Category: Dance on Television

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Dancing With the Stars Season 12 Cast

I can’t believe I watched The Bachelor for this! I hate reality TV shows!

Anyway, if you missed ABC’s announcement / mini press conference, here’s the season 12 cast:

Sugar Ray Leonard
Chelsea Kane (Disney star)
Romeo (hip hop artist)
Ralph Macchio (Karate Kid star)
Petra Nemcova (supermodel and UN spokesperson)
Kendra Wilkinson (reality TV person)
Hines Ward (footballer, Steelers)
Mike Catherwood (missed who he is, sorry)
Wendy Williams (talk show host)
Chris Jericho (wrestler)
Kirstie Alley

Not horribly excited about this cast. Most interesting to me at this point are Sugar Ray (duh!), Kirstie Alley, and Ralph Macchio. Okay, those are the only ones I really know anything of. Whenever new casts are announced it always drives home how out of it I am pop culture-wise 🙂

Anyone you guys are particularly excited about?

Top photo from here.

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Misty Copeland on Tavis Smiley

 

Apropos of our recent discussion on race and ballet, ABT’s Misty Copeland was recently on the Tavis Smiley show. She talks about race, ballet, elitism, her training, her recent appearance onstage with Prince, the immense difficulty of ballet, and of course, Black Swan. She’s very well spoken. Go Misty!

Also, speaking of Black Swan, here’s an essay by former NYCB dancer Toni Bentley in the Daily Beast. Bentley has more guts than anyone else in the industry, that’s for damn sure. Go Toni!

Above photo of Copeland taken from Martini Pink.

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Jenifer Ringer to Appear on Oprah

 

NYCB announced today that Jenifer Ringer (the subject of Sugarplumpgate if you’re not a regular NYCB dance-goer) will appear on Oprah Winfrey this Thursday, February 17th. She’ll appear as part of an episode called “Fascinating Lives.” In addition to being interviewed, footage of Ringer in rehearsal and performing Jerome Robbins’ I’m Old Fashioned will be shown. The show will air at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, on ABC. Click on the link below to read the press release.

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Ballroom Kids Win “Live to Dance”

 

Apparently the young ballroom dance duo, D’Angelo and Amanda, won the first Live to Dance championship last night. Coming in second place was the 11-year-old contemporary / jazz dancer, Kendall Glover, and placing third were the ballet pair, White Tree Fine Art.

Thank you to reader Irina for emailing me about the show’s results! You guys, I am so sorry but I’ve been so crazy busy trying to finish my second novel, get it out, and get the third going. I know I haven’t blogged much about ballroom lately – and I’m sorry – it’s my passion, it really is! My third novel, by the way, is going to have a good deal of ballroom in it, so I think that’s what’s been going on with me – all my attentions have been taken with the novels…

Anyway, because of the books and the ballet, I’ve missed the last three weeks of Live to Dance and am going to have to watch YouTube videos to catch up. I remember not liking the ballroom pair a whole lot, nor Kendall, but loving that break dancer. Too bad he didn’t place. I am glad ballet had a showing in the finals though.

I’m off to a reading (Benjamin Hale – can’t wait to read The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore!) but hope this weekend to look up some of those YouTube clips so I can see if D’Angelo and Amanda got any better from the last time I saw them.

Thank you to Irina for making me aware of the final results! I promise to get back into the ballroom swing of things soon!

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Jittin’ Genius

My favorite from last night’s Live to Dance semifinal. I hadn’t heard of jitting, which he described as a more modern version of the jitterbug of the 50s. To me it looked like original break dancing or krumping without the attitude, but the jitterbug connection makes sense. I loved it. I hope America votes him into the finals.

I wasn’t so in love with the child ballroom duo. Whenever anyone dances to The Beat I just can’t keep from thinking of Yulia Zagoruychenko and her old partner Max Kozhevnikov and whatever’s before me just pales in comparison. Their legwork and some of the partnering was sloppy. I know they’re kids but I’ve seen much better at ballroom competitions.

I am glad the public voted the ballet dancers – White Tree Fine Art – into the semis for next week.

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Jim Carrey as “The Black Swan” on SNL

How much do I love this?! Did you guys see it last night? I hardly ever watch Saturday Night Live anymore, but I kept the TV on after watching the Jets game (go Jets!!!). And I was so glad I did because not only do I love Jim Carrey (and think it’s a travesty he wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe for I Love You Phillip Morris) but of course I would have missed this most excellent parody. Of course the film is almost a parody of itself anyway (imo) … but we’ve already had that discussion.

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“Live to Dance” Premiere

So what did you guys think of Paula Abdul’s new show, which premiered mid-last week? For people who missed it, it was basically “just” the auditions, but I put “just” in quotes because it seems like this is going to be a rather large part of the show. If I understand correctly, next week will be the semifinals, then the following week the finals. So, short show, right?

The three judges were Abdul herself, Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt, and music / dance choreographer Travis Payne, who’s worked with Michael Jackson, among others. The grand prize is $500,000 and will go to either an individual, a pair of dancers, or a group. Unlike So You Think You Can Dance, there’s no age limit – and contestants ranged from small children to 90-something-year-olds. And any form of dance is acceptable. Abdul said she simply wants to see “amazing people who live in their own unique abilities.”

So the standard for judging seems very subjective, to make an understatement. Plus, there aren’t separate categories for individuals, groups, and pairs – the winner can come from any of the three. I’d think it would be impossible to judge such a competition. Which makes me question again why all these shows are so wedded to the competition format. This one did kind of have a variety-show feel to it, which was nice.

You can’t really judge many of these contestants from any kind of technique perspective. How can you judge the 90-year-old woman who’d been accepted into the Rockettes what – 70 years ago, and who was just picking back up her young adulthood passion, after her lifelong husband passed away. She could barely move but she could move and that was fantastic. Plus her story – her husband went off to serve in WWII and she had to quit dance to work – nearly made me cry.

And then there was the little girl who tried out in – not sure what style to call it – very earthy-looking ballet without ballet shoes – and who I personally thought shouldn’t have advanced to the semis. She was certainly flexible (as most children are) and she could turn, but her feet and lines were a mess and she really needs training. But she wanted it so badly and she was so sweet, and how do you say no to a child?

And then there were all those groups – mostly hip hop, one from Cuba that was kind of Latin / contemporary – and how do you compare the theatrics of those, who take up the whole stage, to what one individual can accomplish on it?

And had anyone heard of that White Tree Fine Art –  the only ballet company we saw? A pair from the company tried out, and the woman said they’d worked with Michael Smuin before he passed away. I hadn’t heard of them before and thought they were decent, but may have been better if they’d just stuck to classical instead of trying to do something more poppy. I know they were trying to show Travis Payne, who was critical of ballet, calling it “extreme,” that they could make it contemporary, but sometimes that can really backfire. I do love that Kimberly Wyatt liked them so much, and snapped at Payne, insisting ballet is the basis of all dance. So ballet fans know we have at least one person in the world of popular dance we can count on!

I don’t know. I’m going to have to hold off on my verdict until seeing more. So far I think it works as a variety-style show, but not so well as a competition.

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SLSG’s Dance Highlights of 2010

Instead of trying to remember which were my favorite performances of the year, I’m just going back through my blog archives from January of this year and linking to the most memorable posts. More fun that way! A lot happened in a year…

January

Pacific Northwest Ballet made their debut at the Joyce; it was my first time seeing them live.

The Post‘s Page 6 announced that you know who and you know who are dating, and the ridiculous homewrecker attacks began.

Baryshnikov and Annie Liebovitz starred in a very cool Louis Vuitton ad.

February

I totally fell for New York City Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty.

…and Mark Sanchez 🙂

I found myself quoted in Colin Jarman’s book, Dancing With the Quotes.

I also fell for Sara Mearns’s Odette in Peter Martins’s Swan Lake.

On a personal note, my former judge, the esteemed Honorable Sylvia Pressler, passed away.

The Kings of Dance came to town.

Morphoses shocked the ballet world by announcing that Christopher Wheeldon was leaving the company.

March

My friend’s organization, Art for Change, held a benefit for Haiti after the earthquake.

Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance announced that Danny Tidwell and SYTYCD’s Jacob Karr were joining the company.

Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon finally made their NYC debut!

I found myself actually getting press for liking Kate Gosselin – or for not hating Kate Gosselin rather – on Dancing With the Stars.

I fell for Keigwin + Company’s Runaway.

I was delighted to receive an email from NYCB ballerina Yvonne Borree’s aunt regarding of all things, my novel.

April

I had my first experience as a dance writer panelist! Thank you, Marc, from TenduTV!

Tiler Peck appeared on Dancing With the Stars in a Travis Wall routine, which everyone was so excited about. But it ended up amounting to not a whole lot…

Roberto Bolle danced a naked Giselle, in Italy of course.

May

New York City Ballet opened their spring season with premieres of Millepied’s Why Am I Not Where You Are and Ratmansky’s Namouna, both of which I liked, though Ratmansky’s had to grow a bit on me.

Baryshnikov returned to the stage.

I greatly enjoyed ABT’s new production, Lady of the Camellias, though most critics panned it.

June

ABT celebrated Alicia Alonso’s 90th birthday with three all-star Latin American casts (plus Natalia Osipova) dancing in Don Quixote.

Yvonne Borree gave her farewell performance at NYCB.

Bill T. Jones won a Tony for best choreographer for Fela!

Philip Neal gave his farewell performance at NYCB.

Natalia Osipova was mugged right outside of Lincoln Center.

Two of the greatest ballerinas in Europe – Osipova, and Alina Cojocaru – gave back to back Sleeping Beauty performances at ABT.

Albert Evans gave his farewell performance at NYCB.

Tap great Savion Glover made headlines by voicing his annoyance with Alastair Macaulay’s NY Times criticism of him – onstage, during a show.

Conductor Maurice Kaplow gave his farewell performance with NYCB.

Darci Kistler officially ended the era of the Balanchine-trained dancer with her farewell performance with NYCB.

July

Carlos Acosta announced his retirement from ballet and his foray into modern dance.

Alex Wong, probably the second greatest contestant ever on SYTYCD was injured and unable to finish the show.

My friend, Taylor Gordon, was profiled as a freelance ballet dancer in a New York Times article 🙂

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s beloved Denise Jefferson passed away.

Nilas Martins retired from NYCB oddly sans fanfare, sans criticism, sans a performance.

August

I interviewed tWitch about his role in the movie Step It Up. Fun fun interview!

I had a blast covering Ailey Camp.

I nearly fell over when Wendy Perron, esteemed E-I-C of Dance Magazine recommended Swallow on Twitter!

September

NYCB began their excellent “See the Music” series.

October

I loved Ashley Bouder’s Serenade.

Emerging Pictures’s awesomely exciting Ballet in Cinema series began with the Bolshoi’s Flames of Paris.

This cool new Lincoln Center-area street art sprouted up.

One of my favorite posts of the year, though it received no comments, was about Anne Fortier’s novel, Juliet. I jokingly daydreamed about it being made into a film, and which of my favorite ballet stars might take the lead.

November

ABT made an historic visit to Cuba and oh how I wished I could have gone with them.

I think I was the only person in the entire dance world to sympathize with Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars.

I had a blast covering New York So You Think You Can Dance auditions.

All of a sudden Black Swan was everywhere.

Nearly fell over again upon hearing Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko took the world Latin ballroom title – making them the first U.S. couple ever to do so.

December

My take on SugarPlumpGate.

Black Swan finally premiered which I didn’t love but was happy to have ballet brought back into the spotlight.

I was in awe of Alvin Ailey’s 50-dancer Revelations, staged in honor of the 50th anniversary of that dance. I also loved several other dances in their City Center season – Ailey’s Cry, Ronald K. Brown’s Dancing Spirit, and Geoffrey Holder’s The Prodigal Prince – just to name a few.

Robert Wilson / Roberto Bolle’s Perchance to Dream exhibit in Chelsea was a lot o’ frightening fun.

ABT’s new Nutcracker premiered, which I really enjoyed, almost as much as the Bolshoi’s.

Portman and Millepied revealed they are now engaged and expecting.

I had great fun, despite the crazy snowstorm, going down to Wall Street and covering Judith Jamison’s ringing of the closing bell at the NYSE.

Pretty busy year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

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Dancing With the Stars Season 11 Finale, Night II

My favorite dance of the night, maybe of the whole show: Jennifer and Derek’s waltz:

I also found The Situation’s “I’m Too Sexy” dance hilarious fun and Kurt and Rick’s competitive duet a total hoot. Of course some homophobic sports fans on Twitter watched the show for some reason (why?) and pronounced that dance the “gayest” ever on the show. Ugh, don’t watch a dance show if you’re going to be freaking out about guys dancing…

Anyway, so are you guys happy with the results? I really thought Jennifer would win. I didn’t really have a favorite to win, but thought this was one of the best finales in recent history. I was just happy with the fact that there were three very different dancers / very different personality types up there, each of whom brought something wholly different to the dance. Still disappointed – and kind of shocked – that people made it more about politics than dance. Of course Sarah Palin now has to ruin it all with this speech she wrote analyzing other reality competition shows, like American Idol, and reprimanding contestants she considers lacking talent from not recognizing that and dealing with it like grown-ups (by not trying out for the show). Which is going to bring out more criticism of her daughter’s performance on this show… Anyway, that is an issue for another day; I’m tired now 🙂

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Dancing With the Stars Season 11 Finale

So tonight is the finale, part 1. The three finalists – Kyle Massey, Jennifer Grey, and, I know, most controversially, Bristol Palin – are performing first a redemption dance (a former dance they didn’t do so well in the first time around), and then the almost always entertaining freestyle.

First on are Kyle and Lacey re-performing their Foxtrot. Well, I can’t remember the first time they did it but this was smoldering! I loved him! So dazzling, such a man! I love how he licked his lips at her at one point, while she did a little solo, before he took off after her. And when they did their side by side footwork, he seriously looked Fred Astaire-ish. This dance alone honestly made me want him to win. He was a marvel – excellent dancing and loads of style. What more can you want!

Next are Bristol and Mark re-dancing the jive. Well, this was definitely much better than the first time around, where they were in those silly bear costumes. I thought she was cute and he gave her lots of little shake-y things to do – with her shoulders, hips, and those cute sassy forward walks – but she looked a bit tired. Her legs weren’t coming off the ground enough; there was a real imbalance between them. And she lacked his precision, which isn’t surprising at all considering her lack of experience. And she looked a bit unsure of the footwork, though she seemed to get all of the steps right. Still, she did have fun and looked like it, and put on far more of a show than she did the first time around. I still don’t think this is her dance though. I’m hoping for more from the freestyle.

Finally, Jennifer and Derek re-do their paso doble. Well, it was better than last time. She definitely had more control over herself. Derek didn’t give her a whole lot of dancing though; gave himself all the flashy stuff – with the crazy cape swirling, the tour jete, the turning jumps. I mean, I felt like she didn’t have a whole lot of chances to screw up here. But she did what she was given well. She looked polished, albeit a bit stiff in the upper body. That dance is so serious, it’s hard not to look stiff though. Overall, I still feel it’s not her best dance.

My winner for the first round is Kyle. Judges gave Jennifer the top score though (perfect score of 30; Bruno says he wished he had an 11 card).

Now onto the freestyle:

Kyle and Lacey do a full out funky hip hop to “Tootsie Roll.” Yeah, I’m not so in love with the freestyle round. They rarely involve any ballroom at all. It seems like they’re more for the pro ballroom dancers, who get to do something else for a change. He was a lot of fun though. Song was a lot of fun. It was the perfect dance for him.

Next are Bristol and Mark doing a Broadway routine (“He Had it Coming” from Chicago). I LOVED it! I can’t believe how well she did for never having seen the movie, or any Broadway show before! I didn’t expect her to do so well, since what she’s done well on this show has been the real girl, the authentic person dancing ballroom at a social but elegant ballroom event, and totally stealing the show. But this required real performance quality, and I believe she pulled through. Though the judges don’t… Audience seemed to love her though. I thought she had that Fosse-esque quality, with the hips, she used the props well – the chair, the hat, the cage, that crazy sash that they wrapped themselves up in! (Latin champs Max Kozhevnikov and Yulia Zagoruychenko have done something similar in a showdance, and I’m sure that’s where Mark got the idea from, because I certainly don’t remember that from the movie! – and damn, did she do well with it; that could have been a recipe for disaster, you know…). Seriously, she had that combination of jazz and tango down, and went back and forth between the two with surprising ease. I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I thought she did unbelievably well. I liked hers better than Kyle’s anyway.

Now Jennifer and Derek: cute, they dance to “Do You Love Me” from Dirty Dancing. Wait, is that also from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Well, it makes sense for her, of course. I thought she did well, but, honestly, wasn’t great. She looked nervous and had a couple of flubs where she was a slight bit off on the footwork and on the rhythm. It didn’t matter much; she was still a lot of fun and “sold it” personality-wise, and I guess that’s what the freestyle is all about. Still seemed to be more dancing for Derek though, more tricks at least. Judges have nothing but praise though, and audience is on its feet.

There weren’t very many lifts in this freestyle finale, huh? Overall, Bristol is my favorite for the freestyle round.

So, Kyle is my winner for the ballroom redemption round, and Bristol for the freestyle. I think Jennifer’s going to win it overall though.

I thought Brandy and Maks were going to perform their freestyle though. I thought that’s what the judges said last week. Instead, they’re doing a little preview of Skating With the Stars. Huhm, maybe it will be tomorrow night.

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So You Think You Can Dance Auditions, New York

Earlier this week, thanks to my friend, Taylor Gordon, I was able to sit in on some of the New York City So You Think You Can Dance auditions. They were held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in the opera house. This was my first time watching, so it was really enlightening.

First, it wasn’t at all as formal as I was expecting. I got there an hour early, fearing there’d be a huge line, and there really wasn’t. I don’t know how many people really knew about them; if it wasn’t for Taylor, I wouldn’t have known. So I got there early for nothing! But while I was waiting in the outside line, I spotted Alex Wong running down the street across from the opera house. Actually someone else spotted him and then everyone looked over and started waving wildly. He smiled and waved back. I didn’t see much of him but it looked like he still had a very slight limp. Later, former contestants Katee and Will were inside. They didn’t do anything onstage though; were just watching.

Anyway, when we got into the auditorium, we were confined basically to the far right-hand side of the orchestra. The middle of the orchestra was taken up with all the audio and camera people, and of course the judges. And the left-hand side was where the contestants and their families sat. A camera man was standing all the way to the left-side of the auditorium, right in front of the path the contestants took up to the stage. As their number approached, a contestant would walk up to the camera man, and stretch and pose in front of him while he shot them close up. As a contestant would leave the stage after auditioning, another camera man would follow him or her down the aisle. Funny, but I always thought, when I watched on TV, that of all that was happening in separate rooms, but it all happened right there in the same room.

Also, when the judges first came out, they had makeup and hair people kind of touching them up right there, before they sat down. Tuesday’s judges were: Mary Murphy, Jason Gilkison, and of course Nigel Lythgoe.

I’d thought they were going to make us check in our cell phones, etc., and that there would be all these production assistants roaming the aisles shushing everyone. But no. We could totally talk and laugh and make whatever noise we wanted; none of it would be heard on the tape without a microphone being nearby anyway. That was actually kind of annoying to me because of course everyone around me was taking on the role of critic him/herself, saying what they thought of the dancer to everyone around them. I couldn’t always hear what the actual judges were saying. Sometimes people even talked during the performance – talking about the dancer onstage, so they were involved in what was going on – but I just found it really disruptive. I guess I’m just so used to ballet performances, where everyone is silent.

The first contestant came onstage from the left wing, her number pinned to the front of her waist. Nigel told her to approach the microphone directly in front of them and she shyly did so. She was petite and blond, and very nervous. She said she was dancing contemporary. Nigel asked her her age (I think it was 19) and dance training (she’d trained in almost everything). It all seemed sweet and informal; no nastiness from anyone, at least in the beginning. Nigel was really nice and considerate, as were the other two. Then, he told her to proceed to center stage and when she was there, called out, “cue music.” She danced very well. Good technique, and nice choreography. You could tell she was very nervous, though, and didn’t give it the emotional punch it needed, as the judges said (along with the very vocal people behind me). She was sent through to choreography.

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