Tag: Sabra Johnson

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MORE ON DANNY TIDWELL (AND OTHERS) IN FIRE ISLAND

 

 

Here are a couple more breathtaking pics of Danny Tidwell dancing at the Fire Island Dance Festival last weekend, taken by photographer Fred Hecker who graciously sent me a link to them. Visit his full flickr album of the Festival for some gorgeous photos of the other dancers as well. Apparently Keigwin + Company performed “Water” (I love that piece!), and Karole Armitage performed, as did Miami City Ballet (Alex Wong’s company), and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Danny danced “The Eternal Vow” by Lauren Adams, to music by Tan Dun and Yo-Yo Ma. Thank you so much, Mr. Hecker!

Speaking of Cedar Lake (of which fellow SYTYCD alum Sabra Johnson is, or at least was, a new member – she’s not currently on their dancer roster…), here’s an enticing video of excerpts from their recent performance of Orbo Nova at Jacob’s Pillow, which they’ll repeat in New York at the Joyce Theater in October.

And, speaking of the Joyce Theater, Haglund is excited about the Tulsa Ballet coming there August 10th. I plan to see them too, especially since they’re performing a MacMillan work I haven’t seen! Read up on that company and their upcoming Joyce program on Haglund’s blog.

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DANNY TIDWELL UPDATE

 

You guys! I missed So You Think You Can Dance again last night! I thought it was on on Thursdays (wasn’t it on Thursday last week?) and was all set to tape tonight when commenter Jonathan sent me an email asking me what I thought of the second week of auditions. Argh. Trying to find somewhere online to watch re-runs…

Can’t they wait till ballet season is over?! Seriously, it wasn’t on this early last year right? I don’t remember it conflicting with Blackpool, ABT, and NYCB like this.

Anyway, in lieu of a post on this week’s show, I thought I’d just link to this Rickey post (which is where I got the pic above from), which commenter Jonathan sent me. Thank you, Jonathan!

Apparently, Danny Tidwell will be in the Broadway cast of Memphis, which is scheduled to open in the Fall, and will be in Fire Island over the summer for the Fire Island Dance Festival.

It’s always interesting to keep up with the SYTYCD dancers and see what becomes of their careers, if and how the show has helped them. So far we have Danny and Neil Haskell on Broadway, Sabra in a very cool NY-based contemporary ballet company, Chelsie Hightower and Dmitry Chaplin on Dancing With the Stars… I wish Danny would come back to ABT but I know that’s not going to happen. But it’s okay — there are plenty of fabulous dancers there to keep me in a pretty constant state of awe 🙂

For others who missed last night’s show, I find Ballroom Dance Channel does a good job of straight-forward reviews.

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REMINDER: DANCE TIMES SQUARE SHOWCASE COMING UP

Next Monday evening, May 11th.

 

See my earlier post for more info.

Ridiculously, I won’t be able to make it; I’m going out of town and won’t be back yet. But I met a very nice guy, DJ McDonald, in the Facebook Dance Bloggers group and he’s going to cover it for me!

I’m really interested to hear — of course what Pasha and Anya do, and Travis, and Twitch, and Sabra, and Eugene and Maria — but also how audiences like David Parsons’s Caught. I’m sure they’ll go absolutely wild over it. This may be a way to bring modern dance and ballet to a wider audience, integrating it with forms of dance that are more popular and accessible right now, like ballroom! So I’m really glad Tony and Melanie are exposing fans of ballroom and SYTYCD to something like this. Big huge kudos to them! And with Sabra now a part of Cedar Lake, who knows what future collaborations could happen…

Anyway, if anyone else is able to go (Shim?! — or any other fans of ballroom, SYTYCD, or Parsons — or modern dance — expose yourself to ballroom!, and it’s on a Monday night, so is not going to interfere with most other dance performances in the city), please please let me know what you think and I will post your thoughts!

Go here for tickets.

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SABRA JOHNSON JOINS CEDAR LAKE

 

This may be old news, but I just found out last night when I went to a friend’s book launch party and met a writer from Pointe magazine (how small is this world!) Anyway, wow! Hooray for Sabra; hooray for Cedar Lake; hooray for New York audiences!

 

UPDATE: I have been told by a representative of Cedar Lake that Sabra is no longer with the company, unfortunately. This is as of August 2009. I will definitely let you all know when I hear anything further about.

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WOW — DANCE TIMES SQUARE IS GOING ALL OUT

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.