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BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn Announces Celebrate Brooklyn! Bridge Dance Party Series at Brooklyn Bridge Park

BRIC ARTS | MEDIA | BKLYN ANNOUNCES CELEBRATE BROOKLYN! BRIDGE DANCE PARTY SERIES AT BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK

THREE SPRING NIGHTS FEATURING DANCE BANDS AND DJS IN STUNNING WATERFRONT LOCALE

BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, producer of the long-running Celebrate Brooklyn! Performing Arts Festival at the Prospect Park Bandshell, is launching a new Celebrate Brooklyn! series of free dance party concerts at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The performances, held on three consecutive Thursday evenings in May, will offer an extraordinary lineup of bands and DJs, a great lawn with sweeping views of the city, dance lessons, free valet bike parking and more. The events will begin at 7:00 P.M. Pier 1 can be entered at the foot of Old Fulton Street at the waterfront.

In addition to being noteworthy in its own right, the Celebrate Brooklyn! Bridge Dance Party series will serve as a “bridge” to Celebrate Brooklyn’s 33rd season at the Prospect Park Bandshell. Some performers will appear in both line-ups. Furthermore, the full summer schedule for Celebrate Brooklyn! at the Prospect Park Bandshell will be announced at the May 12 Brooklyn Bridge Park event.

The concerts include:

Maceo Parker and DJ Spinna
Funk Dance Party!
Thursday, May 12, 7:00 P.M.

One of the original architects of funk, Maceo Parker has contributed his gritty sax lines to some of the most memorable party music in history. Among his countless and widely varied collaborations are stints with James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, and Prince, whose surprise appearance at Maceo’s Celebrate Brooklyn show in 2006 is legendary. The acclaimed Brooklyn-based DJ and producer DJ Spinna plays everything from old school funk to futuristic electro, and has worked with a similarly noteworthy array of talents, including Guru of Gangstarr and Mos Def.

La Excelencia and Que Bajo?! Featuring Uproot Andy and Geko Jones
Tropical Dance Party!
Thursday, May 19, 7:00 P.M.

The salsa dura (hard salsa) big band La Excelencia is a distinctly 21st century heir to the legendary sound of Fania Records in the `60s and `70s. The New York Times recently acclaimed the group’s “unstoppable dance music that merges hectic percussion, screaming horns and impassioned singers.” Through New York City’s popular party Que Bajo?!, notable DJs serve up a pan-American, transatlantic, equatorial soundclash. In this iteration, DJ Uproot Andy & Gekko Jones will spin Afro-Latin and electronic grooves. A free salsa dance lesson by Jose Rivera of Salsa Salsa Dance Studio will get the party started.

Red Baraat and DJ Rekha
Bhangra Dance Party!
Thursday, May 26, 7:00 P.M.

DJ Rekha has been a pioneering force, bringing a modern-traditional blend of South Asian bhangra music to the North American club scene. The founder of Basement Bhangra and Bollywood Disco, Rekha has proven equally adept with large, outdoor audiences. Here she shares the bill with Red Baraat, which has its own take on bhangra: In originals and Bollywood favorites, the dholi Sunny Jain and his crack band blend the music’s infectious North Indian rhythm with brass funk. A free Bhangra lesson by dance instructor Gobind Singh will kick-off the evening.

Presented in partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Park, Celebrate Brooklyn! Bridge Dance Party advances BRIC’s mission of providing high-quality free or low-cost programming that is reflective of Brooklyn’s diverse communities, and offers artists important platforms on which to reach new Brooklyn audiences.

Leslie Schultz, BRIC’s Executive Director, explained, “Eleven years ago, BRIC presented a Celebrate Brooklyn! Pier Dance Party series at Fulton Ferry Landing, to help bring attention to the great potential for a waterfront park in Brooklyn. It is very fitting and exciting to launch a new series of dance parties to celebrate realization of the vision for that Park. We are also thrilled to provide a link between Brooklyn’s two magnificent parks, by offering Celebrate Brooklyn! programming at both Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Festival’s long-time home at the Prospect Park Bandshell.”

Jack Walsh, BRIC’s Director of Performing Arts Programs & Executive Producer of the Celebrate Brooklyn! Performing Arts Festival, said, “All of us at BRIC are excited about this new program and fantastic location. The performers and DJs are prime examples of the diverse, world-class programming Celebrate Brooklyn! is known for, and each is a treasure that exemplifies a particular genre. They all put on a great live show and lay down irresistible dance grooves.”

“Brooklyn Bridge Park is thrilled to welcome Celebrate Brooklyn to Pier 1. BRIC has its finger on the cultural pulse of Brooklyn and the Dance Party series promises to bring their distinctive and vibrant stamp to one of the city’s most beautiful settings,” said Regina Myer, President of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The Celebrate Brooklyn! Bridge Dance Party series is presented by BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn in partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Park. Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Community Partner is Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. Radio Sponsors include WNYC/New York Public Radio, WFUV, and WBGO/Jazz 88. Free bike valet parking provided by Transportation Alternatives.

About BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn

BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn is a multidisciplinary arts and media non‐profit dedicated to presenting contemporary art, performing arts and community media programs that are reflective of Brooklyn’s diverse communities, and to providing resources and platforms to support the creative process. All of BRIC’s offerings are free or low cost, to enhance the public’s access to and understanding of arts and media. Each year, upwards of a million people in Brooklyn and citywide are served through BRIC’s programs.

BRIC’s performing arts programs present emerging and established artists in music, dance, theater and multidisciplinary performance to broad audiences from Brooklyn and New York City, and support the development of new work. BRIC’s flagship performing arts program is the Celebrate Brooklyn! Performing Arts Festival, one of New York City's longest running, free, outdoor performing arts festivals. Launched by BRIC in 1979 as a catalyst for a Brooklyn performing arts scene and to bring people back into Prospect Park after years of neglect, Celebrate Brooklyn! was an early anchor in the park's revitalization and has become one of the city's foremost summer cultural attractions. Over its history, over 2,000 artists and ensembles reflective of the borough's diversity, ranging from internationally acclaimed performers to emerging, cutting‐edge artists, have been presented at Celebrate Brooklyn!.

About Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, known as Brooklyn Bridge Park, is the not-for-profit entity responsible for the planning, construction, maintenance and operation of Brooklyn Bridge Park, an 85-acre sustainable waterfront park stretching 1.3 miles along Brooklyn’s East River shoreline. The park was designed by the award-winning firm of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. More information is available on the park’s website: www.brooklynbridgeparknyc.org

For more information, please visit www.bricartsmedia.org.

BRIC/Celebrate Brooklyn Press Contact: Blake Zidell at Blake Zidell & Associates, 718.643.9052 or blake@blakezidell.com

Brooklyn Bridge Park Press Contact: Ellen Ryan 718-222-9216 or eryan@bbpnyc.org

Download a PDF of the press release here.

Check out the event listing here.