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“A landmark documentary...delineates how virtuosity becomes identity”
- Debra Cash, NPR/WBUR

Archie Burnett

Review (The New York Times)

02/24/12

The evening began with a teaser clip of Check Your Body at the Door, the important documentary of 1990s club dance produced by the historian and writer Sally R. Sommer. Here were too-brief glimpses of celebrated artists like Archie Burnett.

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Dance

Published: February 24, 2012

"Taking It From the Streets Onto the Stage"
By Claudia LaRocco

Darrell Jones, where have you been all my life? I had never seen his choreography until Thursday night at Danspace Project, when he presented “Hoo-Ha (twister pump breakdown)” as part of the Parallels series. What a smart, moving, gorgeous work this is.

Preview (The New Yorker)

01/25/12

The New Yorker calls Check Your Body at the Door the "most important" film of the Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center.

THE NEW YORKER
Goings On About Town

Published: January 30, 2012

“DANCE ON CAMERA”

Basics: Dance

04/17/95

“Dancing,” says Brahms La Fortune, architect and clubhead, “is like breathing. First you breathe, then you dance.” Movement is fundamental for all of us. Without it, we die. If movement is the body’s survival tool, it is also the soul’s salvation.

“A Basic of Life” by Sally Sommer

Dance/USA Journal
Spring 1995

“Dancing,” says Brahms La Fortune, architect and clubhead, “is like breathing.  First you breathe, then you dance.”

Movement is fundamental for all of us.  Without it, we die.  If movement is the body’s survival tool, it is also the soul’s salvation.  Altered states are caused by the physical repetitions that produce the enkephalins and endorphins that abolish pain and promote ecstatic highs.

House Clubs and Househeads

07/01/10

In a city that has instigated hostile laws to control the actual clubs, Underground clubs are defined more by what takes place inside. Underground clubs (as the name suggests) seek to stay under the radar. If someone wants to find the best club party, they have to actively seek information about when and where that might be occurring, which heightens the aura of being secretive and exclusive to a special group of people.

by Sally Sommer

Dancing: Improvisation

07/10/10

What keeps the floor alive and dancers alert are the improvised dialogues of movement that define the vibe. Interactions arise then disappear throughout the evening. They can be as simple as an exchange between the music and a dancer or maybe just two people dancing or as big and rambunctious as a circle of dancers in competition. But whether the relationship lasts only a few minutes or has been in place for many years, on the floor they are based on play and improvisational inventions.

by Sally Sommer

Review (NPR/WBUR)

05/09/11

Other observers have been able to convey hip hop and house dance's enviable virtuosity. But it has took Sally's Sommer's patient commitment to delineate the way virtuosity becomes identity.

NPR/WBUR

Published: May 9, 2001

"Check Your Body at the Door - Rough Cut (54 minutes) Film"
Review by Debra Cash

Review (The New York Times)

02/03/11

This glorious coming together occurred on the opening day of “Body Madness,” the latest installment of Danspace Project’s Platform series (and the first to have Judy Hussie-Taylor, Danspace’s executive director, as the curator). It began Thursday night with “voix de ville,” an evening created by Cori Olinghouse and featuring “Elements of Vogue,” a too-short appearance by Archie Burnett and Javier Ninja. Both men are New York club royalty

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Dance

Published: February 4, 2011

"It's Vaudeville Without the Tomatoes"
By Claudia LaRocco

On the first day, the House of Ninja visited the house of worship. And the people in St. Mark’s Church saw that it was good.

1998

CYB Project & Film
1998
02/01/98

David Neumann's 'Appropriate Behavior' performed at Dance Theater Workshop (DTW) with Archie Burnett and Brahms "Bravo" LaFortune.

May 1997

CYB Project & Film
Dancers
May 1997
05/01/97

David Neumann's 'Appropriate Behavior' performed at PS 122 with Archie Burnett and Brahms "Bravo" LaFortune (also performed in  1998 at DTW)

July 1996

Dancers
July 1996
07/16/96

Archie Burnett featured in The New York Times article "Dances at a Glance".