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Dancers Over 40 Announces their new YouTube Channel Dance Parade winds down Broadway, saluting jazz great Luigi The Third from the Left |
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Dancers Over 40 Announces their new YouTube Channel: You couldn’t make it to The Women of Fosse? A friend of Harvey Evans and can’t get enough of him? – Go to The Men of Fosse! Want more Marge Champion dish? The Dancers and Creative Talents of Gower Champion has tons! You’ll find them all right here, performing and storytelling their hearts out! All you need do is type is CLICK HERE and you're in! OR, just go to www.youtube.com and once you're there, type "dancersover40" in the search box -- and voila! You'll be in dance Heaven!
If you’re in New York City, you have the luxury of going to the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection at the Lincoln Center Library for the Arts to view the panel/performances in their entirety as DO40 has donated all the unexpurgated tapes, but if you’re cruising through cyberspace in Los Angeles (hello, Cheryl Clark, our favorite Merry Murderess!) you can now watch your fellow Fosse-ites any time you want! The channel is broken down into a series of Playlists, first and foremost, of course being DO40’s panel and performances. In order of their premiere, they are: In the Company of Friends: Dancers Talking to Dancers (our umbrella title for all of our panels) – The Men and Women of the ‘40s and ‘50s, featuring Ann Pimm, Kaye Popp Genese, George Marcy, Stuart Hodes and moderator Harvey Evans. The Women of Fosse, featuring Marge Beddow, Dana Moore, Penny Worth, Carolyn Kirsch, Jeanne Jones Snow, Louise Quick and moderator Harvey Evans. The Men of Fosse, featuring Gene Foote, Dick Korthaze, Gene Gavin, Ken Urmson, Bill Guske, Harvey Evans, George Marcy, Johnny Nola and moderator Louise Quick. The Dancers and Creative Talents of Gower Champion, featuring Lee Roy Reams, Tony Stevens, Bob Fitch, Nicole Barth, Don Perassi, Ed Kresley, Lars Rosager, Johnny Nola, Gene Bayliss, Bert Michaels, Terrie Robinson, Marge Champion, Karin Baker, Iva Withers and moderated by TV icon David Hartman. Non-dancer Carol Channing, a.k.a. Richard Skipper (see above photo), livened up the event by using DO40 members in her "production number!" Each Playlist has clips from the panels and performance clips from each event. You can also watch them at random by just going to the site and clicking on any of the videos. But, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet !!! We then have concert footage from some of our previous events (many of our events still need to be catalogued, some do not have compatible video, others are, unfortunately, lost to us), raw footage interviews of DO40 members that aired on MetroArts/Thirteen, the non-commercial cable arts channel of Thirteen/WNET back in 2000 - 2001, and something called our "Favorites.” The Favorites are culled from the YouTube plethora of videos; you’ll find a young Harvey Evans in APPLAUSE, Gwen doing “Whatever Lola Wants,” and the “Manson Trio” from PIPPIN. You’ll see Gwen and Chita doing “Nowadays” and “Keep it Hot” from CHICAGO, so you can compare it to DO40 members Penny Worth and Carolyn Kirsch doing the same song and dance at our Women of Fosse panel! Please be interactive!!! If you know of any other videos that you’d like to see under Favorites, send us a msg on the YouTube site or at dancersover40@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do! And speaking of interactive: PLEASE DON’T KEEP THIS TO YOURSELVES!!! We encourage participation and communication!! Our Dancers Over 40 website, www.dancersover40.org has a message board that could use a few postings! If you’re looking to discuss the YouTube videos, have questions that you need to be answered, go there and post! We’re never going to be “All that Chat” from talkinbroadway.com, but we should be able to start – and continue -- discussions that will be both educational AND entertaining! And don’t forget to “Subscribe” to our channel! With a click of your mouse you can be sure to be notified every time DO40 posts a new video on YouTube! Become a subscriber, share your Favorites that way, and make OUR videos YOUR favorites! That spreads the word even more! THE PITCH! HERE IT COMES!! This was a lot of work! It takes a huge amount of man/woman-power (!) and lots of long hours to compile a video history like we have done. We’re in dire need of some techies to help us. And those of you not computer savvy, we’ll settle for a membership to DO40 or a donation to help us continue to provide you with a chronicle of our History, our Legacy and our Lives (our new motto – catchy, eh?). And you can do all that on our website. Enough said. I think the YouTube site speaks -- and dances – for itself! It will provide you with weeks and weeks of enjoyment, entertainment and education. And if you can’t participate fully, please still use our site(s) to comment, add information and discuss all things dance and theater. We can’t do it without you! This fall we’re embarking on another incredibly taxing theatrical ride – the Legacy of Jack Cole and the untold story of the Radio City Musical Hall Corps de Ballet. Add to that our (now) annual appearance at the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Flea Market (this year - September 21st) and our annual Holiday Party in December, and you’ve got a ton of work that needs to be done. And to paraphrase Chita in CHICAGO “We simply cannot do it Alone!” DANCE PARADE WINDS by Francis J. Roach Picture this: A parade of over 4,000 colorfully costumed dancers, representing thirty international styles of dance, promenading to their own rhythms on The Great White Way – Broadway. Then, imagine that parade ending in a New York City park, where many of those dancers perform their styles on an outdoor stage – free to the public. An event like this actually does take place. It happens once a year in New York City where it has been a spectacle of terpsichorean beings heralding themselves in front of mankind. This collection of movers is assembled by a “grass-roots” organization, meaning a group of do-gooders who originated the promotion of dance as an art form and who are not sponsored by any pre-existing operation. It is an idea that recently came into fruition more recently; there have been two annual NYC parades and there are not plans for the Spring of 2009 event. The organization that runs this venue is Dance Parade,Inc. They have gathered quite successfully many styles of dancers – ballet, jazz, modern, international folkloric, hip-hop, etc. – to dance together on the Big Apple streets, stopping pedestrian and car traffic so that people might be caught within a spontaneous movement explosion within their own grasp. The parade’s founder and chief organizer, Greg Miller, explains, “The parade is dedicated to a few important things: celebrating the diversity of dance in New York City; promoting dance as an expressive and unifying art form; showcasing all forms of dance and educating the general public about the opportunities to experience dance.” He also reported that the not-for-profit company relies on sponsorships, grants, donations and benefit proceeds to cover the operational costs of the events. As with many parades, a noteworthy person or celebrity may be highlighted by giving them an honor of being their “grand marshal.” The Grand Marshal for the 2008 Dance Parade was a pioneer to rated the world’s first technique for America’s art form of jazz dance, Luigi. The event’s press representative, Fran Kirmser, told me about their choice, “We select a member of the dance community who has devoted their life to promoting dance as an expressive and healthy art form. Luigi epitomizes the vision and values that Dance Parade showcases each year. Our hats are off to Luigi.” On the sunny day of the festivities, Luigi said, “out of all the dancers, choreographers and teachers in New York City, I am honored to be picked the grand marshal. A parade like this is a dream come true.” In a usual format for a grand marshal, Luigi sat on the top of the backseat in a convertible automobile while doing his famous port-de-bras for the public. Countless jazz dancers festooned in costumes with his logo, “Never Stop Moving,” danced joyously around him. Then, when the revelers ended in the park, Luigi’s nineteen year-old student Erika Black, opened the dance performances performing his choreography to his other student, Liza Minelli’s recording of “New York, New York.” A more apropos moment for this city could not have happened. To quote one on-looker, Alisoun Price, “The dance supporters who packed into the part went wild. It was a great day!” Picture such an event on the Champs Elysees…in London’s West End… in Shibuya in Tokyo…on the Via Veneto: a eventual celebration world-wide. For more news on this glorious event, go to www.danceparade.org.
THE THIRD FROM THE LEFT A NEW PLAY BY FORMER MARTHA GRAHAM DANCER, JEAN COLONOMOS Former Martha Graham dancer, Jean Colonomos, dramatizes the struggles five women face to find the emotional strength and physical endurance to master one of Graham’s highly challenging works in her new play, THE THIRD FROM THE LEFT. Directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera and produced by Diane Levine, the play will have its American premiere at the New York International Fringe Festival with five performances August 9-16 at the CSV Cultural and Educational Center, Flamboyan, 107 Suffolk Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets). It is a production of The Present Company in association with Playwrights’ Arena. Tickets are $15. For Information/Tickets visit www.FringeNYC.org or call 866-468-7619. From 1964-1968 Ms. Colonomos performed with The Martha Graham Dance Company. THE THIRD FROM THE LEFT is a fictionalized dramatization of Ms. Colonomos’ experiences in the 1964 revival of Martha Graham’s masterpiece, “Primitive Mysteries.” It is about how these dancers cope with the back-breaking choreography, their friendships and the genius, Martha Graham. “In 1964 we were performing in ‘The King and I’ at the New York State Theatre while reconstructing ‘Primitive Mysteries,’” says Ms. Colonomos. “It was a difficult period and this play is a tribute to Martha Graham and to the passionate commitment dancers make to their art and what they endure to fulfill their dreams.” Jean Colonomos’ plays have been presented in New York, Los Angeles and regionally in such venues as St. Peter’s Church at Citicorp, The Actors and Directors Theatre, The Nat Horne, Playwrights’ Arena, The Santa Fe Playhouse, The University of Southern Oregon, Georgia State University, among others. THE THIRD FROM THE LEFT received excellent reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2006. For her play, “Treasure Hunt,” she received a Drama-Logue award; “Palm Fever” received the Los Angeles Playwriting Award and “Penumbra” received a workshop production at the South Carolina Playwrights’ Festival. Ms. Colonomos and director, Jon Lawrence Rivera received Citations from the City of Los Angeles for their production of “Black Dawn,” about war trauma blindness among female victim survivors of the Cambodian Holocaust. As a poet, Ms. Colonomos is published online at poetry.com, under The National Library of Poets. |
Copyright 2006 - 2016 Dancers Over 40, Inc.
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Hate to say “from the horse’s mouth,” but it’s true! These are the Thoroughbreds of Dance! And they will keep you crouched in front of your computer for hours! Break out the celery and carrots! Go wild with a non-fat free dip! Nosh and Watch – and take notes with your free hand! Because everything that is said in these clips is priceless!