Hip Hop Master Class with Adesola Osakalumi at the Heritage School

05 Mar 2010, 5:49 PM by Lisa LH, Urban Arts Master Classes

During the fall semester, students in this class focused on the 5 elements of Hip Hop dance: Popping, B-Boy/B-Girl (Breakdance), Locking, House, and mainstream Hip Hop. Students studied the origin of each style from across the country, how the character of each community contributed to the creation of the five main styles, and the crews that made each style more mainstream.

This semester students are exploring stereotypes surrounding Hip Hop and Hip Hop dance.  Students are discussing ways they can present Hip Hop that could alter negative misconceptions. The class is exploring positive ways to impact the community using Hip Hop dance.  Students are continuing to ask and answer various guiding questions, including:  How does Hip Hop dance define my community?  How does Hip Hop and Hip Hop dance affect my life? How can a community affect the way you express yourself?  What defines culture?  What defines a community?  How is Hip Hop a culture?  How am I a part of it?

In the Master Class on Tuesday March 9th, Adesola Osakalumi will give students feedback on their work so far and add to existing choreography. Students will get the chance to ask for specific feedback on their pieces.

Adesola Osakalumi is an award-winning dancer, choreographer and member of the GhettOriginal Productions Dance Company (f/k/a Rhythm Technicians). He helped create Jam on the Groove which premiered Off-Broadway, toured around the world and won a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Choreography. Adesola has choreographed for and/or been a featured dancer with Mariah Carey, Sean "P Diddy" Combs, N'Sync, Joe, Dru Hill, and Amber. His credits also include: ABC Television's Double Platinum (with Brandy and Diana Ross); choreography for the 2002 MTV Video Awards segment with Ja Rule, the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards segment with Jamie Foxx,  the Nike segment of BET's Rip the Runway Fashion Show, commercials for PBS Kids, as well as Old Navy, Intel, and Levis. For film, he has choreographed for School of Rock, Marci X, and he is a principal dancer in Enchanted, Across the Universe and Idlewild. He has created dance for Eyewitness Blues and Mister at the New York Theatre Workshop, Hip Hop Wonderland at the New Victory Theater, Mo Moves at the Serious Fun Festival at Lincoln Center, Echo Park: The Hip Hop Musical at the Apollo Theater, and with the Doug Elkins Dance Company at the Joyce Theater. When not on stage or in front of the camera, Adesola is teaching or giving lecture/demonstrations about his craft. He has also taught Master Classes around the world and with Darrin Henson's Dance Grooves - Part II.

The Heritage School - Latin Dance Master Class

04 Mar 2010, 1:33 PM by Lisa LH, Urban Arts Master Classes

This year, students in the Latin Dance class at the Heritage School are studying the way salsa music and dance emerged in the 1970s in the Bronx, and comparing and contrasting its emergence to the popularity of Bachata music and dancing today.   They are researching what conditions existed in the Bronx in the 1970s and how different cultures influenced the dance and music at that time.  Through deconstructing and comparing dance styles used in both salsa and hip hop, students are answering the questions, ‘How did culture, environment and history influence salsa and hip hop in the 1970’s?’ and ‘How do those same influences affect Bachata in NYC today?’

In this clip from their December performance, students showcase the 1970s-style salsa dance they learned.

In the Master Class on Monday, March 8th, students will get a chance to work with Rodney Lopez.  This is the second year Rodney has worked with this class.  He will review steps he taught to these students last year, as well as incorporate new movements into this historical conversation about salsa in the 1970s and today’s Bachata.

Rodney López is an accomplished Latin dance instructor and choreographer in the New York Salsa scene. He is Director of the Salsa Program at Dance Manhattan, teaches Latin music history and dance for the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics in East Harlem and has led workshops and performed around the world. He has appeared on Good Morning America’s “Dancing With The Moms” Competition, the WB11 Morning News, Fox’s Good Day New York, The Queen Latifah Show and the Maury Povich Show and in the Off-Broadway smash, Latin Madness. In addition to serving as a Team Captain of the Addie-Tude Dance Company, he competes with New York-area West Coast Swing and Carolina Shag teams. Rodney's work has been featured in documentaries, news articles and other media including “Mad Hot Ballroom.”

PS 49: We make dances

27 Mar 2009, 7:01 PM by sarah, Elementary School

I've been working with the 5th graders in the East Side House after school program at PS 49 to learn the foundations of creative movement and dance making. We've been focusing on the idea of "community" as a basis to draw ideas for movement, and last semester many of the students expressed a large concern about the amount of pollution in their South Bronx community. Over the past few weeks we've been utilizing our Dancer's Toolbox (a term I coined that encompasses the elements of dance we regularly use, including level changes, locomotor movements, rhythm, speed, focus and more). I asked the class, "How would you feel if your community were free of pollution?" and they responded with ideas of happiness and pride. We used those ideas to create a dance as a class, then divided up into groups to get a little more space really make the movements travel. Each group had their own take on the dance.

First, Jadell, Tatyana, Machiami and Nakita:

PS 49 After School - Urban Arts Partnership from Sarah Dahnke on Vimeo.

And now, Daniella, Folashade and Fatoumata:

PS 49 After School - Urban Arts Partnership from Sarah Dahnke on Vimeo.

They're really into the whole "Take 1, ACTION!" thing. It's a ritual when we do group sharing in class.

We've now taken this dance and created several different duets that utilize these movements but are unique for each pair. They will appear in the end of our full-length dance that is currently in progress. The students will perform in May. Stay tuned ...