It’s FLAMENCO time!!! Opening this week at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in the Vincent Astor Gallery is the free multimedia exhibition 100 Years of Flamenco in NYC . The exhibition featuresall things Flamenco including costumes, photographs, posters and video. Doing the Flamenco while visiting the exhibition is optional. 

On Fire with African Dance: The Story of Mambo with Robert Farris Thompson →

Robert Farris Thompson, Master T, the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art at Yale University will focus his lecture on mambo that shows a fusion of a variety of dance styles from Lindy, to ballet, to bomba, to Afro-Cuban dance.

Here is a photograph of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor fooling around on the set of Private Lives in 1983. The photograph was taken by the amazing Martha Swope. Swope’s photographs of various dance and theater rehearsals are on display now at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Martha Swope: In Rehearsal. 

Sixteen year old twin dancers, Billie and Patsy Irwin, pose aboard the oceanliner Berengaria. (circa 1920s)

Just a fun post for a Wednesday, courtesy of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Happy birthday, Lena Horne. This photo from our collections at The Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture shows the legendary singer, activist and dancer swinging a champagne bottle to christen the liberty ship SS George Washington Carver in California in 1943. It was the second liberty ship named for an African American, according to the caption on the back of the photo, which was written by the U.S. Office of War Information. We’re sure Lena’s spirit got the ship through plenty of “Stormy Weather.”

What It’s Like To “Not See” Dance

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been talking a lot about Dana Salisbury and the No-See-Ums, the dance troupe performing their brand of “unseen dance” (dance experienced through senses other than sight) at various NYPL branches throughout March. Well, want to know what it’s really like? Check out this Huffington Post column on that very subject.  You can also check out news pieces by WNYC and the NY Times. The bottom line - it’s free and worth checking out. There’s a performance today at 2 pm at our Webster library. There’s very limited seating, so first come, first served! There’s one more show scheduled next Saturday at 2 pm at the 115th Street library - so don’t miss it!

Get Blindfolded At The Library - It’s Art!

Looking for something free and fun to do Saturday at around 2 pm? Go to our Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library at 40 W 20th Street in Chelsea and check out dance group Dana Salisbury and the No-See-Ums, who will perform “Bark,” one of their original “unseen dances.” See, after you arrive, they’ll take your stuff, blindfold you, walk you into the theater and spend the next 45 minutes or so dancing around you while making noises. They also move you, ask you to lay on the floor, ask you to stand, ask you to sit and so on. At first, it seems a wee bit weird. By the end, it’s simply amazing. You really feel like you’ve gone on a trip or something. The dance forces your other senses to come alive, and your imagination really runs wild. It’s very cool. Check out what WNYC and the Staten Island Advance wrote about it. Now go and see for yourself! Want more info? Get it here.

Want To Not See Something Cool This Weekend?

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Head to the Richmondtown Library (200 Clarke Avenue at Amber Street in Staten Island) at 2 p.m. on Saturday to see Dana Salisbury and the No-See-Ums perform “BARK,” one of their original “unseen dances.” Audience members are blindfolded and brought into the performance space, then dancers perform all around them, occasionally asking them to stand up or sit down. The audience then experiences dance through sense other than sight. Neat, right? The program (which was written about in the Staten Island Advance and will happen at three other branches in Manhattan on Saturdays throughout March) is being brought to NYPL by our Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, which provides services to the blind (these dances are not specifically designed for the blind, FYI). Mark McCluski, head of that library, commented after watching a sample performance, “It’s like a carnival simulation ride, but without the machinery.” So come on down. It’s free! Below are the other performances. We can’t wait to not see you there!

March 12 at 2 p.m.
Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library
40 West 20th Street New York, NY

March 19 at 2 p.m.
Webster Library
1465 York Avenue (near E. 78th St.), New York, NY

March 26 at 2 p.m.
115th St Library
203 West 115th Street, New York, NY