SPELL#7 by Ntozake Shange

The Public Theatre – New York Shakespeare Festival

Photography by Martha Swope

SPELL #7
By Ntozake Shange.
Mary Alice, Avery Brooks, Dyane Harvey-Salaam, Laurie Carlos, Reyno, LaTanya Richardson, Larry Marshall, Ellis “Skeeter” Williams, and Beth Shorter.
Directed by Oz Scott and choreographed by Dianne McIntyre, with original music by David Murray and Butch Morris.

Avery Brooks, and Dyane Harvey-Salaam

This striking choreopoem by the author of For Colored Girls … is set in St. Louis in a bar frequented by Black artists and musicians. It is another meditation on the irony of being Black in a White world. The artists bare their souls in soliloquies, many of them illustrated by in the mood dances.

“She was Director of the Dance Department at Stephen’s College during the mandatory Summer Dance Institute, offering eclectic programming and unusual dance exposure. As a professor at both Princeton and Hofstra Universities, she also choreographs and has introduced two courses, one a Pilates Lab which supports the physical and mental connections that people (and specifically dancers) need to be reinforced to handle daily challenges; and the other, “The American Experience and Africanist Dance Practices” which examines the contribution of Africanist movement principles to American culture with overwhelming student popularity. In both of these institutions she has served beyond the call of duty, often serving as the faculty advisor to students on independent study projects, junior and senior practicums, as well as providing dance-theatre experiences outside of the institution, which in some instances have led some to their ideal career choices and professions.

Dyane’s studies of the Pilates system of exercise began in the early 1970s with Judith Covan-Newfeld as therapy for a knee injury. As the healing ensued, Dyane realized the true value of this system and began teaching what she learned to friends and colleagues. In 2000 she earned her teaching certification from Romana Krysanowska, of the Pilates Institute. One of the most enjoyable aspects of her life is the sharing of this wonderful storehouse of knowledge through community classes as well as private apparatus sessions under her creation, “Ma’at Pilates”, a Pilates system designed for injury prevention, strength and flexibility maintenance for the dancer, non-dancer and serious athlete.

Harvey earned the Dance for Life Award (from Better Family Life, a cultural, financial, and social empowerment organization based in St. Louis, Missouri), the AUDELCO Award for best actress in a musical (Dunbar) and choreography (The Great Men of Gospel), the Monarch Merit Award, The Ira Aldridge Black Theatre Award for contributions to the theatre community, the Goddesses and Gurus Award, and “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” an award given by the Hempstead African American Museum.”