Categories
dancing in the media Dancing Stars of Central Georgia

What are YOU doing on Thursday?

Here’s what we are doing: meeting our partners for Dancing Stars of Central Georgia at a cocktail party that will be covered on the local news!  Turn on NewsCentral (Fox 24/ABC 16, WGXA) at 7:00 on Thursday to see the announcement of the Dancing Stars event!

 

Categories
in other news teaching

D and L, Dancers

Monday night we learned that one of our dancers is fluent in American Sign Language, a topic in which Daniel and I share a real but largely hypothetical interest.  After comparing notes on some signs (the ones we’ve picked up from watching ABC Family’s Switched at Birth are correct, but utterly random–“Ferris wheel”?) and learning that ASL does indeed have its own etymologies (of course the sign for “mother” is meant to evoke a woman tying on her bonnet), we somehow fell onto the topic of name signs.

A name sign is a shortcut way of saying someone’s name so that you don’t have to fingerspell it e.v.e.r.y. s.i.n.g.l.e. t.i.m.e.  How tedious would that be if you were talking about someone named “Persephone” or something?  So you cut it down to the first letter of the person’s name, combined with a sign that illustrates something about that person.  Like on Switched at Birth, one of the main characters is named Bay and her name sign is the letter B waved next to the head to indicate her curly hair.  There are other nuances (Deaf culture is, well, an entire culture!) but that’s the basic idea.

So our dancer showed us the sign for “dance.”  To make our name signs we use the respective first letters of our names (here is D and here is L) in place of the fingers pointing downward/moving back and forth.  How awesome is that?  I also think it is sweet that we have matching name signs.  Perfect for dance partners, right?

Our dancer says further that Marlee Matlin’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars was her inspiration to learn to dance.  I’m a big Marlee Matlin fan too!

Categories
Ballerina Corner

I saw Twyla Tharp’s The Princess and the Goblin!

On Saturday, February 18, I went with a friend/colleague to see Twyla Tharp’s new ballet The Princess and the Goblin.  Apparently its full formal title is Twyla Tharp’s The Princess and the Goblin, which makes my teeth hurt, but I suppose one could argue that if you’re Twyla Tharp, you can call your ballets anything you want.  In any case, if my biggest complaint is about the title, you can guess that I don’t have many complaints.  The dancing was, of course, beautiful.  Maybe a few moves (which I suspect are Tharp trademarks) seemed overused at the time but now I’m glad I saw them over and over so that they are imprinted in my memory.  The story, adapted from a 19th-century tale by George MacDonald, was not at all familiar to me, but the salient contours came through clearly enough.  I could see overlaps with/references to other Romantic-period story ballets–probably inevitable and certainly interesting.  From what I have read, Tharp is trying to add to the canon of story ballets (a form whose obituary has repeatedly been written), not transcend it.  Ballet-as-storytelling has its own generic constraints and, as such, likely benefits from hewing to tradition.

The ballet makes extensive use of children, which could have been a kiss of death, but the kids did very well: they were obviously well rehearsed but also handled very naturalistically so they seemed like children rather than Tiny Professional Dancers.  The female lead (Irene, the titular princess, danced by Alessa Rogers) was an absolute knockout with feet to die for–a necessary element considering that a major plot point in the ballet involves pointe shoes: Irene learns from her great-grandmother (confusingly, a full-scale dance role played by a lovely soloist, rather than a little-old-lady pantomime/character role) to dance en pointe, an ability that allows her to enthrall, confound, and occasionally injure the goblins.  The she-goblins later find their own pointe shoes and stumble around on them in a hilarious ballet in-joke.  I think a fair few young (or not so young *cough*) dancers turn ourselves into greedy goblins in pursuit of en-pointe glory.

The action sometimes seemed a little circular or recursive to me, an impression that I credit to my own surprising lack of experience with ballet in performance.  I’ve actually seen only a handful of ballets and am thus unaccustomed to the necessary repetitions that come with telling a story wordlessly.  As a whole, the ballet is well-paced with the energy–physical and musical–building toward a climax.  I was worried when I found out it was 80 minutes, no intermission, but then I was surprised when it was over.  For me, losing track of time is the reliable sign of a successful entertainment experience, so Twyla Tharp’s The Princess and the Goblin goes in the win column as far as I’m concerned.

New York Times story about the development of TP&TG.

And the Times’ review (avec video clip).

YouTube promotional video from Atlanta Ballet.

Categories
competitions dance events Dancing Stars of Central Georgia exhibitions & performances

Dueling Dancing Stars

Big news from DLDancers HQ: Daniel and I found out on Friday that we have been chosen as “pros” for the Alzheimer’s Association “Dancing Stars of Central Georgia” event.  Just like on Dancing with the Stars we will each be paired with a local “star” to prepare a dance routine that will be performed at the event on May 12 at the Macon City Auditorium.  Since we will each have our own star, we will be competing against each other.  Let the games begin!  According to the information we got from the Alzheimer’s Association, there will be 2 winning couples: the Judges’ Choice (decided on the night of the event, of course) and the People’s Choice (which is the pair that raises the most money).  Can DLDancers take home ALL the trophies?

We are so excited and honored to have been chosen and now are waiting impatiently to find out the identities of our stars.  I have an idea of who mine might be but it’s a long shot.  No matter what, we can’t wait to dive in and get involved with this excellent event.  The Alzheimer’s Association has put on these events in other parts of the state (and nationally, I think) and they are the real pros.  They have already organized a web site (http://dancingstarsofcentralgeorgia2012.kintera.org), a cast party for March 1, plans to video our rehearsals, local TV appearances, and some other good stuff that we’re not even allowed to talk about yet.  And all of this for an excellent cause.  The statistics on Alzheimer’s disease are alarming; it is such a difficult and heartbreaking disease for sufferers and caregivers.  In every possible way we are thrilled to be involved with such a prominent and well-run humanitarian event.

Stay tuned for lots of updates including: Who are our stars? What are we dancing? What music have we chosen? How can you donate? How can you get tickets to the event? WHO WILL WIN???

Categories
dance events MSDC social dancing

Spring Formal at Macon State College

It used to be the case (18th-19th centuries, after the invention of partner dancing as we know it) that “older” and/or married people didn’t dance at parties or balls.  Dancing was for the young people and those who were courting.  I’m glad that’s not true anymore or Daniel and I would not have had as much fun last night as we did!  Macon State College hosted its first Spring Formal and we attended as “chaperones.”  Actual chaperoning was unnecessary but we got some good dancing in and some excellent publicity for the dance club.  The club members tried out their new tango steps to the Glee version of “Bust Your Windows,” experimented with the rumba (which Daniel taught them at last week’s meeting after I left: very sneaky!), and we saw some swing, merengue, and hustle happening as well.  Not to mention the panoply of non-ballroom dances that we all participated in.  Club president Minwoo Kim helped me remember how to do the Wobble; Daniel and I did the Cha-Cha Slide right on the edge of the floor because it was so crowded, and we saw a slightly funkier version of the Electric Slide called the “G Slide.”  As for the “Stanky Legg”. . . I’m going to have to practice that one at home.  In dark of night.  And maybe leave it at that.

A total of about 160 students and guests attended, all dressed in their best and ready to have a good time.  Everyone was shy about getting on the floor at first but once the ice was broken, the floor was never empty.  By the end of the night we were all wishing the floor were bigger!  After the tango, I grabbed a microphone from the DJ and gave a little plug for the dance club.  Nothing like trying to speak to a crowd when you’re out of breath from dancing.  Whew.  The whole event was an unqualified success and we’re glad we could be there.  I took a few videos and still photos with my phone, we had a professional photo taken, MSC-TV had cameras there, and someone was taking candids, so I should be able to post some media soon.  So great to see our students looking elegant and having fun DANCING!

Categories
Ballerina Corner dancing in the media in other news

Black Swan: WHAP!

Last night, thanks to the mysterious appearance of the HBO channels on our cable lineup, I finally watched Black Swan.  I approached the movie with extreme trepidation: because I get creeped out really easily and I don’t like to be startled, several people had told me I shouldn’t see it at all.  But I had Daniel next to me making fake-scary faces, waving his fingers, and going “WOOOO, it’s just a MOOOOOOVIE,” so I went for it.

At the end of the movie I posted on Facebook: “Saw Black Swan finally.  Kind of want to slap Darren Aronofsky upside the head.”

Here’s the thing: I am entirely willing to believe that the world of ballet has the potential to attract and/or create psychologically damaged people.  (It helps that I was obsessed with Gelsey Kirkland’s autobio Dancing on my Grave  when I was in high school.)  Stage mothers living out their frustrated dance dreams through their daughters are real.  Emotionally and sexually manipulative company directors are real (depending on the view one takes of George Balanchine, who by some accounts was the model for the character of Thomas in Black Swan).  The consuming desire for perfection is real.  The anxiety about career longevity and advancement is real.  The bloody toes are real.  Even the characterization of Nina, simultaneously sheltered and damaged, coddled and neglected, rang somewhat true for me: a promising dancer who commits to a company at age 18 is making a decision she probably isn’t developmentally prepared to make and ends up coming of age in a hothouse atmosphere where her usefulness to society is very narrowly defined (see also Sergei what’s-his-name, 21, who just left the Royal Ballet to run a tattoo studio or something).

So my beef with Black Swan is not with its portrayal of the world of professional dance.  My beef with Black Swan is with its cinematic style.  Doesn’t Aronofsky trust his audience?  The beginning of the movie was so in medias res that I actually thought we had missed the first 15 minutes or something.  We have no indication of how Nina became the psychological train wreck that she is (potentially a more interesting story, IMO).  The movie starts with the melodrama-o-meter dialed up to 11 and then keeps cranking on it all the way to the end.  Stop it with the claustrophobic interiors, the grey-on-grey-on-grey color scheme, the relentless distastefulness of the characters.  Couldn’t I just have spent the whole movie with Mila Kunis’s character?  She seemed like a cool girl.

I wasn’t bothered by the creepiness/grossness per se, or the sexuality–I am on record as loving the movie The Libertine, one of the most explicit and nastiest movies I’ve ever seen.  But, again, memo to director: WE GET IT.  Girlfriend needs therapy.  And her own apartment and a normal boyfriend and some friends and maybe a protein shake.  Nor do I mind Natalie Portman having used dance doubles and then kept quiet about it.  High-level ballet training is a 15- or 20-year pursuit requiring that one start with a fairly specific body type.  Hardcore dance nerds would notice that she was using a double (“There’s no way that’s really her”) and we’d have noticed if she hadn’t (“That was terrible; she should have had a double”).  The rest of the world probably wouldn’t care, and the awards that she won were for acting, not for developpés. Keeping the use of doubles a secret till after awards season was a dumb decision but probably an administrative one.

While I’ve got you here, though, I have to say that I don’t understand giving those awards for what I felt was largely a one-note performance.  She spent 80% of the movie crying or trying not to cry.  I don’t believe, come to think of it, that such fragility would have survived in the professional dance world as long as her character supposedly did.  Even if you take into account that she hadn’t had a piece of cake in at least 15 years.

The dance world is an insider’s world. I think that’s the reason that ballet movies are always flawed.  Educating an audience and then creating compelling characters and telling an engaging story is a lot to do successfully in two hours.  I credit Black Swan for its ambition but fault it for being headache-inducingly melodramatic (true fact: I had a headache at the end of the film) and, in the end, unoriginal.  I would venture to suggest that the truisms of ballet that I enumerated above are widely enough known to stand as clichés.  And I would happily watch a movie of much greater subtlety and originality in which an insurgent dancer equipped with good mental health, supportive friends, and actual body fat (just a little) successfully pushed aside the punishing atmosphere and mind games of her company, opening the way to its re-creation as a creative juggernaut of positive energy.

But then, I am a Pollyanna.