Editor’s note:  This press release was provided by Accent Dance NYC.

NEW YORK, September 5, 2019 – Accent DanceNYC, an education and performance initiative that champions learning and communication through dance, presents Let’s Dance: The 2019 Accent Dance NYC Benefit and Performanceat the Picture House on September 21^stin Pelham, New York. Having served more than 1,000 school-aged children in their  inaugural year, the evening will secure funds to continue to bring dance education into underserved communities and school districts, while introducing the local community to the professional dancers and teaching artists of Accent Dance NYC with a versatile program of ballet, contemporary, tango, hip hop, audience participation, and more.

Led by a team of multicultural and multi-disciplinary teaching and professional performance artists from the U.S., Cuba, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Haiti and beyond, Accent Dance NYC has developed a rich and curated dance education curriculum for students as well as high-level educational lecture demonstrations. By cleverly combining elements of ballet, hip hop, salsa, jazz, and tango, the organization’s programming connects each dance style to themes of history, multiculturalism, literacy, self-discipline, creativity, local pride, and mutual respect.  Accent Dance NYC has served over 10 schools and local arts organizations since its inception last year: PS 87, PS 23, PS 33, PS 226, PS 246, PS 46, Mott Haven High School, the Poe Visitor Center, and the Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education in the Bronx, and also has performed at the Bronx Music Heritage Center, the Poe Visitor Center, and as part of the Summer Streets Festival in Manhattan sponsored by the NYC Department of Transportation.  With students ranging from 3^rdthrough 12^thgrade, each child is engaged in a creative, compassionate, and hands-on experience, devoted to inspiring, enlightening and empowering them both inside the classroom and out.

An evening program that spotlights the versatile talents of the Accent Dance NYC ensemble, audiences will enjoy a mixed bill of ballet, tango, hip hop and more, while meeting select students from the organization’s spring semester at the Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, displaying its mission at work. The evening also will host a silent auction and light refreshments.

“This first year has been a wonderful window into the potential of what Accent Dance NYC can do for the community,” explains Andrea Ziegelman, founder and President of Accent Dance NYC. “We have met students from all corners of the globe and witnessed incredible growth in each child through the power of dance. We know dance builds bridges, increases self-confidence, builds soft skills, improves teamwork, inspires creative thinking, and even helps to improve grades in school. To be able to expand our outreach to more schools and communities in the coming years through successful fundraising means more students experiencing the joy and positive impacts of exposure to dance education.”

REPERTORY NOTES

Don Quixote

Choreography:  Marius Petipa

Music:  Ludwig Minkus

A classical ballet pas de deux from the full-length ballet, Don Quixote, based upon the novel by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes.

Tanguera 

Choreography:  Dardo Galletto

Music:  Mariano Mores

Tanguera integrates traditional and progressive elements in this energetic and virtuoso display of the tango; in Accent Dance NYC’s version of Dardo Galletto’s choreography, one heteronormative and another same-gender couple dance side by side, representing the power and beauty of dance to celebrate both diversity and unity.

Kinder Symphonie

Choreography:  Mara Driscoll and Richard Isaac

Music:  Kremerata Baltica, Gideon Kramer, After Mozart, “Kinder Symphonie, C Major, No. 1

The would-be peaceful world of two dancers is disrupted by a litany of auditory pests.

Sophisticated Lady | World Premiere

Choreography: Lucia Jackson

Music: Duke Ellington

Lucia Jackson’s musical and choreographic interpretation of jazz classic Sophisticated Lady, rendered as a duet, employs classical and contemporary aesthetics to convey the nostalgia of the era with a modern twist.

I’m a Fool to Want You

Choreography: Lucia Jackson
Music:  Frank Sinatra, Jack Wolf and Joel Herron

Dardo Galletto’s choreography finds inspiration in Lucía Jackson’s musical arrangement of a Frank Sinatra song. This poignant duet not only integrates tango and jazz, separation and reunion, but also dance and live vocals by Lucía Jackson and members of her jazz band.

Héctor| World Premiere

Choreography: Elisa Toro Franky

Music:  ”El Cantante” by Blades for Héctor Lavoe.

Héctor Lavoe, hailed as the voice of Puerto Rico, stands in history as one of the greatest salsa singers whose everlasting voice transcends the brevity of his life. Héctor’s active years as an artist were mainly in the Bronx in the heyday of salsa, when he became a cultural beacon for the Hispanic populations who found their communal expression in salsa. Accent Dance NYC dances a tribute to Héctor Lavoe, evoking the Hispanic cultures that embraced him and his perennial voice.

Finesse

Choreography:  The Accent Dance NYC team

Music:   Bruno Mars and Cardi B.

Ballet and hip hop come together in a joyful dance that juxtaposes diverse vocabularies.  Finesse is dedicated to those school-age children for whom Accent Dance NYC has performed and with whom it has collaborated, in a light-hearted call-and-response duet.

Danzón

Choreography: Pedro Ruiz

Music: Arturo Márquez

Danzón has been called the official dance of Cuba. Cuban choreographer Pedro Ruiz has reinvented this traditional dance and music form with contemporary language to construct a joyous celebration of music and movement.

We Are One (Ole Ola) 

Choreography:  The Accent Dance NYC team

Music:   Pitbull

Accent Dance NYC’s uplifting closing piece where all audience members are invited to join the performers in a dance and music sequence celebrating local pride, self-love, and mutual respect.

PERFORMANCE AND VENUE INFORMATION

Let’s Dance: The 2019 Accent Dance NYC Benefit and Performancewill take place on Saturday, September 21 at 7:30 p.m. at The Pelham Picture House located at 175 Wolfs Lane in Pelham, New York.

Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at https://thepicturehouse.org/show/2019-accent-dance-nyc-benefit-performance. All tickets include light fare and a wine toast.