Movie Review: "A Damsel In Distress" ...

Tag: For Dancers

by Lloyd Schwartz
A Damsel in Distress was the third of only four films on which George Gershwin and his brother Ira collaborated. The star is Fred Astaire, but without Ginger Rogers. Their previous film together, Shall We Dance?, also with an unforgettable Gershwin score, hadn't lived up to studio expectations, and the now-famous stars were taking a break from each other.
This film — out now on a new DVD from Warner Classics — has two substitutes for Rogers, one of the best and maybe the worst. Two songs from it became standards, and Astaire's longtime assistant, choreographer Hermes Pan, won an Oscar for dance direction for one of the most delightful production numbers in a Hollywood musical.
The story is based on a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, who also co-authored the screenplay. It's a mild satire on the snobbery of the British aristocracy. The heroine, the rebellious Lady Alyce Marshmorton, is played by 18-year-old Joan Fontaine (three years before she won an Oscar in Suspicion — the only actor ever to win an Oscar in an Alfred Hitchcock film).
Her family thinks she has fallen in love with Astaire, who plays an American dancer visiting London with his publicist and his dizzy secretary — played by George Burns and Gracie Allen. It's directed by George Stevens, who's better known for such high dramas as A Place in the Sun, Shane and Giant, but who had previously directed Astaire and Rogers in what many people consider their very best film, Swingtime.
The British setting gives the Gershwins a chance to experiment; the score actually includes two madrigals. But the great number is an 8-minute sequence in a fun house, in which Astaire and Burns and Allen slide down a chute, and dance on a double turntable turning in opposite directions — and in front of a series of fun-house mirrors that stretch them and shorten them and make them all legs with no bodies (a marvelously ironic image of Astaire).
Burns and Allen are veteran vaudevillians, and their dancing is light as a feather, especially Allen's hilarious nonstop trotting around that turntable, like some wonderful wind-up toy.
The main problem with the film is that Fontaine was no dancer. So the only romantic dance number in the film takes place in a woodland setting, and whenever possible, Fontaine is hidden by trees. It may be the only Astaire musical that doesn't end with a duet. The other great song in the film is "Nice Work If You Can Get It," with Astaire simultaneously dancing and playing drums with his feet.
Imagine a time in Hollywood when there were so many good movie songs that neither "A Foggy Day" nor "Nice Work If You Can Get It" was nominated for a best song Oscar. In fact, George Gershwin's only Oscar nomination was from the same year, for another song introduced by Fred Astaire — "They Can't Take That Away from Me," from Shall We Dance?
But it lost to a Hawaiian number called "Sweet Leilani" that Bing Crosby made popular. It would be my ...

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Prom Dress Wins $50,000!

Tag: For Dancers

by Shern-Min Chow / KHOU 11 News
khou.com
Posted on November 3, 2011 at 6:04 PM
Updated yesterday at 6:21 PM

 HOUSTON -- Each year, teenage girls everywhere agonize over prom dresses; What to wear? How much to spend? For one Humble student, though, her dream dress has already earned her $50,000 -- and that may just be the beginning.
Taya Swensen, 18, modeled her emerald green ball gown for KHOU 11 News, pointing to "the bunching, the bustles, the hidden roses down there." It is a labor of love.
"I didn’t use a pattern -- trial and error," the Atascocita High School graduate explained.
She entered the runway-ready product in JoAnne’s "Own Your Look" sewing contest. Regional Vice President Michelle Christensen showed up at the Humble store to award Taya her prize. Before a small crowd, Christensen stood on a makeshift stage announcing, "I’d like to bring out this year’s first place winner -- your own Taya Swensen!"
The prize was a jaw-dropping $50,000. Like nearly everything worthwhile, Taya’s success was not ready-made. Last year, she entered a short flouncy white dress with rainbow accents in the same contest and finished in the top 10.
"I got $1,000 for that dress. I was ecstatic! I was so happy that I placed out of 3,000 people and that was first thing I sewed on a 6-year-old machine," Taya recalled.
Good, but not good enough.
She that first taste of success, she promised herself she’d do it again this year – and this time, she would win.
So the art student refashioned her talents and went to work.
"It’s a huge process. It goes on for six months and the whole house is a disaster," Her father, Kyle Swensen said.
She spent some 200 hours, cutting, sewing, ripping and redesigning. She also took a theatre costuming class -- and her parents -- by surprise.
"She was confident, we weren’t!" her dad quipped.
Her confidence is contagious. Taya has a little business now, run from her Facebook page.
"I’m making little casual dresses, they’re 60 bucks and I’ve sold about 4 of them," she said.
Her designs are fun and filled with surprise. On this day, she starts pulling at her green grown just below the waist.
"What you do is unsnap and it unsnaps all the way around and I can step right out," Taya explained.
Her winning design is a convertible. It goes from floor length to dance length in less than 60 seconds.
She designed all the accessories, shoes, headpiece, jewelry and a matching vest and tie for her boyfriend.
 
http://www.khou.com/video/yahoo-video/Atascocita-High-grad-wins-50000-for-innovative-prom-dress-design-133200753.html


'Dancing with the Stars' Judge Reveal...

Tag: Reality Television- Dance

'Dancing with the Stars' Judge Reveals Online Dating Past
By LUCHINA FISHER (@luchina)





John Sciulli/Getty Images
Dancer Carrie Ann Inaba attends The First Annual Los Angeles Food & Wine Hosts "Lexus LIVE On The Plaza" with Train at LA Live on October 15, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.
 

The professional dancers paired with the celebrities on ""Dancing With the Stars" may be helping the stars to shine on the dance floor, but it's the people they go home to who keep them motivated.
Many of this season's contestants have opened up about their real-life better halves, and now, one of the judges has too. Carrie Ann Inaba recently revealed to "Access Hollywood" that she met her fiance, Jesse Sloan, online.
"I met him on eHarmony," she said. "I was dating all these younger guys. I was like, 'Maybe I need to change it up a little.'"
Inaba, 43, explained that she didn't post a picture or offer any clues to her profession to make sure Sloan really was interested in her, not her fame.
"In his picture, I felt like I already knew him," she told "Access." "He took a risk because he didn't know what I looked like or anything."
Sloan finally figured out what his future bride looked like when Inaba sent him a photo of her without makeup. Soon after, they went on a date, and in March, Sloan proposed on "Live! With Regis and Kelly."
But Inaba's in no rush to walk down the aisle. She's thinking about a family first.
"My age, at 43, I have to get moving on the baby," she said. "The wedding can come later."
Click through to check out the real-life partners of the "DWTS" gang.
 
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/dancing-stars-carrie-ann-inaba-reveals-online-dating/story?id=14835301





The August Wilson Center hosts a Blac...

Tags: Dance Photography, For Business Owners, For Dancers


BY STEVE SUCATO
"I don't think Pittsburgh has had a black dance festival in a long time," she says.
For Greer Reed-Jones, organizing a Black Dance Festival was easier than it would have been for most. To complete a list of participating groups and performers, she needed only to look to the connections she had made in her own career.
For instance, Reed-Jones is a former company member with both Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and Ailey II. Both troupes will perform in the festival, scheduled for Nov. 4-6 at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, where Reed-Jones is artistic director of dance initiatives. She also has connections to the festival's other guest dance troupes -- Rennie Harris Puremovement and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater -- via dancers she has known and has worked with. The festival's local representation is the center's own August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble, which Reed-Jones leads.
All five companies are rooted in African-American dance tradition.  
Reed-Jones says she had participated in several black dance festivals over the years. Given the Center's mission of "celebrating and shaping the art, culture and history of African Americans," now seemed like the right time for the Center, and Pittsburgh, to host one.
 While the festival will celebrate black dance, the genre itself has in many ways transcended boundaries of race and culture, heavily influencing all areas of dance and amassing universal audience appeal. One need only look as far as the ethnically diverse members of the August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble to see how African-American dance has become a part of the everyday fabric of dance in the U.S. and across the globe.
The three-day festival features two distinct programs. Program I (running at 8 p.m. Nov. 4, and 3 p.m. Nov. 5) contains performances by Rennie Harris Puremovement, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and AWCDE. Program II (8 p.m. Nov. 5, and 3 p.m. Nov. 6) features performances by Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Ailey II and AWCDE.
Due to budgetary constraints, with the exception of Ailey II and AWCDE, the companies will perform smaller works requiring only a handful of their dancers. 
For the fledgling AWCDE, the festival is another opportunity to be recognized alongside more established companies, and to further Reed-Jones's vision for the company to become ambassadors of Pittsburgh dance.
AWCDE will perform two repertory works at the festival. Darrell Grand Moultrie's "Regality" is inspired by, and showcases, the individual talents of the ensemble's seven dancers. And Pittsburgh native Kyle Abraham's "Function," set to music by Ryoji Ikeda and Pan Sonic People, explores the group dynamics of a social gathering, and how people fall into stereotypical patterns. 
Philadelphia-based Rennie Harris Puremovement, which performed at the Center in 2010, will reprise choreographer Harris' "Something to Do With Love, Volume 1." Set to music by Marvin Ga ...

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