“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!

Today I needed a little injection of beauty into my world. There’s no better excuse to share a Dance Quote from lovely Isadora Duncan:

“The dancer’s body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul.
The true dance is an expression of serenity;
it is controlled by the profound rhythm of inner emotion.
Emotion does not reach the moment of frenzy out of a spurt of action;
it broods first, it sleeps like the life in the seed,
and it unfolds with a gentle slowness.
The Greeks understood the continuing beauty of a movement
that mounted, that spread, that ended with a promise of rebirth.” Isadora Duncan

To accompany the poetry (that’s always what her quotes sound like to me), I found a fantastic video of the Isadora Duncan Dance Group performing in Bologna in 1997. These are just snippets, but you get to see choreographed pieces from Isadora herself, including “The Butterfly”, “The Furies” and “The Revolutionary”.

I attempted to find the group’s website to no avail (even tried to find an archived page). If you know where this group’s webpage has gone to, let me know!

Hope you all enjoy the day ;o)

“To dance, put your hand on your heart and listen to the sound of your soul.”    Eugene Louis “Luigi” Facciuto

Luigi Facciuto is a true father of modern Jazz dance (he is even sometimes referred to as “father jazz”). He was a very accomplished dancer when he moved to Los Angeles in the 1950′s to further his career. Instead, he became paralyzed after a serious car accident. He recovered enough to begin working at the dance bar again, but when he would leave the bar and attempt to dance out on the floor, his injuries did not enable him to have the same balance and coordination that he had before the accident.

But that did not stop him. He did so well at the bar, he thought “well, I’ll just take the bar out on to the floor with me!” And he created the very first formal Jazz technique. It’s a technique that I’ve been schooled in for the past 10 years, and if you’ve ever heard a teacher tell you to “push down to go up,” then you’ve used the Luigi technique. So, when you go up on your toes (or releve), you don’t just use your calf muscles to pop up. You “pull up” from the top of your head and “push down” within the space around you. This is the biggest part of the Luigi technique, the opposition. You “pull away left to go right” and so on. It’s an excellent technique and really allows for breath and reach in dance steps.

I love the quote from him above. He overcame the very worst kind of obstacles for a dancer and artist, and he certainly knows the sound of his soul. Because it is the soul of a dancer. Thanks for the technique Luigi. And the love of dance.

You can learn more about Luigi here.

“The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.”   The Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown

You only have to listen to him sing or watch him dance for a minute to understand why he held his title and held it nobly. These days it seems like we could all use a little dance in our lives. To celebrate, to help, to heal, to transport us, to elevate us, or to simply have fun. Amen Godfather.

There is a famous dance quote about Ginger Rogers that goes “Sure, he was great but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did…backwards and in high heels.”

The “he” of course, refers to Mr. Fred Astaire (see yesterday’s dance quote post). And Ginger was his steadfast and finest dance partner for 10 films, and continued on without him to win a Best Actress Oscar for Kitty Foyle in 1940.

She gave the Fred and Ginger pairing femininity, grace, beauty and even more talent to make a blockbuster duo. Katherine Hepburn was quoted saying “Fred gave Ginger class, and Ginger gave Fred Sex.” Not only was she a class A dancer, she was also a great dramatic and comedic actress.

Of his beloved partner, Fred said “She had guts.” And I love that. Here’s to miss Ginger.

“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.

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!

Doing some more studying the lovely Isadora Duncan, I discovered something new for myself. Isadora actually brought dance into the 20th century as true, pure, high-art form. Until that time, dance was either done in toe shoes, restricted in movement by technique, or on a vaudeville stage (or even possibly bar room).

“I have discovered the dance. I have discovered the art which has been lost for two thousand years.” Isadora Duncan

In 1909 Isadora moved to Paris and started a dance school where the mode was to dance barefoot with loose hair and dress in flowing scarves and Grecian-like tunics. She brought actual primitive, improvisational dance to the forefront–countering rigid ballet styles that she found to be “ugly and against nature.”

At the core of her technique was using the solar plexus and the torso (we would say “center” or “core” these days) as the point where all the body’s movements to come from. With this basic idea Isadora is said to have invented what is known as “Modern Dance.”

“Dance is the movement of the universe concentrated in an individual.” Isadora Duncan

Through her dance she demonstrated her defiance of the time and expressed her thought, opinions and feelings with poetic imagination and enthusiastic humor. Isadora sought not only to raise dance to a sacred art form, but to find poetry and beauty in everyday movement and life.

As a dancer who does a lot of improvisation and what I call “dancing from the heart,” I thank Isadora for her gift.

“My motto–sans limites” (without limits) Isadora Duncan

Evan and Ryan (right)

It’s the last elimination round in Vegas for So You Think You Can Dance season 6 and the talent is lining up. I was sad to learn that tap dancer Ryan (brother to Evan, finalist last season) was cut, and earlier than last year. You just wanna put on tap shoes of your own when he starts hoofing it, he will be missed this season. I hope he tries again.

Next up was the group challenge, where they were divided up into groups of 5 and given a random piece of music. They had overnight to choreograph a piece.  The very first group up (with favorite Russell Ferguson) was probably the most notable. They drew a Broadway selection and did a just fantastic combo that melded the best of B’way jazz and street-like moves. Nigel Lithgoe absolutely loved it, and so did I.

Mia Michaels

After that was the (da-da-dummmm) Mia Michaels round.  Before the break, they played snips of quite a few dancers saying how scared they were.  I thought to myself “What?  You get to dance with Mia Michaels and you’re scared????” But then I remembered, I’m not a pro dancer, and I’m not in Vegas with them. ;o)

Here’s the ultimate Mia Michaels dance quote: “Do not give me empty steps.” This she stated to the dancers on stage, knees knocking. And she’s right. Mia is of course known for flat out not liking people who do this and just cutting them. She tells dancers all the time that she cuts, and she likes to cut.  This is a woman who means business.

This year, however, she injected a bit of love to her dancers, with a pep talk beforehand, and a meditation/prayer. What is this? A kinder, gentler Mia Michaels?  Wow!

She was not kinder with her choreography, and I noted how much more difficult this year’s combo was than last.

A B-Boy contestant, Legacy, caught the eye of Mia and the other judges who were blown away by his street interpretation of the steps. He really got the flow and communication of the piece and was able to fill those steps like Mia wanted. Legacy was tremendously moved after his Mia experience, and was visibly emotional as he said she “changed something inside of me.”  He told Mia “Your movement means something and you made me a better dancer.” I LOVE it when dancers really get it about dance. Legacy felt he came out of his comfort zone (which is always a dangerous place for a dancer to be) and moved on to the next round.

Mia, unfortunately, will not be back to So You Think You Can Dance after this round, and her choreography will sorely be missed.

Judges Tyce DiOrio (left), Mary Murphy, Nygel Lithgoe

Next was the Broadway round with Tyce DiOrio.  The girls got “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” from Sweet Charity and the boys did a selection from Movin’ Out (for more see my post on Twyla Tharpe). I love it when men dance together, all the macho comes out (and sometimes shirts come off, as with ballroom dancer favorite Matthew Hauer). There’s just something exciting and invigorating about a bunch of men doing a really strong piece with lots of jumps and moves where they leap up and down on their knees. Yum.

After the Broadway round, 38 dancers were left and from that will be the Top 20 for season 6.  Break a leg to them all!

Just a little addendum to my post from a couple of weeks ago (Dance Quote: Patrick Swayze), I happened upon this quote from Patrick:

“… a person who can connect with their partner, another human being who can connect with their soul − it’s not just learning steps, it’s about expressing something. I’ve found in dancing all my life that I can release something as a dancer that I can’t in any other way…”    Patrick Swayze

I love this quote, simply because he speaks about expressing when you dance.  I see dance as telling a story.  You can have the 5-6-7-8 kind (which is great), but then you can also have dance that makes people understand what you want to communicate; and your communication is through your movement.

When people get it, you feel it.  And that’s what it’s all about.  Thanks Patrick.