Fame or Famine

The dancer who made Simon Cowell smile has made it all the way to the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent, the English equivalent of American Idol. Sophie Mei didn’t make the cut afterwards, but it’s still quite an accomplishment for a belly dancer.
Dance 3, Presence 10
She’s not all that technically brilliant, according to my Middle Eastern Dance Research Team (yes, I have one, doesn’t everyone?). But what she has is presence – she’s obviously having a great time as she dances and entertains, and it’s contagious.

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It’s only a preview, but it’s a breath of great things to come: the review of the premiere of “Another Evening: Serenade/The Proposition,” by Bill T. Jones seems to hint at a magnificent work to come. Commissioned to create a work celebrating the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, it’s a pretty tall order for anyone but Mr. Jones.
He assembled, along with his usual fantastically talented company, an amazing creative team: Janet Wong on video, singer Lisa Komara, score by Jerome Begin and Christopher Antonio William Lancaster, Liz Prince’s amazing costume design and a set consisting of moveable columns by …read more

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Milia comments: I’m 18 turning 19 and I feel so behind in dancing. I do know I’m not up to date in movements nor technique. But you will see me again – from today on I will practice, practice, and practice.
I feel that – it warms my heart, actually. At age 18 I started on what I thought was going to be a career in musical theatre, but got a bit sidetracked, and didn’t end up getting my degree in dance until the venerable age of 29. Ten years later, I have taught ballet to three year olds and the …read more

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If I owe my career choices to anyone, I owe it to authors Spider & Jeanne Robinson and their novel Stardance. In fact, one of the most life-changing events in my life was spending a weekend with them on Gambier Island in Vancouver. Jeanne, who is both a dancer, a choreographer, and a zen roshi, was a vibrant and dynamic woman. And the idea of blending dance with technology, put forth in their novel, is literally what caused me to decide to major, in college, in Dance/Interarts Technology.
Making the Dream Real
Much to my joy, I find that Jeanne is making …read more

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It may finally happen. I may be able to go and see a performance of a dance piece I’m writing about. Best of all, it features my homeboy, Ethan Steifel, who started his stellar career right down the road from me at the Monona Academy of Dance.
Twyla’s Interpretation of Heaven & Hell
Ethan works with Herman Cornejo and other dancers from American Ballet Theater at Lincoln Center’s Opera House to convey a balletic journey through a “post-modern idea of the world.” Bloomberg News called the latter part of the ballet “too long and too diffuse” and concluded there was “nothing new.” …read more

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What better way to kick off the start of So You Think You Can Dance tonight but with an announcement of another opportunity to dance with some stars?
Li Chiao-Ping is a choreographer and dancer originally from San Francisco, now living in Wisconsin. Her dance company has toured all over the world, and she has dedicated her company to “offering programs of emotionally charged and athletic works, with striking visual design and the music of contemporary composers.” She has been the chair of several dance departments and is the wife of award-winning video artist Douglas Rosenberg.
The auditions will be held June …read more

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A couple of fascinating literary works have come out – one journalistic, one autobiographical – that serve to really highlight how much the world has moved on from the days of Rudolph Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov leaping over airport turnstiles to defect to the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Alexei Ratmansky
In the New York Times Chip Brown has written a piece about the very young artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, Alexei Ratmansky. At 39 he has become “one of the most sought after choreographers in the world.” Instead of plotting his escape from totalitarianism, the …read more

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I had the distinct pleasure recently of dining at the Med Hookah lounge in Madison, WI, which aside from having great Mediterranean food also feature middle eastern dancers (aka bellydancers, though some don’t like that term).
Those Who Can, Teach
One of the performers there is Arielle, a teacher at the Madison Multicultural Dance Center with Mona N’wal and others. Though very young, Arielle’s been dancing since she was fourteen, and that leads to quite a bit of experience as well as talent.
That evening she did a three-part set, starting with two traditional songs and then a blended hip-hop/bellydance routine of her …read more

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John Henry was a self-described “performing artist/educator” who realized he was dying of AIDS and decided to turn his preparation for death into a performance piece. With the collaborative help of Douglas Rosenberg and Ellen Bromberg, a dance/technology piece was born.
A large part of that piece dealt with John Henry’s experiences as a combat soldier in Vietnam. He integrated those experiences into the piece, combining video of combat footage with live onstage dancing. You can see several videos of the stage performance here; as the piece toured, however, the performance was required to change to accommodate John Henry’s declining health …read more

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“
Why not up close and personal? Why not a special show, every now and then, when we could get to watch one or two Ailey marvels dancing something small and intimate in a setting where we might actually be able to track the thoughts crossing their brows, the nerve synapses firing in their muscles, the divine flow of their breathing?” This quote by Eva Yaa Asantewaa got my brain working today.
She was talking about the unfortunate necessity of dance companies such as Alvin Ailey to book large venues to get huge audiences in – to then see the tiny ants …read more

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