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Gary Students Learn From Harlem's Finest at Dance Workshop

Gary Students Learn From Harlem's Finest at Dance Workshop

Yahoo27-02-2025
'And five, six, seven, eight!'
Warming up to the tunes of Michael Jackson's 'Rock With You,' and James Brown's 'Super Bad' with stretches and steps, a room full of Gary students gathered in the student of Indiana University Northwest to boogie down with a few of Harlem's best dancers.
The Dance Theatre of Harlem, a world-renowned professional ballet company, gave a dance workshop and panel at IUN on Tuesday while on its national tour. Three of the company's dancers were joined by a flock of dance and cheer teams from Thea Bowman's Leadership Academy for an hourlong workshop with choreography full of pliés, sauté, and kick-ball-chains. Steadily growing the students' confidence in their routine, they capped off with a stage performance, culminating with an old-fashioned Soul Train line.
The Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded by Arthur Mitchell, who was the first Black principal dancer at New York City Ballet at the height of the Civil Rights Movement and credited for creating an inclusive space for Black dancers.
Black women have traditionally been underrepresented in the performing arts, especially in ballet. Black women make up only about 4.65% of dancers in ballet representation. Obstacles such as expenses, limited representation, and lack of support from inclusive institutions contribute to the lack of diversity.
The dance troupe has held events and workshops in Gary, Indianapolis, and across the state. The statewide tour will conclude with a performance on the Indiana University Bloomington campus on Saturday.'We love to connect with the community. Reach out to young dancers, help inspire them, help them grow, and hopefully help them come to our show,' dancer Lindsey Donnell said when asked why they chose to come to Gary.
From the Gary Players to the William Marshall Players dance troupes, Gary's very own dance history stretches beyond the walls of IUN. For example, Roosevelt alum William Marshall, the namesake the players were named after, played the first black Dracula in 'Blacula,' Similarly, Emerson High School was the first performing arts school in Gary dedicated to teaching the arts and culture to students in the community.
At a post-workshop panel discussion, the three Dance Theatre of Harlem dancers sat down to chat with students from Thea Bowman, talking about their career in the performing arts. Some said that they encourage double majoring in dance and a different major/discipline — instructor Kira Robinson, for example, said she was on a pre-med track while also pursuing dance.
The dancers also encouraged the students to apply for scholarships and summer training camps to keep up their practice. Moreover, they stressed the importance of perseverance and self-care: taking care of the body and the mind.
Troop members highlighted their favorite professional memories, with Donnell pointing to performing for former first lady Michelle Obama at the White House that honored African American women in the arts. Meanwhile, Gary resident and IUN graduate Cheyanne Johnson, who joined the dancers on the panel, recalled her favorite moment dancing for Tito and Joe Jackson as a kid.
'Be uncomfortable,' Johnson told the students, saying that is what allowed her to have the discipline to throw herself into new opportunities and grow in a different environment. She now owns a dance studio where she teaches teens and adults and encourages them to get out of their comfort zones and explore different dance forms.
'I didn't have a lot of representation in the media, so now being able to give back to my community in that way, and being a representation that I didn't get to see when I was younger, really means so much,' Robinson said. 'And I feel like that also keeps me going and keeps me inspired to give back to the younger generations.'
Back at the student center, the Thea Bowman students reflected on the day's takeaways. Mishael Dixon, a dancer on the Thea Bowman cheer team, said that the experience was 'great' and allowed her to try a different dance style.
'With cheer, it's more like sharp moves. So today, it was more loose, and we got to be more free,' she said. 'And I enjoy getting out of our normal comfort zone.'
For Shannya Cardine, co-captain of the cheer team, the experience hit close to home, as dance has always been a part of her life.
'I like to dance because my dad was a dancer,' she said. 'I just grew up on it, and I saw him dancing, and it rubbed off on me.'
The post Gary Students Learn From Harlem's Finest at Dance Workshop appeared first on Capital B Gary.
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Should we feel weird about the Coldplay cheating drama?
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Malcolm-Jamal Warner Was America's Brother
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But I must admit, without shame, that it hurts in a certain kind of way any time I hear of another Black man gone, as elder Black folks often say, before their time. The late actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner attends the Disney ABC Television Group TCA summer press tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 6, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. The late actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner attends the Disney ABC Television Group TCA summer press tour at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 6, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Getty Images Now it is Malcolm-Jamal Warner. Emmy-nominated actor. Grammy-winning musician. Grammy-nominated poet. Beloved husband, father, son. I do not recall when nor where nor how I first personally met him, but it was back in the day. Nevertheless, like hundreds of millions of viewers across the planet I was introduced to Malcolm-Jamal via The Cosby Show, one of only three U.S. television programs which have been No. 1 in ratings for five seasons (the others: All In The Family and American Idol). To say The Cosby Show was revolutionary and game-changing would be a gross understatement. In the 1980s America of Ronald Reagan, the AIDS and crack epidemics, and the initial explosion of brands like Apple and Nike, the show was a unicorn. It saved a struggling NBC network. It introduced our nation to a different way of viewing the Black experience. It became a global pop culture phenomenon during its eight-season run. We had never witnessed a Black family like this in television history: two professional parents with five children—four girls and one boy—supremely confident in their beings, the entire household a manifestation of the post-civil rights era of what was possible. No racist stereotypes, no demeaning facial expressions, no bowed heads, and no broken bodies from the old Hollywood. Yes, legit and righteous representation do matter, and as the lone male child in the clan Malcolm-Jamal remixed Theo Huxtable with an enchanting recipe of Black boy joy, a cool jazz meets hip-hop swagger, and an unsatiable thirst for the wholeness of life. Bill Cosby acts with Malcolm-Jamal Warner in a scene from "The Cosby Show." Bill Cosby acts with Malcolm-Jamal Warner in a scene from "The Cosby Show." Jacques M. Chenet/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images I am just slightly older than Malcolm-Jamal and never thought I would see someone like him on television. But there he was, in living color. I was inspired. I was doubly amped when I learned he had been born in Jersey City, N.J. like me. He was me and I was him. In Malcolm-Jamal's smile and laughter were mine, too. In his struggles from boyhood to manhood were my trials and tribulations, too. He was a kindred spirit, and, moreover, what Mary Tyler Moore meant to women 10 years earlier is what Malcolm-Jamal Warner meant to Black America, to boys Black like me. No, we cannot delete what the show's creator, Bill Cosby, has been charged with these many moons later. The rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment allegations are brutal and "tarnished," as Malcolm-Jamal said in one interview, the great legacy of The Cosby Show, likely forever. But we also cannot merely throw away this historic TV show and its participants because of one person. The Malcolm-Jamal Warner that I came to know, as an actor, as a musician, as a fellow poet, as a voice, leader, and bridge-builder, was kind, supportive, and genuinely full of hope and love. If one simply scans any social media platform since the tragedy one will see the testimonies, from a wide spectrum, saying the exact same. Malcolm-Jamal Warner was a very different kind of man. Alas, I do not know what Malcolm-Jamal Warner thought about the accusations against his TV father other than a few statements here and there that one can easily Google. I imagine that he was tormented, and torn. I never spoke with him about being on a hit TV show so early in life. He knew I knew, just like I know he knew I had been on the very first season of MTV's The Real World. Ours was a safe space, two products of pop culture, who preferred to speak about poetry, music, and hip-hop. Two Black men in America, on this Earth, trying to navigate any and all spaces, perpetually, as we journeyed through the chapters of Reagan, the Bushes, the Clintons, Obama, Biden, and Trump. I do know in losing Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and the way we lost him, with so much breath still to breathe, leaving his wife and daughter and mother and father behind, is collective trauma that is unexplainable. I have cried, my wife has cried, my wife's mother and so many others we know have cried. Because losing him is akin to losing a blood relative, a close friend. Because Malcolm-Jamal, named after civil rights icon Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, was truly the brother we all needed. Kevin Powell is a Grammy-nominated poet, filmmaker, and author of 16 books. He previously wrote a Newsweek cover story on Spike Lee. Kevin lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. Follow him on all social media platforms: @poetkevinpowell. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

Detroit's First Black-Owned Brewery Wants to Make Drinking Stout a Year-Round Tradition
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Detroit's First Black-Owned Brewery Wants to Make Drinking Stout a Year-Round Tradition

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