"Bright Lights Shining Stars" Gala's Brightest Moments

September 27, 2015

Not only do our friends at New York City Dance Alliance know how to have competitions and conventions, but they know how to have a top-notch celebration, too. Last night’s 2015 “Bright Lights Shining Stars” gala was the perfect example of everything we love about NYCDA.

Debbie Allen making us feel all the feels. What a career and what a performer (photo Eduardo Patino, courtesy NYCDA)

Debbie Allen
was the recipient of this year’s NYCDAF Ambassador for the Arts Award, and NYCDA’s scholarship recipients (as well as a whole slew of insanely awesome guest performers) paid tribute to Allen’s incredible career through song, dance and the sweetest speeches. It was a night filled with love, dance and so much goodness. Watching all the deserving young dancers receive their scholarships is heart-warming, to say the least, and really shows what NYCDA is all about. Below are some of DS‘s highlights:

Chloe Arnold’s Syncopated Ladies wowed us with their high-energy opening number set to some of our fav Beyoncé tracks.

Kolton Krouse performed a solo that was both technically stunning and artistically captivating. He was then presented with the Adele Astaire College Scholarship, by New York City Ballet principal and An American in Paris star, Robert Fairchild. Pretty much the definition of a win-win, we’d say.

Kolton Krouse’s stellar solo (photo Eduardo Patino, courtesy NYCDA)

A super special moment was when Allen’s daughter, Vivian Nixon, surprised her mom by appearing onstage as Anita from West Side Story, a role Allen was known for absolutely rocking back in the day. You could practically feel the mother-daughter pride and love.

Allen’s daughter, Vivian Nixon, channeling her mom and being all kinds of fabulous (photo Eduardo Patino, courtesy NYCDA)

And to close the show, the always-impressive girls from Westchester Dance Academy (a couple of whom you’ll see modeling in our upcoming November issue—hey girls!) owned the stage for a beautifully choreographed (and danced) routine to Avicii’s “Long Road Home.”

WDA girls absolutely #owning it (photo Eduardo Patino, courtesy NYCDA)