Victor Calise News

As the nation ramps up to the 30th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA30) on July 26, the 50-member ADA Lead On 'Core Production Team' and 22 ADA Generation bloggers, influencers and signal boosters are focused and determined to flip the script on educating, entertaining and empowering people with (and without) disabilities.

Baruch Performing Arts Center presents Heidi Latsky Dancein the New York City Premiere of D.I.S.P.L.A.Y.E.D. at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue (25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues), NYC on March 8, 9, and 10, 2018 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $21 ($10 for for Students with Student ID) and may be purchased at www.baruch.cuny.edu/bpac.

Please join Dance/NYC for a series of conversations about integrated and disability dance artistry, dance made and performed by and with disabled dancers. Organized around New York City metropolitan area performance activity at the nexus of disability and dance, the series features leading artists working at that nexus in conversation with their presenters. The goals of the series are to drive awareness and interest in dance made by and with disabled artists, capture and share lessons learned by featured artists, and generate dialogue and partnerships among attendees. Featured artists are grantees of Dance/NYC's Disability. Dance. Artistry. Fund, created to advance dance making by and with disabled artists.

Theatre Development Fund (TDF), the not-for-profit service organization for the performing arts, will host an accessibility symposium, "TDF Access for NYC Theatre" on Monday, April 24 at the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street, NYC).

The fifth anniversary of Pace University's annual Celebration of Individuals with Disabilities in Film is Thursday, March 23. The festival will be held from 4 pm to 9 pm in the Aniello Bianco Room at One Pace Plaza in lower Manhattan.

The National Meningitis Association (Lynn Bozof, President) honored New England Patriot and Super Bowl MVP Deion Branch with the Nancy Ford Springer Award. Scroll down for photos from the event!

This May, The National Meningitis Association (NMA) (Lynn Bozof, President) will hold its annual GIVE KIDS A SHOT Gala Celebration honoring Super Bowl MVP Deion Branch (Nancy Ford Springer Award), Carl Buher and Michael Laforgia (T.E.A.M. Outstanding Service Awards), Paul Lee, MD (Health Achievement Award) at The Pierre on Monday, May 9, 2016 at 6:30pm.

?Theatre Development Fund and The Broadway League are Breaking Barriers to Broadway with the launch of Theatre Access NYC, www.theatreaccess.nyc, a new website designed to assist theatregoers with disabilities in finding accessible performances of Broadway productions.

This past Saturday, February 27, 2016, at a half-day Disability.Dance.Artistry. convening at Gibney Dance Center's 280 Broadway Location, Dance/NYC unveiled primary deliverables of an ongoing initiative to increase inclusion within and access to the art form for disabled New Yorkers, including a 161-page research report, Disability.Dance.Artistry., and online resources available at Dance.NYC.

Today, at a half-day Disability.Dance.Artistry. convening at Gibney Dance Center's 280 Broadway Location, Dance/NYC unveiled primary deliverables of an ongoing initiative to increase inclusion within and access to the art form for disabled New Yorkers, including a 161-page research report, Disability.Dance.Artistry., and online resources available at Dance.NYC.

Big Apple Circus welcomes Guest Ringmaster Commissioner Victor Calise of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities to the Big Top at Lincoln Center on October 29, 2015 at 11am for Circus of the Senses:a specially adapted performance of its all-new show, The GrandTour, that enables children and adults with vision or hearing impairments and other disabilities to experience the joy and wonder of the circus.

"Accessibility to greenspaces comes in many forms, from proximity within our neighborhoods, to equitable distribution of funds for parks in high-need areas across the five boroughs," said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP. "Constructing this ADA-compliant ramp provides a much improved universal access point onto the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway for the able-bodied while opening up a whole new world of access for those who are disabled."

Ken Davenport, Cody Lassen, Hunter Arnold, and David J. Kurs, producers of Deaf West Theatre's acclaimed production of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening, were honored this morning by The Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities and Commissioner Victor Calise at the NDEAM (National Disability Employment Awareness Month) Awards, where they received the Champion of Change Award.

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Heidi Latsky Dance (HLD) continues to redefine the notions of dance, beauty, and virtuosity through new genre-shattering, cutting-edge performances under the artistic leadership of internationally renowned artist Heidi Latsky (a former dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company). In a shared program with AXIS Dance Company at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on November 15th, HLD presents three daring, critical works that examine the intense, personal and social struggle with physicality: Solo 1, an excerpt from Solo Countersolo (2013), the New York City premiere of Somewhere (2015), and the reincarnation of the site-specific, multi-media movement installation ON DISPLAY (2015). This marks the latest addition to HLD's The GIMP Project, a dance and advocacy project involving both disabled and non-disabled performers.

NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, DDC Commissioner Dr. Feniosky Peña-Mora and Congressman Jose E. Serrano celebrated the reopening of the High Bridge today. Scroll down for photos!

As part of a United States/Russian media exchange program, Downtown Community Television Center and Victor Calise, New York City Commissioner of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities will host the U.S. premiere screening of Media Enabled Musketeers

Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB) received a 2014 ADA Sapolin Award in recognition of its artistic excellence and commitment to advancing people with disabilities. The award is to be presented by Victor Calise, Commissioner of the NYC Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, at a reception in honor of the 24th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, on Tuesday, August 19, at the New York Public Library in Manhattan.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB) is set to receive a 2014 ADA Sapolin Award in recognition of its artistic excellence and commitment to advancing people with disabilities. The award is to be presented byMayor Bill de Blasio and the NYC Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), at a reception in honor of the 24th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, on Tuesday, August 19, at the New York Public Library in Manhattan.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and New York City Parks Commissioner Veronica M. White today opened all 14 miles of New York City's beaches for the 2013 season.

The annual National Meningitis Association (NMA) Give Kids a Shot Gala was once again an emotion filled evening but a stellar success in aiding the fight against meningitis, a potentially vaccine preventable disease. Held in the elegant ballrooms of the historic New York Athletic Club with phenomenal views of Central Park as a backdrop, hundreds of New York's movers and shakers turned out to support the cause and also to congratulate meningitis survivor & Para Olympic Gold Medalist Nick Springer, an Honorary Chair along with Ambassador & Mrs. John L. Loeb, Jr. Scroll down for photos from the event!