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Ballet The Nutcracker opens the holiday season
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DECEMBER 7 - 13, 2016 Vol. 3, No. 48 $1.00
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Lauren King
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Dancing Into Christmas The New York City Ballet’s annual season of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker returns
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t’s not the Christmas season until Marie and her Nutcracker Prince explore the Land of Sweets with the Sugar Plum Fairy. Yes, The Nutcracker has returned to Lincoln Center. The New York City Ballet opened its annual season of The Nutcracker on Nov. 25, at the David H. Koch Theatre, and year after year, the classic is still as magical as ever before. George Balanchine’s masterpiece is set to Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky’s glorious score and features choreography by Balanchine, stunning scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, elaborate costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley. Based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s tale, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816), children’s eyes widen at the holiday production, which features the company’s entire roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, including Massapequa ballerina soloist Lauren King, who will perform the Sugar Plum Fairy, Dewdrop and the lead Marzipan Shepherdess during the 2016 production. For King, dancing The Nutcracker is like performing a childhood dream.
“My earliest memory of The Nutcracker was the first Nutcracker that I danced in. Growing up, I trained at the American Theater Dance Workshop, which performed The Nutcracker with Eglevsky Ballet on Long Island,” said King, who auditioned and was cast as an angel. In her career, King has held roles as angel, soldier, Polichinelle, a boy in the party scene, and the lead role, Marie (or Clara). However, her favorite has been the Sugar Plum Fairy. “I love getting to dance on stage with the angels, who are students from the School of American Ballet,” she said. The first time King performed the Sugar Plum Fairy was with dancer Robert Fairchild, who played her Cavalier. In true dancer fashion, first jitters made King nervous, which led her to walk out early for her first entrance with the angels. “For my entrance with Robbie, we had a second where we looked at each other, and as soon as I locked eyes with him I knew it was going to be okay,” she said. The season is short, but it is packed with 49 performances over six weeks. Although she doesn’t take the stage for all of them anymore, King dances
in three to four performances a week. With so many exquisite costumes in a rainbow of colors and dripping with crystals, it’s hard to pick a favorite, but King has one. “My favorite Nutcracker costume is the costume for Dewdrop, the lead dancer in the Waltz of the Flowers,” said King. “The lines of the costume are absolutely beautiful. It’s very fitted and flattering, but also stretchy, so it’s supportive while allowing you to move freely.” If you haven’t seen The Nutcracker yet, put it on your bucket list because this production instills a sense of wonder and magic that is just as good as any Broadway show. “The Nutcracker is just magical. It’s everything you could possibly want for Christmas, with candy, presents, and a big tree,” said King of the show. “It’s a classic and even as an adult, The Nutcracker brings you back to that feeling of being a kid.” The Nutcracker runs through Dec. 31 and tickets are on sale now at www.nycballet.com, in person at the theater box office and by phone at 212-496-0600. The David H. Koch Theater is located at Lincoln Center Plaza at Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street.
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BY JENNIFER FAUCI jfauci@antonmediagroup.com
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LongIslandWeekly.com • December 7 - 13, 2016 • Published By Anton Media Group • 516-747-8282
DINING
Little Havana Comes To Garden City BY DAVE GIL DE RUBIO dgiLderuBio@antonmediagroup.com
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f you’re looking for a pure Latin dining experience, head over to The Cuban, located on 987 Stewart Ave. in Garden City. Owner Willy Martinez plays the vibe up perfectly from the late 1950s Chevrolets parked outside to the wonderfully helpful staff attired in traditional guayabera shirts and white straw fedoras. The Cuban’s claims to making Long Island’s best mojitos have merit once you sip this perfect balance of white rum, soda water, lime juice, mint and sugarcane juice. Appetizer
options immediately transport you to the 42,000-square mile island. Hand-rolled empanadas, bacalaitos (crispy cod cakes) and camarones de coco (coconut crusted shrimp) come highly recommended as does the croqueton, queso cabra, a potato croquet twist that contrasts a crunchy exterior with a hot and flavorful confluence of Serrano ham and gooey goat cheese complemented by Habana sauce (garlic with orange and lime juice). Leave room for El Cubanito, twin slider versions of the traditional Cubano sandwich which, like its larger cousin, is a panini featuring layers of roasted pernil, smoked ham, Swiss cheese and pickles on brioche buns with mustard sauce and yuquita fries on the side with mojo dipping sauce. Seafood lovers will want to wrap their taste buds around pulpo a la parilla, which combines charred baby octopus, baby greens, tomatoes and onions that belies its simple ingredients by way of a masterful presentation. Entrées are equally authentic and range from rabo encendido (slow
Dishes like ropa vieja (left) and salmon rumba (above) are on the menu. braised oxtail) to pollo sofrito and paella Cubana. Purists will revel in the ropa vieja featuring Willy’s special recipe. This crockpot, slowbraised flank steak is the epitome of Latino comfort food thanks to the complement of tomatoes, peppers, onions and green olives served over white rice with a side of maduros (sweet plantains). Equally delicioso
is the pan-seared salmon rumba, a moist dish accented by charred pineapple salsa. Leave room for dessert, which ranges from leche frita (fried milk pudding) and tres leches to two different kinds of flan, coconut and guayava y queso (guava and cheese). It’s enough to transport you to Cuba without ever leaving Nassau County.
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BOOKS
Anne Rice: Out For Blood
Author sinks teeth into adaptations of her work BY DAVE GIL DE RUBIO
angelsopm444@gmail.com | www.angelsopm.com
• Candles • Essential Oils • Soaps • Sage • Crystals • Wind Chimes • Jewelry • Books • Religious Items • Ornaments • Tapestries • Bath Salts • Angels of All Kinds • Suncatchers...and Much, Much More!
Lestat (2006)
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
“I’m eternally grateful to David Geffen above all for the film of Interview with the Vampire. David pulled all the stops out in making that film, hiring Neil Jordan and a great cast. David and Neil were astonishingly faithful to the books, to the characters as I knew them and loved them and to the situations that readers wanted to see on screen. Kirsten Dunst as Claudia was unforgettable. I can’t overstate how grateful I was for what they achieved, and to Tom Cruise (above left) for playing Lestat beautifully and helping to make the character known all over the world.”
“When it comes to the musical I don’t know enough about the world of Broadway to know why the musical wasn’t a success. My readers loved it. Maybe it didn’t have sufficient time to catch on. Musicals have to ‘make it’ very quickly and in one city and in one theater in that city and maybe there simply wasn’t time. I loved the musical. I really did.”
Hugh Panaro playing the lead in the 2006 musical Lestat
Photo courtesy of Focus Features
Feast of All Saints (2001) The Young Messiah (2016)
“The other adaptation of my work which I love is the Showtime mini-series of my non-supernatural novel Feast of All Saints. [I] loved it. And then there’s The Young Messiah (left), just made from my book, Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt. I’m grateful for all this. To read a full feature on Anne Rice, go to page 6A.
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he doyenne of vampire lit, Anne Rice (right) easily wears that crown having been at it since her debut novel Interview With the Vampire (Knopf) was unleashed on the masses in 1976. With the recent release of Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (Knopf), the New Orleans native is 35 novels into a career that’s cultivated a devoted legion of fans, and inspired numerous adaptations of Rice’s work. Here are Rice’s thoughts on some of these projects.
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THE SPORTS DESK
Basketball: The New York Game BY JOE SCOTCHIE
jScotcHie@antonmediagroup.com
Brown, Connie Hawkins, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Nate Archibald, Dean Meminger, Bernard King, Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Kenny Anderson. Long Island greats include Julius Erving, Wally Szczerbiak, Frankie Alagia and Danny Green. As an asphalt city, New York is home to countless playgrounds that spawned these legends. The most famous is Rucker Park in Harlem, which holds an annual summer tournament, one that attracts players and fans from the entire nation. The Rucker tournament also highlights a juxtaposition that once existed in New York basketball. Some Rucker veterans, like Abdul-Jabbar and Erving, had legendary college and professional careers. Others, such as Earl Manigault, Joe Hammond and Pee Wee Kirkland, were known more for their feats on the playground, while falling short in the world of organized ball. The book to read on this phenomenon is Pete Axthelm’s The City Game, which chronicled both the world of the Rucker tournament and the “downtown
game” as played by the 1970 World Champion Knicks. New York has managed to produce both coaches and players of equal magnitude. That helps in playing what is a team game. There is also the socio-economic factor. Basketball, like prizefighting, is a way out for many a young man. Now and into the future, homegrown players are certain to play it straight in the manner of Abdul-Jabbar and Erving, rather than just being known as playground greats.
The James Naismith memorial sculpture in Lawrence, KS.
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his year marks the 125th anniversary of that quintessential American sport, basketball. The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian-born physician who studied such sports as football and soccer in formulating the rules for this new activity. The game found its first popular home in the state of Indiana, where residents would celebrate the end of the harvesting season with tournaments held inside local barns. But the game reached its zenith on the streets of New York. On both the college and professional levels, basketball took off in the boom years of the post-World War II era. New York basketball first made its big splash in 1950, when the City College of New York squad won both the NCAA and the NIT tournaments, a feat never matched before or since. The team featured such New York legends as Floyd Lane, Ed Roman, Irwin Dambrot, Al Roth, Herb Cohen and Norm Mage, all products of the New York City public school system and coached by native New Yorker, Nat Holman. The legend, however, remains tainted by a point-shaving scandal that took place in 1951. Seven years later, a New York City-dominated team coached by another New Yorker, Frank McGuire, led the University of North Carolina to an upset, triple-overtime win over the University of Kansas and its star center, Wilt Chamberlain. That lineup also lives for the ages: Lenny Rosenbluth, Pete Brennan, Tommy Kearns, Joe Quigg and Bob Cunningham. Incredibly enough,
television networks used to burn tapes in those days and so there is no footage of how these gritty New Yorkers managed to stop the dominating Chamberlain. The New York area has produced greats as both coaches and players. Besides Holman and McGuire, other legendary coaches include McGuire’s nephew, Al McGuire (1977 NCAA champion at Marquette University), plus Joe Lapchick (1943 and 1944 NIT champions at St. John’s), Red Auerbach (nine NBA titles for the Boston Celtics), Red Holtzman (1969 and 1973 NBA titles for the New York Knicks), Jim Valvano (1982 NCAA title at North Carolina State), Rick Pitino (1996 NCAA title at the University of Kentucky, 2013 NCCA title at Louisville University) and John Calipari (2012 NCAA title at the University of Kentucky). And now for the players. Again, the list of greats itself sounds like the history of the game: Bob Cousy, Carl Braun, Billy Cunningham, Dolph Schayes, Richie Guerin, Roger
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Be a Hero! Volunteer Today
Would you like to help seniors in your community? The Willing Hearts, Helpful Hands Program Needs You! This is an opportunity for you to make a difference in your community by helping family caregivers of an individual with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias throughout Long Island. Willing Hearts, Helpful Hands is a unique program that helps caregivers keep loved ones in the comfort of their own homes for as long as possible and eases the stress associated with being a caregiver. Volunteers will receive free ongoing training and a monthly $50 living allowance.
To find out how to lend your helpful hands, contact us today. Telephone: (516) 586-1507 ♦ Email: whhh@parkerinstitute.org
*This initiative is supported (in part) by a grant from the New York State Department of Health.
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