January 11th, 2010 by soullldiva

“Some people seem to think that good dancers are born, but all the good dancers I have known are taught or trained.”    Fred Astaire

I love that Fred Astaire quote for personal reasons. I’ve studied dance for over 10 years in my adult life, and more when I was younger. I abandoned when I was in middle school it because I felt I wasn’t “born to dance”. And others, with more natural talent than myself, were. But for anyone who has worked and studied their butts off, and rehearsed until 3am–that is just a piece of false information. Not only can anyone dance, anyone can be great. That’s just my philosophy! So thanks, Fred, for the awesome quote.

January 7th, 2010 by soullldiva

Has anyone said to themselves lately: What ever happened to Bobby McFerrin? Mr. Don’t Worry, Be Happy? Well, I have. I heard a song of his in a Pixar Short film that I was watching with my son (called Knick Knack and cute as hell). Soon after I happened to turn on an Acapella singing competion on Oxygen network a week or so ago and saw him on the finale. I absolutely forgot how captivating he is. I always thought that most of his stuff was dubbed over, no way could he sing and do all that rhythm stuff by himself live. Well–HE CAN.  Just check this out from the Montreal Jazz Festival:

You gotta admin, that’s talent and artistry. What an original! I’m so glad he’s still out there creating. Thanks Bobby!

December 15th, 2009 by soullldiva

Seeing as tonight is the Performance Finale of So You Think You Can Dance, I thought we could hear a little from Misha:

“There comes a moment in a young artist’s life when he knows he has to bring something to the stage from within himself. He has to put in something in order to be able to take something.”   Mikhail Baryshnikov

As I watch the weeks and weeks of SYTYCD, the dancers upon dancers, this is what I am searching for personally in my “favorite dancer.” That spark that makes them stand out. The personal nature with which they dance. The bits of themselves that they put in and lay out for all of America to see. The dancer that gives, and gives generously. And you know I’m not talking about donations, here. I’m talking about giving all of themselves through their dance to the audience, so you go through an experience with them.

So that’s what I wait for, and that’s what Baryshnikov is talking about in his quote. And this is a man who knows something about bringing something to the stage from within himself.

Unfortunately, the performance I wanted to feature in this post is no longer available on YouTube, and that’s because they’re featuring “Baryshnikov Dances to Sinatra and More” newly mastered on DVD as a sale item this holiday (available on Amazon), and I highly recommend it. But there’s plenty of performances to choose from, so after looking for a bit I settled on this:

I have not seen “White Nights” in years and now want to revisit it (also recalling that it features lovely Gregory Hines, who I miss dearly).

Sigh. Fine stuff. I look forward to seeing lots of fine work tonight on the performance finale of SYTYCD and believe me, I want to see that spark in ALL the dancers. I love everyone to win, plus it makes it more fun for me to watch!

November 4th, 2009 by soullldiva

God bless Michael Jackson for filming all of his rehearsals (all three months of it) for his sold-out 50 show run of This Is It. And God bless Kenny Ortega for being such a great caretaker of that footage that was the last creations Michael was to give us.

I initially wasn’t going to go see This Is It in the theater. I thought, well, my husband isn’t a fan like I am, and there’s the kidlet (my son), and yada yada. But my dance teacher got hold of me and said “you MUST see it in the theater.” So I decided to go see a late show, after the fam was fed, bathed and jammied. Originally I picked the 10:50pm (yikes) show, but opted for the 9:30 show, even though it was in IMAX, and the ticket was $5 more. Worth every penny, I guarantee.

The film opens with thoughts from the dancers, and if you ever were in doubt of just how much an influence Michael Jackson was in the world of music, dance and performance, all you have to do is look in the shiny, star-struck eyes of those dancers. Their hearts are in their eyes, this is their wildest dream. They are DOING this because of Michael Jackson.  And I’m sure that all of them were not even born when Michael was singing and dancing on stage with the Jackson 5.

You of course get to see Michael, King of Pop, do his thing.  But you also get to see Michael hands-on at work.  And disarmingly normal: slightly unshaven, chewing gum or sucking on a lollipop, talking shop in that lower voice that is probably his normal speaking voice.

Eleven dancers were chosen for the tour, 9 boys and 2 girls.  Kenny tells them that they are a direct extension of Michael as a performer.  Extensions they are.  Such precision in their dancing and strength, doing the choreography created by Michael and his choreographer Travis Payne.  But also the heart comes through: they are loving every minute of the experience and the creation, getting to dance with him and also watching him create his show from scratch.  When they are not on the stage, they’re not on their iPhones or smoking a cigarette.  They’re watching, wide-eyed, and waving their arms.  And cheering, throwing their fists in the air, cheering for Michael.

I’m sure that all the singers, dancers, musicians and technicians woke up every day and said “oh yeah, work!”  I know I would. For sure every musician that they featured had a look of pure enjoyment on their faces as they interacted with him.

The technical side was also great fun to experience.  They show you all the “extra” material they produced for the concert, including a 3D filming for “Thriller” and a fantastic bit for “Smooth Criminal” where Michael watches Rita Hayworth sing “Put the Blame onMame” (love that).

It was wonderful seeing all the old choreography as well, from “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” and “Thriller”, all the way back to the Jackson 5 classic moves.

As they rolled out all the hits, I remembered why I loved them in the first place and moved my body as much as I could in the seat. I think my favorite point was “The Way You Make Me Feel”, which just has an undeniable groove to it. Michael trots out one of the female dancers for this song, who struts her stuff across the stage with so much enjoyment you can’t help but just grin.

Kenny Ortega did a masterful job of assembling Michael’s footage into a fitting farewell.  You can feel his love, care and admiration for Michael as he interacts with him during rehearsals, and in the actual film itself.  Well done and thank you, Kenny.

Don’t miss your chance to see This Is It in the theaters, while you still can. It’s just like you got a front row ticket to the concert that never was.

Image courtesy of michaeljacksonlive.com

October 27th, 2009 by soullldiva

I have to tell ya, it was pretty amazing to see one of the best bands of our time live at the Rose Bowl.  Yes, I went ga-ga over the Black Eyed Peas, but U2 is definately something special.  They give a rock-solid show and really know how to pull out all the stops in the production itself.

The “star” of the stage setup was absolutely the 360 degree video screen (aha! the 360 Tour) that sat just under the monster scaffolding which came down in 4 legs around the stage.  When I got to the stadium, I asked my friends “what is that thing?”  It was black and made up of hexagon-shaped pieces all put together like a puzzle. “I think that’s the video screen,” my friend answered.  I’d never seen any video screen like that before.  But remember, this is U2.

What IS that?

When the opening act was over, we watched, facinated as the roadies uncovered more bridges, steps, and brought on new equipment.  They even flew guys up in the rafters of the scaffolding to independently run spotlights–three in each leg of the stage.

See 'em sittin' in the seats?

We had heard that David Bowie’s “Space Odyssey” would be the signal that the show was starting.  When it came on the speakers, the crowd screamed.  The stadium blacked out.  An image of an analog clock came on the video screen. And the show started.

Of course, any tour is simply to promote the release of an album (usually), and U2 is promoting their latest, No Line on the Horizon. I’m not familiar with this album, so unfortunately, it took me about three songs to warm up to the Irish boys. Once they whipped out “Mysterious Ways”, I was movin and groovin and havin a great time.

I return to the video screen: our seats were essentially the backside of the stage, and while they did visit the back regularly (everything wireless, awesome), I watched 99% of the show on the screen and didn’t mind it in the least.  The video quality was amazing to see, and very film-like in quality. They even did some segments in black and white, which I liked.

Black and white, very interesting

But then the screen REALLY came to life.  First it came down from it’s original position.  Then, the individual pieces split and it created a cone-like shape and put on a great light show with some video thrown in.

But it didn’t stop there.  The screen came together again, but instead of folding back up, came down and was probably literally 5 feet above the band’s heads. It also revealed the brightly lit “antennae” in the center.

They launched into the infectious “Vertigo”, which in my estimation was the most exciting song of the show.

Well, after that I said “I can leave now happy.”  And we did, because we didn’t want to be stuck shuffling with the other 99,000 people for three hours trying to get out of the Rose Bowl (yes, we’re old fogies).

What a fantastic show.