Nouri

You may or not be into Flamenco or Spanish guitar, but I just discovered Juan De Lerida. Quimeras is a fantastic listen.

Comments (0) Mar 09 2010

Donna is truly sublime. Period. She’s a fucking amazing gracious and lovely human, glorious dancer, amazing instructor, choreographer – and brilliant scholar! I truly do not have adequate superlatives to convey my passion.

Wow – In Nirvana right now! Donna literally kicks butt (every muscle in my body has that exquisite sweet-soreness from a thorough workout); from a 40 minute warm-up, to bodywork, and full out drills.

I’m in love I’m in love I’m in love I’m in love I’m in love.

Many thanks, and love devotion to Rachel, and to Rob of The Yoga Place for hosting a spectacular retreat!

Comments (0) Mar 08 2010

Wish I knew the identities of these two, they’re pure deliciousness!

:: Pilobolus

Comments (0) Mar 07 2010

Last month I posted a video of these remarkable dancers that was removed by Dick Clark Productions. So here is a great TED highlight for your pleasure.

:: theLXD

Comments (0) Mar 07 2010

Leaving for the a long week-end retreat tomorrow, so there won’t be much posting until I get back. Thought I’d leave you with this snippet of driving deliciousness:

Akram Khan Dance Company

:: Physical Response Dance Blog

Comments (0) Mar 05 2010

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Trailer for “Dancing Across Borders” an amazing looking documentary by Anne Bass given the glimpse seen here, that is scheduled to open in NYC theaters later this month.

::  They have a gorgeous site here.

Comments (0) Mar 03 2010

Well, at least in the UK. So says Rupert Christiansen of the Telegraph today in a piece announcing the Talent tour – eight exceptionally talented young men of the Balletboyz making eleven public appearances around Britton.

Balletboyz, founded in 2001 by Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, has made a dramatic mark on the British dance scene. It has thrilled audiences and dance critics alike with its exhilarating mix of award winning repertoire, performance style, and high artistic standards. Both Michael and William are former lead dancers with the Royal Ballet, and provided Ballet Magazine an interview back in 2001.

Here’s Christiansen’s post that I find mildly amusing:

“The new recruits to ballet’s boot camp

It’s teenage boys, not girls, who are getting the ballet bug.

Ballet used to be the dream of little girls who had seen The Red Shoes and loved all things pink and pretty. Margot Fonteyn and Moira Shearer were their role models, and a diamante-sprinkled tutu and pointe shoes was their favourite outfit.

No longer: it’s now the case, confirmed by the statistics of examining bodies such as the Royal Academy of Dance, that girls tend to drop out of ballet class at about 11, and shimmying like Britney Spears becomes their ruling passion. Fewer and fewer female British teenagers are prepared to endure the military discipline of advanced ballet training – today’s stars largely come from Slavic and Hispanic cultures.

But there’s good news on the other side. More and more teenage boys think that dancing seriously, if not classically, is supercool. It’s not effete, it’s not wimpy. Michael Jackson, Carlos Acosta, Billy Elliot and a variety of highly athletic and energised contemporary idioms, usually encountered through music videos, get their testosterone going. The physicality and team spirit make dance something analogous to competitive sport, and schools are being canny about picking out nifty backflippers in the gym and nudging them into a dance class (often called something else).

The only problem is that lads tend to get the bug when they’re about 15, too late to put their musculature through the full ballet training which remains the best way to develop sound technique. The result is a generation of male dancers whose style is macho Gene Kelly, rather than elegant Fred Astaire.

Another formative influence on our young male dancers is the Balletboyz, otherwise known as Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, the former Royal Ballet stars who formed the group in 1999. Nunn and Trevitt are visibly and audibly regular guys. Married with children, they radiate a likeably lippy attitude and boast an impressive second string to their dancing as accomplished makers of dance films and documentaries. Even more importantly, primarily through their performance of Russell Maliphant’s enthralling duet Torsion, they have popularised the idea of men dancing with an intense physical intimacy that doesn’t automatically radiate homoerotic overtones.

Now that they’re turning 40, they have done a magnificent thing in handing the torch to an all-male company of eight dancers, aged 18-24, which will be touring Britain this month under the Balletboyz flag. The newcomers are at the beginning of their careers and come from a wide range of backgrounds.
Nunn and Trevitt emphasise the educational aspect of the plan. The newcomers are being groomed to perform at the highest level, working with top-class choreographers but also learning about ballet studio-etiquette and sensible care of their bodies. In a manner similar to Venezuela’s El Sistema, they will soon be passing this wisdom on by leading a programme of dance workshops in secondary schools.

This second generation of Balletboyz are living and rehearsing in hothouse Big Brother conditions at a dance centre in Hampshire. Some of them were bad lads or “rubbish” at school, but dance has focused their energies, given them self-control, purpose and joy. Their motivation to excel is high, and they seem to thrive on the relentless routine and discipline commanded by Nunn and Trevitt. “It doesn’t matter how much Mike and Billy shout at us,” one newcomer told me. “We still love them. The abuse they hurl at us is good abuse.”

The message might be: do put your son into ballet class, Mrs Worthington. But what can we do to lure your daughter back?”

:: Balletboyz Blog :: Telegraph.co.uk

Comments (0) Mar 03 2010

Ha! You absolutely must click through Here to get the full effect.

Comments (0) Mar 02 2010

Dance as cultural ambassadors.

:: DanceMotion USA

Comments (0) Mar 02 2010

Almost beside myself in anticipation. By the end of the week, I’ll be in a Weekend Retreat with Donna Mejia!

From her website:

“Donna Mejia is a choreographer, lecturer, teacher, administrator, and performer specializing in contemporary dance, traditions of the Arab/African Diaspora, and new fusion traditions in world electronica. Donna is amongst a handful of artists authorized to instruct the Brazilian Silvestre Modern Dance Technique (an esoteric, codified system of contemporary dance technique).”

I posted video back in October, and since then a few more have been posted on her YouTube Channel. Cannot explain it completely, but having only encountered Donna through the digital medium, I’ve come to admire and respect this artist like I have never before. “Authenticity” comes to mind, but that only scratches the surface of what watching her perform evokes. There’s an earth honesty that flash for me whenever I see her energy move.

Add to that that she is the founder and director of the Sovereign Project:

“The Sovereign Collective: A Complete Re-Visioning of a Traditional Dance Company

“Sovereign” is a movement arts and social action collective pledged to elevate social consciousness toward a reverent connection to the human body. This project is an effort to mobilize concerned citizens around an issue that can seem too large for an individual to take on: sovereignty of the human body.

Transgressions against physical self-determination manifest across international, cultural, religious, political and economic lines in a multitude of practices: genital mutilation; legally sanctioned infantile marriages; elder abuse; sexual servitude; censorship of sexual information; slavery; honor killings; media-influenced distortions of body-image; domestic violence; military torture; inaccessibility to affordable healthcare; forced medical intervention or end of life management; etc.”

…and I am reduced to a puddle of awe.

Comments (0) Feb 28 2010