Willy laury

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Fix me jesus, fix me

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From Revelations. Glen Allen Sims and Linda Celeste Sims.

More eccles

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Clifton brown! (With Antonio Douthit, Kirven Boyd, and Malik LeNost in huge photo on back wall, reflecting in this one.)

Andrew eccles opening

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At June Kelly gallery, showcasing Eccles’s photographs of Alvin Ailey dancers, also included in his new book. This is Briana Reed.

Am getting very excited about Alvin Ailey’s upcoming season at City Center (which is good because I’ve been a bit depressed lately about ABT’s departure…)

As part of Ailey’s 50th Anniversary celebration, there’s a new book out of photos of the dancers by one of my favorite dance photographers, Andrew Eccles. Eccles just seems to capture the body, both at rest and in motion, like no one else. His images are so glorifying, somehow simultaneously heroizing and humanizing.

A selection of those photos will be shown at the June Kelly Gallery beginning this Friday, November 14th, through December 9th.

I just happened to be at the Ailey studios tonight for a performance by SenseDance (which was very good — will review shortly) in the basement theater, and saw this sweet photo upstairs in the lobby of artistic director Judith Jamison with Michelle Obama and the two first daughters. My friend, Dea, who accompanied me and who takes lessons at the studio, said the day after the election the place was loaded with festive flowers and balloons and posters congratulating America.

Next to it was the updated poster of Ailey dancer headshots. Several new faces, including Yannick LeBrun (making the move from the studio company to “Ailey proper” — yes!) third row from bottom, all the way to the left.

Shopping

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Not! Can’t afford Chanel but wanted to visit one of their boutiques showing more art from the mobile exhibit. One on 57th street is Pierre et Gilles‘ “I Don’t Want To Sleep Alone.” Rather amusing…

Update: So, exhibit in the 57th Street Chanel store was this: there were three large, life-sized photographs (touched up with glossy veneers). On the left was a young man in bed with a small fuschia Chanel bag. He looked a bit crazed, was staring at the camera with his mouth open. There were cigarette butts all over the floor, magazines scattered haphazardly, etc. On the right panel was a picture of him in the bathtub, looking equally catatonic; the same fuschia Chanel bag at the edge of the tub. In the middle, elevated above the other two pictures, was a photo of the man dressed in a beautiful wedding gown, looking very angelic, very happy. Oh my gosh, funny thing, I don’t even remember whether he had the Chanel bag in that picture… But the whole wall on which the photos were hung was done up in a stunning shade of fuschia — same as the handbag — with kind of a glittery facade. I guess he came to terms with his obsession and was now at peace. Or he overcame it. Or else his obsession enveloped him, and his whole world was now pink. Anyway, it was quite a spectacle, and had there been more than about three people in the store (the economy must really be hurting the couture boutiques) I’m sure everyone’s attention would have been drawn right there.

So, eh, I thought it was actually pretty pretentious to be honest. (Come back, Louise Bourgeois!)

Once inside, they took all of your belongings (you had to check even your jackets and bags, so no cell phones or anything capable of recording), and gave you a set of headphones. Because each room is so small, you have to wait until Jeanne Moreau’s sexy deep-throated voice tells you you may advance. So, you may end up spending a lot of time in a room whose art you may be all that taken with…

First room had some “chandelier”- looking pieces of mobile art hanging from the ceiling that appeared to be made of plastic Christmas-tree-like ornaments, second room a big pit / bowl over whose sides you peered down into only to see some black and white images of leaves and vertebrae and butterflies and such projected onto the bowl’s sides sliding down into oblivion.

The third room was my favorite of the whole exhibit. It was by artist Leandro Erlich from Argentina. You walked through these curtains and sat on a bench and looked across at a wall. Almost the entire wall was obscured by a big black curtain. You were to focus on the bottom, where there was a glass floor, covered with what appeared to be fake mud and dirt. Strategically-placed water appeared to be puddles. Underneath the glass was a really quaint row of 19th Century, Parisian-looking apartment buildings. I thought it was cool because in the previous exhibit it appeared you were in the sky, above the clouds, watching items float down to earth. This one seemed to continue with that theme, except here you were on earth, stepping on all its mud and grime, and the city seemed to be below you. And yet the beautiful city was actually more pristine, not affected by the mud and grime of earth. But then Jeanne Moreau said something about reflections being truer than reality to her, so I figured we were supposed to feel we were seeing a reflection; we were not atop the city after all. Anyway, at one point, the ceiling lights dimmed. The little windows of the buildings lit up, like someone was inside, turning them on for nighttime. Sweet. At the end, the lights in the little windows spelled the Chanel logo. I thought, ew, how crass, you just ruined it! Then I thought, well, maybe the artist wanted you to question our consumerism, obsession with brands and conspicuous consumption. But then I thought, well, since the exhibit was commissioned by Karl Lagerfield / Chanel, no, they’re probably trying to get you to rejoice in that not question it.

Anyway, then we walked into a room showing a film projected onto a wall with a bunch of naked Asian women rolling around in Chanel jewelry. After that was another interesting exhibit – -my second favorite, by an artistic group from Russia known as Blue Noses. You looked down into these big boxes, opened like someone was getting ready to pack for moving — and projected on the bottom were these films of obese naked women running down the street chasing a red Chanel bag being pulled by an invisible hand. It was a ridiculous sight — I’m sure the artists were questioning consumerism here, right, how could they not be… But interesting thing was that the ambient sound for this one was Swan Lake music, interspersed with the sounds of cars and other street noises.

Then, there was a room with some disturbing pictures by American David Levinthal of naked women wearing gas masks, but the masks looked like they were made out of skin, out of the women’s very flesh. In this exhibit, Jeanne Moreau kept saying things like this is my skin, my flesh that I wear, or something or other. I’d have written things down if they’d have let us bring something inside to write with. Actually, I think it was Moreau’s voice and the rather goofy things she was saying (that were supposed to be taken seriously) that made me think the exhibit overall was pretentious. Because the art in itself … much of it was really pretty good — visually arresting and thought-provoking.

There were a few other rooms bearing things like a set of furniture, all items of which appeared to be made from Chanel bag material. A final room was kind of funny. There was a giant Chanel lipstick case inside of which was a giant powder compact, which was opened, and on the compact’s mirror played a film of some women with machine guns at target practice. They were shooting Chanel bags quite to pieces. A voice-over was saying something like “and you said you were pregnant?”
The pavilion is only in NY through next week, then will travel. Go here for more info. Here are some pics by Coolhunter of the inside, though they don’t have any of the exhibits I liked.

Here are some pictures I took of the outside.

Here, am exhibiting herd mentality by doing as everyone before me did while waiting in line: taking a picture when I got up to this lighter sheet of mirrored window surrounding this building outside the pavilion. I’m not even sure what that building was, now that I think about it…

Lovely fall day in Central Park.

Anyway, on the subject of architecture, check out David Hallberg’s pics of this awesome Frank Gehry building at Bard College. It’s like an ultra-modern thatched roof house. I love it! I’m also jealous his fall pictures turned out better than mine…

On an unrelated note, my Explore Dance reviews of the Dance Times Square showcase and ABT’s opening night gala performance are now up.

(Mikhail Baryshnikov photo by Kenn Duncan, from NYPL site)

There’s a very good exhibit right now at the New York Public Library’s Performing Arts branch of photographer Kenn Duncan’s work. Duncan (1928-1986) was a dancer and champion roller skater in the fifties and became a photographer in the seventies. As a dance photographer, he worked for Dance Magazine and After Dark (a 70s NY weekly apparently covering theater and dance), and later photographed celebrities for various national mags including Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Time, and Life.

He published several collections in book form, many of nudes, mainly with male dancers as subjects. Many of those are included here, likely the reason for the big viewer discretion sign posted on the gallery door. Most of the dancers in that collection I didn’t know, except for Sir Anthony Dowell and Ivan Nagy, but there’s one of a man named Eivind Harum, who kept reminding me of David Hallberg (whom I had to banish from my thoughts for the time being); actor Sal Mineo (from Rebel Without a Cause) is also included in that section. There are some highly creative poses — some poking fun (I think) at beefcake, others very artful.

There are also sections on dancers, dance companies, and choreographers — including photos of a young Twyla Tharp (who I think looks her absolute best right now — I definitely wanna age like her), the Alvin Ailey company in its youth (which looked very different than today — lots of excellent afros, and mainly white female dancers, interestingly), the Houston Ballet, and of course all the greats — Carmen de Lavallade, Baryshnikov, Nureyev, Gelsey Kirkland, Suzanne Farrell and Paul Mejia, Natalia Makarova, Peter Martins, Alexander Godunov, Cynthia Gregory, etc. etc. I also spotted a dance belted Lar Lubovitch jeteing artfully over a sash.

Included in the celebrity section are a young, doe-eyed Dianne Keaton, Bette Midler, Maxwell Caufield (remember him, from Grease II was it?), Morgan Fairchild and her then male-cohort in a series of rather hilarious (now anyway) sexed-up poses for some Tarzan and Jane-like TV series they must have been doing, Eartha Kitt, Angela Lansbury, and a very young and almost frightfully innocent-looking Christopher Walken.

Duncan also did some Broadway photos (Hair, The Wiz, Equus, etc.), and some of those are up, as well as several of his fashion ones — mainly a Gucci spread — one of the most fun parts of the exhibit, the 70s being what they were! The ambient music is most evocative (sometimes comically) as well.

It’s a great trip through recent history that ends up making you think about what it is that makes a piece of art either timeless, period, or dated.

The exhibit, at Lincoln Center’s Library For the Performing Arts, continues through October 25th and of course it’s free.

Muchas muchas MUCHAS gracias to Philip for finding this. It’s a collection of absolutely stunning photographs by Richard Calmes of dancers taken in various locations throughout NYC. Above is Yannick LeBrun from French Guiana, newest member of Alvin Ailey (formerly with Alvin Ailey II, their studio company), and one of my new favorites.

You guys, I’m wondering if people can answer a question for me. I guess this applies mainly to my readers who are not located in NY and who have never before seen American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, or any of the companies I write about. But it also applies to anyone who has an answer really.

Do you think if a writer is really good and can convey the beauty of a dancer or of a dance, that pictures are unnecessary? Are there any such writers? Joan Acocella, Arlene Croce, Edwin Denby, Julie Kavanagh, Laura Jacobs? (I use those examples because those writers have published books, in which there are few if any visuals). Is it even possible to convey the beauty of an inherently visual art form in words? Do pictures even do justice since dance is not just visual, but inherently movement-oriented?

Do you need a combination of writing and visuals? Is there a difference between blogs, books, magazines, and newspapers in terms of what you expect?

Do you care more about the dancers the writer is talking about if the writer posts a picture of them? Do you have more of a human connection to them that way? If so, is a full-body picture of them in a dance pose better than a headshot? Do you connect more to the face or body form? Or do you honestly just not care about them at all if there’s no chance you’ll ever see them perform?

I ask mainly because bloggers are beginning to run into copyright violation issues with videos and photos.

At party & showing for armen danilian

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Danilian photographs dancers with the Kirov Ballet based in St. Petersberg, Russia.

Danilian has just released a new book of his photographs called “Behind the Curtain.” It sells for $50. Some of the photos were on display in the gallery last night. One of my favorites was of the dancer in the top picture (sorry my picture is crappy; I only had my cell phone camera with me because I came from court and cameras are strictly forbidden in the courtroom). Unfortunately, I don’t know this dancer’s name since they didn’t have any captions at the gallery.

Fun event; lots of Russians there And, they had a string quartet playing that Ariel noticed had instrument cases marked “Kirov”, and a table loaded with Russian chocolates, breads, and wine. Very nice evening!

Sorry I’m so late in getting this up! Last Monday evening, David Benaym, Editor-In-Chief and co-founder (with Danny Tidwell) of Movmnt Magazine hosted a dance blogger party at his office’s downtown NY headquarters. From left to right in picture above: Tony Schultz from The Winger, Doug Fox from Great Dance, Dea Soares Berrios, a friend of mine and The Winger’s, from Brazil who writes the personal blog Dea Nos Eua about her experiences moving to the U.S., her husband Al Berrios behind her, Taylor Gordon from The Winger and Off Center, me, Evan from Dancing Perfectly Free, David Benaym, and Brian Gibbs from The Winger.

It was a great time! David (pronounced Du-VEED) is extremely animated, and being from France, has a serious accent. People were having all kinds of funny mis-understandings We had some good discussions about dance and the internet, which companies are the best at using it (NYCBallet and Alvin Ailey, both of whom have YouTube channels), which are the worst (unfortunately my favorite American Ballet Theater was the sad winner in that category), which issues people are afraid to discuss in the blogosphere (dancer eating disorders being a big one), how most bloggers’ personas are so different from the writer’s actual personality (as well as pictures; we all agreed Schultz’s Winger headshot looks nothing like him!), and how we keep in touch with each other on a daily basis through our blogs though we’ve rarely met in person: at one point, David remarked how worried he was about Jolene. We asked why and he said, “Did you see? She said she would not come because she was very very sick and would soon go to hospital.” “Nooooo,” we all — and I mean all — sang out in unison, “that’s Ariel!” (who’s better now, by the way). Then he said, “Ohhh, well then who is Jolene?” Again, we all said in unison, “she’s the one who lives in San Francisco…” — I find it sweet that we all keep up with each other so well via our blogs; we really are a tight community. And finally, we talked about whether bloggers (particularly the snarky ones ) should be anonymous (we’re all dying, for example, to know who Danciti is, though some thought anonymity was fine). I know I’m forgetting tons of stuff; we decided through Al’s suggestion, that the next time, we would take minutes or record.

At the end, David gave us little gift bags containing issues of the latest magazine as well as a few back copies, a pair of Movmnt socks (hehe, like they give you on VirginAtlantic for overseas flights), and a copy of his and Danny’s book, “Moving Still.” Since I helped to organize the event, I received a special copy, containing all of the featured dancers’ — including Tidwell’s — autographs Even though I don’t agree with David about everything (for example, he thought about 10 posts a week on The Winger was good, otherwise it’s too overwhelming; I think, seriously, the more posts per day the better — my ideal number would be a Gawker-sized 30+ per weekday, although I realize this is never going to happen without a salaried, full-time blogger staff; there needs to be a Nick Denton of dance…) but I have a great deal of admiration for someone who has such an entrepreneurial spirit, who’s such a risk-taker and doesn’t think twice about creating his own path. He not only started his own magazine and wrote two books — his own novel (only available in French) as well as “Moving Still,” but he founded his own publishing companies to produce all of these things.

If you’re near a Barnes & Noble that carries it (one thing I learned from David is that you have to pay a bookstore shitloads of money just to carry your mag, even though they get a big profit from sales anyway?..), the latest issue is available. It includes an article by Taylor about dancer injuries, and two profiles from dancer Matt Murphy on composer Nico Muhly and “Center Stage 2” star Kenny Wormald, amongst other good things of course! Or you can visit their website.

Also, if you’re a dance blogger and near NYC and you want to be included on our email list, send me an email (found on my contact page). I don’t always organize these things but I seem to be the current “maintainer of email addresses.”

Sorry it took me so long to get this post up — last two days were stupidly busy, partly because of my ridiculous obsession with my face — but more about that in a minute…

Anyway, so Wednesday night was American Smooth, which I have to confess is my least favorite competition event, at least until J.T. Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki began dancing about a year ago. So, I’m obviously very happy they won. And I thought their showcase routine was lovely — actually, I recognized it from the RHYTHM OF LOVE show that I saw in Connecticut; it was the “At the Ballet” number where they feigned performing on a stage for the show’s main characters, their dancing leading to the boy’s obsession with learning to dance himself. It reminded me of something one of my favorite Standard couples — Victor Fung and Anna Mikhed — would do; a traditional ballroom dance but with some lovely lifts and a little storyline to elevate it to something more than just a group routine. I loved it.

This, to me, is in contrast to Eddie Stutts and Valentina, whom co-host Ron Montez was going nuts over. I didn’t think much of their showcase though. Their routine was just basic ballroom, something they could have done during the group dances, albeit without the very few lifts they threw in; a showdance needs to be more than that — that’s why it’s called a showdance. JT and Tomas’s had character, passion — they acted.

Oh and I loved Steven Doughtery and Eulia Baranovky’s tribute to Fred and Ginger (pictured above, image taken from ABC website). I’ve liked this couple, who unfortunately are retiring this year, for a while now, and am sorry the judges haven’t. They never seem to place them very high. That’s how it goes with ballroom though … sometimes you just can’t make sense of the judges. So I was beyond thrilled to see them win the showdance. That routine was full of class and sass and loads of character; I loved everything from how they held their arms, to their little tap-dancing hops (reminding me of Rita Hayworth when she would dance with Astaire), to her gorgeous dress. They really were like Fred and Ginger brought back to life. I’ll miss them, but what a perfect showdance to end your competitive career on.

The rest of the showdances I wasn’t tremendously impressed with. I thought Tony Scheppler and Tonja Martin’s hip hop routine was interesting, combining as it did two starkly different dances (Latin and hip hop wouldn’t have been such a contrast). I thought the judges should have scored them higher, both for the originality and for doing pretty well with both styles. I don’t understand why the judges liked Mazen Hamza and Irina Sarukhanyan. Their routines are often odd, but unlike last year’s martial arts-inspired number, this leopard-clad animalistic thing didn’t make much sense nor did it involve anything very difficult.

Unfortunately I couldn’t see much of the group heats. The camera caught the dancers from very odd angles, often getting way too much of the audience in the shot, cutting off our view of the dancers’ legs — kind of important in dance… The group comps never come across that well on film; you kind of need to be there to experience its unique thrill. But I still think the camera person could do better. There’s nothing like sitting near the dance floor and watching the dancers twirl by you. I would like to see what that would look like on film: just having the camera person sitting at the edge of the floor and capturing whatever happens to fly by.

Next week is a most raucous event: American Rhythm. Showdown time!! (I’ll post more when it gets nearer)

Okay, on to other dance-TV matters. Well, I am extremely excited to announce that I will be writing about the thriving TV dance scene for The Huffington Post! As soon as my blog is up in their Entertainment Section, I’ll be posting about the TV shows there, and of course everytime I post there, I’ll put a link to it here.

Which brings me to my face obsession. My future editor needed a little picture to accompany the column, and not being a pro dancer or actor or anything, I don’t have a real head shot. So I had to do the homemade version, which I’m more comfortable with than having them professionally done anyway — I can be in control of myself. Of course it took me all night Wednesday night, trying to attain: the perfect background, the perfect camera angle, the perfect distance of the lens from my face, the perfect tilt of the head, the perfect smile (not too much so as to look like a goof but not too little so as to look like I have a rod up my backside), the perfect degree of widened eyes — seriously, I either looked like I was on some serious Speed or had just smoked a load of Pot. I would finally get a decent shot only to discover my bra strap was clearly visible. I guess these would be the reasons for having a professional… Yesterday, I forced myself to decide on a few. I downloaded them to the computer, obsessed over which one looked the best both in large and small (the headshots on the site are TINY, but still, I needed to send the picture in its original size so they could downsize it and crop it up however they liked and couldn’t bear to send regular-sized photo in which I looked hideous). I finally chose one and was about to send it off when I did a test run first and sent it to myself. I clicked on the attachment, hit open, and was faced with the biggest flipping representation of my face I’d ever come into contact with. I scrolled this way and that, viewing my face in all its various parts. When I scrolled down to my mouth area, I was shocked to find: MOUSTACHE!!!! Plain as day, there it was. I honestly never knew I had it. And it was dark — jet black. I sprinted to the bathroom, searched the cabinet for tweezers and began plucking around, feeling nothing, seeing nothing.

Later I met Ariel for a celebratory pig-fest at Magnolia Bakery (she just landed a most excellent gig covering the upcoming Fashion Week for an online magazine — go Ariel!). But we had to find another place in the area since blasted Magnolia STILL doesn’t have their sit-down area ready! What is up with them?! Who gets take-out cupcakes??? The whole point of having a dining establishment in NY is for people to dine there! It’s the dead of winter; who can take their cupcake outside and eat it on the bench or at the Lincoln Center fountain?! Have the owners no sense????? Anyway, we found a nice cozy little cafe called The Muffins Cafe just down the street, and substituted our cupcakes for chocolate croissants.

As soon as she got herself situated at the table, I spit out, “Okay, be honest. Am I in denial? Do I have a moustache? Be honest!”

“What? No,” she giggled.

“I can’t see it at all; can’t even feel it, but according to my camera it’s there!”

“Oh you mean when you downloaded and viewed it full-size on the screen,” she laughed. “Yeah, that magnifies everything. Don’t do that, especially with a portrait!”

Oh.

“Everyone has weird flaws!” she laughed shaking her head like I was a goof for not knowing this, which I guess I did; I just don’t obsess over anyone else’s. She told just to downsize it before sending it, at least a little.

“But then, can’t the editor blow it back to its original? I blabbered.

“Er, I don’t think he has time for that,” she said.

True.

Anyway, I am really excited to write about dance for such a large audience, most of which may not have much exposure. As I said, I’ll link to the blog column when it’s up and running! For now, here’s an article I wrote for Explore Dance about the various TV shows (at least the ones on network TV).

Here are some pictures from the performance on Wednesday at Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet that I wrote about in my previous post.

From “Symptoms of Development,” the work about technology stifling human connection. This piece was Evan’s favorite and she has a nice write-up on it. The dancer in front is the striking Jason Kittelberger.

Another shot of “Symptoms.”

Above is the ‘running in place’ duet that I mentioned earlier I found arresting, from the second ballet, “Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue.”

Another from “Ten Duets.”

Above and below from “Rite,” my overall favorite piece of the night.

Again, thank you so much to Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and to intern Caleb Custer in particular, for organizing this most innovative event!

Here are the photograph sets from the professional photographer who sat a few seats down from me at “Rhythm of Love.” (just hit ‘continue’ and you’ll be taken to the album). To be honest, I’m kind of disappointed with the quality of his photos — think I could’ve taken better ones myself. He won’t let me so much as copylink and post on my blog because he’s not a publicity photographer working for the event’s presenting organization, but only takes pictures so that he can sell them for his own profit, like many do at ballroom competition events. Catch up with the world of concert dance, ballroom people, and hire pro photographers for publicity purposes, not these greedy goofs! Andrew Eccles anyone?! Anyway, have a look and if you’re so inclined, you can order some of Pasha and Anya, or Pasha and the gang, or just Pasha, or anyone else!

The show itself was really cute. I’ll be writing a formal review for Explore Dance, which I’ll link to when it’s up. This was the first time I’ve ever seen a full-length story dance told through ballroom and Latin. The basic story was cute and original: it begins with a boy (played by Mambo King Benito Garcia) interested in a girl (Emilee Peterson, who I don’t know from ballroom but I could tell from the moment she walked out onstage that she had ballet background). The girl shows interest back, but they’re young high school-ish students and of course she doesn’t let him get very far very fast, to his predictable dismay. Eventually, they go out on some dates (there’s no talking by the way; all the non-dance acting is mimed) and he gives her some flowers, she gives him some … ballet tickets, over which he tries hard not to reveal his disgust. Off they go to the “ballet,” which, since this is a dance story told through ballroom, is really a lyrical waltz performed by the lovely American Smooth couple JT Thomas and Tomasz Mielnicki. The waltz moves the girl to tears, the guy to sleep. She shakes him out of his slumber just in time for him to witness another waltz of JT and Tomasz’s — this one combined with some Rhumba to give it a far more seductive tempo (and danced to Celine Dion’s gorgeously sultry “Seduces Me”), during which his attention now wanes not one bit. Now that he sees dance can be sexy, he is enthralled by it, wants to do it himself. The rest of the show is about him learning, the various ballroom and Latin dancers instructing. The ballroom ladies help Emilee lighten up, giving her dance fashion tips, rid her of her glasses and bun, and teach her how to let her inhibitions go in her dancing. The guys have their hands full doing the opposite for Benny — teaching him instead not to let too loose on the dance floor; one needs a sense of rhythm, timing, and body control after all so as not to make an ass of oneself! The two watch some more duets performed by the seasoned pros and eventually try the moves out themselves. At the end, Emilee is so happy Benny’s dancing with her, she puckers up for the kiss he’s earned, but he’s now too busy trying to get his steps right to notice. It ends on a happy note, of course!

Unfortunately, Pasha and Anya didn’t dance a whole lot. They were in two numbers: the first an opening group hip hoppy Samba to “Hip Hip, Chin Chin,” and later a Cha Cha / Latin combo to “Magic Carpet Ride.” Of course they danced spectacularly when they did, though! Anya looks so damn good in a simple black t-shirt and jeans. I recognized some of their hallmark moves in their second number: one where he lifts her horizontally over his shoulders and turns and turns and turns (a similar move is performed at the beginning of the excellent movie Strictly Ballroom — you must see it if you haven’t), and another where he holds her in a low dip, one of his arms free, and looking out at the audience, he kind of commands her lower torso up and down with the wave of his hand, without touching her. It’s very voo-doo-looking, and very cool.

My other favorite couple was Jose DeCamps and Joanna Zacharewicz, current American Rhythm champs, who had several duets — a slow, seductive bolero, a whiplashingly fast Cha Cha / Mambo, and, my favorite dance in the whole thing — a cool, calm and collected, yet sexy, Swing / Mambo that was very West Side Story.

Jose (for DWTS fans, he is Cheryl Burke’s old partner) has charisma galore. This was my first time seeing him on a real stage (and not just the competition floor), but whoa, he really stood out to me and commanded my attention every time he was up there. JT is a natural performer too; I think she could be on Broadway if she wanted to.

Carolina and Felipe Telona (American Rhythm competitors) danced gorgeously too — they did a couple of Argentine Tangos and some sultry rhumbas and boleros. They danced the most of any couple I think. They did this sweet, sad piece, where he is leaving her or dying and she tries in vain to bring him back. They performed it at Nationals last year as well. It nearly brought me to tears both times.

There were also a few numbers by Garry and Rita Gekhman, American Smooth dancers and showdance champions. They reprised their showdance championship-winning number from last year’s Nationals, “Freak-A-Zoid,” which was really cool seeing in competition in Florida last year, but looked a bit out of place on the stage here. Some of the movements, such as releasing their Standard handhold and moving across the vast ballroom floor still perfectly in sync and maintaining frame (pictured below) are so impressive to ballroom judges and afficionados who can appreciate the degree of difficulty, but I think are lost on a more general audience. Plus, the number didn’t really seem to fit: it was sandwiched in between the boy and girl’s first meeting in class after a voice-over has noted how love can be “mathematical” and I guess the robotic nature of the showdance is meant to evoke that. But it seemed more that the story was altered to accommodate the dance rather than the other way around. Still, only a small thing in an overall exciting show.

(all pictures are mine, from previous competitions; visit that Park West website for some pictures of Pasha and Anya — there aren’t many, but there are some!)

Except one look at his website reveals that, like Fabrizio Ferri and Michael Sharkey, he is not really a dance photographer. Enter his website, then click on Dance to see more brilliant photos of the Ailey crew. Above photo, of the beautiful Amos J. Machanic, Jr., is from AAADT website.