Wave Hill Offers Dancing Through the Bronx
On Wednesday, August 13th, Wave Hill welcomes choreographers Larry Keigwin, Ni'Ja Whitson Adebanjo, and James “Cricket” Colter for Dancing Through the Bronx, a festival that seeks to engage the diverse neighborhoods of the Bronx through site-specific, community-conscious experiments in choreography. The hour-long program of fresh, innovative dance, produced by Dancing in the Streets, is the first of the festival’s three, site-adaptive performances. It features performances by a range of dancers, including professional company members, community participants and, in the closing cipher (freestyle dance circle), members of the audience. Each dance responds to the exquisite natural landscape, expressing Wave Hill’s mission to explore human connections to the natural world through programs in horticulture, education and the arts. Set against the lush surroundings of the gardens, Dancing Through the Bronx aims to build community, foster artistic creativity and pay homage to the historical and aesthetic richness of Wave Hill.
The evening begins with a dance piece by internationally acclaimed choreographer and dancer Larry Keigwin, founder of KEIGWIN+COMPANY (K + C), and a crusader for the intersection of contemporary dance and community engagement. It features six K+C members and 24 community members of all ages and abilities, and represents the final product of Keigwin’s “Let’s Make a Dance” workshop, which allows non-professional participants to explore their own physical artistry in a collaborative and creative setting.
Following Keigwin’s work, Bronx-based choreographer Ni’Ja Whitson Adebanjo performs a self-choreographed solo. Adebanjo, also a percussionist, writer and interdisciplinary artist, draws from postmodern and African diasporic performance practices, and is an innovating practitioner of the Theatrical Jazz Aesthetic. In addition to solo projects and a group that tours internationally, she has worked with a number of noted dance and theater artists, recorded a live album under the direction of Douglas Ewart and served as a 2013-2014 Movement Research Artist in Residence at Lehman College in the Bronx.
Adebanjo’s solo is followed by a work choreographed by James “Cricket” Colter, featuring five professional dancers using a broad vocabulary of hip hop dance styles. Cricket, a renowned professional street dancer, is a founding member of Rennie Harris Pure Movement and has appeared in the Disney film Step Up 2: The Streets and in music videos for a number of leading recording artists, including Will Smith, Boys II Men, Eve and Fall Out Boy. He is also the founder of Crazy Natives, a street-dance inspired dance company.
Following these three dance pieces, audience members are invited to partake in a lively, freestyle dance circle with the performers. Program order is subject to change.
Wave Hill is pleased to partner this summer with Dancing in the Streets, an organization celebrated for producing free, adventurous, community-based dance performances in unexpected places. Since moving to the South Bronx in 2011, Dancing in the Streets has applied its 30-year legacy as a producer of innovative public performances to reclaiming, revitalizing and promoting the natural, architectural and cultural treasures of the Bronx.
The second installment of the Dancing Through the Bronx festival, produced in partnership with Bronx Pro, will be held on Thursday, August 14, at Hayden Lord Park. The third installment, produced in partnership with BAAD! and the Westchester Square Business Improvement District, will be held on Saturday, August 16, at Owen Dolen Park.
What: Dancing Through the Bronx
When: Wednesday, August 13, 6:30PM
Grounds open until 8PM
Perkins Visitor Center, The Café, and The Shop at Wave Hill open until 7:30PM
Cost: Free with admission to the grounds
Special Sunset Wednesday event pricing after 4PM: $10 adults, $6 students & seniors 65+; $4 children 6–18; free to Members, children under 6
No guest passes or reciprocal admission accepted
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The Performing Arts Program is supported in part by The New York State Presenters Network Presenter-Artist Partnership Project, made possible through a regrant from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by the Cathy and Stephen Weinroth Commissioning Fund for the Arts. Major support for the Sunset Wednesday concert series is provided by Sigmund Balka, a founder of the Bronx Arts Alliance, in celebration of the cultural diversity that flourishes in the Bronx. The institution’s operations are made possible in part by public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
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