The Manny Cantor Center of the Educational Alliance is getting ready to kick off a series of high quality free events in partnership with Lincoln Center.
Lincoln Center’s Boro-Linc initiative brings cultural programming into local communities throughout New York City. During the next several months, resident organizations such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet and New York Philharmonic will be staging performances and workshops on the Lower East Side.
The family oriented programming will take place at the Manny Cantor Center, 197 East Broadway. Here’s the full schedule:
Sunday, January 31, 2016
2 p.m. – 3 p.m. Pre-performance Art-making Workshop: Drawing on song lyrics and personal experience for inspiration, workshop participants will use fun fabrics and trimmings to create unique freedom flags.
3 p.m. – 4 p.m. Jazz at Lincoln Center: Jazz for Young People-“Let Freedom Swing”: Celebrate the ideals of American democracy through the lens of America’s most democratic art form: jazz. Recommended for ages 6-12.
Sunday, February 28, 2016
2 p.m. – 3 p.m. and 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. New York City Ballet Creative Movement Workshop: Join the artists of New York City Ballet in this exploration of music and movement. NYCB dancers guide children in a ballet warm-up and movement combination, concluding in a lively performance for accompanying family and friends. No prior dance training needed. The 2 p.m. workshop is recommended for ages 4-7 with parents, grandparents and/or caregivers. The 3 p.m. workshop is recommended for ages 8-10 with parents, grandparents and/or caregivers.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
2 p.m. – 3 p.m. Pre-performance Art-making Workshop
3 p.m. – 4 p.m. New York Philharmonic: KALEIDOSCOPE: Join the renowned ensemble of New York Philharmonic Teaching Artists for a fun, interactive concert in an hour of music and musical games. Recommended for ages 6-12.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
2 p.m. – 4 p.m. Metropolitan Opera Guild: Opera in your Neighborhood! Workshop: Explore the magical world of opera including the singing, characters, movement, music, and words, then work together to create a mini-opera about the neighborhood! Recommended for ages 6-12. No music experience necessary.
Sunday, May 15
2 p.m. – 3 p.m. Pre-performance Castanets & Rhythm Workshop with Angélica Negrón: Build and design your own bird castanets and learn to play simple rhythmic patterns to accompany the band at the 3:00 performance!
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Lincoln Center Education: Acopladitos: This Brooklyn-based band blends curious electronic and folk instruments with original songs in Spanish for an interactive musical experience. Recommended for ages 3-6.
January 31-April 1 (Special Exhibition)
Saturday, January 31 at 4 p.m. The Genius of Geoffrey Holder — Opening Community Party: Born and raised in Trinidad, Geoffrey Holder revealed his genius in his long career in dance, theater, film, music, and art. As a choreographer, designer, director, and actor, Geoffrey Holder is well represented in all of the research and circulating collections of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He is honored for his performing career in dance and theater, his Tony Award-winning work as director and costume designer for The Wiz, and contributions to the repertory of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and Dance Theatre of Harlem.
NOTE: The January 31 performance is sold out. Throughout the series all unclaimed tickets will be made available to the wait-list on a first-come-first-served basis 10 minutes before the start of each performance.
Boro-Linc was launched last year in the Bronx, Staten Island and Queens. It’s now been expanded to Manhattan and Brooklyn. As families arrived at the Manny Cantor Center yesterday morning, Educational Alliance President & CEO, Alan van Capelle, and other staff members handed out brochures about the new programming. The Lo-Down caught up with him to talk about the partnership.
Noting that arts and culture have always been part of the Educational Alliance’s mission, van Capelle said his team has been exploring ways to make arts programming more accessible within the community. The historic Lower East Side non-profit was chosen, he said, because it now boasts a “world class performance space,” and because, “we draw a very diverse population coming to our community center.”
“We have a community center,” van Capelle added, “where the well-to-do, the middle class and the low-income people are all walking through the same door every single day and I think that’s attractive to Lincoln Center.” The Educational Alliance’s leader works in the neighborhood but is also raising his family here with Matt Morningstar, his husband. “As a father of two children,” he explained, “Matt and I often find ourselves going to other neighborhoods in New York City, whether it’s the Upper West Side or the Upper East Side to spend time with our kids on a Sunday afternoon doing something artistic. I would much rather get them in a stroller, walk seven blocks to the Manny Cantor Center and see the same top quality performances taking place in my community center with my neighbors around me.”
Click here for more details about the Lincoln Center programming.
