Diverse Dance Companies Get a Lift From a New Partner: MacKenzie Scott
The philanthropist gave millions to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispánico, Dance Theater of Harlem and Urban Bush Women in her latest round of gifts.
Anthony Santos lifts Amanda Smith during a 2020 rehearsal at Dance Theater of Harlem. The company received a $10 million gift the biggest in its 52-year history.Credit.Mark Elzey Jr for The New York Times
By Laura Zornosa
June 27, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
When the pandemic hit, forcing Dance Theater of Harlem to cancel performances and suspend classes, the company, like many arts organizations, was devastated. It had no safety net: with only very modest financial reserves, it was able to make it through with help from the federal Paycheck Protection Program and the Ford Foundation.
Transcendent Spirits: Lift 40 Voices and Dance
Streaming highlights: the New York Chorale Society, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence and City Ballet’s ‘Prodigal Son.’
Larissa Gerszke and Chalvar Monteiro in Claudia Schreier’s duet to “God Is Seen at the Irondale, a church turned performance space, in Brooklyn.Credit.via New York Choral Society
By Marina Harss
Watching: New York Choral Society, ‘God Is Seen’
Like dance and the other performing arts, choral singing has had a tough year. Singing is breath, breath carries germs, and these days large groups of people singing together is the stuff of nightmares. But the urge to raise voices in song together, like the urge to move to music, is powerful. Now, the New York Choral Society is combining the two dance and song in a new short film to be released on Feb. 23.