Root Magazine has posted my essay!! And they had some very nice things to say about me 🙂 And look how cute Quenia looks in the little picture! Thank you so much, Root!
Extremely Embarrassing Dance Moment!
I took these crappy pictures from my miniscule-screen, bad-reception TV, which is why they’re so difficult to see, but they’re basically of this step — way more difficult than it looks — from the DVD of Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra Suites. My teacher and I were trying to put something similar into our foxtrot routine. Basically, the guy (in the above case, Baryshnikov) kneels, while the lady (Elaine Kudo) stands facing away from him, then lifts her back left leg in arabesque, and he helps her first to turn herself around toward him, them to propel herself up and over his body, first straddling his shoulder, then doing splits across his back, traveling all the way around him, and landing on her front leg near his right shoulder. Hard to describe, which is why I tried to take the pics. It always amazes me how some of the most difficult-looking shoulder-level or even overhead lifts are actually easier than some of the more simple-looking things. I mean, that may just be from my female amateur perspective: some of the things that are easiest for me may be the hardest for the man. But, I never thought until I tried this one that it would be difficult. It’s hard because you have to make yourself as light as possible so he can kind of glide you along around him, and you also have to help push yourself around without your hands, but using your stomach, thigh, and butt muscles. Well, I kept getting stuck on his shoulder; somehow my crotch would get stuck on his collar bone — very weird sensation– and I couldn’t move myself along any further.
So, he decided to try to help me by using his hands a bit more aggressively. He placed one on the bottom of my left thigh (the front leg). But as I was nearing his shoulder, he moved his hand up a bit and, sorry to be a bit crass, but about three fingers shot straight into my crotch. Kind of FAR too! I mean, he felt EVERYTHING. And I had some serious tugging down to do to my leotard and tights afterward! When I looked at him, he had this shocked expression on his face. “Um, okay, that was a little … intimate … sorry about that,” he laughed nervously. I’m such a goof, I just giggled; didn’t know what else to do. And then once I started laughing, he started too, and then I really couldn’t stop. Thankfully it was near the end of the lesson!
Weird thing is, it seemed that everyone else in the studio knew exactly what happened. There are these adorable little kids who are about to go on the junior Latin competition circuit who take lessons with one of the coaches there and they were on the floor practicing at the time, with their parents looking on. When I looked over at them, they were both staring right at me, with very curious faces. Their poor parents looked bewildered. “Ugh, sorry, it’s not my fault,” I felt like saying to them.
I know these things probably happen often with professionals. And, I’m high-waisted (long legs, short torso), so whenever I get lifted by the waist, the guy inevitably gets a handful of breast. I’m used to that now. But this was a new one. I guess another thing I’ll get used to as well. Partner dancing is very interesting!
Anyway, in celebration of Carnaval, which I couldn’t go to this year, I watched my Quenia Ribeiro Samba DVD repeatedly. How come it looks so much easier on the tape???!!! Ugh. Anyway, I have the basic steps just about memorized now. I just have to try them out … ooh, so afraid I’m just going to just be nauseated when I see myself in front of the mirror though…
Oh, also, I was one of the winners of Root Magazine’s essay contest on your most memorable dance moment, for my story of struggling through my first Samba class! Thank you so much, Root! There were five winners in all, which the magazine is publishing throughout the next month. The above link takes you to the first one — a sweet discovery about romantic attraction through Salsa dancing. I’ll post when mine’s up.
Also, Natalia has posted the next dance blog carnival, whose topic is “Looking With a Dancer’s Eye.” Should be fun!
Strictly Standard
Tonight on America’s Ballroom Challenge (8 p.m. on Channel 13 in New York, check here for local PBS times) is the Standard competition. In the first part of the competition, the group dance, couples will compete in Waltz, Slowfox, Tango, Viennese Waltz, and (my personal favorite!) — Quickstep. Second half is a showcase in the dance of their choosing. Pictured above are the reigning American champions, Jonathan Wilkins and Katusha Demidova. They are also the number three Standard couple in the world, making them the highest-ranked American couple world-wide right now. They are the obvious favorites tonight.
But champion of the underdog am I! So, here is my personal favorite couple, the ever so charming Victor Fung and Anna Mikhed:
I don’t seem to be able to get very good pictures of Standard (the couples fly around the ballroom floor so swiftly!), but here is one from the Manhattan Dancesport Championships last summer. I just adore this couple — they’re so sweet together, so charming, so charismatic. Her dresses are always so classic, so classy — they’re the king and queen of class those two!
And they work so well together, which you have to in Standard. If you aren’t on the very same wavelength as your partner, you’re going to tumble right over each other. If one of you goes down, the partnership goes down. This is one thing I both love and despise about Standard — love to watch it, hate to try it! Your bodies must make a martini-glass shape — which is absolutely beautiful. But so difficult to do. You’re connected from the waist down, and you must maintain that connection at all times, no matter how fast you’re moving, no matter where you go on the floor, through twists and turns and everything; if you lose that hold, it’s all over. And that’s the awesome beauty of Standard to me: the couples really are dancing as one. Nothing tests the strengths of partnership, trust, and lead and follow like Standard. You can’t choreograph your routines for the group dance very well because too many things could happen with all of the couples dancing on the crowded floor — you never know when you’re going to need to change speed or direction because you’re about to slam into another couple (which happens quite often, understandably). So, the man must “drive” (that’s often to me what he looks like he’s doing anyway, judging by facial expressions!) — leading, going forward; the woman reading and following his lead, while going backward, TRUSTING him to watch her back! And it’s so hard to trust — you really want to look behind you, to look out for yourself, but you can’t — you’ll ruin the line, the shape, the look, and of course most importantly the connection.
I just love watching this competition live. The room just becomes a whirl of color with all of the big beautiful ballgowns swirling around the floor. I hope it’ll look comparable on TV.
I don’t know much about the other four couples competing, as I don’t follow Standard all that closely (mainly since I don’t take lessons in it), but, taken from the ABC website, they are:
Giampiero Giannico and Anastasia Murayeva;
Linas Koreiva and Ieva Pauksena;
Igor Litvinov and Julia Ivleva; and
Erminio Stefano and Liene Apale, whom I have seen dance before (and they are a gorgeous couple too) but whom I seem to have no pictures of. All of these photos are copywright of Jeffrey Dunn for WGBH and I’ve linked to them from the ABC website. Anyway, please tune in tonight for the most beautiful of all the ballroom competitions!
Here are some more pictures I’ve taken at various competitions of the two couples who will likely be duking it out for the trophy: Jonathan and Katusha, and Victor and Anna. The ones where the camera is panning down on the dance floor from above were taken at the Blackpool Dance Festival last June — the largest and most prestigious professional ballroom dance competition in the world, held in England yearly in late May / early June. Enjoy!
I love that one of Katusha!
How sweet was Anna’s bluish-green Blackpool dress with the Thirties-style black hat and shawl!
And one last one of Jonathan and Katusha, third overall in Blackpool, top U.S. couple:
Luis Nostalgia
I just found this website — belongs to the brilliant American Rhythm dancer Anya Fuchs! She happens to be the former partner of my former teacher, Luis Grijalva (before he left my studio). She has some great footage of her dancing with Luis, which makes me so nostalgic for him… Click here (on the video) to see some great Rhythm dancing! I miss him so…
Hooray, David and Marcelo Tickets Have Arrived!
Very happy to receive in the mail today my American Ballet Theater Met season subscription tickets! Well, they haven’t printed the tickets out yet, but they sent me a letter confirming that I got the series I wanted. I had a subscription last year, but when I went to renew it, realized there were different dancers performing on the nights of my old subscription, and some ballets that I wasn’t too keen on seeing, so I called and asked them to change the series to a different night. They told me they would try hard to accommodate me but couldn’t ensure I’d get the same seat on the new night. But, according to the letter, they were able to give me what I wanted — I’m up front to the side near the curtain on my new night, which will include: Othello starring Marcelo (and Julie), Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet (Marcelo and Julie again), and Cinderella with David as the perfect Prince Charming. Only thing is, I just realized I’m supposed to be reading from my novel at the Writers Room reading series at Cornelia Street Cafe the night of Romeo and J, so will have to exchange that one (believe it or not, my novel is more important than Marcelo 🙂 ) … which is okay, so I’ll see a different Romeo — maybe that’s a good ballet for Jose…
Anyway, when I first saw the envelope, I immediately had this weirdly dream-esque thought that ABT management was writing me to say, no, you can’t have your Marcelo tickets; you hold him to too high a standard in his real life… ABT is in Paris / London on tour right now and I saw him going to a strip show in another ABT dancer’s blog and became really kind of disgusted and commented on how I felt, upsetting the very sensitive blogger. I know I may be weirdly old-school / pre-postmodern feminist for my age and all, but I just find any kind of strip show reductive of and demeaning to women — whether it’s burlesque, a Vegas-style thing, or some greasy bar, I just do. And to see a favorite dancer of mine doing something I abhored really made me not want to know very much about him, and wonder how much I want to read that blogger’s blog anymore… (so odd for a gay man to be at a female strip show anyway…). I mean, weirdest thing I think is seeing a celebrity you so admire doing something normally private on the internet. Eh, I’m over it. I still love Marcelo and probably always will, unless I see him killing a small animal or something…
Anyway, apropros of my post about having too many gay friends and not enough romance, and intrigued by my experience at the last LVHRD event (which I, badly, didn’t think to invite her to), my lovely friend, Kathy, in an effort to make good on my promise to go with her to the next LVHRD event, sent me this link. Apparently, the next one is to be some kind of dating thing. Ugh, why!!! Why can’t it be another dance-off or paint-off or fashion or architectural duel — dating stuff, blah!
Death in Venice — the Ballet
Thursday night I went to see Death in Venice, performed by the Hamburg Ballet and choreographed by John Neumeier, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I loved it so much; it was really one of the most beautiful contemporary ballets I’ve seen. It was really just my thing: a ballet based on a modern, relatable, familiar story, told beautifully through movement. Based on the novella by Thomas Mann, its theme is the opposition between the intellectual and the sensual and the inner conflict that produces for the artist who must inhabit both worlds in order to create meaning from lived life. And of course underlying that theme is the implicit motif of societal repression and oppression of homosexual desire.
Funny, Sloan went to see it opening night, the night before me, and posted her thoughts in the Winger, which of course I read enthusiastically upon returning from BAM (because, badly, I often surf the net at midnight on a work night…). Was so excited I had to comment like a nutter on her post, leaving me with little to say now! What’s interesting to me though, is how dancers notice so many of the small details that make up the overall production and dance-going experience — subtleties I never would have seen– such as the sets, the lighting, the choreographer’s use of the stage, the music, the theater itself. I mostly notice only the dancers and how well I think they convey their roles. So, visit the Winger for all of those aforementioned interesting details, as well as some more lovely photos, and even a little tidbit on audience celebrities!
Anyway, I’d never seen this ballet before and when I received the flyer advertising it, I thought how in the world are they going to convey through dance a writer stifled by over-intellectualizing his work? Well, Neumeier does that by making his Aschenbach, Mann’s protagonist, into a choreographer. Lloyd Riggins compellingly depicts the tormented choreographer, while Tadzio is portrayed by this stunning Russian dancer named Edvin Revazov. I attended a pre-performance discussion between Neumeier and dance critic Anna Kisselgoff, and Neumeier related that he’d found the dancer at the Prix de Lausanne, a huge ballet competition in Switzerland. Apparently, Revazov did not do very well in the classical part of the competition, but then totally blew everyone away during the more modern improvisational portion. You could definitely tell in Revazov’s dancing that he excelled at modern. And one thing I loved about this ballet was that it incorporated both classical and modern, sometimes danced side by side, very dramatically, very beautifully. The beach scenes when Aschenbach first sees and becomes enamored with Tadzio were choreographed just beautifully, as were the pas de deux between those two men and the pas de trois between Aschenbach and other males — so gorgeously sensual. Revazov completely captivated me whenever he took the stage, and, gorgeous Russian man though he was, he captured the essense of the frivolous, playful, carefree 14-year-old to a tee. There’s also a scene where cholera grips the city, and the dancers’ jerky smasmodic movements were strikingly disconcerting. There were a few moments of corniness (the dancers wear these animal-skin prints during an orgiastic dream scene; I thought nude-colored clothing would have been more sensual, not to mention subtle, and later in the cholera scene, two agents of death are made up as Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from the 70s rock band, KISS), but overall it was just so sublimely realized.
Funny, though — there are so many beautiful, beautiful men used the ballet, that I (and another blogger) kept imagining how ABT dancers would interpret it. I imagined Jose Carreno as Aschenbach and either David Hallberg (as if I really need to link to him 🙂 ) or Jared Matthews as Tadzio. Ahhhh, wishful thinking, as I’m sure ABT would probably find it too risky to touch, unfortunately. Come on, Kevin, take a chance, pleeeasse!!!
I also kept thinking I was seeing Evan McKie (of Stuttgart Ballet, and the Winger :)), as one of the dancers on whom Aschenbach was trying to choreograph at the beginning. But, alas, it was just the German connection … and my fanstasizing about someday being able to see him dance… 🙂 Reading his Winger posts (and eyeing his gorgeous pics), he sounds so fun, so goofily charming, and Stuttgart fascinating (I do think the Winger is not just bringing audiences closer to ballet, but sometimes creating stars itself!) Evan, btw, also happens to have the most brillant MySpace page I’ve ever seen 🙂
Anyway, I posted this too late and now Hamburg has left NY, so if you missed it, you’ll have to wait till they come around with it again … hopefully, hopefully in the not too distant future!
Bad Gay Friends!!!
I was going to blog about this, but Jennifer beat me to it! Ha ha! Time Out New York‘s cover this week features a fat, fluffy, very cuddly-looking, female-friendly kitty, with the cover story, “Why You’re Single (And What You Can Do About It).” Inside, they list a plethora of reasons for that conundrum, one of which is titled “Because you’re a straight woman who only goes out with her gay friends.” I found it kind of funny that this reason is listed nearly half-way through, and not at the top of the article (this is a NYC magazine after all — don’t a great many women suffer from this here!!!) Anyway, Katharine Rust, who wrote the little piece under this topic, which contains ideas for bars, restaurants and events where such a person could go to to meet Mr. (Straight) Right, begins by noting: “A gal would be crazy NOT to surround herself with fabulous-looking guys who are quick to tell her she looks marvelous, but…” And I started thinking, hmmmm, I don’t get told I look “marvelous” all the time. Hey man, I’m being cheated out of romance AND compliments! 🙂
Get Ready For Rhythm!
  So, tonight is the American Rhythm Championship portion of America’s Ballroom Challenge (for New Yorkers, that’s Channel 13 at 8 p.m.; check here for local PBS times outside of NY).
Although I’m a student of International Latin, this is one of my favorite competitions to watch — at least live. The crowd really goes wild (more so than for the other competitions, for some reason) — there’s so much shouting and cheering for your favorite, and because of that, the dancers really put on quite a show — in addition to exhibiting their brilliant technique to the judges of course!
Above is my own personal favorite, Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine with his partner Joanna Zacharewicz. In addition to their amazing speed and precise footwork, they are great fun to watch because they exude such character in their routines. Before he left my studio to teach elsewhere, I had the very serendipitous opportunity to take a couple of lessons with Emmanuel. I can say, in addition to being a fabulously fun dancer to watch, he is also one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. When I first started, I used to dance primarily on the balls of my feet, rarely putting my heels down. I longed to emulate that light, weightless feathery look of the dancers I so loved. Of course, as a result, I’d frequently lose my balance, especially on turns. Emmanuel taught me really to feel the floor, to connect to the floor more than anything else. I also used to make the stupid mistake of trying to sense the air more than the floor. I know this sounds ridiculous to an experienced dancer, but I think when you’re a beginner, and you go to the ballet (or other dance performances) all the time, it looks like the dancers are just flying through the air, so you tend to want to imitate that in your dancing. But of course they are not connecting to the air since the air can’t support you. “Real dancers ALWAYS knows exactly where the floor is … we need the floor, we are not birds!” he would always say. The bizarre thing is, as a warm up, or sometimes in the middle of the lesson when he could tell I was forgetting to sense the floor, he would stop what we were doing, go into a closely held “closed position” with me, and just make me do salsa basics until he could tell I was back in touch with the floor again. He’d close his eyes, would tell me to feel the floor … not by stomping or dragging my body weight down into it; just by feeling it with my toes. I don’t know how he did it, but whenever I forced myself to feel the floor, simply by focusing my brain down there, he would know it right off. And he’d also know right away if and when I took my mind elsewhere. Weird! Anyway, whenever I see him at competitions, he always goes out of his way to say hello and ask me how I’m doing, how I’m progressing with my dancing. He’s such a great guy! And such an amazing dancer — he totally deserves to win!
However, these two below, are the couple most favored by the powers that be:
They are Tony Dovolani and Elena Grinenko. Tony is probably the most famous ballroom dancer, as he’s been on “Dancing With the Stars” for three seasons now, leading Stacy Keibler to her near victory two seasons ago. He also had a role in the American version of “Shall We Dance,” playing the “mean Latin dancer” who pulls off Stanley Tucci’s wig during the competition. He and Elena are the current reigning American Rhythm champs and will likely win this one as well.
Above is another favorite couple of mine, Felipe Telona and Carolina Orlovsky-Telona. She has an extensive ballet background, and is such a beautiful dancer, making gorgeous lines. And he is a big, handsome guy who just whisks her around the floor. Charming couple!
This is the first year they’ve opened this competition up ‘to the world,’ which means that you don’t have to reside in the U.S. in order to compete. Because of that, and because some couples are no longer competing (sadly, my former teacher, Luis Grijalva and his partner Anya Fuchs), there are some couples who made the finals, whom I haven’t seen much of before. The above photos are ones I’ve taken myself at various competitions, but these below, I’ve taken from the ABC website:
Evgeny Dyachenko and Inna Ivanenko (whose showcase, judging by the above pic, looks fun!)
Decho Kraev and Bree Watson (who apparently are from my hometown — or nearby anyway — Tempe, AZ), and
Michael Neil and Danielle Wilson.
Should be a very fun night — Rhythm always is 🙂 Here are a few more of my favorite photos of the competitors. Enjoy!
Also, Terpishore Musings has posted a YouTube clip of Emmanuel and Joanna’s showcase exhibition performance from last year. Check it out!
A Beautiful New 'Samson'!
I just received a copy of this week’s New York magazine (which seems to have a pretty interesting cover article about the ‘freedom’ of revealing too much info on the internet). I flipped to the back cover and saw that the newest Samonsite model (at least that I’ve seen) appears to be none other than the superb (not to mention gorgeous) flamenco dancer, Joaquin Cortes! Funny, I’ve never paid much attention to advertising, but put a dancer in your ad…
On another note, how sweet is it to know that, even in big ole huge New York, through talent and hard work you can be recognized by the powers that be!
Lawyers … And Everyone Else
This Wednesday night, the New York City Bar Association is holding a panel discussion on how to promote your law firm through a blog. Bill Gates, the e-flyer notes, says the value of websites and email distribution is declining, and blogs, with their unique RSS technology, are the future of internet business. To be discussed are such topics as how to implement and market a blog, the ethics of blogging, how lawyers have bettered their reputations through blogging, and the value of RSS feeds and other blogging functions.
I’m uninterested in learning how to promote a law firm through a blog, but am intrigued by the discussion because of my general interest in Long Tail trends, and of course my personal interest in blogging.
This panel discussion happens to be given for CLE (Continuing Legal Education) credits as well. New York attorneys need to earn a total of 24 CLE credit hours every two years, so the Bar Association offers several CLE programs throughout the year and gives its members a discount on them. Being a public interest lawyer, discounted though they may be, I still can’t afford the Assocation’s fee for the credits, so I earn mine either through my job (which gives the classes to its attorneys for free) or a criminal defense organization in NYC that makes them available to government and non-profit lawyers either for free or for a nominal fee.
Anyway, I’ve already earned all of my credits for my upcoming registration, so I’m not interested in attending the program for credit. So I called the Bar Association to make sure it was okay if I attended either for free or for a nominal fee since I did NOT want the CLE credits, and was told that I couldn’t attend unless I paid the full amount for the panel discussion — $195 for members, $305 for non-members. This is a 3-hour-long program. I re-emphasized to the person I spoke to that I did not want any credits, I merely wanted to sit in, and she repeated that I still had to pay the entire fee.
Media Bistro, a professional media arts guild here, and the Women’s National Book Association, an organization promoting women and publishing, have both held similar panel discussions. For theirs, Media Bistro charged $25 for members, $30 for non-members, WNBA’s cost was $0 for members, $10 for nonmembers. I understand charging a slight bit more if you’re going to have panelists who will give you workbooks and very specific step-by-step how-to’s, but the panels I’ve attended there have been just as general as the ones I’ve attended elsewhere (ie: people talking about their own personal experiences and successes). Plus, if you’re actually going to buy the Association’s “materials” there’s a separate charge of at least $100 more. And, they haven’t even mentioned who the panelists are going to be. I don’t understand. Does anything really justify this difference in cost?
Foot Fetish!!!
For anyone with one, Natalia’s January blog Carnival should definitely more than satisfy your craving 🙂 (Subject is of course the ubiquitous dancer problem: FEEEEET) Enjoy!
America's Ballroom Challenge, and Craig Salstein!
Not that the two have anything to do with each other, well of course other than the fact that they’re both about Dance (and the two styles that I happen to Lurve 🙂 ) and they both happened today…
First, Oberon just informed me that Craig was promoted from ABT corps dancer to soloist!
(Above with Marian Butler in “Rodeo” — photo is from ABT website, by Gene Schiavone)
Hooray for him! He’s such a fun and charismatic dancer — always puts so much energy, attitude, and character into everything he does. It’s obvious how hard he works and how much he loves what he does, so I think he is extremely deserving. Embarrasingly, I have to admit having mixed up his name before — oops! — but I definitely know him by face! I greatly enjoyed his performances this past season in Rodeo and Fancy Free (one of my favorites, and one in which he really held his own next to the biggies 🙂 ). He has a very big dance personality, and of course, that’s what I often go for 🙂 … can’t wait to see more!
Okay, on to America’s Ballroom Challenge, whose second season premiered tonight on PBS.
Above are Ben Ermis and Shaleen Archer-Ermis, American Smooth competitors, who won the first round tonight.
Well, I liked the new breakdown in the way they’re broadcasting it this time around. Last year, they just had two one-hour episodes: the first hour was the regular ballroom competition (where all six finalist couples are dancing together on the floor, competing in technique) for all four dance styles (American Smooth, American Rhythm, International Standard, and International Latin); and the second day was the showcase competitions (one couple on the floor at a time doing a choreographed free-for-all routine with lifts, competing in showmanship and performance quality) again in all four categories. This time, instead of lumping all of the dance categories together each day, they’re breaking it down and devoting one full hour to each category, and are then spreading the entire show out over 5 hours / days.
So, tonight’s competition was all American Smooth (couples competed in foxtrot, tango, Viennese waltz, and waltz). The first half hour was the regular ballroom comp; the second the six finalist showcase routines. Next week will be devoted entirely to American Rhythm (mambo, cha cha, rhumba, swing, and bolero), the following week to International Standard (slowfox, waltz, Viennese waltz, tango and quickstep), the fourth week to International Latin (! 🙂 — Int. cha cha, samba, Int. rhumba, paso doble, and jive), and the fifth week is going to be the competition for “best of the best” among all four categories (which of course doesn’t exist in real ballroom competitions, but is their little showy, made-for-TV category).
I’m not entirely sure what the producers were aiming for. I do think breaking it down this way enables audiences to get to know ever so slightly more about the dances, and to see more of the couples competing within each category. Tony Meredith‘s off-screen commentating helps to educate the audience on what each couple’s strengths are technique-wise. But, in order for the show to attract a much wider appeal, I think audiences really need to ‘get to know’ much better the individual couples and personalities that dominate these dances. And this new breakdown still doesn’t achieve that. Instead of just showing the couple’s dancing with Tony’s background commentary, they should do a little segment on each couple’s background, allowing the dancers to talk a bit about themselves, where they’re from, what brought them to ballroom dance, what brought them to dance in general, if they’ve had any obstacles to overcome, etc. etc. Kinda like how the Olympic shows are done maybe?… I think audiences connect to personalities, and there isn’t enough time each week to devote to each couple’s dancing for people to connect to them through that alone. Those are my two cents anyway… assuming the show’s intention is to bring recognition to the actual dancers and to increase its popularity rather than to educate audiences on ballroom technique and pique their curiosity.
On a side note: Tony is the owner of my studio, and I just love watching him on the show! He’s such a cutie, and is really such a great guy with a fun personality who really cares about his students… but oooh, he is so not an actor when he’s talking to Marilu and reading from that monitor! Ha ha ha — of course I wouldn’t be either — I’d be far worse, totally flubbing my lines, and making it completely obvious I was reading from a script and was vomitously nervous! He sounded much better though when he relaxed and started talking about the dancing — what he knows after all!
Anyway, the show is on for the next four weeks. Check here for local times!