Lucy Gellman Photo
“I know we have some competition,” Kellie Ann Lynch half-laughed, gesturing to a swelling union rally just across the lower Green. Over her small but steady voice, chants carried from City Hall to the small Temple Street stage on which she stood.
“But we’re going to do the best we can,” she continued.
Behind her, members of the Elm City Dance Collective ran onto the stage, sporting their uniform of thick, wide goggles, black leggings, and plaid shirts tied at the waist. Classical music came crackling over the speakers. And they were off.
Lynch’s comments marked another act in the first annual Dancing in the Streets Festival, a collaboration among the New Haven Ballet, NeighborWorks America’s National NeighborWorks Week, and Mayor Toni Harp, city arts czar Andy Wolf, and the Board of Alders to celebrate local dance companies on one stage. Despite stiff competition from the union rally across the street, the free Thursday evening festival brought in a small but faithful audience, community members clapping and swaying to and fro as they watched dancers take the stage.
“Thank you for coming to our first dancing in the streets,” Wolf said. “This is such a beautiful setting, and it wouldn’t be the same in any other setting in the world.” Sweat glistening from his forehead after an impromptu salsa lesson.
Fêting the local dance groups precisely for their local-ness was the name of the game. Starting at 5 p.m., troupes ranging from the Ballet to Alisa’s House of Salsa converged on the space between Chapel and Elm Streets, turning it into a makeshift theater.
The dancing continued with free Capoiera lessons, some Irish flair grace à Lenihan School of Irish Dance, many of the students just back from National Championships in Montreal …
… new contemporary pieces from the Elm City Dance Collective, including one with a hip hop angle that had the dancers — and the audience — hot and bothered in the best of ways …
… performances and dance lessons from New Haven School of African Drum and Dance …
… an unexpected but welcome appearance of a different kind of cheerleading team …
… and some salsa, merengue and bachata lessons from Alisa’s House of Salsa that had the whole street shaking its hips in one great, swishing motion.
As the evening wound down, head organizer and New Haven Ballet Artistic Director Lisa Sanborn took the stage. She smiled, looking out into the small crowd that had gathered to dance.
“Wasn’t that fun?” she asked.
