July 26, 2022
Times Square, that is.
Lovers of The Dance, as well as people who just love to dance, were in for an early afternoon treat today in midtown. Native New Yorkers and visitors traipsing through the Crossroads around 3 PM couldn’t help but feel the driving rhythm a quartet of drummers was pounding out, or notice a woman with magenta hair and sporting kinky boots while leading a New York Style Mambo class on the Broadway mall. It was the crew from Alvin Ailey Dance Theater appearing as part of Ailey Moves New York and the TSQ Live series presented by Morgan Stanley.
The dancer leading several dozen enthusiastic students, Katherine Jimenez, shared that she’s a homegrown New Yorker whose parents came up from the Dominican Republic. Thanks to her family’s love of dancing, Katherine started working on her moves as a little kid. Long story short, she also loved it and was really good at it. With her family’s support, she found a mentor, developed her talent and hit the road as a young professional who’s never stopped dancing since. Today she led her charges in a medley of Latin tunes and they did their darnedest to mirror her every move, or just move to the groove on their own unique terms. Katherine will be leading another class Thursday night from 6 to 7 PM in Bryant Park, so if you missed her today you’ll have another opportunity then.
As the Mambo class wrapped up, four drummers were getting ready to take the stage with Maguette Camara, another Alvin Ailey Theater legend. Maguette started the students off slowly with a series of simple commands like left, right, up, and down to loosen up and get them to focus on what he was showing them. The drummers were great, pounding out a virtual wall of sound that had everyone, even bystanders who had just paused to check it out, swaying back and forth in time.
Boubacar Diabate, left, and Maguette Camara.
When Maguette’s African Dance class was done he hopped off the stage and joined his students in a spontaneous dance off that was really fun to watch. Here’s a little video of that part of it:
Ailey Moves New York through August 1. Here’s the program.