Slow Dancing In A Burning Room: the real version

As much as I love SYTYCD, one of the things I find myself thinking about while watching some of the better (ranging from slightly better than ok to absolutely flawballchange amazing) pieces of choreography is the idea that if there had been different, not necessarily better trained, but dancers that were trained differently, not competing for a prize and spent a lot more time really understanding the character and emotion, it could have been 1000 tiomes better. The followign proves my point:

This is the piece that Wade Robson choreographed for SYTYCD4's Katee Shean and Joshua Allen. Or, the piece he choreographed that they danced in. The original dancers were Ben Susak (a SYTYCD2 alum) and Pam Chu, cast members of Cirque de Soleil's newest show, Criss Angel Believe. It's just better.

Speaking of Wade and SYTYCD, he recently won his second Emmy for the Hummingbird and Flower piece performed by Jaimie Goodwin and Hok Konishi in the Outstanding Choreography category. Congrats!

Stay on your toes,

Selly

So You Think You Can Dance Tour 2008 set list

Spoiler alert!









This is your last chance to not read any more if you don't want to hear about details of the SYTYCD 2008 tour.

It's only the third day of this year's SYTYCD tour, and already, there are set lists, reviews, pictures, and merchandise prices all over the internet. SYTYCDism (LOVE this site!) has the most comprehensive set and merchandise list Ive seen so far, which can be viewed here.

Some of the dances I'm most looking forward to are:
Josh and Katee's Hometown Glory contemporary by Mia Michaels
Mark and Courtney G.'s The Garden jazz by Sonya Tayeh
Jessica and Will's Adam and Eve contemporary by Tyce DiOrio
Kherrington and Twitch's Bed contemporary by Mia Michaels
Twitch and Katee's Door contemporary by Mia Michaels
Gev and Courtney's cha-cha by Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis
Will and Katee's pas de deux by William Wingfield and Desmond Richardson
Katee and Josh's No Air hip hop by Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo

I'll admit, there are some dances that I don't even remember, and some more that I hate, but I think this year's show will rock! I only have to wait 22 more days... ha ha.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

Freed Studio IIs, after two classes

Why is it that I can love a shoe when trying it on, and then I wear it in class and all of the sudden the vamp is too long, the demi pointe WILL NOT break in, and they feel to narrow? Someone want to explain this to me?

I have a very high very flexible arch. I have really strong feet and super flexible kind of weak ankles. So you would think that a long vamp wouldn't really be a problem for me. My problem is rolling over the box too far, not struggling to get over the box.

Still, these aren't broken in at all yet, which somewhat frustrates me but also makes me happy simply because they're not dead. The boxes are rocks. I've always been told Freeds are super soft and would mold to my feet in less than one class...

The one thing I really like about these shoes is the shank. They're perfectly and completely conformed to my arch, but aren't showing any sings of dead-ness and are still really supportive.

A 7C is definitely too narrow, but not so much that I can't wear the shoes. I think next time I get these shoes (if I can get the vamp problem solved) I'm going to try to get a 6.5D.

It's time to sew the experimental Bloch Sonata MKIIs, though, and put those in rotation with the Freeds. The Blochs are a 6C, which scares me a little because I've worn a 7D in all Bloch shoes for as long as I can remember, but the 7D pairs felt too long and too wide at my fitting.

Lets just hope that one of these works for me well enough that I can just order a pair of shoes and know they'll fit (and hopefully not very soon in the near future) instead of yet another 2 hour fitting.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

TV Dance Update

The SYTYCD4 Tour premieres tomorrow night at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, WA. The Top 11 dancers (including Comfort Fedoke AND Jessica King) will be on tour. There will be four alternates, I guess three now, if we're counting Comfort as part of the Top 10 and Jessica as part of the Top 10, but only Thayne Jasperson has been confirmed as an alternate.

The first episode of Season 7 of Dancing With the Stars will be on this Monday at 7PM. SYTYCD3's Lacey Schwimmer will be one of the professional ballroom dancers on the show this year. Another former SYTYCD-er, Inna Brayer (funny that I knew of her, but never knew she was on the show until now) is also one of the pros for this season (Thanks Katrina!). The full cast for this season can be found here.

Jazz and hip hop choreographer, Brian Freidman is one of the judges on MTV's Top Pop Group, a new show that seems to be sort of a cross between Making The Band and America;s Best Dance Crew. The show airs on MTV on Thursday nights.

Mad TV recently spoofed SYTYCD. I find it absolutely hilarious, but its definitely a bit PG13 rated. You can see the video here.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

Next stop on Selly's pointe shoe adventure

So, after yet another 2 hour fitting yesterday, I ended up with Freed studio IIs in a 7C and a pair of Bloch Sonata MKIIs in a 6C as a sort of experimental pair. Both shoes are styles that I have tried on in different sizes and widths before and despised, and now, miraculously, the Freeds feel amazing and the Sonatas feel good enough that they could work as an extra pair to rotate in when the Freeds start to get a little soft.

The purpose yesterday was to find a shoe (hopefully a Freed, which has been recommended to me by multiple teachers) to replace my Gamba 93's which were very comfortable and fit well, but lasted a grand total of an hour and a half and/or spontaneously combusted mid pique.

I'm loving the Freeds so far, so hopefully they will last a while and break in well. I have pointe class tomorrow night, so I'll post some form of a shoe review after then; wish me luck!

Stay on your toes,

Selly

A few tech-ish updates

Dance Outlook now has a Facebook page! You can become a fan or add us as a friend.

The blog has also been nominated for a Best Hobby Blog Blogger's Choice Award. Any votes are very much appreciated! Voting closes October 15, 2008. You can vote at the Blogger's Choice Awards website.

Blogger recently made a new feature available for its users. You can now choose to "follow" your favorite blogs to activate updates from these blogs on your Blogger.com homepage. Click on the "Follow This Blog" link on the left hand side of this page to follow Dance Outlook.

That's all for now.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

Mariya Vinogradova Nike ad

Dancers Mariya Vinogradova (ballet) and Anastsiya Soboleva(Hip Hop) appear together in a Russian Nike commercial.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

Dance St. Louis Student Reviewer Contest

BalletMet performing Dracula

Dance St. Louis is holding a Student Reviewer Contest in affiliation with its 2008-2009 season. Students in grades 6-12 are invited to write a review of a Dance St. Louis performance. The contest is held in two rounds. For the first round, participants are asked to review either BalletMet's production of Dracula OR Paul Taylor Dance Company's mixed bill performance. Reviews for this round must be 500 words or less and submitted by November 30, 2008. Winners will be anounced at the matinee performance of Pilobolus on January 24, 2009.

Prizes include $100 cash, two free tickets to a Dance St. Louis performance including a backstage visit with the performers, a 2008-2009 season t-shirt, and your review published in Louie Magazine and a program for a future Dance St. Louis production.

For more information and full contest rules and guidelines, visit the Dance St. Louis website.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

[title of post]

While I was away this summer, I decided to take an advanced jazz class at a big studio whose entire being (can a studio have a being?) screamed COMPETITION!!! It was hard. I was asked to do things like quadruple coupe turns. Everyone there could easily put their leg by their head from multiple directions. They all knew each other. Naturally, it was a little intimidating. During warm up, the teacher played these two songs that she wanted us to hear because her friend from college wrote it and he wanted her to tell her nine people...? *insert confused looks here*

As I laid on my back stretching in that crowded room, I had an epiphany moment, somewhat inspired by this new musical, [title of show], and somewhat by my surroundings. I realized: I don't WANT to dance like these people. I want to dance like me. Although this is a good class, I honestly do have a valid reason to hate 98% of competition studios and how they are run.

I'm sure you're wondering if I'm going to bring this to a point, as am I. I guess what I'm trying to say is this; who in the performing world CAN'T relate to this stuff? Inspiration and viral marketing all rolled in to one. Oh, and most of it is absolutely hilarious, too:

"I'd rather be nine people's favorite thing than a hundred people's ninth favorite thing. Those nine people will tell nine people, then we’ll have eighteen people loving the show. Then eighteen people could grow into five-hundred and twenty-five-thousand, six-hundred people loving our show."

"The last vampire is the mother of all vampires and that is the vampire of despair. It'll wake you up at 4AM to say things like 'Who do you think you're kidding?' 'You look like a fool' and 'No matter how hard you try, you'll never be good enough'. Why is it if some dude walked up to me on the subway platform and said these things, I would think he was a mentally ill [butt]hole, but if the vampire inside my head says it, it is the voice of reason?"

So, to the nine people that read this blog, go and [title of show] it. Listen to the soundtrack. See the show. Tell your nine people.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

Monsters of Contemporary convention?

I haven't seen any official confirmation of this, but I've been hearing more and more about a new dance convention brought to you by the same people that do Monsters of Hip Hop that will tour in early 2009 called Monsters of Contemporary.

Faculty will include Sonya Tayeh, Wes Veldink, Jillian Meyers, Peter Chu, Matt Cady. More information about tour dates, locations, and full faculty will soon be available at the Monsters of Hip Hop website.

The following is a video from the Chicago 2006 convention featuring Napoleon and Tabitha D'umo:

Stay on your toes,

Selly

NYC City Center's Fall For Dance Festival 2008

From September 17-27, NYC City Center is hosting their annual Fall For Dance festival. The festival includes free pre-show dance classes before select performances, a lounge area with a live video feed of the performances open every night, and a mixed bill dance showcase every night featuring dancers from the following companies:

Shen Wei Dance Arts
Pichet Klunchun Dance Company
Keigwin + Company
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
American Ballet Theatre
Louise Lecavalier
Ayodele Casel, Sarah Savelli & Dancers
Hofesh Shechter Company
Les Ballet Jazz de Montréal
Oregon Ballet Theatre
Madhavi Mudgal
Sheron Wray
Hofesh Shechter Company
Fang-Yi Sheu
The Gentlemen of Hälau Nä Kamalei
BeijingDance / LDTX
Houston Ballet
Richard Siegal/The Bakery
Fang-Yi Sheu
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet
Talia Paz
The Lombard Twins
Kate Weare Company
Garth Fagan Dance
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet
San Francisco Ballet
Compañia Nacional de Danza
Paul Taylor Dance Company

Tickets are $10 for one night. More information can be found at the Fall For Dance website.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

Professor Ardie Bryant Tap Experience

Tradition In Tap just announced their next tap workshop, the Professor Ardie Bryant Tap Experience.

The event will be held November 7-9, 2008 and includes original choreography taught by Prof. Bryant, master classes with leading tap artists, warm ups and tap drills with Germaine Salsberg, Shea Sullivan, and Avi Miller & Ofer Ben every morning, a participants' showcase, the Tradition In Tap awards ceremony, tap history talks and lectures, vintage tap footage, tap technique classes, a Dance Teacher Magazine Certification for all dance instructors attending, and a special program for young tappers.

All classes and demonstrations will be held at the Nola Rehearsal Studios and the Participants' Showcase will be held at the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center.The workshop has four levels, two for adults and two for teens and children. The adult levels available are Intermeadiate/Advanced and Professional, recommended for advanced adults and teens ages 16+. Also available are a teen program for Advanced beginenrs-intermeadiate level tappers ages 12-16 with at least 5 years of training, and an advanced beginner youth program for ages 10-12 with at least 3 years of training.

More information on this and other Tradition In Tap events is available at the event website.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

Update on Center Stage 2: Turn It Up

We take a good movie about ballet dancers, not a movie with the greatest plot or acting, but still, a good movie. Suddenly, 8 years after its release, we decide that now is the time to make a sequel. We add a goofy subtitle and a cliche hip hop vs. ballet plot. And we have our sequel: Center Stage 2: Turn It Up.

From what I understand, the movie will premiere on Oxygen in November and be released on DVD in January.

In this movie, Cooper's company had its funding cut and fallen apart and he has returned to American Ballet Academy to teach. Kate, a "self taught dance prodigy" (How can you be self taught as a ballet dancer? Or is she a hip hop dancer? Both?), who is a hip hop/ballet fusion dancer is determined to be accepted in to the school and teach everyone to love hip hop as well as ballet even though she is socially ostracized because of her hip hop dancing... or something. Then, she meets Tommy, a hockey player who has also been accepted in to ABA and they end up dating.

My prediction: the ending number will be the hockey equivalent of "Get 'Cha Head In The Game" with 540s, head spins, and pirouettes thrown in.

To say I'm disappointed in what this movie will probably turn out to be is an understatement. Not only is the plot so hugely overused (hello, every dance movie in the past five years), but the plot and characters of this film seem to be completely different and not at all related, with the exception of Cooper and Jonathon.

I'm actually debating whether or not I want to see this. A bad movie is a bad movie, but when it is a sequel to one of your favorite movies that you've loved for a looooooooong time and are somewhat emotionally attached to (I know, I know, it really isn't THAT great), it could have a dramatic effect and cause me to hate the first movie in retrospect. Sigh.

I'll probably at least NetFlix it just to see if they got Ethan Stiefel to spin on his head. Oh, and because I'm the kind of ballet nerd that notices things like this, at least in the above picture, Jodie (Amanda Schull) is wearing Freed studio IIs in size 4 1/2 with a soft shank.

Stay on your toes,

Selly

Now THAT is trust

Beautiful.

Stay on your toes,

Selly