You’re under arrest … for good dancing

Dance
Dancing cops … seems unusual. But according to dance historian Jennifer Homans in her seminal book from 2010, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, classical ballet had its origins not with white-tutu’ed swans on pointe, but with drilling military men, much like the dancing Columbian cops seen in the video above. Writes Homans: Dance was ...

Death of a dancer: Muhammad Ali

Dance
When he floated like a butterfly, he was a dapper dancer. Like this? Read more: Death of a dancer: Albert Evans Farewell Violette Death of a great one, June 25, 2009

Robert Rauschenberg, dancer

Dance · Visual arts
Hazel Larsen Archer Elizabeth Schmitt Jennerjahn and Robert Rauschenberg C. 1952. Gelatin silver print, 6 1/4 x 9 ¼ inches. Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer and Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center. Not just company ‘stage manager,’ longtime friend, and resident designer to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, but Robert Rauschenberg, the great abstract artist, ...

Thelonious Monk, dancer

Dance · Music
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Just as James P. Johnson, George Gershwin, Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington took musical inspiration from New York City, it’s impossible to divorce pianist/composer Thelonious Monk’s music from Gotham. In Monk, the erotic and the athletic intertwine at the Savoy Ballroom, subways vibrate with propulsive rhythms, congregational choirs shake church foundations, young girls skip rope ...

Oscar was a dancer 2

Dance · Film
This amusing photo of Oscar-winning dancer George Chakiris (Best Actor in a Supporting Role, “West Side Story,” 1962) and dance critic Debra Levine taken by Dana Ross last Saturday night at “Oscars Outdoors” sparked an email from Hollywood dance expert Larry Billman. Writes Larry, “The “original Oscar” was a dancer named Emilio Ferandez who modeled ...