Chanel Brings Daring Moves to New York’s BAAND Together Dance Festival

Drag queens, angels, and prima ballerinas came together on a sweltering evening for the fifth annual BAAND Together Dance Festival at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater in Manhattan on Tuesday night. This year’s event featured the kinds of performances that could only happen in a city as diverse and eclectic as New York: five star-studded, surprising numbers from five of the best dance companies the five boroughs have to offer, open for five nights only (July 29-August 2), all made possible by Chanel.

The event began with a private cocktail party at Tatiana, the Lincoln Center restaurant by chef Kwame Onwuachi. Dance world icons, art benefactors, and Chanel superfans were all in attendance; theatrical producer Sade Lythcott was there, along with art critic Antwaun Sargent and photographer Tyler Mitchell. “I get so emotional whenever I come to see BAAND,” ballet dancer Misty Copeland told W while jello shots were passed around the room. “What they’ve created represents everything that I stand for; everything I’ve fought for throughout my career has been about accessibility and opportunity and meeting people where they are and creating a community environment through this high art form.”

Once the performances began under that famously opulent chandelier, guests were treated to a sampler of classic and inventive dance numbers. Dance Theatre of Harlem kicked off the festival with a fun, jazzy routine that explored American culture set to Nyman String Quartet No. 2 by Robert Garland. Next came the New York City Ballet’s After the Rain (Pas de Deux) by Christopher Wheeldon, a haunting duet of heightened technical skill.

The third performance of the night, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Many Angels by Lar Lubovitch, had spectators gasping at its ethereal beauty (the piece is based on 13th-century theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas’s questions for angels). American Ballet Theatre also presented its potently poetic Midnight Pas de Deux by Susan Jaffe, and Ballet Hispánico closed out the evening with a jaw-dropping number from House of Mad’moiselle by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Ball culture, drama, and symbols of femininity in contemporary Latin American society mixed in an act that truly shook up the night. The dancers wore red bobbed wigs, one blingy leotard, and hit moves that referenced classic ballet meets Voguing.

“I’ve been here [at Lincoln Center] since I was 16 years old,” Copeland continued. “It’s been over 25 years performing in this venue and not seeing it be inclusive or diverse. I never thought in my life I would see this demographic come into a restaurant like Tatiana’s with a Black chef like Kwame. It’s everything I’ve dreamed of and hoped for.” The night melded fashion, culture, and the arts—this city’s speciality.