Ballet Hispanico at El Museo del Barrio - 10.4.11.
Thrilling performances last night at Bailando Por Una Causa on stage at Museo del Barrio. Grateful to have had the opportunity to photograph these incredible dancers for such a great cause!
Artists pictured from left to right: Anaïs Haven and Sydney Grant (Tango) - “La Cumparsita,” Paulina Posadas Dagio & Daniel Enskat of Baila Society - “Pa’ Los Bravos,” the beautiful ladies of Baila Society performing choreography by Ahtoy WonPat Borja of Baila Society.
In April of this year I had a great opportunity to go on a dance and music research trip to Havana, Cuba with a group of salsa dancers and musicians from New York, Boston, and the UK. The purpose was to proactively engage in a cultural exchange with dancers and musicians in Cuba and to come home and share our experiences. We met with a variety of dance companies including: Raices Profundas, an Afro-Cuban Folkloric dance company, Danza Chevere, a dance company that teaches and performs mostly Cuban style salsa and Rueda, and Danza Contemporanea, Cuba’s National Contemporary Dance company.
During each experience members of our group taught their styles of dance including New York style salsa and Samba while in exchange we were taught Rueda, Cuban style salsa, Rumba, Reggaeton, and more about the roots of salsa in Afro-Cuban folkloric dance and music; traditions that are still alive and evolving in Cuba today. We also had the opportunity to explore and exchange ideas about how dance and music can be used as therapy for people with mental and physical illnesses and disabilities, which was another very interesting aspect of this trip.
If you’re a professional dancer, musician, or enthusiast - please feel free to contact the American program consultants for more info. www.metamovements.com/cuba
“Rumbalsa” a fusion of Rumba and Salsa performed by Yesenia Fernandez Selier and Hunter Houde at Project: Cuba.
8.19.11 PROJECT: Cuba: A multimedia experience including photography, short video documentaries, Cuban style dance performances, and social dancing at Hudson Terrace in New York. All work was an effort to share what we learned during a Marazul dance & music research trip to Havana, Cuba in April, 2011.
More photos on flickr.
Hello, I’m home from Russia! And today I’m very excited to share our CUBA site takeover on Salseek! (www.salseek.com)
This past April my good friend Natalie and I had the opportunity to go to Havana to learn about Cuban dance and music and the roots of Salsa. We met wonderful dancers who taught us dance techniques and the history of many of Cuba’s dance styles including: Casino, Rueda, and Afro-Cuban folkloric dance and music. It was a whirlwind of a week. I learned to dance! We ate, we swam, we walked the streets of La Habana and we came home with stories to share that we are now very proud to share with all of you!
If you have a moment, please take a look at www.salseek.com. There is much to see and read about, including articles, photos and our first video story about Rumba. And throughout the month of August we’ll be sharing even more videos, stories and photos!
Also, Friday August 19th we’re throwing a big bash to celebrate our work and experiences in Cuba at New York’s Hudson Terrace - the home of our monthly Salsa dance party with live music. It will be a collaborative and multimedia experience in which we’ll share framed prints, video pieces, and more. There will be live Cuban music by La Maquina Amarilla and DJ Alejandro, food, dancing, performances and workshops. We’re really excited for this big event!
The festivities will then continue all weekend long with dance workshops on Saturday from 11am to 5pm at Nola Rehearsal Studios (250 West 54th Street) taught by talented dance teachers from Cuba (Yesenia Selier who we are featuring this month on Salseek!), from New York (Marlon International!) from Boston (Anara Frank!) and from Puerto Rico (Jay Salsa!)followed by a dinner party open to anyone who wants to come Saturday night at Amor Cubano with live music by Danny Rojo and, of course, more dancing! Workshops continue on throughout the week. More complete info. about our weekend and workshops is on Salseek: http://www.salseek.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=278:salseek-metamovements-present-project-cuba
New portraits on my website… This is Yisel, member of Raices Profundas folkloric dance company in Havana. He taught me how to dance Rumba, Rueda and Reggaeton! He’s an unbelievable dancer… I also have video of him dancing Columbia at this spot (coming soon).
I LOVE when people take behind the scenes photos while I’m shooting (and I don’t know about it until later!) So here I am at the Hotel Copacabana shooting three unbelievably talented members of Raices Profundas (a well known folkloric dance company in La Habana) Andy, Yisel, and Douglas. In addition to our photo shoot, we also shot some video of the boys dancing Columbia a form of Rumba which is traditionally danced only by men. Thanks Natalie for the picture! :)
Check out this amazing photo posted today by Dance Magazine… It’s a press photo from Singin’ in the Rain.
Via Dance Magazine - “It’s a rainy day in NYC. We’re humming Singin’ in the Rain. Here’s an old press photo from the movie we found in our archives. Enjoy! Rumor is that MGM insured Cyd Charisse’s legs for a million each!”
Love, love this.
This is Shani Talmor - an Israeli ballerina and jazz dancer who stumbled onto the beach one day in her hometown in Israel with her friends and learned to salsa or, as she puts it, “shake her bootie!” A few years later she was invited to join a prestigious salsa dance team in Spain and traveled all over Europe to perform before settling down in New York to dance four years ago.
These are some of my favorite images from our recent photo shoot together. I wanted these still images to really showcase the movement in her body and also her fabulous performance costume!
