Fame or Famine

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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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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This video, courtesy of a friend of mine in IL, is absolutely my favorite kind of performance art. It captures the beauty and grace of everyday things, forces people to try, at least somewhat, to figure it out. If you look at the expressions on the people around as they look at the performers…there’s smiles, and a sense of wonder.
It’s beautiful.
http://view.break.com/445525 – Watch more free videos

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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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After watching the first number, I had a feeling that I’d end watching this and feel as though there were two hours of my life that I’d never get back again…the dancing was bland, uninspired,and frankly, boring. Even the more impressive dance moves tended to be half-hearted or uncertain, such as the vertical split/twirl.
I don’t know if it was just me, but sounded to me like Carrie Ann was kind of prepping by making excuses for the entire group – “singing live on tv is really hard!” Well, yes, it is, of course, but the fact that they brought it …read more

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Last night was an interesting experience – I was part of a “Murder Mystery” party along with several old friends and, as it would happen, an ex-girlfriend. We were all sent “character sheets” by the hostess earlier in the month, with time to prepare costumes, etc (these ranged from a person who simply put on a shawl to a man who had a pinstripe suit specially made for the occasion – then again, his character was Al Capone). I went halfway, which I think is understandable as I actually had two characters.
In the first half I was Don “Big Jim” …read more

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Kristin Sample, in her review of Dance War (like me, she noticed that these two-hour premieres are hard on us commentators – repetitive stress injury, anyone?) has an interesting thought about the dynamic between Carrie Ann and Bruno Tonioli:
 I wish that Bruno and Carrie Ann were real rivals and actually despised each other. That would be awesome. On Spike TV’s The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra, you could tell that Matt Hughes and Matt Serra really disliked each other. Maybe ABC will just replace Bruno and Carrie Ann with Matt Hughes and Matt Serra (no, that would be …read more

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One of the benefits of being part of the B5Media family is that there are a lot of other bloggers out there doing neat things – though I occupy a pretty unique niche here in the lifestyles channel, and most of the celebrity watches are less about the performing arts than individual celebs.
DanceWatcher  Lynn Devries is the exception. A veteran blogger, she also loves (like me) the dance reality shows. I’m kicking myself for not noticing her blog sooner, but now I’m itching for the next season of dance to start off. See, far from being a competition, when you …read more

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I’m sure you’ll be able to hear this kind of thing on the DVD when it comes out, but meanwhile, here’s a nice treat: learning about the process of taking Sweeney Todd from stage to screen – including interviews with cast members, and more.

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