Tag: Karina Smirnoff

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Nominated For Another "Rodney"!

 

Public Defender Stuff has nominated me for another “Rodney” blog award (you know, because we PD’s get no respect!) in the category “best PD blog that has nothing to do with the job.” I won in a similar category last year (best title of a blog that has absolutely nothing to do with the job). Last year, my main competition was a knitter; this year there are poets and novelists, and just a bunch of interesting types. I love how they do this; it’s very flattering to be thought of and included, especially since I’ve hardly ever blogged about anything to do with my job. See, PDs are nice lawyers! And arty! And what I do blog about of course gets left out of everything else… Speaking of which, Bloggies noms are coming up soon. Philip and I petitioned them last year to include a dance category this year, but I’m sure that suggestion went right down the toilet… Dance bloggers (and dance writers) get no respect either, man…

So, I thought Karina Smirnoff and Jonathan Roberts were cute tonight with their waltz / quickstep / samba / jive / swing on the ‘Holiday at the Ford’s Theater’ thing. Definitely the highlight of the show. Although, her costume was a bit skimpy — for that kind of special I mean, not for Karina; she is known as the bikini queen for her usual competition attire. I love how they ended with the Charleston. I haven’t had Lindy Hop in a really long time now and I miss that dance. What a dead crowd though! Every time they focused on a spectator he or she looked completely dumbfounded at what was going on onstage. Such the antithesis of an Ailey audience, where everyone’s bouncing up and down in their seats and cheering throughout. Matthew Rushing said when they were on tour in London, people were actually dancing in the aisles! Methinks the Alvin Ailey fans are taking over where the ballet audiences left off after Baryshnikov and the other greats left the stage a couple decades ago…

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My Favorite Pasha & Anya Pics!

I’m so excited. Look what the “Rhythm of Love” people sent me (Again, that performance is next Friday and Saturday nights in Stamford):

These are my favorite pictures of them. They were taken at Blackpool in 2005, the year they placed 2nd in the world in the Rising Star Latin division — their most prestigious placement ever! Look at how gorgeous she is. Look at that costume — oh how I wanted one just like it. She designs her own (remember Danny Tidwell saying how he was going to miss them when she was booted from SYTYCD?!) I always thought when she retired from competition she could become a professional designer. But now of course she is on to far bigger and better things! And how cute is Pasha?! 😀 I remember when I first saw these pictures I had just made my first appointment with him at Dance Times Square. I hadn’t yet met him and had only signed up on the advice of a fellow student at my former studio, DanceSport. I did a Google search before my lesson and found these pics and nearly died. My first thought: oh no, he’s gorgeous; I can’t take lessons from him! And her, hello! Of course I was only signing on for lessons, not to be his actual partner, or girlfriend for that matter, but still! Talk about nerves upon first meeting…

Oh, brings back memories. It all seems so far in the past now, although it really isn’t… Anyway, thanks “Rhythm of Love” people for sending them!

In other ballroom news:

 

it appears many in the Latin world are very hopeful that the new partnership of Yulia Zagoruychenko and Riccardo Cocchi could quite possibly bring America a first-place prize in the Worlds next year. Thank you to Dance Beat for sending this info my way. Apparently, the couple just finished their first competition, the medium-sized Holiday Classic in Las Vegas (which, because of its relatively small size, is an ideal comp for a new partnership to test its mettle). Spectators, including Dame of the Ballroom World, Shirley Ballas, were apparently blown away. (Ballas has formerly coached Yulia and her old partner Max, and I know she’s long been fond of Riccardo). Anyway, these videos are not the greatest quality, but here are some small clips of the two dancing in the finals in the Holiday Classic, and a short interview with Ballas.

I wasn’t in Vegas so haven’t yet seen them dance together, but I have long admired Yulia and have always thought her by far the most artistic Latin dancer in this country.

 

Here she is at Nationals last year with her former partner Max Kozhevnikov;

 

And here’s a picture I took of Riccardo and his old partner, Joanne Wilkinson, last year at Blackpool. He was a great showman, and wow could he move. The last American couple to place in the top three in Latin at Blackpool was in 2005 when Karina Smirnoff and Slavik Kryklyvyy took second. Last year we didn’t have a couple in the finals. This year, Max and Yulia snagged an emotional 7th place. Longtime first-place champs Bryan Watson and Carmen have retired, leaving the top position vacant. All I can say is, can’t wait till May!

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Auspicious Kickoff for Writers Room Reading Series

Last night marked the start of the new season of Writers Room member readings downstairs at the Cornelia Street Cafe in the Village. Turnout was amazing — the best I’ve ever seen! Hey man, it had better be the same for my reading, in January… Last time I read was in late June, when everyone had apparently already taken off for the summer… This was an interesting audience: I’d say about two-thirds were men, yet three of the four readers were women. That’s the way it should be of course: a bunch of men listening to women 😀

It seriously made me very happy to see so many people supporting the written word. Readings are every third Tuesday of the month; cover charge is $7 and includes a glass of wine. What better way to spend a Tuesday evening than drinking wine and hanging out with a bunch of writers, right!

Got home just in time to see Dancing With the Stars. Aw, I was sad boxer guy got eliminated; he was one of the ones whose attempts at the Paso tour jete I was so enjoying Monday night. And I’ll definitely miss my favorite, Karina, although it seem like the pros are returning often to perform on the elimination shows. It was kind of nice that when Gloria Estefan didn’t show, they bumped the backup band to center stage for once. They were pretty good. As for Wade Robson: I’m sorry, I just don’t get him. I’d say his dance was like a circus, but, well… I think he is a great mover himself though. My favorite part was at the beginning when he danced. He kind of reminded me of Walter Dundervill. To be honest, I think I’d like to see more of him, less of his choreography, though it seems everyone else loves the latter, so I must just be weird.

Anyway, a couple of other miscellaneous things: here’s a good article on Christopher Wheeldon in New York magazine; the same issue also has an interesting cover story on huge media blog Gawker and what the writers’ increasing snarkiness says about the have and have-nots in today’s media hierarchy. (Should there be a Gawker for dance? Perhaps that’s part of our friend CC‘s purpose?) And here is a website I just found devoted to Pacific Northwest Ballet company. It’s mostly website as opposed to blog: you can write in and ask your favorite dancers questions, and there’s a little portrait of one dancer at a time (current one is of Carla Korbes), and some photos, but it would be very cool if they could host several of their dancers’ blogs as well. And I can’t seem to find anything on my former favorite NYCB man, Seth Orza yet. Hmmm….

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Christopher Wheeldon (AKA The Genius) at Guggenheim, and Ballet Makes an Appearance on Dancing With the Stars!

I had such a great dance-watching night last night! First I went to yet another of the Guggenheim’s Works & Process events, this time to hear choreographer / artistic director Christopher Wheeldon talk about his new company, Morphoses, which, I know, I just can’t shut up about and am likely driving everyone crazy with! (But at least I’m not the only one! Also, Philip has an interview up with Morphoses choreographer Edwaard Liang, who was supposed to dance last night but unfortunately did not.)

I just think Wheeldon is such a genius, at least in terms of his choreography. His head may be a bit in the clouds as an artistic director regarding what the company may be capable of in terms of all the visual artists / musicians, etc. etc. ETC. he wants to collaborate with (especially in light of last week’s huge news about corporate giant Altria’s pulling the plug on crucially-needed dance funding in NYC), and executive director Lourdes Lopez told a funny story about his extremely last-minute, day-of-performance, without-a-care-in-the-world wish that she locate a violinist in rural Colorado to play live. But one thing is for sure: as a creator of dances he is brilliant; he is a contemporary Kenneth MacMillan, I do believe.

So, we saw a solo excerpt from “Elsinore,” an abstract, mesmerizing feast for the eyes (which I usually don’t say about either abstract ballets OR solos) danced by Russian ballerina Anastasia Yatsenko. And that was preceded by this absolutely beautiful bittersweet pas de deux called “There Where She Loved,” which tells the story of a woman trying in vain to make herself believe she doesn’t love her cheating husband, and which contained some of the most inventive, gorgeous partnering I think I’ve ever seen. It was danced by NYCB ballerina Maria Kowroski and Ballet Boyz danseur Michael Nunn. It seriously nearly made me cry, a sentiment expressed as well by a woman I met afterward waiting in line for the bus.

They also showed a short documentary-style film about the troupe’s world premiere in Vail, Colorado this summer which was really cute. An excited Tyler Angle exclaimed that you don’t even realize how hard you’re working because of all the excitement of being part of something fun and new. Wendy Whelan sweetly remarked that it was clear Wheeldon had taken pains to assemble a group of dancers who got along so well together, which was a part of the joy and success of working with him. There was no studio in Vail so they brought barres out onstage and took class there. (I always love watching professional dancers take class; I once watched an instructional tape of Fernando Bujones doing the same and it was so unbelievably thrilling just watching a master execute beyond perfection everything you try so hard to do.) Illustrating his charmingly goofy sense of humor, Wheeldon, raising a cup of coffee to the camera man, said, “Okay, I’m ready to run a company now, I’ve had my morning coffee.”

Wheeldon told us his artistic vision and reasons for starting the new company were twofold: to take ballet in new directions by creating fresh programming that would both draw new audiences and re-invigorate current ones; and to give dancers as fulfilling a career possible by allowing them to broaden their training in new dance styles and to share in the creative process by collaborating on the pieces. He believes the old way of running a company top down doesn’t work anymore: dancers are intelligent, they juggle college courses now with their full-time dancing, they don’t need to be lorded over and their minds can and should be used in the artistic process. You can always tell when a dancer had a part in creating a role, he said.

Wheeldon is such a little cutie — a genuinely wonderful, warm, happy guy with a very cheery outlook. I can’t wait to see their first full program, on tomorrow night!

Then, I came home and watched Dancing With the Stars. I was very happy to see Jonathan Roberts convince his celebrity student Marie Osmond to take a ballet class in order to get down some dance fundamentals, such as finding her center. “I don’t know what a core is!” she screamed, like a typical beginning adult. How much can I relate to that, and to her complete inability to do those grand jetes!!! Too funny 🙂 I loved to see her trying though, and realizing how very hard it is.

But more: ahhh, how much do I love watching all those amateur men try the tour jetes in Paso!!!! This is by far my favorite Paso Doble step for the men, of course being the bravura-loving balletomane that I am 😀 It’s really the one ballet step that is used in a Latin dance and it’s so gorgeous of course when executed properly, balletically, as Slavik Kryklyyvy, my favorite, does! Looks very Don Quixote. I’d always get very annoyed at competitions when there wasn’t at least one big huge tour jete in each Paso routine. But those amateur men last night! They were so cute trying to get it right! The boxer guy dancing with Karina Smirnoff jumped quite high, but kicked his feet together then lifted both legs in back instead of only one; I thought he was going to come down right on his knees. Fortunately he fixed it mid air and did what looked like a spiffy Jive bent-knee jump instead, but with a bull-fighter Paso attitude. But it was cute! And another guy just jumped forward with the one foot and turned around in the air and came down on the other, but without gaining any height or even trying to bring his legs together, so looked very squat! Still, definitely better than I can do and I found it all a thrilling blast to watch. I think Karina and the other pros should send their students to Vladimir (I don’t know how to link to that specific step in ABT’s dictionary, but go here, scroll down to jete entrelace and watch Vladimir Malakhov execute the perfect balletic tour jete). Actually wouldn’t it be awesome to have a ballet dancer come on the show and teach!!!

And how cute is that Helio! I love him so much I am already worrying myself sick over him getting injured in a car accident. Be careful, Helio! Judge Carrie Ann said, “Watching you makes me happy to be alive, Helio.” Exactly. That’s precisely the way I feel about Marcelo. It’s a Brazilian male dancer thing, quite obviously. Brazilian male dancers make you happy to be alive 🙂

Speaking of which… it’s just one week now!!!