Fame or Famine

…well, in Mia Michaels‘ case, you’re probably right.
Just had a bit of post-SYTYCD enjoyment reading All About My NYC Dance Auditions blog, where she took a master class from the choreographer and occasionally inappropriately dressed judge. While I’m not surprised to find out that she’s teaching, or that students are lining up around the block to take her classes, I was surprised to find out that the SYTYCD family is still around:
“The studio was packed! Jamie and Sabra from So You Think You Can Dance came to take class. Ivan was also at the studio, but he didn’t take Mia’s …read more

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There’s been some rearranging here at B5Media, and I’m very happy to say that the powers-that-be have noticed that my blog tends to focus more on entertainment than arts & crafts. As a result, I’m back amidst the likes of Dancewatcher and Idol Stalker (two great blogs with more in-depth reviews of the performing arts shows that I occasionally cover).
I have to thank Lynn over at DanceWatcher for taking point on the new dance show, “DanceCrew“, and risking the chance that it would be another Dancewar. She happily reports that “We’ve got a winner here!” and I’m looking forward to …read more

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If you’re not involved in the Twitter community, don’t become so. It will turn your phone and your computer into a banal and tedious little bird that intermittently interrupts your train of thought or activity with useless facts about people you’ve never met.
Unfortunately, I’m firmly esconced in the twitterverse, which is why I am able to let you know that the Resident Production Stage Manager for the Shakespeare Theatre Company, M. William Shiner, is “tweeting” about his work. It’s a way to get a glimpse into the life backstage, and my daughter, who is looking at going into backstage work …read more

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Yes, that’s right…she didn’t come to the Roller Derby after all. That does NOT mean that I didn’t find it an amazingly amusing and wonderful experience. I have talked with Hell Kat, one of the founding members of the Vaudeville Vixens, and she has told me that the derby has been making the change from spectacle to sport more and more.
Now in its fourth year, the Madison group could not be called anything but athletes. I can’t claim to completely understand the rules, but basically the “Jammer” (a solo skater) is supposed to try and get up past the pack …read more

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OK, this is stretching the “performance art” umbrella a little far, but I don’t get to do as much with the celebrity thing as my fellow bloggers here at B5Media, so I’ll take what I can get.
Tonight I’m going to be running a video camera for the Mad Rollin’ Dolls, the Madison Women’s Flat Track Derby team.  And as it happens Jane Wiedlin, the pixie voiced singer for the Go Gos, will be the singer of the National Anthem for tonight’s bout.
I can’t claim to be a diehard fan, but I do like them better than the Bangles, since they …read more

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My colleague over at B5Media’s “Dancewatcher” is much more friendly about the failings of Dancewar than I have been – she even pledges to try to be positive. Still, “… the whole competition between teams thing still isn’t doing it for me. And about half of the singers (mostly the girls) hit sour notes fairly often and it just spoils the experience for me.”
Ain’t that the truth. She’s also got some good info on the new shows “Girlicious” and “Best Dance Crew”, so check the blog out…

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Mea culpa, mea culpa. I failed in my responsibility to review Dancewar on Monday. For no good reason, either – it was $1..75 Margarita night at the local Tumbleweeds, and I decided to go there and watch my friends make little ice-castles in their drinks.
Based on the ever-entertaining review of Kristin Sample over at TV Squad, I had a much more enjoyable evening. The best thing she had to say was:
“One piece, however, was pretty good (and define “pretty good” as “my ears didn’t bleed during the song and I didn’t feel slightly ashamed for the performers”). Carrie Ann’s team …read more

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I’m working today on digitizing a dance performance by Douglas Rosenberg, a scholar and artist in the field of dance for the camera (Great Dance has done some interviews with him, if you’d like to know more about the guy).
The thing is, the performance that I’m digitizing was originally conceived with the dancers wearing long floor-length white skirts and nothing else. The bodies were going to be lit by a projected slide of text – take a look at the splash page at DVPG.net to see what I mean.
I know this is how it was intended, because I was the …read more

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Yes, like many others, I will be tuning into ABC tonight to check out “Dancing with the Stars” I mean, DanceWar. However, like my fellow reviewer over at TV Squad, I was pretty disappointed with this particular show. It sounded interesting, at first, but we’re not really seeing the two leads (Carrie-Ann and Bruno) actually mold the teams – so far, they blather incoherently about the performance hoops that are jumped through, and then got to go back to the schoolyard and pick teams. I don’t know about you, but I hated that kind of “picking out” at the school …read more

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Last night was the Madfest, and we pulled it off again – all it took was 9 hours straight of scrambling to pull together music, light cues, props, stage directions, and then the house was open and then it was full and then we were off and then it was done.
Except for one performer, whose bio simply read “NYC”. His light cues were a fraction of a second late, as he’d given some ambiguous directions (“this one goes after the scissor catch when I balance the pink ring on my head”). Well, he did the scissor catch, but I was …read more

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