New dance at Thelma Hill, a Brooklyn gem
The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center is one of the most undervalued performance organizations in the city.
For 36 years the organization has produced dance and writing by emerging and established artists of color, adding a particular focus on LGBT in recent years. Far from creating a ghettoized art, Thelma Hill has been an early and ongoing presenter of many of today’s most notable choreographers this season, including: Sidra Bell, Francesca Harper and George Faison, as well as Kyle Abraham, who will re-visit his Paradise Garage later this year.
With Long Island University’s lovely Kumble theatre as its home, Junior’s restaurant across the street, and performances by top, fresh, both up-and-coming, and established choreographers, the theater should be packed. But on June 19 it wasn’t, a loss for anyone who follows dance.
Thelma Hill concerts are often “first looks,” a chance for artists to present and refine new works. The result is often revealing and sometimes eye-opening. Billed as “The Dance Sons of Brooklyn,” the Tuesday concert featured three, very different choreographers who entered the field over a fifteen-year span.