Fame or Famine

This blog is a bit of a balancing act. I try to cover general performing arts, and that’s a wide spectrum; so you end up with one day me talking about plays in London, another day about popular culture like Dancing with the Stars, and another day about the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre celebrating its 50th anniversary.
And then you have days like today, when I can talk about how the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre performed part of its signature ballet Revelations on Dancing with the Stars. I have to say, this is one of the best …read more

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AAADT: NEWS FROM THE ROAD AS 50TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR IS SET TO LAUNCH: On a 27-city tour, the company has critics raving “The Ailey troupe is one of few companies constantly capable of attracting viewers new to dance, and making converts of them.” Click for the AAADT North American Tour Schedule.
AILEY II GEARS UP FOR PERFORMANCES AT THE JOYCE THEATER: April 30-May 8, 2008, the Ailey II company program will include four New York City premieres including Fragile by French choreographer Stephane Boko, The External Knot by Ailey II’s Associate Artistic Director Troy Powell, Christopher Huggins’ …read more

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Just a note of admiration: in spite of what must have been crushing news (their founder, Gus Giordano, died on Sunday) the Giordano Dance troupe got rave reviews from Hedy Weiss in the Chicago Sun-Times. It’s a tribute to the professionalism of the performers and the ethics he instilled in them that they kick off a five week tour of Hawaii with such a stellar performance. Even the one sour note in the review, Davis Robertson’s premiere of “Moanin Low” didn’t change her opinion: “…the company is in high-flying form.”
Incidentally, for those So You Think You Can Dance fans: number …read more

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Dancer, Choreographer, Former U.S. Marine, and founder of the Giordano Dance Company of Chicago died yesterday morning of pneumonia. He was 84. One of the great pioneers of jazz dance in this country, he studied with Hanya Holm, Katherine Dunham and Alwin Nikolais, as well as appearing on Broadway in Wish You Were Here and Paint Your Wagon.
Semper Fi, Gus, and thank you.

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I’ve written before about how the real training for an action star should be in dance. The new Batman? Christian Bale, a trained dancer. Jackie Chan? Dancer in the Chinese Opera. And if, like me, you were in love with Joss Whedon’s Firefly, you thrilled to see Serenity, where Summer Glau gave more than a glimpse of the virtuosic control she has of her body.
But all of these examples are not really examples of dancing for the camera; they’re examples of people who have used their dance training to augment the fight choreography of their scenes in movies. Of course, …read more

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Before watching Company tonight, I caught the end of America’s Ballroom Challenge. I got a treat: Ilya Ifraimov and Nadia Goulina from New Jersey won the Show Dance segment with a very innovative robotic dance based on the Transformers.
They didn’t win the entire competition – Champions Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova successfully defended their title – but it’s nice to see that innovation is appreciated by even the most traditional forms.
Now, back to watching “Company”…

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“At the moment you see the movement occur, you hear the voice of that dancer talking about what’s in their head or what images are going on for them.” – Elam in the Village Voice
Chris Elam is continuing to make waves with his ideas for the Misnomer Dance Co. After winning the IdeaBlob Contest, his plans to use the internet as a vehicle to deepen the understanding and involvement of the audience are just bubbling.
I’m very excited to see this – most of all because he seems, to me, to be the perfect person to make it actually happen. In …read more

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Ok, so I’m actually only going to be writing about the first part of that headline. But it’s catchy, isn’t it? Last Sunday was one of the biggest sporting events ever – I’m talking, of course, about the  Wisconsin State Cheerleading Competition, where my youngest daughter Danny, a junior at East High School, would be competing.
I remember when she first told me she wanted to quite cross country (my old sport) and join cheer. She’d been nervous. “Dad…how would you feel if I became a cheerleader?”
“I don’t know,” I answered. “Why do you want to be a cheerleader?”
“Because it’s fun!” …read more

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Tonight my girlfriend and I had the pleasure of spending an evening at the Mediterranean Hookah Lounge, where a friend of mine who teaches Middle Eastern dance was performing. She was awesome (in my obviously unbiased opinion) but I was a little at a loss to figure out exactly how to express my appreciation for her art. It turned out that clapping was absolutely fine, but I talked to her afterwards to find out more culturally appropriate ways to applaud.

Yell “Ai-Wa!” (an Arabic term of appreciation, pronounced “Eye-Wah”)
Yell “Yallah!” (similar to above, but with the emphasis on the second syllable).
Yell …read more

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I’ve referred several times to my favorite dancer I’ve never met, Shan, in this blog. Aside from being a funny, intelligent, and delightfully snarky writer, she’s also an excellent dancer, and like me, stubbornly hanging onto her love of dance past the time that most dance hobbyists retreat to the joys of scrapbooking.
She wrote a very encouraging review of the On the Move festival in Toronto, which include this cofee-spitting reference:
“After the warm up exercises, the instructor (Alex Cilic) said, “I feel a grungity.”
“Grungity?” I thought, bewildered.
And then she leaped in the air, and all was revealed. Ah. A …read more

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