All in Dance

MPAC Sees Pilobolus Return with 're:CREATION'

“Pilobolus is a rebellious dance company. Since 1971, Pilobolus has tested the limits of human physicality to explore the beauty and the power of connected bodies. We continue to bring this tradition to global audiences through our post-disciplinary collaborations with some of the greatest influencers, thinkers, and creators in the world.”

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Tells the Story of Chinese New Year’s Origin through Dance

Chinese New Year is always a favorite time of the year. Friends and family gather at favorite Chinese restaurants, wear red, eat dumplings and long noodles, and hand out red envelopes filled with money. But how many of us really know why it’s celebrated?

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company uses the language of dance to tell the origin story of the holiday. Since 2017, the Newark-based company has been celebrating the Chinese New Year with a performance of Red Firecrackers. Suited to ages 6-15, this year’s production will be performed on January 21 at the Grunin Center in Toms River.

Tony Nominee Jennifer Weber shares 'The Hip Hop Nutcracker's' Famous Fan

The Hip Hop Nutcracker translates Tchaikovsky's beloved ballet music into an incredible holiday story told through hip hop dance. Director and Choreographer Jennifer Weber—who is also the Tony-nominated choreographer behind Broadway’s & Juliet and KPOP—brought the idea to life 10 years ago in partnership with NJPAC. Now, a decade of touring and two films later, The Hip Hop Nutcracker has become a tradition of its own and returns to NJPAC on December 23rd. Jennifer Weber talks with Jersey Arts about break dancing, ballet, and the show's famous fan: Mikhail Baryshnikov.

“Dance It Out!” Is Amplifying Community

In addition to the jam-packed schedule of summer camp sessions and classes at the Perkins Center for the Arts, the Center has added a series of outdoor programs with the World Stage Series: Dance It Out! featuring four shows that highlight international music and dancing, including Afro-Puerto Rican, Cumbia, Middle Eastern and Bollywood styles, two Indie Nights that showcase three contemporary bands each night, and two Irish Music Session Meet and Greets, designed to bring together those in the community who favor traditional Irish music and instruments. 

Pow Wow Both Cultural and Competitive

There are two kinds of Pow Wows, the competitive and the traditional. "The competitive is, of course, one where the singers and dancers compete in different categories and ages for prizes," said Tyrone "Dancing Wolf" Ellis, "and the traditional is more about coming to dance to educate as well as to pray."

The Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation 42nd Annual Pow Wow will be held Saturday, June 10, and Sunday, June 11, at the Salem County Fairgrounds, 735 Harding Highway in Woodstown. The gates open at 10:00 a.m., with the Grand Entry happening at noon. 

“Our Pow Wow is competitive, with both dancers and singers vying for prizes,” Ellis said.  Regardless of the type of Pow Wow, he said "It is an opportunity for our people to gather as a family, to see each other and spend time together, and a way for us to enlighten the public and raise cultural awareness."

The 43rd Annual New Jersey Governor’s Awards in Arts Education To Honor Over 100 NJ Students and Educators

Over 100 students and arts educators will receive the state’s most prestigious award in arts education at the 43rd Annual New Jersey Governor’s Awards in Arts Education celebration June 2 and will be livestreamed via YouTube, Facebook, and the Governor’s Awards website at www.njgaae.org. This event is free and open to the public.

Over the past four decades, the Governor’s Awards has highlighted New Jersey’s most talented youth. Students of artistic disciplines as varied as dance, music, poetry, visual arts, speech, debate and theater have walked across the awards stage to receive their medal.

This year, the annual Governor’s Awards ceremony will be held as the culminating event of the inaugural Arts Ed NJ Day which will also feature the first-ever Gathering Ground Arts Education Call to Collaboration (C2C), networking opportunities, award-winning performances on various stages, an interactive photo booth, alumni guest speakers, pop-up advocacy activities, Live Red Carpet Countdown to the Awards, and a statewide student visual arts exhibit.

The C2C will bring together over 250 educators, nonprofits leaders, artists, teaching artists, school board members, parents, students, businesspeople and legislators.

Carolyn Dorfman Dance Celebrates Four Decades of a Moving Legacy in Two Evenings of Multimedia Performance-exhibits at the Morris Museum

How much can art hold? Are we asking too much when we wish that it would make meaning out of our lives?

Over the course of 60 dances created for the company that bears her name, Carolyn Dorfman has spent four decades using movement to unpack a series of deeply human stories that manage to resonate widely — the legacy of the Holocaust, the lure of money, sustaining relationships, and motherhood — deploying her own bold, unapologetically athletic vocabulary rooted in vivid storytelling. 

Carolyn Dorfman Dance is set to celebrate this legacy with Dance on Exhibit, a pair of multimedia performances/living exhibits featuring selections from Dorfman’s vast and varied oeuvre. The events, featuring company dancers as sculptures, set for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 13, and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 15, will unfold in the galleries and onstage at the Morris Museum in Morristown.

Finding the Rhythm: An Interview with Performing Artist, Educator Yahaya Kamate

To Yahaya Kamate, the work of a performer and an educator is inseparable. Every class he teaches is a dynamic performance, and public performances usually offer opportunities for audience participation, if not a full-length dance lesson. Born and raised in the West African country of Côte d’Ivoire and a former member of the National Ballet of the Ivory Coast, Kamate came to the United States in 1994, and immediately found work as a lead dancer, choreographer and teacher of modern dance, ballet, African dance and music. Kamate has been living in New Jersey since 1999, working at respected local arts organizations including NJPAC, City Lore, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Bronx Art Ensemble, and the Institute of Music for Children. We recently had the opportunity to spend time with this engaging artist at The Center for Modern Dance Education, (CMDE) where he has been offering classes and public performances for over 20 years.

"The Night Falls" — A New Dance-driven Production at PEAK Performances

PEAK Performances, together with Ballet Collective Inc., will present the world premiere of The Night Falls, a dance-driven music theater production, in the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University Feb. 9-12. 

A hauntingly unique work of art, the production melds mediums into a symphonic commentary on grief, despair, and resistance. Seeking to encourage audiences to live life to the fullest, the piece thrives on its desire to see beauty through difficulty. 

Jersey Arts visits The Night Falls' dance company and creative team during a rehearsal at Alvin Ailey studios in NYC to learn more about this novel production. 

NJPAC’s Kwanzaa Festival Celebrates Unity and Culture With Arts and New Community Partners

When Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center opens its doors on Dec. 17 for the annual Kwanzaa Festival and Marketplace, the gathering will mark a kind of homecoming.

The free event, at the heart of NJPAC’s community programming for more than a decade, will take place in person for the first time since 2019. This is also the first time that NJPAC will partner with several of its neighbors to present the festival, including The Newark Museum of Art, Newark Arts, Newark Symphony Hall and the Newark Public Library, as well as the City of Newark.

The festival, running from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., will feature performances by step teams and a marching band, a wide variety of art and craft activities for children and families, storytelling, face painting, Adinkra-stamping, drumming, and dance classes, as well as the traditional lighting of the Kinara, or the candelabra.

The Hip Hop Nutcracker Celebrates Its 10th Season at NJPAC Featuring Spectacular Hip-hop Dancers and The Rap King of Christmas Kurtis Blow

The Hip Hop Nutcracker is celebrating its 10th season at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center with two stunning performances taking place Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The show pays homage to the original George Balanchine ballet, retold through modern, expressive hip-hop culture.

The holiday dance spectacle features hip-hop pioneer Kurtis Blow, who performs as the master of ceremonies, and a cast of a dozen all-star dancers who will display supercharged hip-hop choreography.

Blow says audiences will see an incredible fusion of hip-hop dance styles dating back to the ‘90s, from the electric boogie and pop & lock to B-Boying and break dancing with power moves, head spins, windmills, back spins and air twists.

This year’s show features more energized dance routines by the ensemble and blended styles of classical and hip-hop music by electric violinist Vivek Menon.

"Jersey City Nutcracker" Brings Holiday Tradition Home

For more than a decade, Jersey City has had its own special holiday tradition: Nimbus Dance’s Jersey City Nutcracker. The city-centric show runs from Dec. 9 through 23 at the new Nimbus Arts Center.

Host Maddie Orton talks with Nimbus Dance Founding Artistic Director Sam Pott, who choreographed and co-wrote the piece, School Director Harumi Elders, and student dancer Izzy Baculod about being a part of this celebrated annual show.

NJ Ballet’s “New Direction” Marks First Residency at Mayo Performing Arts Center

Under the direction of new Artistic Director Maria Kowroski, the New Jersey Ballet will present their latest production, "New Direction," at the Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) on Nov. 19. The 2022-2023 season is the NJ Ballet's first as the resident ballet company of the MPAC.

"New Direction" will feature three unique pieces — "Hallelujah Junction," "World Premiere" and "Who Cares." The three pieces will feature the choreography of Peter Martins, Harrison Ball and George Balanchine. A special treat, Harrison Ball's piece will showcase costumes designed by fashion designer Zac Posen.

Correspondent Gina Marie Rodriguez speaks with Artistic Director Maria Kowroski and company dancers Denise Parungau, Ilse Kapteyn and Jonatan Lujan about the joy of dance.

Kinetic Light’s “Descent” Inspires Education at Rutgers University

The world-renowned disability arts ensemble Kinetic Light will perform “Descent” at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, sponsored by the Dance Department at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Kinetic Light’s work is created, designed and performed by disabled artists. The ensemble’s mission is to emphasize that disability is not a hindrance but rather a "powerful, intersectional creative force."

The Dance Department in Mason Gross has newly minted an Integrated Dance Collaboratory (IDC), "a hub of interdisciplinary research exploring dance’s unique rehabilitative potential for individuals with a wide range of physical and mental health conditions,” explains Jason Geary, Dean, Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Jeff Friedman, professor of Dance at Mason Gross and director of the IDC says, "We have already been benefiting from Kinetic Light’s support on multiple fronts to offer accessible performances at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.”

Correspondent Gina Marie Rodriguez speaks with Kinetic Light Founder Alice Sheppard; Dancer, Choreographic Collaborator and Engineer Laurel Lawson; and Scenographer Michael Maag, as well as Rutger’s Jeff Friedman, and gives us a glimpse of the choreography of “Descent.”

Reflection, Collaboration Take Center Stage in American Repertory Ballet’s “Kaleidoscope”

American Repertory Ballet is launching its 2022-23 season with “Kaleidoscope,” a program featuring four unique dance performances, at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. One performance joins ballet with an original music composition, blending contemporary dance with an eclectic score for piano and cello.

Correspondent Jesse North speaks with the creators behind this piece.

The Lost Princess of Oz World Premiere Combines Ballet, Song and Bluegrass

The creative passion that abounds in “The Lost Princess of Oz,” the upcoming extravaganza of movement and music presented by the Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Theatre Company (AXCBT) in partnership with the Center for the Arts at Monmouth University, will fill you with positivity and immerse the renovated Pollack Theater at the University where it runs Aug. 20 through Aug. 28.

The story is based on two of the 14 books from L. Frank Baum’s Land of Oz series, “The Lost Princess of Oz,” published in 1917, and “Ozma of Oz,” published in 1907. The quirky tales follow the adventures of familiar characters, Dorothy et al, and a handful of characters from the tales including Frogman, Patchwork Girl, and the clockwork man Tik-Tok.

Conceived of and created by AXCBT Artistic Director Gabriel Chajnik, with a libretto by Shannon Hill, an original bluegrass-infused score by Houston-based composer Chris Becker, a six-piece musical ensemble, professional dancers from AXCBT, and grade school-age dance students participating in the Axelrod Performing Art Academy, the production brings the century-plus stories into 2022.

Roxey Ballet and Artist Malcolm Mobutu Smith Join Creative Forces at the Hunterdon Art Museum

This Saturday at the Hunterdon Art Museum, visitors are invited to a unique experience that brings together the visual and performing arts. Roxey Ballet Company has teamed up with artist Malcolm Mobutu Smith – whose exhibition Evermore Nevermore closes this weekend – and have created an exclusive 45-minute showcase that will be presented outdoors on the Toshiko Takaezu Terrace, overlooking the museum’s iconic view of the Raritan River. (This event is free, but please register to attend.)

We recently spoke with the Hunterdon Art Museum’s Executive Director Marjorie Frankel Nathanson, Roxey Ballet’s Executive Director Mark Roxey, artist Malcolm Mobutu Smith, and Roxey Ballet’s Director of Education and Outreach Lees Hummel about this special collaboration.