Audra McDonald is… . She just Is

I discovered this song/poem literally 30 minutes ago on Spotify. I’m floored. I have never heard so much emotion spat into my ears, beside my mom screaming at me to take the garbage out. The Song/poem, as you can obviously tell by the lyrics, is about a young black woman either witnessing or retelling the events of her young lovers lynching. If you ask me, it’s happening right in front of her. I’ve never, again, see some one play a tactic so strong that if you turned of the music, you could still see the setting.
Someone comment at the bottom of this video saying that she didn’t blink and I replied that that is the genius of Audra. She is using the music and her staleness as a tactic. I believe it was her goal to make the audience about as uncomfortable as the young black girl witnessing her freshly lynched lover dangling from a tree. Her performance draws you in and force you to EXPERIENCE, which is something that a crap ton of contemporary musical theatre performers are not capable of doing. On top of that, the accompaniment is gorgeous and chill-stirring. I give this performance 10 out of 5 stars.

Enjoy

Well it’s Christmas (Merry Christmas) and I stumbled upon (no relation™) something really interesting; a song by one of my favorite artist Nas. The Song is called “Fried Chicken” and it features Busta Rhymes. Nas is an amazing writer/rapper/storyteller. I couldn’t count on 5 hands the amount of literary techniques he has used in songs! From the outside, the song sounds like two black people in a heated exchange about their love of chicken but actually its much deeper… The imagery suggest that he is referring to a woman and how much they love, adore, and couldn’t live without this woman, however the subtext completely suggest at that he is talking about the increased self-destruction in the African American Community. He is stressing that ‘they’ can’t live without this substance regardless of the knowing fact that it will eventually kill them. This lyric sums it up “Ain’t that some shit I’m a eat some shit until what I’m eating kills me And I choose to do that, why? ‘Cause that’s just what niggaz do” PS, Please don’t scream racist because i’m a Music Theater major who is pretty good at analyzing music :)

Enjoy !

Whilst I was out:

So, I’ve been very busy since the last time I posted. I am slowly deciding on sub-career which will either be stage makeup, directing, or designing… I know, very narrow right? Anywho, I have a few projects I am working on and some that are in the back of my mind. In the spring, I have decided to direct a production of Edges the Pasek and Paul musical/song cycle. I can’t stress to you how nervous I am! I have directed before but its was on a very superficial level and it is my goal to break from superficiality! My other project is a stage translation of a film. The Film is called Funny Games. That’s all Im going to say about that.

Now, to my point! No as you all know, or should know, I am a dancer. Yea Yea, big whoop, I know! I am really having a hard time digesting the turn dance, specifically contemporary and modern dance, is taking. Dance use to be about the emotion and the music and the story. It use to be a form of communicating with the body and movement rather than with the voice. Its not that any more :( Ever since SYTYCD (So You Think You Can Dance) came along, its been slowly fucking shit up lol. Don’t get me wrong, I loooooove the show. It’s just that now everywhere you go to see dance its all the same. The same jerky, twitchy movements that they supplement for raw emotion. Instead of connecting with the story and the music, these dancers think that if they throw 20 pirouettes and several developpe extentions it would make for a great performance. Wrong! UGH. Basically, I just want more originality in dance in general … .

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to talk about dick….. I mean the song from the Musical Kiss me, Kate Tom, Dick, or Harry. The dick is for another day ;) This song, especially this version I posted, has a few firsts behind it. It was on of the first routines to really showcase Bob Fosse’s dancing ability. It was the first song of its kind. Written by Cole Porter, it was the first song to blatantly use sexual double entendre. The double entendre of course being that she is a Hoe, in the show and in real life and the repeated use of the word dick. I hated the film version, which is where this video is from. Just throwing that out there lol It is an amazingly funny song. Enjoy!

This is a video of Melanie Moore, the winner of the hit show So You Think You Can dance and “By George” can she dance! In all my years of watching and following dance I have never seen someone who performs with this much artistry and grace.

Ok, people, you have to remember that Cabaret was originally written for Liza Minnelli, and thank god for Liza with a Z because I would have had the hardest time trying to spell her name. But its true. The director, however, didn’t want an American girl to play Sally, so Fosse told Minnelli that when the movie comes around, the part is hers. And the Rest, my dears, was history.

This is a clip from the movie version of Cabaret staring the ever dashing Michael York and the lovely Liza Minnelli. Its the title track of the show. I just wanted to note how great this song and performance really is. Liza is the master of captivating an audience. I think perhaps the best part of all is when she starts talking about her mom. THATS RIGHT FOLKS, Elsie is really Judy Garland. Heres a snibbit of the lyrics.

” I used to have a girlfriend Known as Elsie,
With whom I shared A four sordid rooms in Chelsea
She wasn’t what you’d call a blushing flower…
As a matter of fact she rented by the hour.

The day she died the neighbors Came to snicker:
“Well, that’s what comes from too much pills and liquor.”
But when I saw her laid out like a Queen,
She was the happiest… corpse… I’d ever seen.

I think of Elsie to this very day.
I remember how she’d turn to me and say”

The day she died the neighbors Came to snicker:
“Well, that’s what comes from too much pills and liquor.” - This is the part that was referring to Judy and the way she died. Liza was once told “you know you’re talking about your mother right?” in which she responded “I know..” Her reaction to that part in the song is so beautiful because she realized what it meant and I just took the performance to a whole other level! Enjoy!

I DON’T OWN THE RIGHTS TO THIS VIDEO!

Every now and then I fiend for A Chorus Line and the only way to get my fix is to watch the movie. Now, with that said, I am in no way saying that the movie version of ACL is better then the stage, or good at all for that matter. I am just saying that the film version has some really good things going on in it that is sadly over shadowed by horrid nastiness!

Ok so the opening scene, you know, the scene that people really want to watch. I think that scene I good. A lot of great dancers. I do feel, however, that they picked some losers for the main parts. That one guy, with the ditzy wife, comeon! REALLY! He couldn’t dance his way out of a brown paper bag, which from prior experience, I know is really easy to do.

fuckyeahgingerandfred:

Ah, I love this! I’m always so happy to see other people’s thoughts on these dances. This certainly surprised me and made me look at the dance differently.

I think because of the way I think of Fred and Ginger that I see this song differently. Do you doubt that equal passion wasn’t felt by her at the end of the song? Yes, she’s trying to resist but she’s in love. Now granted, the plot of this movie was about as substantial as bubble bath, and so the veracity of her ability to fall in love so quickly is dubious at best, but that’s beside the point. This is light farce with a pretty love story at the center of it, like a chocolate candy with a nut. The point is that he doesn’t take his eyes off her, that simply by existing she’s changed the course of his life forever and that he’s affected, deeply, by her.

Ginger’s Mimi always gave me the impression that she was learning about love as she went along, but that she was smart enough to recognize Guy as the man she was meant to be with. This dance is a seduction, a very delicious and passionate seduction expressed in a genius little series of movements that have got to feel really, really good to do. All of Fred’s dances have a grammar to them, a physical language that Ginger somehow speaks fluently. Her lack of training in any classical dance form was a blessing, not a curse, because while she had her own solo style it was undoubtedly influenced by Fred, and their ballroom style was entirely unique to them. We like to watch them dance because they’re so clearly lost in it and in each other. This dance was only the beginning.

As for her seeming to avoid his intensity, she isn’t trying to escape him. It’s portrayed as an overwhelming feeling, something that most people aren’t used to experiencing. Mimi is clearly young and hasn’t been in love despite the fact that she’s married, so this is a new thing for her. But Ginger Rogers leaves us no doubt that she’s enjoying herself thoroughly. She turns on the bedroom eyes full force during this dance which is a testament to her as an actor; this could not have been an easy thing to learn and she must have been nervous. And of course Fred can’t take his eyes off her, so work it Miss Rogers.

The point of these characters, and every character they played in their movies together, was that they were seeking love. Fred seeks the woman he’s going to marry and Ginger is that woman. She’s that woman in every single movie, just like he’s that man.

As they say in Shall We Dance…

Linda: Yes, he’s the one.
Peter: Yes… I’m the one.

memoirsofthenoneq:

This is one of thee most disturbing songs and performances ever. Ill tell you why. For starters, everyone things that song is about love and being in love. Wrong, well not entirely. It is about love, but it is also about obsession, and desperation. He is saying that he cannot and will not live without her. He is saying that she is all he thinks about. The performance is brilliantly choreographed. Fred really grasped what the song is truly about. Now, notice his eyes. Notice that they, not once, were taken off of her. When they turn, his eyes immediately shoots back to hers. What you should also notice is that she is trying to AVOID his intensity. Trying not to give in. In the middle of the dance break, there is a part when she looks down and dance, but his eyes are transfixed to her. In the beginning of the dance break, there is a small cat and mouse thing happening. That, at least to me, symbolized the inability to escape. This scene is very powerful, almost as powerful as my gift of observation !

J-Lo and Marc Splitting, but they say gay’s ruining the sanctity of marriage

Turkey Lurky Time! Probably one of the best pieces of choreography Michael Bennett ever created. Loads of people do not like this song/dance and I don’t understand why ! It’s fun, it’s funky, everything I look for in a man and choreography. (exclude the funky for the men, thanks!) In this Video, Margo Sappington (Purple), Baayork Lee(Green) and Donna McKechnie(Red). Baayork and Donna were both in the original production of A Chorus Line, or ACL. Margo is a well known choreographer. What I love the most about this choreography is that Mike Bennett did not cave into the lyrics during his creative process. The song is called Turkey Lurky Time, I understand, but that doesn’t mean that you have your dancers flapping around like Turkey’s. You hear that Rob Ashford?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAqsdWOhJ_Y&feature=related

This video started my love affair with Donna McKechnie. I learned about here around the same time I learned about Seth Rudetsky and his deconstruction videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4u70p_SSi0&feature=related Her neck really did do the snap back lol.

Donna’s dancing is like no other I have ever seen. Her Neck and back is so flexible, it’s crazy. In this video, around 1:35, you’ll hear “some for uncle joe *beat*” thats when her head do the sideways linda blair thing. Enjoy!

Joanna and Green Finch and Linnet Birds is one of those characters and songs that people portray just wrong. In my opinion, “Jo” is a tortured soul that longs to be free. In musical theater, we sing and dance because there are no more words that can accurately express what we feel at that moment. In this song, and again this is my opinion, Joanna is bewildered and envious. She doesn’t understand how that bird can sit in a cage all day and be perfectly content and she can’t. She is jealous of that. Through the song the audience hears how much she longs to be free. Her room is her cage, the judge is the key.

Now, the reason why I say that most people never get this character right is because they don’t completely take the time to understand the character full range of emotions at the time and fully invest in it. Yes Jo is happy to have a bird people, but what else ? The song above is the perfect example of how NOT to perform this song. This Joanna, portrayed by Betsy Joslyn is brass and happy but don’t know why lol. She’s just a tooting along playing with the bird, la la la! What she is forgetting is that she is just like that bird, minus the happiness. Betsy doesn’t show that. Hell, Betsy doesn’t show much of anything except her vocal ability. BTW, it doesn’t too good either…

I feel the film version Joanna captured the character perfectly; a caged youth, captured innocence. A lot of people disagree but I beg to differ. That scene in the film captures exactly who Jo is, not this version above. Of course this song has its other purposes such as introducing Anthony to his love interest.

leonsbuddydave:

Gordon you’re a theoretical physicist what are you doing in there

So, So You Think You Can Dance is starting to put a bad taste in my dancing mouth. It’s not the show itself, I am infatuated with this show. It’s whats on it and how it has changed the dancing world. Everytime I turn around now a days, I see dancers do the same move; slow developpe to an extension. I mean, congradufuckinglations, you’re flexible. Show us alittle more then just flexibility. How about range of emotion and character development. Aah, they though the character development was just for us actors. Well thats where you’re wrong. Now, I see the same moves in almost all of the routines from contemporary and Jazz dancers. Be Different, Be Daring, Be Sonya Tayeh! That is all!

It isn’t who you love, its how you love. Genitalia is just God’s way of accessorizing.

Q: What’s made of stone, but is soft like a piller (Pillow)
A: Your mom’s vagina