Using the power of dance to create community, Dances For a Variable Population (DVP), will present three performances of Solstice Steps on the days surrounding the 2014 summer solstice.
This DVP epic world premiere features choreography by DVP’s Founder and Artistic Director Naomi Goldberg Haas, as well as invited guests TONY-award winning choreographer George Faison and dance makers Sandra Genter, Walter Rutledge, Robin Williams and Dyane Harvey.
Set on a cast of 50 dancers, spanning ages 25-85, the performance highlights DVP’s mission to promote strong and creative movement among adults of all ages and abilities. Solstice Steps will take place at West Harlem Piers Park as part of Riverside Park’s Summer on the Hudson series Harlem Dances. This DVP epic world premiere features choreography by DVP’s Founder and Artistic Director Naomi Goldberg Haas, as well as invited guests TONY-award winning choreographer George Faison and dance makers Sandra Genter, Walter Rutledge, Robin Williams and Dyane Harvey.
“Solstice is the longest day of the year—an opportunity to take in the past, sit with our thoughts and celebrate. It is a pause before embarking on the second half of the year and is semi-sweet,” explains Naomi Goldberg Haas. “Solstice Steps directly reflects the elements of this season—a look back in time and a celebration of age and evolution.”
West Harlem Piers Park audiences will have the privilege of spotting notable guest artists—Dudley Williams, 76, who danced with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for four decades, and Loretta Abbott, a founding member of the Ailey Company and an accomplished Broadway performer. Robin Williams (Uptown Dance Academy). Sandra Genter (Barnard College), Dyane Harvey (Forces of Nature Dance Company) and Walter Rutledge (writer for Harlem World Magazine and choreographer) will also perform alongside an impressive collection of dancers of all levels and training backgrounds on the tranquil waterfront. Senior community members in Solstice Steps are drawn from DVP’s Movement Speaks® program which provides free senior workshop classes held at locations in Harlem.
Presented by Summer on the Hudson in partnership with NYC Parks and Riverside Park Conservancy, Solstice Steps is a unique collaboration about age and celebrating the maximum expression found in dance, despite limited movement ability. Technical movement structure, filtered through a conduit of contemporary modernism, will work to weave stories in this lively and imaginative collective. Solstice Steps will have various movements—starting on the grassy riverbank at 125th Street and then leading the audience out onto the pier, moving along it until the finale on the plaza at 131st Street.
The musical score to accompany this creation will mimic the diversity of its movers, incorporating works by Ludovico Einaudi, Glen Kotche, Daniel Freeman, Otis Redding and samplings of classical, alternative, R&B and pop music.
PROGRAM INFORMATION
Dances For A Variable Population will present three performances of Solstice Steps as the 2014 spotlight company of Summer on the Hudson’s Harlem Dances series in West Harlem Piers Park:
June 20 at 6:00 p.m.
June 21 at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Admission is Free.
The park is located at Henry Hudson Parkway, West 125th Street & Marginal Street in Manhattan.
Additional details available at: http://www.nycgovparks.org/events/2014/06/21/summer-on-the-hudson-harlem-dances
Become a Harlem Insider!
By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
