{"id":257,"date":"2009-05-12T07:23:24","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T07:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=257"},"modified":"2009-05-12T07:23:24","modified_gmt":"2009-05-12T07:23:24","slug":"dance_3_looks_10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2009\/05\/dance_3_looks_10\/","title":{"rendered":"Dance: 3, Looks: 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

After recently writing<\/a> about Alvin Ailey’s Extension program (dance classes for “real people”), I decided try it out last weekend. It didn’t hurt that Sunday was a beautiful day, but the scene around the building was quite lovely and inviting. <\/p>\n

\"Ailey1.jpg\"<\/span>There were attractive actual dancers (not that “real people” can’t be attractive, too…) hanging out on the steps outside, and the ground-floor studio is all-windows so passersby can see what’s going on inside (ahem<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Ailey2.jpg\"<\/span>That said, I’m glad my class was on the sixth floor; no need to use Real People Zumba to advertise your company to the city-at-large. Showing them little ballerinas-in-training is much better PR strategy. There was also good signage out front, so if the ballerina cuteness did catch your eye, you’d know you too could take classes there. <\/p>\n

\"Ailey3.jpg\"<\/span>The sixth floor studio space was airy, open and had a great view. The class was packed, and they took attendance like a real dance class not for real people. There were some not so real-looking real people waiting for a ballet class after the Zumba class, so I suspect there are different ability-level classes offered. <\/p>\n

\"Ailey4.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a gift shop with Ailey work-out clothes, big screens advertising new classes and upcoming performances, and about 6 warm and welcoming staff members manning the lobby. When I went down to the locker room in the basement to shower and change after class, there was a student performance going on, and parents and siblings were standing outside the theater all dressed up with bouquets in hand. <\/p>\n

I’ve seen Alvin Ailey performances at other venues but never at their space. My only complaint is that, when I went to their website<\/a> yesterday to figure out what I should go see there, I couldn’t figure out if the company actually performs at the 55th street location or if that’s just for classes and student performances. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After recently writing about Alvin Ailey’s Extension program (dance classes for “real people”), I decided try it out last weekend. It didn’t hurt that Sunday was a beautiful day, but the scene around the building was quite lovely and inviting. There were attractive actual dancers (not that “real people” can’t be attractive, too…) hanging out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}