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POSTCARDS: Kimberly Giannelli and Melissa Gerstein Provide A Sneak Peek of The iheartdance NYC Performances on April 11
Hello from the beautiful rooftop of the Empire Hotel, overlooking Lincoln Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side! We are getting ready to welcome our audiences on April 11 for the kickoff of iHeartDance NYC, a new initiative to bring live dance performances back to our great city and bring needed relief to the dancers of New York.
We are Kimberly Giannelli and Melissa Gerstein, dancers, dance activists, and two women who want to make a positive change in the world. We heart dance— more than anything— and we have called on our friends and favorite dancers from American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Broadway, Alvin Ailey, the big screen and more to help launch and celebrate this new initiative. Planning anything in the middle of a pandemic isn’t easy, but together with the help of a growing team, we will present 4 live performances for intimate audiences for a chance to get dancers back on stage and reignite the arts in our great city.
A peek behind the scenes…
A masked Robbie Fairchild and Chris Jarosz meet at Manhattan Movement and Arts studio for a happy and overdue reunion. The two former roommates made headlines with their rooftop pandemic dances, as they took to social media to share how they were passing the time of their quarantine together and navigating the uncertainty of the world below through dance. While Robbie has since moved to have more space for his budding flower business (pun intended!), they will take to the roof one more time together a year later, and this time with a live audience—a fitting way to celebrate a year of resilience and a hopeful future ahead.
Over on zoom, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Herman Cornejo, chats with his sister Erica, in Boston, as they prepare to reprise the tango that actually brought them to New York City more than 20 years ago. The piece first premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in an event uniting Argentina and the United States and it is something that is very special to them as siblings, but also represents the start of their lives as dancers in New York City. “That was a very important moment in our lives,” they explain, “and performing it together again overlooking the exact theater where it all began after a year of being away from the stage will mean so much to us.”
In another studio across town, David Fernandez gets the boys of New York City Ballet up to speed, literally, as a new generation of dancers tackles his celebrated Vitruvian Man, originally set on Principal dancers Ask LaCour and Amar Ramasar, while the newly crowned American Ballet Theatre principal ballerina Skylar Brandt works with her coaches Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky on the fine details of the delicate swan port de bras and getting ready to dance one of the most celebrated female variations, Dying Swan.
And the ultimate closer? Broadway dancer Jess LeProtto used this last year away from the stage to dig deep into the archives and revisited a solo he started to choreograph in 2010 but got sidetracked from steady work in Newsies, On The Town, Cats, Hello Dolly and Carousel. Now finished and making its stage debut with us this weekend, the piece, set to the iconic “That’s Life,” made famous by Sinatra and covered by Michael Bublé, will echo and resonate with us, that despite the ups and downs in life, one shouldn't give up but keep positive, because soon one will be "back on top!”
And the ultimate closer? Broadway dancer Jess LeProtto used this last year away from the stage to dig deep into the archives and revisited a solo he started to choreograph in 2010 but got sidetracked from steady work in Newsies, On The Town, Cats, Hello Dolly and Carousel. Now finished and making its stage debut with us this weekend, the piece, set to the iconic “That’s Life,” made famous by Sinatra and covered by Michael Bublé, will echo and resonate with us, that despite the ups and downs in life, one shouldn't give up but keep positive, because soon one will be "back on top!”
Working alone together has been our 2020 new normal, but the stage is being built, the marley being laid and the tickets selling. We won’t be dancing alone much longer, and we can almost hear the applause roaring through the open air of the rooftop. Showtimes on April 11 are 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm and tickets start at just $50 and include unlimited brunch and cocktails too! For tickets and the full line up of artists, visit us at https://www.iheartdancenyc.com.
All proceeds will benefit the iheartdance NYC fund, where dancers will be able to apply for immediate financial relief while they wait in the wings for the curtain to rise again.
See you at the show!
