works by Eleo Pomare, Martial Roumain and Enrique Cruz De Jesus

ELEO POMARE, MARTIAL ROUMAIN, and ENRIQUE CRUZ DeJESUS

 

Saturday/Sunday/Monday, November 20, 21, 22 at 8 PM

Manhattan Movement and Arts Center (MMAC), 248 West 60 Street

Tickets: for November 20 tickets are 5 and includes performance and

            post-performance reception

Tickets: for November 21 & 22: 5; 0 for students & seniors

Reservations: 800-838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com

 

Dancers:  Efosa D. Agbontaen, Mario Bermudez, Donna Clark, Shauntee

                    Henry, Elise King, Ashely Race, Brandi Stewart, Nicholle White

Musicians: Ty Stephens and SoulJaazz

                       Ty Stephens, lead vocalist     

                       Richard Cummings Jr, Musical Director and Piano

                       Gene Torres, bass

                       George Gray, drums

                       R.T. Taylor, guitar

 

 

Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company will present works by Eleo Pomare, Martial Roumain, and Company Artistic Director Enrique Cruz DeJesus, on its 38th Concert Season, November 20-22 (Saturday/Sunday/Monday) at 8 PM.

 

Live music by the elegantly funky, R&B, and jazz sounds of Ty Stephens and SoulJaazz will accompany the premiere of DeJesus's "Crossroads to Hathaway," danced to the songs of R&B singer/songwriter Donny Hathaway.  His chart-topping musical arrangements and intimate concert performances resonated with audiences and were unique to his personal experiences.   DeCruz's new work includes storytelling elements that highlight the times of the music's origins, the 60's and 70's, and its relevance today.

 

Also by deCruz is his Evolution, a playful take on the Big Bang Theory danced to Tito Puente's big band sounds of the 50's.   Claudia La Rocco, reviewing in The New York Times, noted the work's "delicious fun with a mash-up of styles, including Latino, jazz and modern.   Mr. DeJesus delights in the earthy, sensual pleasures to be found in such simple things as walking, in all its permutations: struts, saunters, shimmies, slides."  (November 3, 2008)

 

Martial Roumain choreographed the Elegy, set to music by Michael Wimberly, "in memoria of a passing loved one."    The 1993 solo was created for, and will be danced by, Donna Clark, who "made the grief majestically stoical and imposing in her powerful performance of the solo."   (Jennifer Dunning,  The New York Times, April 10, 2003)

 

Alpha Omega prizes a large repertory of works by African-American and Hispanic choreographers, including several dances by the late Eleo Pomare.   They will perform one of his major works: the 1996 "Radeau" (Raft) which he described "as depicting a stormy sea voyage to safety from strife-torn Haiti."  Noted Jennifer Dunning: "The genius of the work...is that its turmoil has no specific reference point.   Three women - a mother, perhaps, and a child and a grandmother - roll with tumultuous waves, pulling apart in fear and pulling together into a line of women who might be sitting in a boat   It is an abstract dance, but evey move and gesture seethes with the terror and hope of a voyage to a different and perhaps better world."  (The New York Times, December 15, 2005)