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Jennifer Alexander

 

This is so horribly sad. I had heard about this several-vehicle collision in New Jersey the other night on the news, and I had heard Jennifer‘s name mentioned and that she was a dancer with ABT, but for some reason I didn’t know she had actually died; I thought she was only injured. Her husband, Julio Bragado-Young, also with ABT was injured and is still, it appears, in critical condition at Hackensack University Medical Center. A man in another car was killed as well.

Jennifer, her husband, and two other dancers were returning home from guest-performing in a Nutcracker in Pennsylvania. In addition to dancing with ABT, when she came to NY in 1993 she danced in Broadway productions of The Red Shoes and Carousel. Speaking of “Center Stage,” she was featured in that movie as well.

 

You see someone onstage many times and you think you know them, but of course you don’t. I particularly remember her from The Green Table. She is in the yellow dress. So sad.

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David Does Guggenheim and Justin Does Nutcracker in Drag

A little birdie at the Guggenheim last night told me that none other than David Hallberg is scheduled to perform ABT‘s upcoming Works & Process event there in January!!! Julie Kent is slated to dance as well 🙂

I am behind on my reviewing, but am working hard on my Alvin Ailey post (it’s really difficult to write about something you love; you keep feeling like you’re not doing it justice…) and, after that, Shen Wei Dance Arts at Guggenheim, which I saw last night. In the meantime, here’s a funny, but informative Winger post about NYCB’s Justin Peck getting made up to dance the role of Mother Ginger in their Nutcracker. Growing up, “the fat lady with all the kids under her skirt” was always my favorite part of that ballet, so I really enjoyed this.

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Dance Mag Spills Beans on Center Stage 2

This just in from Hanna Rubin at Dance Magazine. The filming of the movie Center Stage 2 is currently underway in Vancouver. The original Center Stage came out in 2000 and was kind of a cult hit among fans of American Ballet Theater and NYCity Ballet starring as it did several dancers from those companies, including ABT’s lovely Julie Kent and heartthrobs Ethan Stiefel and Sascha Radetsky. It was cute in an ABC After School Special kind of way and detailed the drama taking place at training school for pre-professional ballet dancers replete with eating disorders, body-type issues, harsh disciplinarian teachers, and back-stabbing hyper-competitiveness. And there was a little love triangle in which Ethan, as the cocky womanizing shit, and Sascha, as the nice guy, vie for the attentions of the main female character. Blast if I couldn’t find a YouTube of the little dance competition between these two guys, my favorite part. But here’s one giving a good musical overview of the whole.

Anyway, according to Dance Mag, Ethan will be reprising his role, this time playing cocky-shit dancer as well as cocky-shit teacher 😀 This time the main character is a small-town girl, played by newcomer to the big screen (? — I can’t find anything on the web on her), Rachele Smith, who enrolls at the academy with hopes of making it as a pro ballerina but who is also passionate about hip hop, and is hence an object of scorn by some of her ballet classmates. Ethan, it appears, will be dancing some hip hop. Fun fun! And he sounds very excited about it. According to the e-newsletter: “‘It was fantastic! I’m not sure I was necessarily successful, but what was beautiful was the collaboration with the other dancers. At this point in my career, when learning something brand-new like this falls into your lap, it’s challenging and exciting.”

I hope the sequel is more sophisticated than the original, but even if it’s not, watching Ethan dance hip hop should be worth the price of at least one admission.

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Dance Times Square Showcase Review Up

My review of the Dance Times Square student / professional showcase is now up on Explore Dance. The first without Pasha & Anya. Sad indeed, but, still, a fun-filled night with a lot of great dancing that succeeded in its aim: to propel spectators to want to get up and Mambo, Swing, and Foxtrot the night away themselves.

I’ve spent the weekend sprinting like a madwoman back and forth between 44th Street, where the Small Press Book Fair happened, and City Center, where Alvin Ailey season is currently underway. Yesterday I saw a wonderful program including one of my favorite dances of all-time, “Revelations,” which everyone should see at least once in their lives, along with a cute new western-y piece, “Saddle Up!” and the very jazzy, even samba-y (yes, Alvin Ailey knew Samba very well!), “Night Creature,” a tribute to Duke Ellington. And tonight will be more of the same. Ailey is simple the best. I love this company so! I plan to blog about both performances at some point tomorrow, after a sure to be grueling morning oral argument in court. Grueling because the case law is contradictory and perplexing, and because I have an extremely formidable adversary who is known for eviscerating his opponents alive. I know, all lawyers are scary (except me 😀 ) but no, this one is worse worse worse! Help!

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Specialized Social Networking Sites Are Becoming All The Rage…

Thanks to reader Sharon for alerting me to this new social networking site, Ballroom Dance Channel. Founded by Dancing With the Stars pro dancers Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Tony Dovolani, and Elena Grinenko, it is geared toward, as the name implies, fans of ballroom dance, and of the show. It’s similar to Kristin Sloan’s The Intermission (for all dance aficionados but mainly ballet), and Ken Davenport’s BroadwaySpace.com (for those involved in theater). Perhaps these more specialized social networking sites can avoid some of the pitfalls of their mammoth brethren.

Ironically, as internet technology allows people better ways to connect with each other in virtual time, it works to hamper that connection in real time. Of all the talk about Amazon’s new Kindle (basically an ipod for books, blogs and online mags), Meghan Daum’s critique is my favorite. She basically says that glancing at the cover of a fellow airplane traveler’s book was a perfect conversation starter. A fellow book lover, I agree with her — not just on planes, but in cafes, the park, the subway — recognizing a favorite book in the hands of another is a sure point of connection. I guess there’s always Shelfari though, which likely can be accessed from one’s Kindle…

In other news, it appears that Elizabeth Berkeley is to host Bravo’s new reality dance show, “Step It Up And Dance.” I knew she had some connection to dance, since I saw her on the red carpet. Also, Pasha & Anya are scheduled to perform in Stamford, Connecticut later in December (thanks to Laurel for that info!), in a ballroom dancing extravaganza called “Rhythm of Love,” which also stars some of my other favorites, new national American Smooth and Rhythm champs respectively, J.T. Thomas & Tomasz Mielnicki, and Jose DeCamps & Joanna Zacharewics. If you love ballroom and you’re not too far from southern CT, this should be a fabulous night. Book-wise, if you’re in NY, this weekend is the (free) Small and Independent Press Book Fair in midtown. Go here for a schedule of events.

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It All Begins With a Box…

“I start every dance with a box. I write the project name on the box, and as the piece progresses I fill it up with every item that went into the making of the dance. This means notebooks, news clippings, CDs, videotapes of me working alone in my studio, videos of the dancers rehearsing, books and photographs and pieces of art that may have inspired me.

. . .

eventually the material for [Movin’ Out] filled up twelve boxes.”

Twyla Tharp, THE CREATIVE HABIT.

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Ailey Season Begins Tonight

 

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater‘s month-long New York season officially starts tonight. This is one of my favorite dance companies (second only to ABT :)) so I intend to be at City Center as often as I can throughout December.

Word is that this is Clifton Brown’s year to shine.  I’ve long admired this tall, strong, charismatic dancer so I’m thrilled he’s finally getting his due. (He also happens to hail from my neck of the woods; I love reading him talk about being exposed to Ailey in Phoenix :))

Also, the company has set up a little phone system, whereby you can dial this number: 212-514-0010, and press various keys to hear a dancer or choreographer speak about a work currently on the company’s rep. For example, press 3# to hear artistic director, the illustrious Judith Jamison talk about their new production of Maurice Bejart’s “Firebird;” press 5# to hear the sweet-voiced choreographer Camille A. Brown explain her intriguing new piece, “The Groove To Nobody’s Business”; and press 9# to hear dancer Matthew Rushing speak about learning Alvin Ailey’s “Reflections in D.” Go here to see all the prompts. I do so love this kind of audience-accessibility thing!

Go here for performance tix.

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Phew!

Marie just placed third. I can’t believe how intensely I am getting into these things; my heart was honestly pounding through my chest when they announced the first elimination. I was so nervous for Helio! Okay, onto the showdown between him and Mel!

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Lifts Are So Fun!

I always love the last, “free form,” dance on DWTS because everyone gets so into the lifts. They’re so much fun to learn as an adult; you feel like you’re a ‘real dancer,’ a ‘big person’ once you master a few (of the easier ones for me). Or at least I do because they’re so balletic, my ultimate dance passion. It’s so fun to watch all these giggly adults on the show, and in the studio. I think that’s why Dance Times Square’s student showcases became so popular; concentrating so hard on ballroom technique, as is required for the competitions, can get really monotonous; lifts are exciting, new and performancy.

I was really amazed by the level of difficulty of all the free form routines tonight. Those continuous assisted cartwheels that Helio and Julianne did blew me away — that he did them properly, I mean (I know Pasha and … geez, who did he do that routine with, Lacey??? … well I know Pasha and someone did them on SYTYCD, as did Benji and Heidi the season before, but it doesn’t surprise me that they were all splendid perfection!) I tried it with my old teacher, Luis, he wanting to put them into my Latin combo showcase. No way I said; not a sight anyone should see, believe me!

I really really really wish, though, that DWTS would have had ballet dancers appear on the show to teach the lifts. I had to go outside of my regular ballroom studio and learn from someone with a substantial ballet background; ballroom dancers aren’t used to lifts and, though they can do them, they’re difficult for them to teach. When Helio did that turn with Julianne laid out over his shoulders, he didn’t spot at all and I was afraid he was going to get dizzy because he turned several times. Plus, spotting just makes it look more polished. Ugh, another missed opportunity to have the greatest dancers in the world on the show 🙂 …

I was disappointed, though, with practically all of the ballroom routines tonight. I thought Mel and Maks’s was boring choreographic-wise, although Mel did well with the dancing … actually maybe that was a conscious decision on Maks’s part — to fill the choreography with basic after basic after basic (really, there was a lot of bronze-level stuff in that routine), and no tricks, so that she could just excel with the actual dancing. Still, I think for TV performance-quality, the pro needs to come up with something better than that. Marie and Helio’s routines I felt were choreographically more interesting, but Samba and Jive are their two hardest dances respectively. Marie did particularly unwell with Samba, and Helio’s Jive was fun because he put so much attitude into it, but, as Len said, he messed up the toe heel swivels and footwork in some places. I thought his Jive kicks were good though — those are hard. Well, Samba and Jive are my two hardest too so I sympathize…

Ugh, I dunno, I guess it’s anyone’s trophy really. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the Lincoln Center Christmas tree lighting tonight:

New York City Ballet performing teensy excerpts from Balanchine’s The Nutcracker on the balcony of the New York State Theater. Above is Megan Fairchild doing the Sugar Plum Fairy variation.


The tree is lit! There were SO many people there; I couldn’t believe it, especially since it was raining off and on, at times pouring even. There was a sea of umbrellas out on the plaza at one point. Unfortunately, I couldn’t ever find Kyle Froman since it was so packed out there. I’ll have to go to Barnes & Noble and check out his book this weekend. I looked for it at Books A Million in North Carolina, but they didn’t have it; had hardly any dance actually 🙁

Katy, from Burlington, says hello.

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Go Helio & Julianne!!!

So tomorrow night is the grand finale. My mom and I have been fighting about this all weekend. No, not really. But she wants Marie to win, or maybe possibly Helio, and I want Helio, Helio and Helio. In that order. No, not really; I’m just happy he’s made it to the finals. Okay, I say that now but on Tuesday night if he doesn’t get the championship I am going to be cursing all of America 🙂 Look at this website, by the way! He’s not the greatest speller, but it has a cool design and there’s tons of stuff to get into, including some funny video footage of him being interviewed for Brazilian TV, and some Carnival dancers teaching Julianne Hough solo samba. Of course she picks it up in all of two seconds.

Anyway, it still blows my mind how popular this show is. My mom and I went out to dinner tonight (my last night in North Carolina; I fly back ludicrously early tomorrow morning) and the family next to us was talking on and on about it. They were Marie fans. There are a lot of them I’m realizing. An interesting thing about this show is the variety of age groups it appeals to — far wider, I think, than SYTYCD‘s demographic.

Anyway, I want Helio to win not just because he’s a little cute who melts me with that laugh, but because, of the three left, I think he’s struggled and improved the most throughout the show. The other two remaining contenders — Marie and Mel (of course I wanted Jennie to be in the finals, underdog champ-rooter am I!, but oh well) are professional performers — maybe not pro dancers of a sort, like Sabrina, but they’re singers. So, they already had a sense of rhythm, and knew how to dance at least enough to give their singing some spice. Helio’s a race-car driver, not even an athlete who uses his body so much, so this is so foreign to him. He’s come the farthest and he should win!

Okay, truth be told, I also like him because he reminds me of the favorite. He’s very favorite-esque, albeit half the favorite’s size. And he’s from Samba country! And he’s cute! And he melts me with his smile! So go Helio, go Julianne! Merde!

Also on tomorrow night, if you’re in the New York area, is the lighting of the Lincoln Center Christmas tree. The ceremonies, scheduled to begin at 5:00, include a book signing by New York City Ballet dancer Kyle Froman of his new, diary-like photo book, “In The Wings,” excerpts of NYCB’s Nutcracker, to be performed, according to Philip, by Megan Fairchild and Tom Gold, and some opera excerpts by the Met Opera. Should be a lot of fun. I was hoping to be there, though I also supposedly have a Samba class, and I’m getting up at 4 a.m. and am working all day, and I can’t miss the aforementioned finale; I have no idea how I’m going to do it all… Happy end of the holiday weekend!