Red Star / Red Army Chorus and Dance Ensemble
Step off the subway in Brighton Beach or Sheepshead Bay and, without the 10-and-a-half hour flight to Moscow or Odessa, it’s all there — food, clothing and culture — transported from the other side of the ocean and remade on the Brooklyn beach.
My first experience with Russian dance, à la Brooklyn, was in a restaurant on the Brighton Beach Boardwalk, where I was eating, drinking and, as it turned out, taking in a floorshow. The show was replete with floating gowns and shiny trousers, feathered headdresses and barely there costumes, disco pyro-techniques and smooth waltzes.
The dancers, many of who were also professional ballet or ballroom performers, were members of the flourishing Brighton Beach dance community. Ballet, hip hop, ballroom and folk dance can be found throughout this expansive Brooklyn neighborhood in specialized dance schools, community centers and public schools for people of all ages. Recently, Brighton has seen a remarkable number of its students become youth and junior ballroom champions.