Dancing in the streets

On Thanksgiving weekend, I found dance in this year’s edition of the classic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. One day later, dance found me when I almost collided with a prominent figure in the dance world at the corner of Prince Street and Broadway in SoHo.

The Macy’s Parade is a famous symbol of the start of the holiday season. It features many forms of dance, including a performance in front of Macy’s by the iconic Rockettes, about whom I wrote my last column.

This year’s 83rd edition debuted a new route—a new type of choreography, if you will. The parade started at Central Park West at 77th Street, and made its way as a monolith down to Columbus Circle at Central Park South. It next turned down Seventh Avenue, then Sixth, and finally, after passing Macy’s at Herald Square, it arrived at its final destination of Seventh Avenue at 34th Street.

Let’s consider the parade by the numbers—there were about 1,500 dancers, cheerleaders, singers, and performers, 15 high-flying character balloons, 24 floats, 10 marching bands, and various celebrity performers, most of whom traveled on floats that had little or nothing to do with their own personas. Keke Palmer performed this year, artfully pulling off a tight, hip-hop, energetic dance on a shaky float, with a 4x4 dance floor to share with her two male back-up dancers.

The high school marching bands took pride in representing their states. They featured endless incarnations of baton-twirling ladies, and, if memory serves, the band that played “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” showcased one student doing a lyrical dance, sans baton, that included a quick-change behind one of the big brass players.

The performance of a marching band is sort of an elaborate dance. From my extremely limited experience as a member of my middle school band, I remember that marching band players are instructed very carefully on their comportment, as well as in how to step with the heel first in order to walk smoothly without interrupting the quality of the music. Plus, choreography often produces stimulating visuals from a bird’s-eye view—especially at the annual Macy’s parade, where the band can play for the camera.

And then there was my fleeting encounter with a legend. As I opened the door to Dean and Deluca, I moved aside to hold the door for a towering man in an army camouflage jacket. My mom lingered to watch the man leave and cross the street as I made my way into the store. Another woman also noticed him, and they confirmed each other’s curiosity—the camo-clad figure was Geoffrey Holder, an iconic dancer discovered by Agnes de Mille.

Born on the island of Trinidad in 1930, Holder is known for his 6-foot-6-inch frame and resoundingly deep voice. He has performed with many troupes, most notably perhaps as a principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York City in the mid-’50s. Holder directed the 1975 Broadway production of “The Wiz” to critical acclaim, and has choreographed pieces for Alvin Ailey and other companies. I got nostalgic upon learning from my mom that Holder had played Punjab—an endlessly intriguing medicine man and perpetual savior—in 1982’s “Annie,” a movie I fear many Columbia students only know as being the musical from the hook in Jay-Z’s song “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)”.

Writing this column has conditioned me to look for dance in unexpected places. Sometimes it’s obvious—you’re guaranteed to see ballet if you go to a performance of “Swan Lake” at the American Ballet Theatre. But other times it’s unconventional. I found an intimate duet between two frogs at the American Museum of Natural History, and a veritable b-boy circle among a bunch of kids banging out their own beats in a subway car. This past weekend, I got a crash course on an eclectic and fascinating figure in the dance world. Oh, and did the Macy’s Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade dance down Seventh Avenue? You know what I think.

Mollie Lobl is a Barnard College junior majoring in anthropology. West Side Dance Story runs alternate Fridays.
arts@columbiaspectator.com