Related Features
THE DANCE ENTHUSIAST'S A TO Z: L for Jordan Demetrius LLOYD and Princess LOCKEROO
DANCE NEWS: CUNY Dance Initiative Announces 10th Year of Residency Program and 2023–24 Awarded Artists
IMPRESSIONS: Les 5 Sens X The Intermission
By Catherine Tharin
View Profile |
More From This Author
Published on September 27, 2023
Photo by Samia Pendleton
A Multisensory Experience Within a Party
WHEN: Thursday, September 14, 2023 from 10 PM - 4 AM
WHERE: Boom at The Standard, High Line
WHO: Organizer: Tatiana Desardouin / Passion Fruit Dance Company (Founder of Les 5 Sens)
Curator: Tatiana Desardouin & Nubian Néné / Waack Bazaar (Founder of The Intermission)
Host: Nubian Néné
Dancers/Waackers: Melanie Rei , Stephy Styles, Shari Chéverez and Nyx
Photographer: Lauriane | Videographer: Still1 | Visual Artist: Ivan Cofield
DJs: DJ Sabine Blaizin (Oyasound), Rogue and Steve Oh Traxxx
Musicians: C Boogie (Tap dancer), Klassiq K-man (Keys player) and Shareef Clayton (Trumpet player)
Caterer: Pòtay
Tatiana Desardouin and Passion Fruit Dance Company present street styles and club dances on the stage. The company opened the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)'s Crossing the Line Festival, running through October 13, with their work Trapped.
A second event connected to Passion Fruit’s performance brought street styles, club dance, and house culture back to the club. Desardouin, and Passion Fruit dancer and artist Nubian Néné collaborated to produce Les 5 Sens X The Intermission at Boom at The Standard, High Line, widely known as the Boom Boom Room. This Manhattan penthouse cocktail lounge with floor to ceiling windows, and breathtaking panoramic views, is popular with locals and tourists alike.
Desardouin, Swiss by birth and of Haitian background, developed Les 5 Sens in Geneva to include the performance of dance and music in a convivial atmosphere where drinks and food are served, and where art communities connect. Says the hospitable Desardouin, “The senses are enhanced through the body. The food (sweet, salty & spicy), fragrant sprays for a different smell in the room each hour, the sounds of live music, and the sight of performance and artists creating an experience, appeals to all five senses. I wanted to invite audiences to experience us in our playground, which is the club. It’s about you getting down, you sweating, you moving your shoes.”
Nubian Néné, born in Montreal, also of Haitian heritage, founded The Intermission by Waack Bazaar. As the evening’s co-curator and host, Nubian Néné works with generations of waackers, the more experienced mentoring the newer dancers, with Nubian Néné guiding the journey.
Before the performance commenced, the stately Sabine Blaizin, also Haitian, kept the dance floor packed and lively by DJ’ing Haitian Roots artists, Erol Josue & Jephte Guillaume, and Okai Musik & Sabine Blaizin, as well as spinning Global Soul: house, Afrotech, Afrobeat, and other diasporic tunes. DJs Rogue and Steve Oh Traxxx continued playing a range of music from house to disco to cultural sounds. This evening was a dance party and the partygoers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, were eager for the experience.
Says Desardouin, “Through the lens of black culture, people are invited to discover the street and club dance scene. They are invited to experience us. I wanted to highlight black culture and activists from this community, my dance scene and the people that surround me and constantly inspire me and others! Hip-hop/house culture or African American culture for me is part of that lineage, the lineage of liberation of Black people. Those are cultures of liberation. Haiti is the 1st black nation worldwide to free themselves from slavery in 1804. Haitian people brought a lot, especially to the USA.”
Guests lounged on comfortable white furniture in tucked away spots as Visual Artist, Ivan Cofield painted on an iPad using a digital program called ProCreate. Painting the image of red blossoms hanging from an earring was simultaneously projected on a nearby wall. Elegant black-and-white portraits of dancers and colorful street scenes by photographer Lauriane Ogay, also a Passion Fruit dancer, screened on a blank wall in front of which danced a breaking partygoer. Pòtay provided the flavorful Haitian cuisine originating in West Africa and from the Tainos. The caterer focused on fried street food, “Fritay,” and braised pork, “Griot.”
The sleek, serpentine bar acted as the stage for waacker Tyrone Bevans, aka NYX. DJ Sabine dialed down the music as bearded Calvin Booker, with long Locs bounding to his rhythms, expertly and smoothly tap danced on a portable wooden square with an added drum module that created a ‘crash’ sound when activated. NYX hopped on the bar, kicking over a glass or two with his stylish brown cowboy boots, and made his way along the bar posing, tossing and rolling his arms above his head and around his tall and imposing body. To the cheers of onlookers, the two improvised until charismatic NYX reached the end of the bar.
An hour later, a burlesque-like performance began. Stephy Styles, a competitive breaker, waacker and hip hop dancer, and Shari the Sage, a healer, yoga and reiki teacher, were accompanied by Klassiq on keyboards. The flexible dancers, dressed in sequined pink and purple, slithered on the floor, and danced standing in a well-coordinated, extemporaneous duet. I stayed a while longer, but by the time I left the crowd had thinned. It was a school night! The third and final act featured dancer Melanie Rei and musician Shareef Clayton on trumpet.
