Comments on: Flouting Genre Boundaries and Stereotypes of Stereotypes (and Just Creating a Fun Time!): Bad Boys of Dance and Mimulus at Jacob’s Pillow

By: Swan Lake Samba Girl » Blog Archive » Grupo Corpo at BAM | Tonya Plank | Writer, Dancer and Public Interest Lawyer

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:10:32 +0000

[...] Another thing I noticed is that most of the members seemed to be white, though there were a couple of black male dancers. I’ve never been to Brazil (yet!) but thought it was a very mixed race society. My friend, Alyssa, and I had noticed the same of Mimulus, when we saw them at Jacob’s Pillow over the summer. Not a criticism or anything; just something I found curious. It’s the same here, of course, with most of the large professional dance companies, especially the ones specializing in ballet. I just wonder if the underlying reasons for that are the same. [...]

By: Swan Lake Samba Girl » Blog Archive » Me, and Bad Boys :) | Tonya Plank | Writer, Dancer and Public Interest Lawyer

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:58:39 +0000

[...] Second, Maria (of A Time To Dance, not Maria Kowroski) has some interesting info on Rasta Thomas. Apparently, he is bringing his Bad Boys of Dance, which I wrote about when the just-formed company premiered at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival over the summer, to DC. Also, Rasta has been named Artistic Director of a dance company there called Echo Park Contemporary Ballet. Lucky DCers! [...]

By: Rasta Thomas named Artistic Director of EPCB & Bad Boys of Dance @ GW next mont « A Time to Dance

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:20:23 +0000

[...] Posted in DC, Dance, ballet, dancing, modern dance, to do at 8:19 pm by Maria This summer, I read with interest on Tonya’s and others’ blogs about the much-hyped Bad Boys of Dance. It sounded pretty cool but not the kind of thing that would grace us with its presence here in DC. Boy was I wrong. [...]

By: Swan Lake Samba Girl » Blog Archive » Movmnt Magazine Has Lots of Promise | Tonya Plank | Writer, Dancer and Public Interest Lawyer

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:54:25 +0000

[...] When I was in the bookstore earlier I finally had the chance to check out this newish magazine, co-founded by Danny Tidwell and journalist David Benaym, devoted to pop culture, fashion and of course dance. I remember they had a stack of an earlier issue in the lobby at Bad Boys of Dance at Jacob’s Pillow, and I remember flipping through and seeing some ads featuring Mia Michaels, but at that point I wasn’t really sure what it was. [...]

By: Couples » Flouting Genre Boundaries and Stereotypes of Stereotypes (and Just …

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:37:24 +0000

[...] Second Heaven Logs wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThere would be several couples dancing this melange of Latin and American social dances, and then a balletic couple would emerge performing more abstract, lyrical movements with beautiful lifts, etc. But the social and balletic actually … [...]

By: Swan Lake Samba Girl » Blog Archive » In The Company of Beautiful People: Quorum Ballet At the Downtown Dance Festival | Tonya Plank | Writer, Dancer and Public Interest Lawyer

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:02:33 +0000

[...] My only qualm was that some of their lifts looked a bit too “trick-y” as in, you kind of felt like drum rolls should be preceeding them, similar to what I’ve seen at many of the exhibition dancesport competitions I’ve been to. Suits some people’s tastes but not mine, and I don’t think this company really intended for them to be that way, although maybe they felt they were playing to an audience unaccustomed to dance and felt like they should play up the showy aspects. And some of the lifts seemed a bit out of sync with the style. For example, the “bluebird” lift above (where da Silva is balancing on Cardoso’s shoulder, back arched), a typical ballet lift, seemed to me a bit at odds with the flamenco-y flavor of that dance. I would rather have seen more original parterning, specific to the dance style, such as that employed by Mimulus, which I wrote about earlier. But the solo and ensemble work were just gorgeous. [...]

By: Swan Lake Samba Girl » Blog Archive » I Am Goin’ to Nationals! | Tonya Plank | Writer, Dancer and Public Interest Lawyer

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:23:06 +0000

[...] 1) Boris Willis has created a funny little “manly dance” for me, apropos of all my blogging on Bad Boys of Dance and Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers, etc. etc. etc. Thanks Boris! [...]

By: Parker

Parker — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:35:39 +0000

Ugh, aching with longing to have been there!!

By: Free Political Forum » The Summer of My Indifference

Free Political Forum » The Summer of My Indifference — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 03:57:57 +0000

[...] After so much introversion in my cultural intake, it’s like inhaling a pep pill reading Tonya Plank’s latest burst of enthusiasm at Swan Lake Samba Girl, where she reports from Jacob’s Pillow on the testosterone rocketry of the Bad Boys of Dance. I was on my way to becoming a Bad Boy of Dance, until a painful bunion shot down my dream. Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude on another person’s happiness, but sometimes when I’m alone in my blog I just can’t help myself… [...]

By: Swan Lake Samba Girl » Blog Archive » Danny Tidwell Could Use A Bronzed Dance Belt!!!! | Tonya Plank | Writer, Dancer and Public Interest Lawyer

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:48:26 +0000

[...] Swan Lake Samba Girl Tonya’s dance blog, where she muses about Ballet, Ballroom, and the trials and tribulations of being a skinny white girl learning Latin… « Flouting Genre Boundaries and Stereotypes of Stereotypes (and Just Creating a Fun Time!): Bad Boys of Dance and Mimulus at Jacob’s Pillow [...]

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:36:06 +0000

Tonya, thanks for the reviews! You know how much I love Rasta, I wish I could have gone…

By: tonya

tonya — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 01:51:16 +0000

Oh thank you, Rachael, I just received your comment! I really had a wonderful time, definitely one of the best dance experiences for me. I do hope to come back!

By: tonya

tonya — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 01:06:21 +0000

I really wish I would have seen some of that archival footage of Ted Shawn and his troupe… What was I doing screwing around in Shaker villages and Norman Mailer museums?… I’ll have to go back up there!

By: Philip

Philip — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:41:56 +0000

Pillow founder Ted Shawn, despite his marriage to Ruth St. Denis, was gay and had as his longtime companion Barton Mumaw who was one of Shawn’s troupe of Men Dancers.

Shawn has been credited with creating ‘a homoerotic style of modern dance”.

By: tonya

tonya — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:02:29 +0000

You’re welcome Is he part Japanese? I can see that! Maybe you’ll have a chance to see them at some point — I hope they tour. They got a great reception there, and obviously he’s so famous I’m sure they’d do really well if they did.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:36:40 +0000

thanks for the review on bad boys tonya! i wish i was there…

i thought rasta was part Japanese??…but I may be mistaken.

By: Rachael

Rachael — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:22:07 +0000

We enjoyed having you at the Pillow this weekend and are glad you had a good time!

If you’d like more images of the grounds and artists, please feel free to check out http://www.jacobspillow.org/gallery.

Hope that you’ll visit the Pillow again in the future!