The Dancing Keeps on at the Dance Parade

13th Annual Dance Parade - An Aesthetic & Cultural Visual Delight

May 24, 2019 / Things To Do Manhattan / Manhattan Neighborhoods NYC / Manhattan Buzz NYC.

A week ago, on Saturday, May 18th, I attended the 13th annual Dance Parade. The parade reportedly features ten thousand dancers, musicians and DJ's during the two hour [turned out to be easily twice as long] parade.

I had attended the parade perhaps a half dozen years ago, essentially it's half life to date and it has grown enormously both in the number of performers and performances as well as the size of the crowd.

But quantity isn't everything, and the quality had grown or expanded as well. It was, in a few words, an aesthetic and cultural visual delight.

I and one of the Manhattan Buzz freelance photographers / videographers captured some of the festivities on video, which I hope to share with you by the end of today.

Story and photo by Michael Wood.

Dance Parade Moves To The Music

Dance Parade Encompasses Cast Of Thousands

May 19, 2014 / East Village NYC / Things To Do Manhattan / Manhattan Buzz NYC.

I attended the Dance Parade in NYC. It's an event that started in response to some old laws on the books prohibiting certain kinds of behaviors that could encompass dance performances. Laws of a bygone era.

There were thousands lining the streets of the parade route which began in the Flatiron District, moving south along Broadway through the heart of the Village before turning east into the East Village and terminating at Tompkins Square Park. Performances followed at Tompkins Square Park.

In the photo at right you can see a dance group as they march along Broadway not far from Union Square Park. We have a slew of photos of this visual feast which we'll post at a later date.

Indian Film Festival Manhattan

April 2, 2019 / Downtown Manhattan Tribeca SoHo LES Neighborhoods NYC / Manhattan Fashion Film NYC / Manhattan Buzz NYC.

On Saturday I attended the first Native Cinema Showcase at the National Museum of the American Indian in Downtown Manhattan. On many different levels it was a very satisfying experience. First the National Museum of the American Indian is located in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House which is a magnificently built building. It has solid stone floors and rails, an incredible skylight in one of the main rooms, and architectural detail that few beyond the most well endowed nations can afford.

The Native American Indian Museum occupied three floors of the building. The first floor contains a beautiful and well stocked gift shop, as well as a performance space. The performance space is circular in shape, with a high ceiling, and smooth (dance) floor. There was a video playing on the large main screen of what seemed like a temple, showing Indians in native dress dancing and singing. And along the walls there are pictures of Indians in tribal dress, possibly representing a number of the different American Indian nations.

On the second floor there is this beautiful oval shaped room with a wonderful skylight. The room is made of beautiful stone, much of which I believe was marble, and it was a joy just to feel the solid level stone beneath my feet and to run my hands along the smooth stone rail.

Beyond that room, which contained information stands, is the museum itself. Off to either side are smaller galleries where the exhibits change, while the main gallery runs the length of the building and those exhibits mostly stay as they are. In one of the smaller galleries there was an exhibit on the Taino tribe. And in the other gallery, a new exhibit, of paintings, is due to open next weekend, April 6th. I spent a couple of hours meandering through the galleries, taking photos [no flash] as I went.

And the last floor in the building occupied by the National Museum of the American Indian is in the basement where they have a movie theater / auditorium / stage [they rent it out too]. In the movie theater this weekend they were showing several film series on Saturday and Sunday as part of the first annual Native Cinema Showcase. It was for this event that I had come, although I welcomed the opportunity to become better acquainted with both the U.S. Customs House and the National Museum of the American Indian.

I watched several films. More to come later today. Horses. Land. Spirits. Masks. Piecing together the culture.

Table of Silence Transcends 911

Lincoln Center Dance Commemoration Transcends Hate through Love

September 11, 2017 / Upper West Side Neighborhood / Modern Dance Manhattan / Manhattan Buzz NYC.

This morning at 8.15 am over one hundred dancers began a spiritual commemoration of the events of 911 with a modern dance performance in the main plaza at Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side. This was the seventh year of the performance, and its meaning seems to grow - rather than diminish - with time. It's about the classic and timeless struggle, between giving into hate, or striving to love.

The dancers were all dressed in white, and they created a resplendent symmetry mimicking nature's own. The performance was accompanied by a bit of minimalist music - originating from a beating drum, the air passing through a conch shell, and the human vocal cords.

The dancers transformed the plaza at Lincoln Center into a table, with the bountiful water fountain in the middle. Plates appeared, signifying the sharing of a feast ... a spiritual feast ... a prayer for all humanity.

We feel a heavenly sharing of being together, in a single place, at a single time. It's a solemn place, a sagely peace, a peace with each other, a peace within, and a peace with all the world ... even as the world continues to swirl around us, as does the NYC traffic ... but we remain centered ... as one.

At exactly 8.46 am the performance stops. All is still in Lincoln Center Plaza as we observe a minute of silence together. It's a silence within, as we are surrounded by the ambient noise of the city during rush hour. Sixteen years ago at 8.46 am the second of two planes struck the World Trade Center wreaking havoc. Taking lives. Creating chaos.

Cleansed of hate and vengeance - we depart to go on with our days. We have defeated the terrorists, by not giving into their desire for an endless cycle of violence and hate.

Fringe Festival NYC

Step Into The World Of The Newly Created

August 17, 2014 / East Village NYC & SoHo Neighborhood NYC / Off Broadway Theater NYC / Manhattan Buzz.

The three week long Fringe Festival continues through this coming weekend. The Fringe Festival is a curated performing arts festival that includes music, dance and theater performances at various venues throughout various sections of the Village in Manhattan.

I attended one such performance on Norfolk Street this past Sunday where the stage was fastened alongside a large box truck which was parked in a parking / play lot that was furnished with lawn chairs which were placed under a canopy to shelter the audience from the sun or inclement weather.

All of the works are original and the mix provides an adventurous dive into the performing arts. We hear that some of the works should receive accolades while others are said to need a bit of work. But all in all attending the Fringe Festival in NYC makes for a fun afternoon or evening; and the ticket prices range from $0 to $18. For more info about what's playing the rest of this week and weekend, check out FringeNYC.org.

We'll post more info and a photo slide show at a later date.

Is Singing Beach a Twilight Parallax?

Tina Howe's New Play at Here MainStage Theater in SoHo

July 25, 2017 / SoHo Neighborhood near Tribeca / Manhattan Theater & Summer Plays / Manhattan Buzz NYC.

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to watch the dress rehearsal of Singing Beach written by American playwright Tina Howe.

Tina Howe has won numerous awards and honors as an American Playwright including placing as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1983 [Painting Churches], the Drama Critic's Circle Award for Best Play in 1998 [Prides Crossing] and the Lilly Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Tina told me that the play, Singing Beach, was something she had started nearly a decade ago, but had put on hiatus after a couple of years of toil because she just couldn’t get it right ... until now.

In the photo at right we watch as granddaughter Piper, played by Elodie Lucinda Morss, segues into another dimension taking us aboard the S.S. United States in Singing Beach, a new play by Tina Howe.

Singing Beach - Modern Themes

The play, Singing Beach, explores a number of themes. One of them is how family members respond to the caring needs of an aging, non-functional family member. In the Singing Beach play, the near-comatose elder is the father of the mother character [Mary], and the grandfather of granddaughter character [Piper] – whom together represent the female axis around which the play revolves. In a more cosmic parallax sense, the play actually encompasses three generations of women, as the grandmother’s presence is felt by the void left when she passed away a year earlier.

Singing Beach - Director, Producer & Playwright

Tina Howe’s new play is directed by Ari Laura Kreith of Theatre 167 and produced by Jenny Lyn Bader. The play opens on a beautiful beach, Singing Beach, which is a reference to a small, exclusive half-mile stretch of beach near Manchester by the Sea, which is just north of Salem in Massachusetts. The beach is known for its unique sand, which periodically emits sounds, when the wind hits the beach sand in just the right way.

The ghostly sounds of Singing Beach appear to be a metaphor in the play. Shortly after the play opens, we’re told there’s a storm, with potentially lethal gale force winds approaching. Will the storm wreak havoc, misery and by virtue of its destructive force, shake up and change everyone’s reality?

Shortly after the first scene, we’re taken into the dreamy parallax stream of subconscious in granddaughter Piper’s mind - in a transition that is far more subtle than the windy transition taken by Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. After Piper takes us aboard a transatlantic steamer, she appears to have far more fun than Dorothy, but is traveling in an environment that might be more mortally dangerous.

In the photo at right are Director Ari Laura Kreith, Producer Jenny Lynn Bader and Playwright Tina Howe at the Here Theater in SoHo.

At Here MainStage Theater in SoHo thru 8/12

I’ll have more on this as the week progresses, but in the meantime Singing Beach is being performed at the Here MainStage Theater at 145 6th Avenue at Dominick Street in SoHo. The play runs through August 12, 2017, but seating is very limited.

You can purchase tickets online [$30 / $20] at the Here.org website by cutting and pasting this url into your browser box - http://here.org/shows/detail/1920/

Lower East Side Arts Festival

Theater for the New City Celebrates America's Immigrants

May 30, 2017 / East Village Neighborhood / Theater in Manhattan / Manhattan Buzz NYC.

I attended the 22nd annual Lower East Arts Festival in the East Village this weekend. It was held at the Theater for the New City on First Avenue off 10th Street beginning Friday and ending Sunday. As I approached the theater, I could see it was bustling.

Inside there was a long winding hallway, with high ceilings, and art exhbits adorning the walls and crannies along its length. I stopped at the ticket booth [tickets are free] to get a bit of orientation and here's what I learned.

The festival was started by an actress, who was prepping, performing and managing the whole time I was there, so I didn't get a chance to speak to her on this visit. At right you can see the audience attentively watching a musical performance in the lower theater of the Theater for the New City.

The Theater for the New City predates the festival, when it went by another name. The festival itself was first held in the West Village, then moved farther east, and a few years ago opened up at this location.

The festival celebrates the artistic community of the Village, Manhattan, and the greater NYC metropolitan area. There were literally dozens of performances and exhibited artworks, done by and featuring in the neighborhood of well in excess of 100 participants. In the photo at right you can see some of the art exhibited at the 22nd Annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts in the East Village in Manhattan.

Each night the performances run from about 6 pm to about midnight featuring actors, actresses, poets, artists and dancers in a couple of venues at Theater for the New City at 155 First Avenue at 10th Street. It's first come / first serve and the seating handles about 150 and 60 guests per performance in total.

The festival theme this year was 'We are all Immigrants'. All events are free, the festival lasted three days, and the Theater for the New City is, as I was told, in a constant state of movement, so there will be more to come.

Break a leg.

Diwali in Times Square

3rd Annual Indian Festival of Lights Delights Audience

October 16, 2016 / Manhattan Neighborhoods / Holidays in NYC / Manhattan Buzz NYC.

I attended the third annual Diwali Festival in Times Square on Sunday. The day long event, celebrating the millenia old Indian festival, had started in the afternoon at 2 pm and ran well into the evening, ending at 9 pm.

As I came up from the subway I asked an Indian-looking NYC policman to point me in the direction of the festival. He asked me how I had heard of the event and I mentioned that I had found out about it on Manhattan Buzz, but that I had also traveled to India some time ago where I first became aware of the Indian holiday. He inquired as to where I had traveled in India, which was mostly in the north, and he suggested the next time I visit, to check out Kerala, which is where his family is from originally. I had learned from my travels that Kerala is a southwestern Indian province along the Indian Ocean, and is said to be a bit of paradise.

A large crowd had gathered to watch the festival, many of whom were of Indian descent which I found from conversing with several of them. They brought their families to view the free entertainment which included a number of wide ranging song and dance performances by dance troupes and musicians.

Diwali is the festival of lights, which commemorates light overcoming darkness, good overcoming evil and knowledge overcoming ignorance and hope defeating despair. It is one of the three major Hindu festivals and a time for renewal and celebration which is denoted by the cleaning of homes and the lighting of lights. The Diwali Holiday officially runs from October 30th to November 3rd, but unoffically it lasts longer starting in September / October and ending in October / November. The other two major Hindu holidays are Holi which celebrates Spring with the coloring of people's bodies, faces and hair and Maha Shivaratri which is one of the rare nighttime celebrations, held just before the arrival of Spring with a mix of solemn practices including meditation, yoga and fasting.

Happy Holidays or as they say in Hindu - छुट्टियों की शुभकामनाएं.

Architectural Digest Design Show

Provides Vignettes of Living Lovely at Piers 92 & 94

March 21, 2016 / Midtown West Neighborhood / Upper West Side Neighborhood / Fashion & Film Manhattan / Manhattan Buzz.

I attended the Architectural Digest Design Show on Piers 92 & 94 on Thursday afternoon. The show ran through last weekend, providing the public with an opportunity to see the latest and greatest in urban living design and technology.

The show spanned both Piers and included sections dedicated to kitchen, bath, living and dining areas of the home and with a little imagination, possibly the office as well.

The show was well attended by designers, manufacturers, the media, salespeople, buyers and browsers. And the mood seemed buoyant.

Click here to read the rest of our report on the Architectural Digest Design Show incuding the DIFFA on Pier 92.

Designing for Quality Retail & Community Use

Design Trust Unveils ‘Laying the Groundwork’ at the Center for Architecture

March 1, 2016 / Village NYC / Manhattan Building Design Issues / Manhattan Buzz.

I had an opportunity to attend the introductory presentation of ‘Laying the Groundwork’, which was heralded as a seminal document put together under the auspices of the Design Trust in Manhattan. The event was held at the Center for Architecture at 536 LaGuardia Place, just south of Washington Square Park.

The Design Trust was founded in 1995 by Andrea Woodner, the daughter of Ian Woodner who founded the Jonathan Woodner Company, which Ian named after his son Jonathan – Andrea’s brother. The company was renamed Woodner and is a diversified real estate management [2,500 units] and development company in the Washington, D.C. and New York metro markets.

Andrea was first and foremost a sculptor. She later obtained a Masters Degree in Architecture from Columbia University and then went on to found the Design Trust with the intent to fuse the expertise of designers with the use of public space. She defined public space as “anywhere you don’t need a key to get into”. Andrea stepped down earlier this year as the Board President of Design Trust and was replaced by Eric Rothman, President of HR & A Advisors, a consulting firm.

The thrust of Design Trust has been to marry private design work with the development of public space to create win / win situations. The following is a summary of some of their most significant achievements since the organization was founded.

We'll post more at a later date.

Art Show At The Armory

March 8, 2015 / Upper East Side Things To Do / Manhattan Art Shows / Manhattan Buzz. I attended the Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory on Sunday afternoon, as the five day show was about to end, and things were winding down. The Art Show provides visitors and buyers with a depth and breadth of beauty that spans both media and time.

One of my first stops was at the Hirscl & Adler Galleries booth where they had curated an exhibit entitled Winold Reiss And Jazz Age Modernism. It was an Art Deco exhibit that carried some of the style and vibration from the jazz age of the 1920's and 1930's into the present.

The photo at right was taken at the Hirschl & Adler Galleries booth at the show. The painting comes from the Winold Reiss estate. Winold Reiss [born 1886] was a German born American artist who was fascinated by his adopted home [America]. Early in his career he began venturing west to capture the American Indian in an unjudgmental aesthetic. He returned to New York and was drawn to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's and beyond.

The Hirschl & Adler Galleries also displayed several of Winold's abstract works which showed the progression from the characterization of the real to the abstract. One of the works appeared to have significant influences of Cubism in it.

And this was just the beginning of my foray into the 2015 Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory.

I would literally see thousands of art works that one cannot see in a museum, as they are privately owned. But with some luck some of these pieces will eventually end up in museums, as they were created by masters of the 20th century. More to come at a later date including a photo slide show.

International Center For Photography

ICP's Last Show On 6th Avenue, Sabastio Salgado, Ends

January 12, 2015/ Midtown Manhattan NYC / Art Museums Manhattan / Manhattan Buzz. The International Center For Photography closed on Sunday for the last time at its 6th Avenue location. The museum now goes on hiatus pending arrangements for its new home in the Bowery. The museum is expected to re-open mid year somewhere near the New Museum, so stay tuned.

I attended the Sabastio Salgado photo exhibit last week and shot photos of the work, the museum and the some of the last folks to visit the museum in its 6th Avenue location. The Salgado exhibit was as engaging as it was moving. It was about the environment, capturing some of what remains of raw nature on the planet.

Sabastio's work took us down onto the Antarctic continent, into the South American rain forests as well as into the jungle and plains of Africa. All of the photos were shot in black and white as Salgado took us on a journey into the vanishing natural environment.

We'll have more, including a photo slide show at a later date.

The Salon: Art + Design

Moving Portraits, Fabled Teapots, Art Deco & Sofa As Canvas

November 17, 2014 / UES Upper East Side Neighborhood / Manhattan Art & Furniture / Manhattan Buzz..

I attended The Salon: Art + Design show at the Park Avenue Armory last weekend. The Salon is, as billed, a mix of art and design for the home, oftentimes manifested in furniture. The international show featured over 50 exhibitors, most which were from Europe and America.

The show is an opportunity to view old guard and avante garde home design of the western world. The Salon: Art + Design is in its third year, and included an eclectic mix of interesting objets d'arte. The visual feast included portraits of birds, butterflies and a nightime nature scene that moved in response to your motion. These are similar in kind to the moving portraits at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. In the photo to your right is an interactive wall hanging that allows you, with the movement of your hand, initiate some action in the scene.

It is one of eight of a limited edition selling for about $10,000 U.S. dollars through Priveekollektie Contemporary Art | Design, an art / design dealer from Heusden in the Netherlands.

The show ends Monday evening.

We'll have more on this show at a later date, including a photo slide show of many of the objects on exhibit at The Salon: Art + Design show at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.

Fine Prints Fair: Seeing Is Believing

A Tour Through The Fine Prints Fair at the Park Avenue Armory

November 10, 2014 / UES Upper East Side Neighborhood / Manhattan Art Galleries / Manhattan Buzz.

I spent an enjoyable time browsing the galleries of the International Fine Print Dealers Association Fair late Sunday afternoon. It was the last of the four day fine print art show at the Park Avenue Armory. The deals had been done, many fine prints had been sold, and the gallery owners and managers were probably contemplating going home when I approached them.

There are roughly 160 members of the IFPDA [International Fine Print Dealers Association], most of whom were exhibiting this weekend. The IFPDA exhibitors come from around the world, although most notably from Europe and America.

I met an array of gallery owners and dealers and learned a bit about the fine art of prints which one exhibitor described to me as the collaboration of art and technology. In the photo to your right is Pace Prints gallery owner Richard Solomon standing alongside a Chuck Close self portrait. Richard is a founding member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association.

We'll have more about the fascinating fair of the International Fine Print Dealers Association at the Park Avenue Armory at a later date. It will include a photo slide show and an eclectic tour through the alluring art world of fine prints.

Fashion Week Manhattan NYC

Beauty & Style on the Runway At Couture Fashion Week

September 8, 2014 / NYC Fashion Manhattan / Midtown Neighborhood / Midtown Buzz. I attended a bathing suit and bridal gown runway show at Couture Fashion Week at the Crowne Plaza Sunday evening. It was one of many fashion programs going on around NYC during NYC Fashion Week.

The runway show was held on the fourth floor in the Crowne Plaza located at Broadway between 48th and 49th Streets near Times Square. About a half dozen designers were featured in the show which included a beautiful vocal performance by Maryann Connolly and a dance performance by Battle For Your Life Tour Dancers and In Da Clutch and the Hood Lockers.

The show was fully attended with a standing room only crowd. And it was a visual feast of the voluptuous vogue. In the photo at right are the models coming out for a bow at the end of the Maty Machado Swimwear segment of the show.

Fashion Week In Manhattan

September 2, 2014 / Midtown Buzz. The summer has unofficially ended, school has started and Fall Fashion Week has arrived in NYC. There will be fashion events all over the city beginning Wednesday and running until Thursday September 11th.

New York Fashion Week is a collection of many independent events, but the showcase venue is at Lincoln Center where the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week occurs. The Mercedes Benz Fashion Week moved to Lincoln Center from Bryant Park in 2010. It had been held in tents in Bryant Park beginning in 1994.

So look around you this week at what folks are wearing. Temperatures will be in the mid to low 80's and the lows will be in the 60's, so you're not likely to see many fur coats.

Events start mid morning and run into the evening. You can buy tickets at mbfashionweek.com or by searching for the designers you wish to see. Several of them have begun to branch out onto their own, sponsoring their own events.

There will also be a number of parties and social gatherings. So wear your best for Manhattan's fashionista fest. Enjoy.

Gracie Art Show

Local Artists Congregate For Annual Art Show & Sale

September 29, 2014 / Upper East Side Neighborhood / Manhattan Art Exhibits NYC / Manhattan Buzz.

On Saturday I attended the Gracie Art Show at Carl Schurz Park in the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side. It was a beautiful Fall day, with the autumnal sun shining and temperatures in the high 70's. The police had blocked East End Avenue from the south end of the park at 84th Street to the north end of the park at 89th Street. All along the closed street there were vans parked in front of small tents wherein the artworks had been hung, for all the public to see.

I started making my way south from Gracie Mansion, photographing the tents and people as I made my way. There was a good mix of artwork at the show ranging from sculptures and paintings to ceramics. The art on display came in sizes and styles comprising a breadth and depth that would certainly have engaged a wide range of art lovers and buyers. And so it was that many were out today in pursuit of unique treasures to take home, as the Gracie Art Show was not just an art show, but an art sale.

We'll post more about the Gracie Art Show at a later date including a photo slide show.

Frieze Art Fair NYC 2014 - Randall's Island

Fun Fair Attracts Artists, Friendly Financiers & Fashionistas

May 12, 2014 / East Side NYC / Manhattan Art Exhibits NYC / Manhattan Things To Do / Manhattan Buzz. The Third Annual Frieze Art Fair turned out to be ... in a word ... FUN.

It was held on Randall's Island, which once one makes the effort, turns out to be an easy and enjoyable get-away from the din of the big city. Traffic thins out and slows down, and one can again see the horizon. With the NYC skyline in the background and the East River water slowly flowing on by, the locale almost seems idyllic.

Inside the white tented structure, complete with flowing ribbons and a lofty airy vaulted ceiling, there were literally tons of people milling about. But the fair managers had done a good job of figuring out how to comfortably accommodate the 8,000 people who passed through daily [except Saturday due to rain].

The fair easily encompassed enough space to hold one or more football fields. The structure was designed as a rectangle with four quadrants. And where the quadrants met, there was a cafe / rest area / and outdoor patio space.

We'll post more at a later date including a photo slide show of the 2014 Frieze Art Fair in NYC.