Another fun announcement. You can learn the choreography from Alvin Ailey’s masterpiece from several Alvin Ailey dancers in classes at the Ailey School from now through December 30th. Hope Boykin, along with two former members of the company, Aubrey Lynch and Milton Myers, will teach the steps. You have to be at the intermediate level to enroll. For more info: visit the school’s website.
Photo above: Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims, by Andrew Eccles.
I wasn’t impressed at all with last night’s show. From now on, I am refusing to comment on Paso Dobles that are not Spanish. It is a Spanish dance. Therefore if it is not Spanish-themed, if it is set to rock music, then it is not a Paso. There were no Pasos on last night’s show. And I really dislike Standard Tango unless it is performed by pros, and mainly by the Italians, for some reason. They just seem to do something with Standard Tango that no one else does. Maybe later in the week I’ll embed more YouTube videos of real dancers dancing Paso and Standard Tango, but right now I’m too tired and must go to bed. I have to get up early to go to a sneak preview of a Flames of Paris film, which will be shown in a couple of New York theaters next month! So excited!
The one thing I did like about last night’s show was the ending swing / jive dance-off. When they do these ending dance-offs, they kind of remind me of the 60s and 70s era dance til you drop shows and I think they’re fun. I’m glad Brandy and Maks won that competition. They deserved it. It was their night. Go Brandy! I most liked Brandy and Bristol last night. I thought they both had good, clean footwork and exuded character and attitude in their dancing (which is pretty much a first for Bristol). I liked Jennifer too, even though she was reprimanded for being sloppy. I think she was just trying too hard and threw herself a bit too much into it. That’s sometimes good, but can sometimes damage the dance, especially if you end up throwing yourself and your partner completely off balance. First she almost fell, then Derek almost fell on top of her. Still, it’s better to do too much than not enough, in my opinion.
I have a feeling Rick or Kyle may go home tonight. Maybe Kurt though I hope not! He didn’t have such a good night but I generally like him and think he’s done so well in the past that I want to see him dance again.
Also, in other ballroom happenings, Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin are having their biannual pro / student showcase in New York at the Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College on November 1st. These are always a lot of fun and you leave the theater wanting to dance, or wanting to take dance lessons, which is the point I guess! I’m told one of the dancing pro couples will be Iveta Lukosiute and Gherman Mustuc. If you’re not a ballroom person you may remember Iveta from her So You Think You Can Dance tryout last season. Anyway, if you’re in NY, it’s a fun night. Go here for more info.
A couple of weeks ago, the kind people at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater invited me to visit one of their Ailey camps. The one nearest me was in Washington Heights, so I spent a morning up there watching the kids and their classes. Then, late last week, they invited me to that camp’s final performance, which took place at Columbia University’s Miller Theater.
What a sweet night! So precious – the kids were so proud, the parents were so proud, the teachers were so proud. And the kids danced very very well. Some of them could seriously have professional dance careers if they wanted.
But that’s not really the point of the Ailey camps. They’re not pre-professional schools, like the Ailey school; they’re for underprivileged, inner-city kids from ages 11-14 to have a wonderful summer experience learning to dance – or, rather, learning discipline and and self-respect and acquiring an appreciation for the arts through self-expression. The camps are focused on dance, of course, but the children also take classes in other forms of self-expression, such as writing – where they compose poems about their lives, drumming (could anything be more fun than beating rhythmically on a conga drum?!) , and personal improvement kind of classes where they learn about the effects of drugs and alcohol, nutrition, etc., but in a fun way, by grouping into teams and having a kind of group Jeopardy tournament. The dance classes encompass many forms — ballet, tap, Horton-based modern, jazz, and African. And they go from class to class each day, each class lasting about 45 minutes. So, it’s like a school, but a really fun school! The camps receive corporate funding and grants, so the kids pay nothing to go; they don’t even pay for leotards and tights, etc.
The performance was really lovely. The various groups danced ballet, modern, tap, jazz, lots of African (that seemed to be the most fun, both for the kids and the spectators), read poems, and there was a drum section. There was a beautiful lyrical modern dance by an ensemble of girls that ended up being a wonderful tribute to Denise Jefferson, who passed away a few weeks ago. And they had a big tribute to Judith Jamison (Alvin Ailey’s muse and central dancer, who has run the company for the past two decades and who will retire at the end of this season). That tribute involved a life-sized puppet that the kids constructed, which they managed to make dance, which was really spectacular, and elicited loads of applause.
As I said, a really special night.
Here are a couple of videos I found on YouTube. The first is of the Miami camp (there are, I think, 13 altogether, in cities around the U.S.), and explains what the camp is all about, and the second is scenes from past NY camps.
I received news from Dance New Amsterdam that Ellenore Scott, finalist from season 6 of SYTYCD, will be teaching an intermediate / advanced contemporary class there for two weeks starting August 17th. I thought it sounded fun and thought I’d pass on the info to you guys, if anyone is in NY and takes classes. Apparently, Scott has been touring with Janet Jackson and is taking a two-week hiatus from that to teach. DNA is located downtown and has excellent rehearsal studios and a good little theater as well (I’ve seen performances and rehearsals there). The news on them of late has been that they’re in danger of losing their lease, and are trying to reach an agreement with the city. Hopefully they’ll work something out, because I know it’s an important space for small dance companies.
Anyway, here’s Ellenore’s schedule. And check out the rest of their upcoming classes and events here.
Ha, I love it when my two favorite subjects – dance and lit – collide! A favorite author of mine (ever since her Going Down days), Jennifer Belle, publicized her latest book by hiring actresses to read it in public places throughout New York and laugh hysterically while doing so. She happened to audition the actresses at Dance New Amsterdam, the large studio in lower Manhattan that’s a favorite of small dance companies for inexpensive rehearsal space and that’s recently been in danger of closing due to lack of funds. Anyway, read the rest of the rather amusing story here.
Interesting article by Claudia La Rocco in the NY Times about the influence of SYTYCD on studios. (I missed SYTYCD this week; had really wanted to watch Thursday night but was at New York City Ballet all settled in my seat excitedly waiting for the premiere of Mauro Bigonzetti’s Luce Nascosta when I realized I’d forgotten to tape it).
Anyway, regarding this article: I have noticed in the last few Dance Times Square performance showcases that there have been several student / pro hip hop and lyrical routines (lyrical there meaning balletic modern, without shoes, like a contemporary routine on SYTYCD), which is odd given that it’s a ballroom / Latin studio. And the students are dancing with their same teachers, which means that ballroom / Latin specialists are teaching performance-level hip hop and modern dance. Perhaps in the future ballroom instructors will have to show fluency in more styles to get their jobs.
Broadway Dance Center (mentioned in the article), where I’ve taken ballet and jazz is an excellent studio by the way, if you’re in NY. So is Alvin Ailey extension, where I’ve taken Samba (Brazilian social / Carnival, not ballroom samba). They have everything at AA now, including Salsa and other ballroom dances, though I think they’re more geared toward social than competitive. But I think the attraction to Dance Times Square (aside from the fact the studio owners are now celebrities thanks to SYTYCD) is that they put on performances in real NY theaters, which gives students the chance to dance on a real stage. Alvin Ailey extension does too now; the students are performing in the theater inside AA studios, and Broadway Dance Center has its student showcases in the Martin Luther King Jr. High School auditorium, but it just feels different when it’s on a Broadway stage.
Anyway, I’m getting off track. But I do think dance styles are merging. You see more ballroom routines both in studios’ student showcases and on Dancing with the Stars that are looking lyrical these days, and more Latin routines that are looking very hip hop. And, as is mentioned in the article, some dance styles – like tap – are not visible on SYTYCD at all and are losing popularity in studios as well. I guess no one wants to bother learning an “unpopular” dance style… Nigel Lythgoe told La Rocco he didn’t think tap worked for the show because it’s so specific – it’s too hard to train general dancers in tap at such a level as to get performance-quality work out of them. Obviously it’s the same with ballet. It takes years, decades, to learn proper ballet technique, to even try going on pointe.
I really hope though that Lythgoe will continue trying to introduce general audiences to those styles not in competition on the show. Savion Glover and Jason Samuels Smith will sufficiently wow audiences (one of them has been on before, can’t remember which one), and all he has to do to make the masses swoon over ballet is to have Natalia Osipova on the show. I think the fun of ballroom and hip hop is in large part to learn them yourself, but the excitement of ballet is just watching.
Photo above of Mandy Moore and students by Stanley Kranitz, taken from the Times.
Alvin Ailey studios (which offers adult classes in everything from ballet to salsa to capoeira) is planning a big shindig to celebrate Brazilian Independence Day, on Sunday, September 13th.
Quenia Ribeiro (whose classes I’ve taken — and even lived to tell 🙂 ) and Tiba Vieria will spend the day (11 am- 7 pm) teaching Macuele (an Afro-Brazilian dance), Capoeira, Samba drumming, and of course Samba dancing — both the Bahia (Reggae) style and the Rio style — the latter in high-heeled platform shoes. The day will culminate with with “Bloco Ribeiro,” a performance and parade led by Quenia and her band up and down 55th Street. Costumes and props will be provided for participants.
Fun fun! Go here for a schedule and more info.
Thanks to a comment from the executive producer on my prior post, I remembered to watch the series premiere last night of the newest TV dance show (Oxygen network).
It was sweet. All of the contestants are “real people,” some with dance background, most with none, and all of whom are overweight, some severely and life-threateningly so. They each work with a professional dance partner, a nutritionist, a doctor, and a fitness coach to learn to eat right, maintain physical fitness, and of course dance. For many of these contestants, success on the show is a matter of life and death — no exaggeration. That’s what morbidly obese means — it’s not just a loose term that means “gross” or something; it means the obesity could have morbid results. The doctor was very interesting. He talked about how for many of the contestants, fat had leaked into their liver, their pancreas, and their diaphragm, making it harder for those organs to function, harder for the contestants to breathe. I knew it could cause diabetes but I didn’t know fat could do that – could spread to other organs, like cancer, and overtake them.
Anyway, it’s a competition of course, like almost all reality TV these days, so a person is eliminated each week. The dancing is all fast-paced and aerobic, which makes sense. The dances last night were chosen by the contestant — hip hop, disco, swing or jive. Next week everyone is supposed to compete in disco.
There are three judges and each contestant receives a score, based on the quality of their dancing. They then weigh themselves, and the percentage of their total body weight that they lost that week is added onto their dance score for a total score. The person with the lowest score leaves. There seems to be no audience vote.
Which is fine, because it’s completely impossible to root for one person at the expense of the rest. Of course you want them all to do well. And it’s kind of sad that it has to be a competition anyway, given the goal of the show (which is of course to lose weight but there’s also an incentive in the form of a $100,000 prize). But competitions are what audiences seem to want these days. As it was, the first person to leave last night was the person who probably had the least to lose: she’s an attractive young woman, a former model, and had only recently begun to put on the pounds. But she wasn’t anywhere near as heavy as the rest. Hopefully, she had enough time on the show (meaning, the weeks — I assume it was weeks — spent preparing), to change her lifestyle.
I think the show is a very good idea, but I do hope its important message is able to rub off on the general public and it doesn’t just become a spectacle like so much reality TV. The reason many thin people are thin is that they have happy, fulfilling, active lifestyles. They appreciate the taste of food and so seek well-made, quality food (ie: eat canned asparagus with dinner and you’re probably going to have to get rid of the horrendous aftertaste with a monster bag of Oreos or whatnot; eat asparagus vinegarette with a nice glass of wine and no need for dessert), in moderation and without gorging (you can’t appreciate the taste if you’re only going to gobble it right down) and without ever depriving themselves of their favorites. (ie: eat chocolate and be happy, but buy a quality bar and you’ll be much more fulfilled than if you eat crap from a vending machine, in which case you’re probably going to have to eat a few bars to be likewise sated).
I know it sounds funny for a blogger with the words “skinny white girl” in her tag line to be lecturing on weight loss, but honestly my mother is the same size as many of the contestants on the show — actually bigger; she’s really too big to dance — and she has a whole host of health problems and I worry about her daily. The only difference between us is lifestyle (city versus small town) and our approach to food.
Of course another reason thin people are thin is that they don’t have time to eat so much because they’re out being active, and being active is fun, not a chore. You don’t have to go to the gym, you don’t have to run laps. You can lose weight and become fit by learning to dance, so long as you’re learning proper technique and learning to use proper muscle groups. And then you’re not just losing weight but getting sculpted as well 🙂
I think this show is a great idea. It’s on every Monday night from 10-11:30 EST, 9 pm Central. Visit their website to learn some of the dance moves on the show, watch episodes, and submit your own videos. You can also join their Facebook page to discuss. For weight loss, I recommend your local dance studio — preferably ballet (I’m not kidding; just because barre work is slow doesn’t mean you’re not getting an intense workout, avec the body sculpting I was talking about!) If you’re in NY, the Harkness Center at the 92 Street Y is a very good dance studio with a very non-intimidating atmosphere. If you’re braver, try Steps on the west side (be warned, famous dancers take class there). If you want to work at home, I highly highly HIGHLY recommend this.
For their May11th “ballroom” showcase at the Danny Kaye Playhouse. I put ballroom in parenthesis because, though the studio specializes in Latin / Ballroom instruction (and is the studio where I took lessons with Pasha), it seems that they are really expanding, at least for their biannual showcases, which used to be student-oriented and are increasingly centering on pro performances — and pros of all kinds, not just ballroom.
The May 11th show will feature, in addition to Pasha and Anya (!); David Parsons Dance Company performing Caught (regular readers of this blog know how I feel about that dance 🙂 ); Sabra Johnson, Travis Wall and Twitch from So You Think You Can Dance; the Mark Stuart Eckstein Dance Company (which I don’t know of); choreographer Tricia Brouke’s OtherShore; opera star Aprile Millo; and for ballroom, the EXCELLENT Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova, top American Smooth contenders J.T. Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki, and (the very good, very sexy) former Latin junior champs Manuel Favilla and Karolina Paliwoda.
Expected guest attendees include Baryshnikov (!), Desmond Richardson (!), Edie Falco, Susan Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, Mickey Rourke, Barbara Walters, Antonio Banderas, Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, and more — including judges and choreographers from SYTYCD (which DTS studio owners Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin choreograph for as well).
I’m happily stunned that my ballroom studio has become kind of this major outlet for popular concert dance in the city!
There’s also an after-party at the studio, as well as a pre-show reception at the Danny Kaye Playhouse for Angel on a Leash, which the program is benefitting. Angel on a Leash sponsors rehabilitative dogs (for people with seeing, hearing disabilities, etc.) Go here for more info.