New York dancers come together for the 7th Annual Dance Against Cancer plus special all-male event

The American Cancer Society – Our Mission is to Save Lives, Celebrate Lives and Lead the Fight for a World Without Cancer! – is staging its 7th Annual Dance Against Cancer.

Erin Fogarty Bittner, who is the Programming Director at Manhattan Youth Ballet, and Daniel Ulbricht, Principal Dancer at New York City Ballet, who have both lost parents to the disease, founded Dance Against Cancer seven years ago. Last year their efforts raised $277,000, and even more is anticipated this year. An important contribution.

On Monday 8 May 2017 at the AXA Equitable Center, dancers from New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and others, will perform in an exceptional gala. Cocktails, a charity auction, “and much more”, will also make up the evening.

The arts community is outstandingly supportive of such initiatives, and no more so than the dance world. Giving their time and talent will be Ashley Bouder, Megan Fairchild, Maria Kowroski, Jared Angle, Harrison Coll, Amar Ramasar, Taylor Stanley and Daniel Ulbricht himself, who will represent the New York City Ballet; Stella Abrera, Gillian Murphy, Cassandra Trenary, Gabe Stone Shayer and James Whiteside are the American Ballet Theatre contingent; Matthew Rushing from the Alvin Ailey, Arielle Friedman and Gabriel Gaffney Smith from Ballet Met, and dancers from the Dance Theater of Harlem, will complete the line-up.

Tickets are officially sold out, though maybe something might be available last minute, however donations are always welcome. However, another exceptional and exclusive event will take place in the autumn at the Upper West Side town home of Adriana and Arielle Friedman and will be underwritten by Adriana Friedman and Jeffrey Benenson. A $500 donation to the American Cancer Society will let 25 lucky (and generous) people attend a reception with… wait for it… Jared Angle, Tyler Angle, Jeffrey Cirio, Herman Cornejo, Adrian Daching-Waring, Joaquin DeLuz, Robert Fairchild, Chase Finlay, Gonzalo Garcia, Marcelo Gomes, David Hallberg, Anthony Huxley, Russell Janzen, Ask La Cour Rasmussen, Amar Ramasar, Taylor Stanley, Cory Stearns, Daniel Ulbricht, Andrew Veyette, and James Whiteside. That's almost all the ABT and City Ballet male Principal dancers.

The American Cancer Society is the largest private, not-for-profit funder of cancer research in the United States, and has invested more than $4 billion since 1946. Thanks, in part, to its contributions, more than 1.5 million lives have been saved in the US in the past two decades… a reason to celebrate.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.