So, this issue Eva got us started on about what sort of ambassador dance (yeah, all of it) could use seems to know no end--with all sorts of unexplored byways. First, reader Jamie Wright adds his vote to the Rasta nomination: Is it possible that Rasta Thomas will emerge as dance's Pavarotti? He has teen-idol looks, just married a model, and is still very young. Over the next 10 years or so, I can … [Read more...]
Forget Pavarotti, let’s do Pavlova!
Reader Susan Hood offers someone from our very own discipline as a possible model for a dance ambassador: In the last century, there were many "household names" in the dance world, but the only one who crossed between the "serious" and "popular" was Anna Pavlova. What became known as the "Pavlova Gavotte" was danced to the tune some of us know as "Glow Worm." In a yellow, faux-Regency costume and … [Read more...]
Dance films in which the film knows what to do with the dance: reader recommendations (UPDATE SATURDAY)
Videographer and dance-on-screen fanatic Anna Brady Nuse, who's got a blog within a blog on Doug Fox's Great dance site, seconds Counter Critic's recommendation of Edouard Lock's "Amelia" and offers these other informed recommendations: There are a few more exceptional dance films out there that were adaptations of stage works. In all of these cases, I've only seen the films, so can't comment on … [Read more...]
The Pavarotti of dance? More readers respond! YAY! (and we respond to the responses)
Readers have liked this topic, which Eva got us rolling on a few weeks ago. Here, some really smart responses. Blogger Maria, of Time to Dance, on our second go-round, in which we debate whether a "So You Think You Can Dance" (SYTYCD) contestant might serve as ambassador for the dance world or whether the show's aims are too at odds with concert dance forms such as modern and ballet: Wow... I am … [Read more...]
Bloggers on Macaulay: turns out to be a nice man!
Tonya Plank (a.k.a. Swan Lake Samba Girl), Eva Yaa Asantewaa, and Counter Critic all attended the informal talk at Barnard College Monday night between dance writer Mindy Aloff and Times newish dance critic in chief Alastair Macaulay. (I didn't make it.) Everyone was relieved to find he was not an ogre. I coulda told you that!--in person he's a very sweet man (all my friends who are his friends … [Read more...]
Apropos of popularizing dance…
...and of the blog mode of unremitting self-promotion, here's a feature I wrote on one of the works the esteemed Claudia La Rocco referenced in her Times article about the MTVization of concert dance. The feature is on "Revolution," the rock 'n tap show opening at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan this Tuesday and running for two weeks. I really liked the show's creators; they seemed really smart and … [Read more...]
The Pavarotti of dance? If only Michael Jackson …
Contributor Paul Parish weighs in on the Pavarotti question we've taken up here and, earlier, here. But first, look at this! In today's "TV Viewers Discover Dance, and the Debate Is Joined," the esteemed Claudia La Rocco of the Times reports on exactly our debate, citing such players as Rasta Thomas (go, Tonya!) and Danny Tidwell. My favorite bit is the very end. Robert Greskovic, the dance … [Read more...]
GO (SF Bay Area edition): Chris Black’s “Pastime” in the parks
From Paul Parish: Went down to Justin Herman Plaza this afternoon, the park across from the Ferry Building at the edge of the old port of San Francisco, and saw Chris Black's group Potrzebie do a sweet, goofy 40-minute piece about baseball called "Pastime." They danced it in a sunny little hollow with fancy apartments on one side and the bay on the other and tourists strolling the sidewalks. The … [Read more...]
Where’s our Pavarotti? Readers respond (UPDATED WEDNESDAY NIGHT)
[Ed. note, Wednesday: scroll down to where it says UPDATE for recent responses] Remember Eva's call out to readers for a Pavarotti of dance? Well, readers responded (thank you!)-- and we have responded back (of course!). EC G.: Y'all, please. If you think Judith Jamison is even CLOSE to being a household name (in the way, that is, that Pavarotti certainly was), then you need to share what you're … [Read more...]
GO: Martha Graham Dance Company at the Joyce (UPDATE Sunday: Eva Yaa Asantewaa responds)
I haven't been a big fan--until now. Whatever Janet Eilber, hired last year as artistic director, is doing to get the dancers to find the drama in the timing and the steps is working wonders. My sense is she's honoring their own hunches, and they naturally go for clarity and suggestion over cartoon. Anyway, here's my Newsday review. The New York run continues through next Sunday, September 23. … [Read more...]