The Fall For Dance 2010 schedule has been announced. It begins on September 28th and runs through October 9. Again, tickets are a mere $10 and they go on sale on City Center’s website on September 12 at 11 a.m. – and you know that means 11 a.m. sharp! Highlights are ABT (performing the gorgeous Thais Pas de Deux again!), Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Corella Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Gallim Dance, San Francisco Ballet, Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, Bill T. Jones, there’s a Brazilian troupe making its festival debut, and much more. Click on the link below to see the whole schedule.
DRIVE-THRU INTERVIEW, AND SWALLOW MAKES LEGAL THRILLER BEST-SELLER LIST ON AMAZON
Today I have a short, “drive-thru” interview on fabulously wonderful indie author Jenna Elizabeth Johnson’s blog, Hello Kruel, Kruel World.
I met Ms. Johnson on the Kindleboards, where I’ve connected with a number of really kind and supportive indie authors. I joined Kindleboards after hugely successful indie-turned-traditionally published author, J.A. Konrath, suggested the site as an excellent way to connect with other authors and readers of Kindle books.
It seems to have worked in my favor sales-wise as well because last week, due largely I’m sure to my reducing the price of my Kindle book to 99 cents (for at least the duration of the summer), my Kindle sales skyrocketed, putting Swallow on a couple of Amazon top-seller charts: Anxiety Disorders, and Legal Thrillers. Sales have slipped a bit over the weekend but it spent nearly all of last week in the top 10 of those two lists, which was really surreal.
Funny thing is, strictly speaking of course my novel is not a legal thriller, but the way Amazon categorizes things, since it’s legal fiction and since Amazon reviewers have tagged it with words like “lawyer,” “legal,” and “criminals,” it was categorized as legal, and the only root category for legal fiction it seems is Mysteries & Thrillers. So I guess that’s how that worked. Others have mentioned they had the same thing happen: a legal comedy and a novel whose protagonist was a lawyer but had no other connection to the law were both categorized as a legal thrillers too. Anyway, it’s not like I don’t have a product description and several reviews for people to read before deciding whether or not to purchase.
And, even though my book focuses on the main character’s anxiety disorder, it is largely about her job as a criminal appeals attorney, and representing a certain segment of society. That’s one huge thing I was hoping people would come away knowing more about after reading. So, although I worried at first about it being mis-categorized, I think it’s actually a good thing that it ended up there; it’s a sign to me of what I should be writing anyway. The book I’m working on now is more in that vein – it’s about a shooting witnessed by various people, from different perspectives.
Anyway, I’m just so thrilled some people are reading it. Thank you again to all of my wonderful, wonderful blog readers who have been so supportive! And to my new indie friends 🙂
ROBERTO BOLLE AT THE PIAZZA SAN MARCO
Roberto Bolle and Friends are performing July 27th at the Piazza San Marco in Venice, as part of a gala to benefit the National Trust for Italy. The way the Italians talk about him, he must be so beloved there. Someday I must go see him dance in his native country…
NATALIA OSIPOVA NOW ELECTRIFIES COPPELIA AT THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE
Wow, no summer break for Natalia Osipova. She’s now back dancing with the Bolshoi, who are currently performing at the Royal Opera House in London. The Guardian’s Judith Mackrell is awed by her Coppelia. I can only imagine; this seems like a perfect role for her.
Photo by Tristram Kenton.
NATALIE PORTMAN’S "BLACK SWAN" WILL PREMIERE AT THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 1
Visit the Examiner for more details and a slide show including a few more pics from the movie. Photo above looks rather creepy imo … which I guess goes along with the genre.
JARED MATTHEWS AND YURIKO KAJIYA ON SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
The fabulous Jade Young has sent me new headshots he took of ABT soloists Jared Matthews and Yuriko Kajiya, who performed a Don Quixote pas de deux last night on So You Think You Can Dance. What did you guys think of them?
GUEST POST BY BEA LESACA: HOW SALSA MADE ME APPRECIATE HIP HOP MORE
Hey, everyone. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Bea Lesaca, a b-girl and hip hop dancer who writes for HardKnockRadio. Her guest post is about how salsa made her appreciate her own dance style more. Here’s Bea:
How Salsa Made me Appreciate Hip Hop More
Having been break dancing for a good chunk of my adult life, I couldn’t help but actually take it for granted. It was probably due to years of doing the same thing over and over again, making it as routine as going grocery shopping. I know I’m the only one to blame but going through a rut like that; I would like to think, is a necessary part of a dancer’s growth.
See, aside from bgirling, I never tried other types of dance, even the ones under Hip Hop. Honestly, I was a little too scared to venture off into unchartered territory when I already found a niche that I fit right in. I used to think that it was understandable because why bother learning new tricks when the ones I already got has given me enough props I thought I needed (which is wrong btw).
So years passed (with my mentality like that) until I met a DJ friend that went Salsa dancing. We always saw each other at jams and clubs where she spinned and every time we bumped into one another, she would invite me to hit up a salsa class with her. I always said I would think about it, but in the back of my mind I knew it was a resounding hell no! Aside from thinking how salsa was ballroom, I also couldn’t fathom a break dancer like myself getting jiggy with the old folks.
But after consistent prodding from my friend, I ended up going and actually having a great time. It turned out that the misconceptions I had about salsa were just that, misconceptions. I arrived at the place where the classes were held and saw people with ages that ranged from early 20’s to late 40’s of different nationalities just groovin’ to the music. I didn’t know that salsa appealed to that many people! Salsa classes became part of my weekly ritual and it was great. Not only did salsa boost my confidence but it also allowed me to experiment more with the genre I was already active in: Hip Hop.
Every time I feel like there’s a new kind of Hip Hop dance I want to learn, I now think to myself that if I could pull salsa off, what more with this? The expansion to my dance environment wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for salsa. I learned how to appreciate more the genre I belonged to, making me aware of the different dimensions I am capable of.
Bea spends her free time thinking of freestyle rap lyrics. Check out her latest post on the top 100 rap songs at HardKnockRadio.com.
NILAS MARTINS QUIETLY RETIRES FROM NYCB
According to the New York Times Arts Beat blog, Nilas Martins, longtime principal with New York City Ballet (and son of Artistic Dir. Peter Martins) has retired. Without a farewell performance, without flowers, without fanfare. The story is that he has a knee injury and suffered continuing problems with that, and ended up getting a job with the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at Kennedy Center and just didn’t feel up to coming back and giving a final performance. I can’t say I blame him. He’d received so much criticism the past couple years he probably just didn’t want to see the onslaught of newspaper articles. I want to write a larger post about this, but I received a recent comment on one of my prior posts on a NYCB retirement (that I now can’t seem to find) about how the critics were too negative with the retirements, writing about the dancers’ faults toward the end instead of their entire career.
It’s a real issue.
I do believe, as Arlene Croce famously said, that a critic’s duty in a democracy is to be critical. But on the other hand, I feel like maybe different standards should apply for the retirement performances. The person is retiring, do their current weaknesses at the end of their long career and the fact that they’re not dancing as well as they did in their twenties and early thirties really need to be focused on? It’s probably easily assumed by the public that they’re not dancing as well as they once did. And poor Yvonne Borree – the critic assigned to cover her farewell was the youngest on staff; too young to have seen Borree dance in her prime, so all she could say, apart from describing the performance, was that she as a viewer couldn’t ever connect with her. And she should have said what she felt without buttering it up; she’s a journalist not a publicist. But couldn’t they have found someone who’d followed Borree’s career and saw what had been so special about her cover her final performance?
Anyway, more thoughts on this later. For now, I wish Nilas a successful arts management career in DC.
Above photo from the Daily News.
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE WEEK 6 – THE SEASON OF INJURIES CONTINUES
Ok, where is Billy?
Cat announces that this is the 150th episode, so they have a giant birthday cake. Wow has the show really been on for five years?
Kenny Ortega is joining as a judge tonight.
Argh! So, Billy has hurt his knee and, though the doctor says he’s okay to dance, he doesn’t feel he can. He’ll be in the bottom three tomorrow night.
First on are Lauren and Twitch in a Tabitha Napoleon hip hop. This was fun. Loved those somersaults – wow, what form she has! She really had the attitude down, and you can tell she worked really really hard. Every movement was right on the beat, was totally sharp. She actually stood out to me more than Twitch, which is saying a lot with a hip hop routine.
Next are Jose and Allison in a contemporary routine by Sonya Tayeh. Wow, Allison! She is really blowing me away. That was SO Sonya Tayeh; she did that perfectly.
Continue reading “SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE WEEK 6 – THE SEASON OF INJURIES CONTINUES”
DANCE AND ART IN WILLIAMSBURG THIS WEEKEND
My friend Alyssa is an independent arts curator and she has a show this Friday and Saturday night in Williamsburg that may be of interest to my NY-based dance peeps.
It’s a collaboration between artist Sarah Olson and choreographer Cori Kresge (who is a member of the Merce Cunningham Repertory Understudy Group and of the Merce Cunningham teaching faculty) called “Galvanic Folklore From the Accelerating Universe: an Evening of Dance and Music Inspired by Scientific Theories and Evolutionary Fantasies.” There will be a reception each evening preceding both of the 8:00 performances and Olson’s art exhibition, “A Two Night Stand: the Birds and the Trees,” which is a response to the choreography, will be on display.
Go here for more details.
ALVIN AILEY'S DENISE JEFFERSON HAS PASSED AWAY
I received word yesterday that Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Denise Jefferson passed away over the weekend. She was one of the three women (along with Judith Jamison and Sylvia Waters) to whom Mr. Ailey had entrusted the future care of his dance company at the time he passed away. She was currently heading the Alvin Ailey School. She died of ovarian cancer. She was 66. How sad.
Click on the link below to read AAADT’s press release.
(Above photo by Andrew Eccles).
Continue reading “ALVIN AILEY'S DENISE JEFFERSON HAS PASSED AWAY”
MARCELO IN FIRE ISLAND
Here’s a photo fabulously informative reader Jonathan sent me of our Marcelo Gomes dancing this past weekend in the Fire Island Dance Festival. I was unable to attend unfortunately. This is the festival Danny Tidwell had danced in last year but I am told he did not dance this year as he is touring with Rasta Thomas’s “Bad Boys.” Other dancers however included Travis Wall and Nick Lazzarini (So You Think You Can Dance winner from season one). Argh. Someday I am going to have to make it out there to this festival. It’s just that it always occurs right after ABT season is over and I’m pooped by then. Plus this year I had book stuff to deal with…