Category: Theater & Dance

  • Kaitlyn Hardy Wiltshire and Maycee Steele’s Cuff It Challenge Spotlights their Impressive Talent & Gusto

    By Ramona Prioleau

    In their FIYAH TikTok video that launched the Cuff It Challenge; Kaitlyn Hardy Wiltshire and Maycee Steele’s impressive talent and gusto leap off the mobile screen. The duo has danced since they were children and met while they were dancers at the Pulse on Tour Dance Convention.

    Fast friends, Kaitlyn and Maycee often collaborate, and they were inspired to create the Cuff It challenge while getting ready for a night out in the City of Angels.

    Their TikTok dance includes two moves that are repeated to Queen B’s single, Cuff It. The video has garnered millions of views and has audiences, including celebrities, body rolling and lateral body rocking in a crouch.

    @maycsteele @ogpartyhardy26 ♬ CUFF IT – Beyoncé

    MOSAEC caught up with Kaitlyn for a wide-ranging conversation about her flourishing career as well as creating the Cuff It challenge with Maycee.

    A graduate of the University of California, Riverside with a degree in Linguistic with a concentration in Speech-Language Pathology and a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Kaitlyn can just as easily translate for a world leader in Mandarin at the United Nations as she can flawlessly perform an intricate dance performance.  Based in Los Angeles, Kaitlyn has appeared in film and television and has worked with artists such as Lil Nas X, Doechii, Jennifer Hudson, Doug E Fresh and recently performed in the BET Awards.

    MOSAEC: How did you and Maycee meet?

    Kaitlyn: Maycee and I met at a dance convention called the Pulse on Tour at the age of eleven.

    MOSAEC: When you met Maycee, how did you know that the two of you had dance chemistry? Do you two share a love and appreciation for similar dance styles? Or do y’all just have fun together?

    Kaitlyn: Because we met at a dance convention, we both knew that we had a love for dance. As far as our friendship chemistry, that was instant. We were inseparable throughout our adolescent years even though Maycee lived in Kansas, and I lived in New York.

    We are both very passionate about all styles of dance. When we are together, we like to have fun and be kids again!

    MOSAEC: What inspires your choreography generally? What inspired the choreography for the Cuff It challenge? Was it something particular in the lyrics?

    Kaitlyn: Generally, my choreography is inspired by the 2000s era of music.

    The Cuff It challenge was made on a whim. I was getting ready for a party and Maycee was watching me get ready. We had just listened to the whole Beyoncé album and continued to focus on Cuff It for some reason. We played Cuff It six times and decided to make a TikTok dance.

    MOSAEC: The Cuff It challenge has struck a chord with audiences everywhere, what is it about that video, the choreography, the chemistry, the “dance narrative,” etc., that you think audiences are responding to?

    Kaitlyn: I think people see themselves in Maycee and me through the challenge. Being with your best friend, getting ready for a party, and pregaming are the perfect ingredients for a good time. Overall, I think through the TikTok video audiences can see our genuine friendship and love for one another.

    MOSAEC: What motivated you to start the Cuff It challenge? Tell me more about how the choreography, staging/setting, framing, lighting, costuming, & performance came together for the Cuff It video.

    Kaitlyn: The motivation behind it was that we wanted to do something fun. We had no intention of it going viral which is why there really is no staging lighting or costuming, I’m in my pajamas and Maycee is in her workout attire.

    MOSAEC: In what dance genre is the Cuff It dance?

    Kaitlyn: I think the Cuff It dance is a modern mix. There are two general moves repeated that you can do literally anywhere.

    MOSAEC: Can someone with two left feet and limited technique add the Cuff It dance to their personal repertoire :-)?

    Kaitlyn: Absolutely! I feel like anybody could learn the Cuff It dance because it is such a community-based dance. Since it looks fun, I think it makes people more intrigued to learn the dance.

    MOSAEC: As a professional dancer, how meaningful has it been (1) for your creation to go viral and (2) to see other celebrities and choreographers joining in on the challenge and crediting your work?

    Kaitlyn: I think it is very meaningful that our dance has gone viral Maycee and I were just being ourselves…besties having fun creating a Tik Tok video.

    To see celebrities and choreographers joining in on the challenge and crediting our work is AMAZING. As a professional dancer, you hope that people will see you as a dancer, see your choreography and credit you for what you have created.

    @maycsteele The cuff it challenge tutorial you all have been asking for!!! @ogpartyhardy26 #cuffit #cuffitchallenge ♬ CUFF IT – Beyoncé

    MOSAEC: A dance performance can elicit a range of emotions from the viewing audience, in thinking about your approach to choreography, how central is it that you convey a particular message and evoke certain audience reactions by your rhythmic body movements?

    Kaitlyn: I think it’s very important what message you convey throughout the dance. Depending on the piece /choreography, it will elicit certain emotions in people whether that is good or bad.

    MOSAEC: How does costuming and hair add to your dance expression?

    Kaitlyn: I believe costuming and hair help add a certain persona within the dance expression. For example, when I take a heels class, I make sure my hair and makeup is impeccable. Both add to my overall look for the class and make me feel good while dancing in my heels.

    MOSAEC: What sparked your interest in dance? When did you decide you wanted to be a choreographer as well as a dancer & why?

    Kaitlyn: I became interested in dance at the age of five when my mom took me to an audition at the Dance theater of Harlem. I was selected to attend and remained in the program for two years. My interest continued as I progressed in my training at Alvin Ailey, for 7 years. While a student at Alvin Ailey, I started to attend the Pulse on Tour Dance Convention, which took my training and dance skills to a level beyond my imagination. I decided I wanted to expand into the realm of choreography/creating at the age of sixteen. I became interested in choreographing/creating because I wanted to see my friends hit some of my dance steps to be honest.

    MOSAEC: As a child, when did you begin dancing, how important was it to your early childhood development?

    Kaitlyn: I began dancing when I was two and half years of age at Garden City Dance Studio. It was very important to my early childhood development because dance was one of my main hobbies along with playing tennis. It has shaped me not only to be the dancer that I am but the person that I’ve grown to love.

    MOSAEC: When did you know you would pursue it as a career?

    Kaitlyn: I knew I would pursue dance as a career when I had to make the choice between tennis and dance at the age 0f 10, to fulfill my early childhood goal of being an NBA dancer which was achieved through the Philadelphia 76ers.

    MOSAEC: You have been trained in a variety of dance genres, what is your favorite and why?

    Kaitlyn: My favorite dance genre would probably be hip-hop because aside from being girlie girl, an AKA and in a sorority and having the poise of such a young woman, hip hop helps me unlock and tap into an alter ego, which is grungier and more grounded with a little more umph so to speak.

    MOSAEC: How does the hip hop genre express your true nature?

    Kaitlyn: It encapsulates my entire personality as a whole because while I am a poised sorority woman that’s held to a high standard, but I am also from New York and my parents are from Brooklyn, so I have a certain type of edge that I can tap into when I dance hip-hop.

    MOSAEC: As a college-educated, Mandarin-speaking sorority girl, do you put extra pressure on yourself to fully immerse yourself into the hip hop side of your persona when auditioning or performing?

    Kaitlyn: It all depends on what the audition or performance is calling for. Since I am more of a girly girl when it comes to presenting myself in my sorority, my Jack and Jill sisters and brothers and the corporate world; I have to put extra emphasis on my hip-hop background when I dance. This is where the baggy clothes come into play and the fitted hats.

    MOSAEC: Does your diverse background and educational experience impact your dance expression? If so, how?

    Kaitlyn: I feel like my diverse background and education experience does not impact my dance expression, but it does impact my dance experience in the industry. Having knowledge educationally I can represent myself in the industry by putting my best foot forward; and knowing how to navigate through contracts, people, and events.

    MOSAEC: Describe your choreography process: Do you hear music and decide which movements will match the music? Or do you sketch your choreography moves and find music to match it?

    Kaitlyn: I do not sketch out my choreography. I usually listen to a song for a couple of days and see what part of the song I like and how I would interpret it in the best way visually.

    MOSAEC: Which do you prefer and why – performance before a live audience or a recorded performance?

    Kaitlyn: I prefer a live audience performance because the energy that the audience gives performers truly amps us up to exceed the expectations. You give energy and audiences feed off it and vice versa.

    MOSAEC: What is a typical day like for a professional dancer/choreographer?

    Kaitlyn: A typical day in the life of a professional dancer includes gym workouts, dance classes and auditions. Most dance classes start at approximately 3 PM and I usually take two classes a day. For days when there are auditions, they can last all day or half of the day.

    MOSAEC: As you pursue your dreams in dance, what keeps you striving to achieve greater success?

    What keeps me striving to achieve greater success is to see how far I can go, in terms of my career. As a child I felt that many of the accomplishments I achieved were so hard to grasp; now that I am in the realm of all this greatness, all my dreams are closer than I think.

    MOSAEC: To whom do you also credit for your success and why?

    Kaitlyn: To name all the people that I owe my success to would be a book. But off the top of my head, I would credit Kelly Peters, Brian Friedman, Dave Scott, Gil Duldulao, Cris Judd, Ian Eastwood, and my parents. These choreographers have helped mold me into the Dancer that I am, and they continue to be in the industry. My parents have sacrificed so much physically and financially, providing a means for me to train with these choreographers, who are not only my dance teachers but my mentors as well.

    (c) MOSAEC

  • Ballerina Misty Copeland’s Power and Grace Speak Through Pages of Inspirational New Book

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  • MAE Timeline

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  • Make an Ordinary Day Extraordinary at Disney On Ice Presents Celebrations!

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  • Two One-Act Plays by Renowned Poet, Sonia Sanchez, Take Center Stage

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  • Legendary Dance Theatre of Harlem’s 40-Year History Traced in Exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

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  • A Raisin in the Sun – First Stop Sundance

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  • The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Restores and Edits Historic Film of George Balanchine and Suzanne Farrell Performing in Balanchine’s Don Quixote

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  • New Babyface/David E. Talbert Musical Set Premiering at Beacon Theater

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  • The Evidence of Things Seen

     

    By Steven G. Fullwood

    One of the most devastating effects of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade was the negation of African healing rituals. Indigenous Africans of various cultures and tribes used a variety of rituals to purge sickness, negativity, stagnation and other ailments that threatened the health of the community.

    In 1985, a young Ronald K. Brown either witnessed or experienced the post-traumatic effects of Slavery: miseducation, crime, poverty, disease and disconnectedness. In response, Brown created Evidence, one of the most culturally relevant dance companies to date. This man understood early on that no one was going to create dances for or about him, his family or his community.

    By demonstrating rituals and other Africanisms morphed into other forms, Evidence plays a rather indispensable role in challenging the notion that Black people lost their healing rituals. Evidence is a powerful agile group of dancers of varying body types and colors that fuse dance forms from the Ivory Coast, Senegal, and the United States. Brown, no less important than Nat Turner, is a thoughtful insurrectionist.

    Evidence is a powerful agile group of dancers of varying body types and colors that fuse dance forms from the Ivory Coast, Senegal, and the United States.

     

    Evidence’s recent performance at the Joyce Theatre showcased three dances that portray the process of healing in the community – Ebony Magazine, Upside Down and Water. Ebony Magazine questions the notion of Black success, invoking the magazine of the same name. The piece starts of slow, the dancers strike poses and use their limbs to jerk, bounce and flaunt their way through “success,” while a singular voice intones “Do You See What I See?” Scored by British composer Wunmi Olaiya, Ebony Magazine showcases Brown’s precise and sensual choreography.Upside Down, the most energetic of the three, flips the script and moves the community toward healing by engaging Black people as the point of reference. Set to the music of the late Nigerian composer Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Nigerian singer Oumou Sangare, Upside Down climaxes in a wonderfully orchestrated circle of dance as the house lights go down. Unlike Ebony Magazine, Upside Down is celebratory. The vitality of a happy Black body becomes undeniably sweet. The pleasure on Brown’s face, as he and the other dancers set it off, lit up the stage.

    The anchor, and perhaps the most elusive of the three dances, is Water set to the music of Philip Hamilton, Fahali Igbo and Sweet Honey and the Rock. Where Ebony Magazine and Upside Down acknowledge the chains and shake loose the shackles, Water is rebirth facilitated by the presence of the Ancestor (played by Trinidadian performance poet Cheryl Boyce Taylor). Wearing white clothing splattered with dried blood, the dancers strip on stage to cleanse themselves while the Ancestor reads poetry aloud. “Death must wait, calling the names of our sons,” she shouts to a whisper, as the village renews itself.

    After the performance, I felt renewed and rejuvenated. Black people are capable of healing, no doubt I’ve seen the Evidence, and I can confidently engage my own and my community’s healing. M

    November 1999

  • Queen of Harlem

    By Elizabeth McMillan

    Can art and commerce co-exist? This has been an ethical question plaguing the arts community for so long. The loss of creative expression in order to please your financial supporters has been the fear for many artists. Visionary Dr. Barbara Ann Teer has transcended this by successfully demonstrating an example of the marriage of business and art by founding the National Black Theatre in 1968.

    Dr. Barbara Ann Teer

    Dr. Barbara Ann Teer
    Established as a cultural and educational institute, Dr. Teer expanded her vision of the NBT by purchasing a city block of property on the major business corridor of 125th Street in Central Harlem after a fire destroyed the original studio. As a result, Dr. Teer’s company is the sponsoring developer for the Real Estate Project that has become the first revenue generating Black Theatre Arts Complex in the country. The business acumen of Dr. Teer has resulted in a fully leased building with such ground floor commercial tenants as The Body Shop, The Uptown Comedy Club and Bravo Supermarkets. By establishing the NBT, she has not only brought a high level of artistic performances and lectures to Harlem, but Dr. Teer is also in the process of transforming a community, revitalizing its citizens and creating a new cultural paradigm for future generations.

    Hailing from East St. Louis, Illinois, Dr. Teer comes from a family of educators and leaders in the field of community development and equal opportunity for those in disadvantaged circumstances. So it’s no surprise that she left a very successful career as a performing artist to dedicate her life to the creation and perpetuation of a black art standard. “You cannot have a theatre without ideology, without a base from which all of the forms must emanate and call it Black, for it will be the same as Western theatre, conventional theatre, safe theatre,” reasoned Dr. Teer in The National Black Theatre: The Sun People of 125th Street.

    Dr. Teer’s dedication to educating youth started as a teacher at Harlem’s Wadleigh Junior High School, continued with the Group Theatre Workshop (foundation for the world renowned Negro Ensemble Company), and on to NBT’s full time pre-school and after-school activities, family productions, innovative workshops, and lectures. She designed “Institute of Action Arts” as a major innovative tourist attraction. This features Three-Dimensional Electronic Hemispheric Theatre Adventure that integrates high technology and spiritual narrative, highlighting the origins of “The Science and Secret of Soul.” Its purpose is to heal and make whole the mental and emotional psyche of African-Americans.

    The 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient, Wole Soyinka said, “Barbara Ann Teer… is a fervent researcher into the communication roots of African societies and their classic performance modes.” Dr. Barbara Ann Teer is a prime example of how the vision, leadership and dedication of one person can inspire thousands of individuals and mobilize a community to reclaim and regain its ability to take care of its own. M

    October 1999

  • Dedicated To His Craft

    By Elizabeth McMillan

    Writer, producer and director, Woodie King, Jr. remains unrivaled in terms of the number of projects he has shepherded to both Broadway and Off-Broadway stages including the critically-acclaimed For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf. As founder and executive director of the New Federal Theater (NFT) at the Henry Street Settlement in New York, King has brought minority playwrights, actors and directors to national attention with hordes of awards to prove it. Twenty-nine years of such accomplishments has made him the mentor to an entire generation of African-American theater professionals. Because of his passion and dedication, King has carved an indelible mark as one of the most significant figures in the history of Black Theater.

    MOSAEC talked with King about his passion and dedication to his art.

     

    Woodie King
    Courtesy Woodie King
     Woodie King, Jr.
     

    BackTalk Click Here
    		How did you become interested in the theater?

    In the mid-50s, Sidney Poitier was nominated for an Academy Award for a film called The Defiant Ones. I loved the movie. I saw it two or three times. So I read his background then began going around to small theaters in Detroit looking to study and for work. After graduating drama school, I eventually got work as an actor then went on to start a theater company called Concept East in Detroit.

     
    Was this the time when Black Theater was starting to flourish?

    Not in 1956 or 57 there was no Black Theater. If you were in a play, you were in a white play. Or it was a Black cast doing a white play in the local communities. But there were very few plays written by Blacks for Blacks especially in Detroit. It didn’t start to flourish until the early to mid-60s.

    Compare the influence of Black Theater in the 1960s and now.

    Theater in the mid-60s came at the ascendancy of the Civil Rights Movement. So many artists took on the plight of Black people because of that. There was nothing else to do but to be a part of it or not at all. Black consciousness was at its height for the first time in the country and Black Theater was a part of that.

    Today, Black Theater is based on individual artists that break through the system like August Wilson, George C. Wolfe, Amira Baraka, or Ron Milsner. These are writers whose work relates to Whites as well as to anyone who is interested in good theater.

    So what motivated you to start the New Federal Theater?

    We wanted to create a theater for people who had not had a voice. My original theater company had a hit play in Detroit that toured. When it ended up in New York, I had the opportunity to present it at the St. Marks Church in the Bowery. After encouragement from Bertham Peck [Henry Street Settlement’s executive director], I started the New Federal Theater in 1970 nine or ten years after I moved to New York.

    How essential has community outreach been to New Federal Theater?

    It has to be a part of what we’re about. Every summer we do a seven or eight weeks program with young people placing them in professional theaters as interns. This way they can become familiarized with the happenings in theater around the New York. Even if they do not study theater in college, we hope they will support theater and their ethnic heritage.

    How does it feel to be one of the few Black Theaters to have survived since the Black Theater Movement?

    Being a part of it I know I’m not the only one. I don’t feel like a survivor. I feel the weight of the struggle. Since we’re all going through the same struggle and need, we communicate and share ideas. It’s about loving Black people and wanting to recreate positive images on the stage.

    What is the future of Black Theater?

    Black Theater will always exist whether there’s no funding at all. It’ll exist in churches, community centers, and Black universities. As long as there’s Black people there will be Black Theater. M

    August 1999