DANCE FROM THE HEART
For the seventh year, this two-night, four-performance benefit returns to Chelsea’s own Cedar Lake Theater for a rotating program featuring some of the city’s most diverse dancers and choreographers. Produced by Dancers Responding to AIDS (a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS), the big tent content of “Dance from the Heart” will deliver everything from Broadway and hip-hop to contemporary ballet and modern dance. Among the featured performers and companies: “So You Think You Can Dance” season eight winner Melanie Moore; Peridance Contemporary Dance Company performs an excerpt from Manuel de Falla’s “El Amor Brujo”; New York City Ballet principal dancers Janie Taylor and Jared Angle perform an excerpt of Benjamin Millepied’s “Plainspoken”; hip-hop from Rennie Harris Puremovement (hot off a recent world premiere of “Home” at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater); Paul Taylor Dance Company member Michael Trusnovec performs a solo piece choreographed by Christopher Gillis (a former Paul Taylor dancer who died from AIDS in 1993); and Cecilia Marta — who infuses her performance with “an original style of world jazz, with a distinctive blend of contemporary and ballet infused with nuances of earthy funk and soul.”
Mon., Jan. 23 and Tues., Jan. 24 (at 6:30pm and 8:30pm each night; 8:30pm performance includes a post-performance reception with the cast). At Cedar Lake Theater (547 W. 26th St., btw. 10 & 11 Aves.). Tickets are $30 for the 6:30pm, $75 for the 8:30pm. For reservations and info: 212-840-0770, x229 or dradance.org. Follow Dancers Responding to AIDS at twitter.com/DRA_Dance or at facebook.com/DRAdance.
THE AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION’S FIGHT FOR AIR CLIMB
Making good on that New Year’s resolution to exercise more is one very good reason to participate in the American Lung Association’s 2012 Fight for Air Climb. As a bonus, you’ll also be helping children who suffer from asthma and funding research to cure lung cancer. Individuals and teams will race, run or walk up 40 floors to reach the top of One Penn Plaza. Those who can’t participate in the material world can make the trip as virtual climbers (thereby raising funds for healthy lungs and clean air the modern, online way).
Sat., Jan. 21, at One Penn Plaza (34th St. & 7th Ave.). Check in time is from 9-10am. Registration fee, $25 (no fee for virtual climbers; fundraising minimum, $100). To register, visit lungusa.org. For more info, alany.org.
A BENEFIT CONCERT TO KICK OUT CANCER
Like a polite bouncer who knows how to sweet talk that drunken patron out the front door and into the street where he belongs, the organizers of this event know how to keep things classy and civil — but not at the expense of getting the job done. “We’re Gonna Have to ask You to Leave…(a benefit concert to kick out cancer)” is a benefit concert for the American Cancer Society dedicated to the heroic spirit of those who have conquered the disease, as well as a celebration of those who lost their battle. Among the formidable roster of talent set to take to the swanky Birdland Jazz Club stage: Reeve Carney, Tony Winner Katie Finneran and husband Darren Goldstein, Tony nominee Dylan Baker and wife Becky Ann Baker Tony nominee and Obie winner Kathleen Chalfant, Jay O. Sanders, Obie winner Jonathan Hammond and Karen Walsh. Google them all and be sufficiently impressed — with their achievements as well as the bargain you’re getting on the ticket price.
Mon., Jan. 23, 7pm (doors open at 6pm, with a silent auction and raffle ticket sale for the first hour; brief live auction during the concert). At Birdland Jazz Club (315 W. 44th St., btw. 8th & 9th Aves.). For tickets ($75 premium, $50 general; $10 food/drink minimum), call 212-581-3080 or visit birdlandjazz.com. Also visit the American Cancer Society, at cancer.org. For info on the event, visit kickcancerthebenefit.com.
— BY SCOTT STIFFLER
