I found an impressive performance – truly a spectacle – in a place I never expected: a basketball game.
The Brooklynettes, the Brooklyn Nets dance team, have been a pandemic anomaly since February: They perform live at games for nearly 2,000 spectators. It’s not the same as it has ever been before – it’s better. The reduced capacity Barclays Center is more intimate. The ushers treat you like a guest at a dinner party. The players are more sharply focused. And the dancers, whether they are performing their choreographed routines or responding to an exciting setting, are critical to the whole thing.
Back in the day, a Brooklynettes number seemed to have three qualities: speed, strength, and hair. The lines were wide. Were the dancers skillful and meticulous? Absolutely. But at the games, their hard work was masked by the noise and crowds of fans. The reality was that this wasn’t so much a dance team as it was a group of backup dancers for a basketball team.
While the Brooklynettes are still concentrating on hip-hop and street jazz this season, the look is different and more precise. At a recent arena rehearsal, Asha Singh, the Brooklynettes coach and occasional choreographer, slowed the dancers to clean up a routine. “Which angle from the left do we go?” she asked them. “Are we going to the corner? Are we stepping aside? “
Why should a position be held for a millisecond during a sprint of a dance thing? When these six bodies move as one, they pull you in – not just to dance, but into the arena, where their movement creates an invisible line of energy between the players and fans.
Even when they’re not dancing, that vitality remains standing up, hands on hips that look like clippings from Wonder Woman. It sounds strange, but now, for the Brooklynettes, a position held for a millisecond in the sprint of a dance matters because whether you see the effect or not, you feel it.
The Brooklynettes – along with an electroplated drum line and team hype, a male dance crew performing on the opposite stage – are no longer a decorative afterthought. In pre-pandemic days, they would go straight to court; now two Stages were built to create the necessary social distance to fans and players. The dancers – there are now six per game, down from 20 – are everywhere. They stand out in ways they have not done before, even when they have been front and center and doing routines on the pitch during home games.
And although capacity is reduced at the Barclays Center, the numbers for the dance still fluctuate. How many dancers do you know who perform for so many people indoors? (The arena was 10 percent full, roughly 1,700 spectators, and will rise to 30 percent on May 19th.)
“It’s invigorating,” said dancer Liv David, who added for many months during the pandemic. “I only danced in my small apartment so I wouldn’t kick my cats in the face and make the most of it. I almost forgot that feeling – that adrenaline. “
Live indoor dance performances were hard to come by in New York. When this happens, the audience is kept small. The Works & Process series at the Guggenheim Museum started with 50 spectators; When the government mandates changed, the number was increased to 75 and is now 90. In the cavernous drilling hall on Park Avenue Armory, the capacity for “Afterwardsness”, an upcoming production of the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company, is increased 118 be.
During the 2019-2020 NBA season, when the arenas were at full capacity, all 30 teams put on performances with dancing. In addition to the Brooklynettes, 10 other dance teams are now performing live. (The Knicks City Dancers don’t do this. Instead, recordings of past performances are played during the games.)
When the fans got back into the arena, Criscia Long, who oversees the Brooklynettes, Brooklyn Nets Beats Drumline, and Team Hype, was tasked with figuring out how to bring back entertainment.
“We’re in the crowd now – we’re right next to the fans,” said Long. “You can deal with them; During the performances and when the ball is in play, you can feel their energy a little more. It’s so much more connected now than having all of the crowd there. “
A seasoned dancer, Long was previously the captain of the Knicks City Dancers. She also appeared with Lil ‘Kim, who appeared in a series with the Brooklynettes that season. “She really wanted to be a part of the show,” said Long. “She rehearsed with us and you know how difficult it is with Covid protocols, but she wanted to be there. It felt like we were on tour with her. “
That was a special occasion. Even so, Singh said if you take the basketball team with you, the Brooklynettes will come up with a tour-style version of concert performances. That is even clearer now. “Very much tour, minus the artist before,” she said. “Imagine all that crazy dope dancing you would see around the artist: that’s some kind of energy we’d love to put into the arena.”
In the past, the Brooklynettes sometimes shared the pitch with team hype for combined routines. Now, however, the two groups are performing on stages on opposite sides of the arena. During the games they play off each other while members of the drum line perform with both groups.
They are all more in the moment. Sometimes the dancers react to a big piece: short bursts of choreography that bloom and disappear quickly. Even these dances, unannounced yet galvanic, attract attention. As David said, “I feel eyes on us. I feel like people appreciate what we do and what we stand up for. And that is very rewarding. “
At the start of the pandemic, like most in the dance world, Singh started zooming rehearsals and found she had less focus on correcting details like the exact placement of arms and timing – that would be taken into account as soon as possible they stood on stage – and got more to the choreography in their bodies. The dancers recorded themselves and sent her the videos for individual notes.
The center of gravity of the movement has also changed. “We used to make a lot of big guns,” said Singh. “It was like taking the steps as big as possible. How can I make my body look like it’s taking up space? “
As they still do, she added, “It’s more about the power behind the movement and less about ‘my arm needs to be up here’ so the upper tier fans can see what we’re doing. ”
As always, Singh wants the Brooklynettes to look like “a high-profile professional dance crew based in Brooklyn,” she said. “My approach to everything, everything Brooklynettes is that you have to get it right. At least try to get it right. The last thing I want someone to say – and especially in our industry – is, “Oh, it’s spurious. They make culture their own. Or they’re not really Brooklyn. ‘”
How to pose for this Wonder Woman? “That is literally our signature,” said Singh with a laugh. “I said to the ladies the other night, ‘You have to stand like you’re still performing and stay there.’ When your arms get tired you can relax but keep coming back so it still looks like your body is energized and you are there. When you are not backstage, perform. That has always been my point of view – in every show. “
It’s another example of the Brooklynettes doing something they never had to do. “Now we are learning that we have to change – we have to optimize our show, the in-between moments,” said Singh. “It’s exciting because I’m a fan of a stage. I love lights. I love haze. I love to be exalted. “
How for this stage in the stands? “It just looks a lot more like a show to me,” she said. “So I love our stage moment. We’re not sure how long it will take, but it’s been really fun so far. “
