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and […]

The Trocks in Swan Lake. Photo by Sascha Vaughn, Courtesy Les Ballets Trockadero.   En Travesti, A Treat Sometimes it’s hard to know whether to laugh or marvel at the Trocks. So why not do both? Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo bourrée into Philly’s Annenberg Center Dec. 13–15, then post up to NYC’s Joyce […]

Ellington’s Nut at the Apollo   While the Apollo is a mecca for musical performers, the Harlem theater has a long heritage as a hub for dance. “From Honi Coles and Bojangles to John Bubbles, the Nicholas Brothers, the Hines Brothers, and Sammy Davis Jr.—practically every tap artist performed here at some point,” says Mikki […]

Big Dancing in Small Parks  NEW YORK CITY  SummerStage is back, offering free outdoor performances in all five boroughs. This month, the Francesca Harper Project performs Harper’s Modo Fusion: Art Prototype, a foray into the world of beauty pageants that fuses dance with music and film in the East River Park, Aug. 16. In a […]

Michelle Dorrance emerges as a choreographer     Last winter a gala for the Martha Graham Dance Company boasted guest stars from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre and also one tap dancer: Michelle Dorrance. Cheerfully comfortable with the potential comedy in her gangling limbs, she hunkered down into a spontaneous rhythmic conversation […]