In keeping with the start of the Halloween season, Darren Aronofsky’s (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) new film is called Black Swan. What happens when you marry ballet and horror? This does:

I never thought I would ever say these words: ballet is creepy, geez. And what about the black feathers poking through her shoulders (shudder). I love Darren Aronofsky, and The Fountain is one of the most beautiful and sad movies ever made. I adore Natalie Portman as well. I will give this one a try!

Well hello, once again! I thank you all for being so patient with me, we are fully in our beautiful new home and getting settled. Now that we have our UVerse cable installed (love it), I won’t be missing ANY more episodes of this season’s SYTYCD (whew)!

I’m so behind I don’t even know who was eliminated last week. Oh, Cristina. Sorry, doll, I liked you.

First up is AdeChike with Lauren doing a nerdy hip-hop. Very hip, cute and fun. And what’s THIS? Sexy nerds–right up my alley. Hip-hop with a gigantic measure of personality and hot chemistry mixed right in. A perfect recipe in my estimation. I wanna get up and move myself, I am enjoying this so much. Judges luh-huv it. A good sign for AdeChike, as it seems that he has finally “shown up” to the party. This is a great piece from choreographer Dave Scott, must get a mention in for him.

Next is Ashley and Ade doing a piece from newcomer Dee Caspary. The piece is very fast and flowy and has a lot of power. It seems to have all the right elements, but I still feel it’s missing something. Like it’s too fast the whole way through. There is a short pause, but for me it’s not enough give and take in the dynamics. Dee was true to his word, she does practically no movement without help from Ade. I watch it again just to be sure that I’m not missing something, and it still bugs me a little. Masterfully danced by the both of them, but possibly just too rough and tumble for my tastes and hard to digest visually. Judges love it, now I feel bad. Oh well. Purple breezes and glasses of scotch.

And oh, it’s been so long I forgot–SOLOS! Billy’s up first with amazing purple stretch jeans, amazing flexibility and a love to just get it all out there. Well done.

Robert is up next (wow, what a story with his mom, huh?) dancing a Sonya Tayeh jazz number with all-star Courtney. Sonya’s goal is to show America how wrong they were to put him in the bottom last week. These two are in great synch with each other; when they do the moment where they jete together, it’s perfectly in time. I don’t quite get the ferocity from Robert that Sonya really wanted from him, but they looked really go together. His main note is to study ballet. I take this moment to note that they actually don’t ever dance ballet on this show. Hmmm. Not exciting enough? What about traditional Russian dancing. Was THAT exciting enough? Just sayin’, is all.

Jose’s solo is up and he uses one of my fave super soul classics, James Brown’s “Super Bad”. And it’s the original, no sampling here. You go, Jose. He’s a cutie and his solo rocked.

Tapper Melinda’s inspiration is old time hoofer Dr. Harold Cromer whom she has studied with for a few years. It’s really fun to see a youngling studying with a true seasoned pro. She’s got to show her sexy side with a Salsa by Fabian Sanchez and with Pasha. Right out of the box she’s got the hotness, but her heel gets stuck in her dress and even though she has to get it out, she doesn’t miss a beat. Love the stuff on the floor. Ok, this is hot stuff and super super good. She’s really enjoying her self and who wouldn’t dancing with the Pash?? But wow, she gets crushed by the judges. What am I missing here? Plus, Adam Shankman and Mia Michaels both say that she should have been let go last week instead of Cristina. This really frustrates me and I’m going to move on now.

Kent has is solo next. He’s a super cute ball of energy, but it’s too much reaching out and up for me in the solo.

Alex comes out of the gate with his sheer perfection solo to music from Planet of the Apes (odd, but so right) and I have to rewind it twice. Love this guy, because not only has he got the chops that can’t stop, he has the emotion there and ready to go when its needed. Sigh.

Next Lauren and Neil are up with an Joey Bowling Broadway number, and I’m looking forward to this. Broadway always needs a huge amount of chemistry, a lot of back and forth between the couple and they had it, just not in spades. Mia points out that as an athletic dancer, Lauren needs more femininity, and I would agree with her. Just a little more sauciness. And yes, the dress broke, but then we’re just watching the dress and not her. I enjoyed the dance, though, Joey gives good Broadway.

Ashley gets her solo next, and I don’t quite get her first count of 8 because she barely moves. But then she’s gone and all over the stage. Powerful, but I don’t get her as a dancer in this infinitely short amount of time. Right about now is when I say that I think they should get rid of solos all together and just keep the dance for your life. It is really tough to find just the right combination of elements to please everyone yet show off the best of your abilities in 20 seconds. Give em a break.

Interestingly enough, Billy Bell’s inspiration is Legacy from season 6. Wow, that is actually super cool that a dancer who moves like Billy was inspired by a breaker who moves like Legacy. Neato. Billy and Katherine do a contemporay by Stacey Tookey. This piece is a great balance of dance and emotion through dance and connection–which they had the most of at the end moment, as Nigel pointed out. Katherine was there for him 100% of the time (damn she’s really good) and he didn’t quite match her with being there in the moment. Technique, check. Emotion,

Robert’s solo is next to Ray Lamontange, who I adore. His solo hit me in a good place (where would that be you ask), and I just was able to sit back, watch and enjoy. He’s really gorgeous to watch dance like that alone. Ahhh.

Jose’s influence was Bruce Lee, and this is not the first time I’ve heard a breaker talk about Bruce as an influence. It has been said that Bruce’s fighting style was the basis for the creation of break dancing. Jose gets to do a Samba with Anya (and Dmitry Chaplin, welcome back), and here we go. Right away he looks like a solid partner with the catch off the table. The arms aren’t quite there but he’s pretty darn good for a B-Boy doing frickin’ samba. And he loved dancing with pretty Anya. I actually couldn’t take my eyes off him. The judges echo my sentiments. Whew, I’m not completely crazy, huh.

Melinda does her tapping to Alicia Keys and I’m really not sure what the judges were talking about her musicality. Sounds perfectly fine here to me. I liked it.

Kent gets to tackle a jazz piece by Mandy Moore with Allison. Kent’s lesson is to be a MAN. While he held is own with Allison in the choreography, there was no sizzle between the two of them. Allison is such a hottie tottie and and she was right there for him, but he wouldn’t bite (to her, that’s to say; he loved to play to the audience). And the song is Heartburn for gawd sakes! Burn, baby burn!

AdeChike supposedly raised the roof with the dance for his life last week and I’m looking forward to this solo. Strength, power and beauty. That coupled with gentleness is what gives this guy his swag.

Lauren. Here is a gal who knows how to pack everything needed into a 20 second solo. Technique, passion, leaps, new stuff, emotion, audience connection, connection to the song, restraint. Pure satisfaction.

Alex’s NappyTabs hip-hop number with Twitch is probably the most anticipated tonight, since guys are rarely put together at this stage of the show. And I have to sincerely say, this is THE MOST enjoyable number of the entire show for me, I’m practically yelling at the screen “yeah!” at the top of my lungs. Excellent work done by Alex, I would have never known that he had no experience with hip-hop. He had the moves down, and was perfectly in synch with Twitch, and great chemistry with him to boot. The whole concept was a home run with the song “Outa Your Mind”, the story with the shrink/patient, the NappyTabs moves, throwing in Alex’s ballet, on and on and on. Amazing. Alex has sealed himself as my early front-runner favorite on the show. Early prediction, he could win it!

Whew! That was a whirlwind. Who will be in the bottom and who will be safe? We’ll find out tomorrow!

Ok. Classic Television happened on Sunday evening with the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. Who’s idea was it to have Les Grossman, Tom Cruise’s alter ego from Tropic Thunder “produce” the show? Utter Genius. To have Les dance a full number with none other than JLo? Uber Genius.

Who knew Tom could dance THAT well? I mean, I knew he could move, but huh? Plus, he’s probably got 15-20 lbs of makeup and padding and prosthetics on to boot. What a guy. What a dance number.

I don’t know if anyone remembers watching the movie Napoleon Dynamite for the first time. I remember sitting in the dirty, small AMC theater in the Burbank Town Center Mall (this was the only theater that was showing it at the time) and laughing at the odd comedy. I also was thinking that I knew at least a couple of people exactly like Napoleon in my little High School in Kansas growing up (you know who you are out there). The other thing that I thought, reluctantly, was that there was a little Napoleon in ME. WHAT???

This is such an interesting character that was developed by Jon Heder and Jared and Jerusha Hess. An outsider, an introvert, sometimes a jerk, bullied, pushed around, abused, and just weird. But he also loves fantasy, is creative, befriends the new guy, is unaware that he’s really that much of a dweeb, and willing to take risks and just show what he’s got.

Then comes the true surprise in the last 10 minutes of the film. The SKIT. When Pedro’s opponent for student body president, Summer, does her dance/sign language ditty, I’m thinking “what does this have to do with a school election?” Come on, what high school election was EVER based on platforms and NOT popularity? None of the ones in my school, that’s for sure. Pedro is done for. No one even told him there was a “skit”.

Napoleon to the rescue. With no second thought, with no thought at ALL (add dependable friend to the list above), he gives his audio tape to the stage manager and steps out in front of the crowd.

My jaw was literally on the floor as I sat in the theater. And the music? “Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai. Singularly one of the most danceable songs out there (and also used in the fun dance romp “Center Stage”). Nothing will endear you more to me personally than just letting it all hang out and really having a moment of pure enjoyment for yourself while you move your body. And that dance is completely improvised. Jon is not a trained dancer nor was he helped by any pro. But you can tell dancing comes very naturally to him. Those loose hips are sometimes very hard to teach (watch any first time dancers on DWTS), and he’s got them in spades. I wanted to stand up and scream at the end, and when the auditorium crowd does just that after a long pause, you feel completely vindicated for loving Napoleon and his original dance.

Bonus? He gets the girl in the end.

“You know that dream you have where you’re flying? That’s what dance is like for me” Marguerite Derricks

If you’re not familiar with Marguerite Derricks, she is a super fab choreographer who has won three Emmys and choreographed for many movies including Striptease, 10 Things I Hate About You, Donnie Darko, Little Miss Sunshine (can’t forget Abigail Breslin doing those raunchy moves), Spider Man 2, and the penultimate Austin Powers Trilogy.

This lady is a master with seamlessly integrating dance into movies that are neither musicals or strictly dance movies. My favorite is her joy-inducing choreography to the infectious “Soul Bossa Nova” by the Big Q, Quincy Jones, for the Austin Powers movies. Another interesting tidbit–”Soul Bossa Nova” wasn’t written FOR Austin Powers, but was first recorded by Quincy and his band back in 1962. Amazing, doesn’t it seem like that song was just made for Austin?

First, the original:

And the third movie, my favorite:

Marguerite and Mike Meyers really come together in a fantastic symphony of creative choreography and a multi-talented character. There is no denying the fun appeal of snaggle-toothed, spectacled Austin in these numbers.

Yeah, baby!

If you’ve ever heard the opening piano riff from Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll” then surely the picture that comes to mind is of a stringy high school kid on the verge of manhood, sliding across the living room floor in his button down shirt and tightie-whities. Yes, I speak of Mr. Tom Cruise in the 1983 film Risky Business. “Princeton could use a guy like Joel.” Amen.

To continue where I left off with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, I adore when dance is used in a non-dance movie. It’s just so real-life. When you are so excited you can’t contain yourself, you do a little jig. When you are completely alone and want to let loose, you pull out your hairbrush and sing “I Will Survive” at the top of your lungs while gyrating in front of the mirror. When you need to step in for your best friend to do a skit, you dance to “Canned Heat” (uh, what).

Here’s the original, that stands the test of time:

As all iconic images do, they spawn copies, spoofs and tributes. Here’s a quick one from the TV show “Scrubs”:

And another from “The Nanny”:

Here’s the sexiest version I’ve ever seen:

Wow, bazoombas…

How about a bunch of athletes? Kobe, don’t you think those shorts are a little long for tightie-whities??

Gotta love it. Thanks Tom, for the original.

Head judge and executive producer of So You Think You Can Dance Nigel Lythgoe seemed to say over and over in season 6: “The chair is here for you Paula, come and join us!” Well, those weren’t his exact words, but you heard him talk about it enough through the entire season. And did Ms. Paula Abdul show up? No.

Well, that’s very unfortunate for her, because Nigel has officially withdrawn his invitation for her to come on SYTYCD. Pity. Seems her deal for a new Star Search just fell through (as reported by PopWrap).

At first I kinda chuckled about that, you know, “loopy Paula” and all. But then I went, wait. I would have really liked that. I mean, enough with her being a judge, why couldn’t she come on and choreograph? If you will remember back a few years ago, Paula Abdul was the go-to choreographer in Hollywood and the music industry. Yeah, remember “it’s Janet. Miss Jackson if you’re nasty?” I do.

I mean, look. Paula was discovered by THE JACKSONS for pete’s sake, at a Laker’s game. They saw her dancing with the Laker Girls and invited her to create the choreography for their “Torture” video, a process she’s not sure how she even got through. “My only problem was how to tell the Jacksons how to dance. Imagine me telling them what routines to do. I was young, I was scared.” But survive she did and went on to choreograph their Victory tour.

And tell me you didn’t know she choreographed this scene from the beloved american film Big:

I didn’t!!!! (thanks bunches Wikipedia)

Geez, I mean she even did those great African dance scenes in Coming to America (one of my favorite comedies), and she IS an Emmy Award-winning choreographer (for The Tracey Ullman Show and American Music Awards).

What really brought her to the forefront and ultimately, I think, led her to a music career is her close relationship with Janet Jackson during the Control era. And you have to remember that Janet was just coming up, too. Control really put her on the map and set her apart from the Jackson family. And damn if they weren’t hyper-danceable songs.

Ooooooo, I got chills just watching the open dance moves. Hot Hot HOT!! And it’s more jazz than hip-hop (didja SEE the guy do a zillion pirouettes??), something you just don’t see anymore in music videos. Little elements of West Side Story thrown in as well. Hurrah for 80′s stirrup leggings and big jackets with shoulder pads.

So loopy or not, she is a dance icon in America, and in my heart. Love ya, Paula–come back to the dance world!!

Found this really fun video from Jon M. Chu (of LXD fame) on my Twitter list. They are busy busy busy shooting Step Up 3D (I really liked the first two movies, this should be interesting).

Sometimes when you’re on a set at all hours of the night (and have gotten no sleep on your 8 hours off) thinks get kinda weird, wooly and wild.

What better thing to do than freestyle?

Dija see B-Boy Legacy poke his lil’ face in there? Sweet. Thanks for the vid Jon!

I read a couple of reviews of the Oscars performance last night, and I don’t agree with all of them. There are a bit of naysayers about the hosting, the dancing, the choice to honor John Hughes (as opposed to other Honorary awards recipients), having “NPH” sing for the opening, etc. etc.

I thought it was a good show. For gawd’s sake, people, it’s nearly four hours of awards and presentations! How is Mr. Adam Shankman (director of the Oscars show) going to please everybody, all the time? He’s not, so there.

I thought two hosts, especially such as Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin was a super idea. Hey guys, I loved Chris Rock even more and I’m sure they paid Shankman NOT to hire him again. His first choice was actually Sacha Baron Cohen–a revelation even beyond Chris Rock. But they pulled back on the idea, thinking that it would just be too much for most of the people in the room (much less the rest of the US, who are quite more conservative than us here in Hollywood) to handle. Darn.

But Steve and Alec did a great job. Steve’s quip about both himself and “Gabby” Sidibe’s first starring movie roles were as a “poor black child” made me roll. Too young to know what he’s talking about? Check out Steve Martin in The Jerk,it’s a comedy classic. This was still when Steve was a “wild and crazy guy.”

Now, I do get the protests about honoring John Hughes instead of one or more of the Honorary Awards recipients (lovely Lauren Bacall, bigger than life Roger Corman and outstanding cinematographer Gordon Willis). But, as a child of the 80′s, it was really great to look back at all his films and really know that he knew who I was as a teenager. He knew and was able to display it, with charm, humor, grace and humility, for those of us suffering from teenage-itis to share. He was a great filmmaker and I’m so sad that he had to depart too soon.

And then there’s Adam’s choice to have the John M. Chu’s Legion of Extraordinary Dancers perform to each of the movie score nominees. Popping and locking to the theme from a war movie??–was the protest I heard.

Look. I get it that it was a bit different than your usual fare. But doncha get it? Music–any and all music–inspires movement. And that can be any movement of any kind. So yes, music from a movie about the war in the middle east can inspire LXD to move. And that they did amazingly well. And actually, the piece to “The Hurt Locker” score was my favorite of all of them (and the stunts done for the “Avatar” score were crazy good). Face it, naysayers. Popping, locking, b-boying, breakdancing, hip-hop, krumping, freestyle. It’s all here to stay and they are ALL legitimate art forms.

Yea for Dance! And Yea for a great Oscars night!

Saturday afternoon I was flipping through our HBO channels and A Knight’s Tale was on. I loved this movie so much when it came out that I bought the DVD and have watched it a gazillion times.

Besides Heath Ledger, who I adore and miss heartily, I really really loved the way they melded the old world and contemporary style, period and hip. After all Knights were the Rock Stars of Midieval times, right? Not only does Sir Ulrich’s (Ledger) posse look like a modern-day entourage with a twist, but Lady Jocelyn’s dresses are chaste and sexy all at the same time.

Take this scene for instance, at the tournament feast. Usually traditional dancing was lots of stepping and clapping, and it lends itself very well to melding into a bunch of young people dancing at a party. All to David Bowie’s “Golden Years”. New and classic, all at the same time. Cheers!