Michael Blake’s TEDx talk “LIFE IS A DANCE” will feature dancers Sarita Allen, Hope Clarke, David Hamilton Thomson, and Alberto del Saz as he integrates spoken word, and dance in this specially choreographed piece with the assistance of dramaturge, Netta Yerushalmy. Meet the immensely talented and experienced dancers:
Sarita Allen
Ms. Allen is a world-renowned dancer and performing artist whose career has spanned 3 decades. Upon joining the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater she immediately began her meteoric rise within the company. Throughout her stay, Alvin Ailey Choreographed 8 original ballets for her, namely The Mooche and Night Creatures. These ballets set the tone for her Ailey tenure with leading roles and outstanding performances including galas at The Paris Opera, The Acropolis, The Pyramids At Giza, The Kennedy Center and the White House for two Presidents. Allen was an original member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet and is currently their Artistic Advisor. She currently teaches at the Ailey Extension, HBO and internationally.
Alberto del Saz
Mr. del Saz is the Artistic Director of the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance. In 1980 he became the First Spanish National Champion in figure skating. In 1985 Mr. del Saz joined the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theatre and as a member of this internationally acclaimed company he has toured to virtually every continent of the globe. Mr. del Saz has appeared for President Reagan at the Kennedy Center Honors as well as on a PBS American Masters series in “Nik and Murray.” He has represented the US State Department on a tour of India. Mr. del Saz has danced Rudolph Nureyev’s role in “Moments” a work created by Murray Louis. Mr. del Saz has been with the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for 35 years, at the moment his focus is in preserving the Nikolais/Louis technique, repertory and legacy through his teaching, performing and directing.
Hope Clarke
Ms. Clarke performed as principal dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, 1960s; actress on stage, film, and television, 1970s-1980s; choreographer and director, 1980s. Clarke served on the Tony Awards Nominating Committee for the 2011-12 Broadway season. Clarke made history in 1995 when she became the first African American, as well as the first African-American woman, to direct and choreograph a major staging of the opera-musical Porgy and Bess. Clarke’s production of the George Gershwin classic was staged in celebration of the work’s 60h anniversary, and it toured not only major American cities but Japan and Europe as well. Clarke drew critical acclaim for her commitment to staging the show as a monument to African-American community and pride, giving a more hopeful, positive aura to a story that has been criticized for its stereotypes. As for the director herself, the success of Porgy and Bess is just the latest accolade in a long career devoted to dance and drama
David Thomson
Mr Thomson, a native New Yorker, has primarily worked as a collaborative performer/creator in the fields of music, dance, theater and performance with such artists as Bebe Miller, Trisha Brown (’87-’93), Susan Rethorst, Remy Charlip, Grisha Coleman|Hot Mouth, Ralph Lemon (’99-’10), Sekou Sundiata, Tracie Morris, Meg Stuart, Dean Moss/Layla Ali, Alain Buffard, Marina Abramovic, Yvonne Rainer, David Bowie, and Maria Hassabi among many others. His own work exists among the intersections of movement, text, sound and song. Thomsonís work has been presented and supported by The Kitchen, Danspace Project at St Markís Church, Dance Theater Workshop, Movement Research at Judson Church, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Gibney Dance, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and The Invisible Dog Art Center, PeformanceSpace New York. Thomson is a Bessie award-winning artist for Sustained Achievement (2001), a 2012 USArtist Ford Fellow, a 2013 NYFA Fellow in Choreography, a Yaddo, MacDowell and Rauschenberg Fellow. He holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from SUNY Purchase.
Netta Yerushalmy
Ms. Yerushalmy received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a ‘Grant to Artists’ from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, a Jerome Robbins Bogliasco Fellowship, a NYFA Fellowship, and the Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance at NYU’s Center for Ballet. Her current project, Paramodernities, which will have its world premier August 8th-12th 2018 at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, received the National Dance Project award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Yerushalmy’s works have been presented by venues such as the Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Watermill Center, Danspace Project, New York Live Arts, Suzanne Dellal Center (Tel-Aviv), Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin). Netta works across genres and disciplines: she contributed to artist Josiah McElheny’s project for the Madison Square Park Conservancy, she choreographed a Red Hot Chili Peppers music video, and has collaborated on evenings of theory and performance at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry (Berlin). Her work has been commissioned by repertory companies and universities all around the USA. As a performer, Netta has danced with Doug Varone and Dancers, Pam Tanowitz, Joanna Kotze, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. She grew up in Israel and received her BFA with Honors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.