New York City Center announced today new virtual programming, New York City Center Live @ Home! It will include a newly commissioned weekly performance series conceived and curated by tap dancer Ayodele Casel, alongside frequent collaborator Torya Beard, called Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us, and the popular Studio 5 series curated and hosted by Alastair Macaulay and featuring Misty Copeland, Sara Mearns, and Tiler Peck in a special five-part event titled Great American Ballerinas.
“During these uncertain and turbulent times, it is even more important that City Center provides a platform for artists to develop and share their work,” said President & CEO Arlene Shuler. “I’m excited that City Center Live @ Home programming showcases some of the extraordinary dance artists who are part of our extended family. This has been a challenging time for so many and I am personally grateful for the support City Center has received from our loyal audiences. I hope you will all tune in as we launch these new online initiatives.”
In keeping with City Center’s founding mission to provide access to the best in the arts for all, City Center Live @ Home programs will premiere for free on City Center’s YouTube page and website at NYCityCenter.org.
Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us
For this new virtual series, Ayodele Casel, one of the “Biggest Breakout Stars of 2019”(The New York Times), has curated a group of artists who will present seven different video performances—solos and duos created and performed by a multigenerational and multicultural group—to be released weekly at 12pm beginning Tuesday, July 14 (through Tuesday, August 25). Co-directed by Casel and Torya Beard, the series is a continuation of her Diary of a Tap Dancer project and will feature performances from Casel and other tap artists includingAmanda Castro, Starinah Dixon, Andre Imanishi, Ryan Johnson, Lisa La Touche, Ted Levy, Michela Marino Lerman, Anthony Morigerato, Makenna Watts, and more.Kurt Csolak serves as editor of the series, with Darren Biggart and Anthony Morigerato acting as creative producers.
“We all have something to say. We have something to give, something to communicate about who we are and where we've been,” said Casel. “Diary of a Tap Dancer is predicated on the belief that by revealing our stories, we expose our shared humanity and provide a deeper understanding of how our life experience moves the dance.”
Studio 5 | Great American Ballerinas
City Center’s Studio 5 goes virtual with a five-part series—Great American Ballerinas—featuring performance excerpts from three of today’s leading ballerinas:Misty Copeland, Sara Mearns, and Tiler Peck, curated and hosted by dance critic and historian Alastair Macaulay. In this special series, each dancer works in a live coaching session with another acclaimed dance artist, including Nina Ananiashvili, Merrill Ashley, Alessandra Ferri, Stephanie Saland, and Pam Tanowitz.
In July, New York City Ballet (NYCB) principal dancer Tiler Peck, famous for her prodigious technique and musical skill, works with former NYCB star and ballet master Merrill Ashley, who created numerous roles for Balanchine and is credited with establishing unprecedented levels of technique in the 1970s and ‘80s. Together they will explore a selection of Balanchine solos with Ashley coaching Peck. This program begins live streaming on Thursday, July 16 at 3pm and will be available to view through Wednesday, July 22.
NYCB principal dancer Sara Mearns has become known as one of America’s foremost interpreters of the dual role of Odette-Odile inSwan Lake. She will explore this classic role alongside “one of the twelve greatest ballerinas of all time” (Daily Telegraph), Georgian ballerina Nina Ananiashvili. This program begins live-streamingThursday, July 30 at 12pmand will be available through Wednesday, August 5.
In September, Peck works with former NYCB ballerina Stephanie Saland (Sep 16) on the “green” solo from Jerome Robbins’s Dances at a Gathering—the only female solo in the hour-long quintessential piano ballet. Saland was coached in the role by Robbins himself, who also choreographed a number of roles for her in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Mearns also returns with choreographer Pam Tanowitz (Sep 23) to explore new solo material created for her. Both artists have extended their artistic range in recent years—Tanowitz revealing her distinct choreographic voice through a witty and inventive post-modern treatment of classical dance vocabulary and Mearns expanding her repertory to include works by modern dance pioneers Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and Merce Cunningham, among others.
In the final program of the Great American Ballerinas series (Sep 30), Misty Copeland, the first African American principal ballerina with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, revisits Juliet’s solo scenes in Act Three of Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet with international ballet star Alessandra Ferri.
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Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us
New performances every Tuesday, Jul 14 – Aug 25, 12pm
Studio 5 | Great American Ballerinas
Thu Jul 16, 3pm (on view through Jul 22)
Tiler Peck with Merrill Ashley, Balanchine solos
Thu Jul 30, 12pm (on view through Aug 5)
Sara Mearns with Nina Ananiashvili, Swan Lake
Wed Sep 16, 5pm (on view through Sep 22)
Tiler Peck with Stephanie Saland, Dances at a Gathering
Wed Sep 23, 5pm (on view through Sep 29)
Sara Mearns with Pam Tanowitz, New Work
Wed Sep 30, 5pm (on view through Oct 6)
Misty Copeland with Alessandra Ferri, Romeo and Juliet