Open thread 11/6/21
I can assure you that about halfway to two-thirds of the way into this dance one’s legs turn to lead. It’s too gimmicky and Rockette-ish for my taste, but it’s usually a big crowd-pleaser:
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
Oh yea. Too many people do not realize how PHYSICAL ballet dancing actually is.
In case anyone misses this:
https://summit.news/2021/11/04/italian-institute-of-health-drastically-reduces-its-official-covid-death-toll-number/
Seems Italy has done what a lot of people have been saying since the beginning. Will the US follow suit? LOL, not with the current administration in charge.
Toni Basil choreographing a modern take of the same routine on the old, Smothers Brothers Show:
https://youtu.be/pbBzyTJPt30
Synchronized dancing, synchronized swimming, marching band halftime shows, close harmony: they may not be sophisticated art, but they have an enduring gut appeal. I’ll watch and listen all day.
The pas de chats are the killer. They come toward the end and unlike the piques and sautés they traverse the floor and entail lifting the knees under you all while maintaining spacing between the dancers and absolute serenity from the waist up.
Another element, subtle but integral, is the head angles perfectly in unison. Without that the dance doesn’t work.
I have not watched this in a long time. Delightful. Thank you, Neo.
I danced this several times in my youth, not professionally! My goodness. What memories. Now I do a lot of zumba and Bollywood. No more toe shoes for me.
Petition to state legislatures to ban Critical Race Theory in public schools:
https://lifepetitions.com/petition/ban-critical-race-theory-in-public-schools
Best in class, as individual flyers, and as a flock. Fun.
Toni Basil choreographing a modern take of the same routine on the old, Smothers Brothers Show:
Rufus:
That name rang a bell.
Basil played one of the prostitutes in “Easy Rider” that Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper tripped with in the New Orleans cemetery.
Some of the secondary actors in that film went on to interesting lives.
The dance piece can be read as comedy, but it’s quite skillful too.
Jeanne:
Absolutely it’s the pas de chats that separate the swans from the weaklings. After the pas de chats, it’s just grit your teeth (metaphorically speaking) till the end and hope you make it.
I also had to learn the dance in class but never performed it.
I am not a dancer. I noticed the coordination of the feet, heads, etc in this dance. And there is speed involved in the footwork. The dancers hold hands of two other people, so, if one person started falling, would there be enough time to let go or would all fall down?
In the Toni Basil clip, something fell off one of the costumes and a dancer did hit it later in the dance, so a fall could have been possible.
Here’s something called the “Mistake Waltz,” which I ran into last night while trying to run down my Mystery Chopin phrase. Watch the dancer in glasses as she wanders off into her own little world and throws off the other dancers:
–“Jerome Robbins’ The Concert – Mistake Waltz long excerpt (Pacific Northwest Ballet)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0axUoy4wbQ
I’m sure I didn’t get all the jokes.
Huxley – that clip was funny and I lost count of the “errors”. At first, it looked like the dancers were not well coordinated and I’m sure the audience members were embarrassed about the errors. It took a bit of time for the audience to realize that these were intentional mistakes. The laughs increased after one dancer corrected another one.
Liz:
Yes, one dancer’s error can affect the others because of the chain effect. But even though I’ve seen “Swan Lake” many many times, I’ve never seen a noticeable error. They tend to practice this so much that the number of errors reduces to almost zero.
By the time a ballerina hits the big leagues she’s probably been doing the 4 little swans since childhood.
Well, now that we are talking dance —
I am working on an arrangement for “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (which is kind of tricky on a ukulele) and wanted to hear the original, as played by Glenn Miller’s band in a 1941 movie called “Sun Valley Serenade.”
The clip starts with the band & some singers rehearsing the song, and then segues into the “show” where it is sung and danced by Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers. The two versions are radically different!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGBwmLRNLJ4
One more subtlety in our Four Little Swans’ dance … each tutu is slightly layered on top of or under the next dancer’s tutu. Otherwise the tutu skirts would bunch up between the dancers and that would be most unfortunate.
Such a seemingly simple dance yet so intricate and strenuous.
Aesop – thank you. Great music, great dance. Hadn’t seen the Nicholas brothers for a long time.
The joys of living in a Dem managed jurisdiction.
“Big weekend in Chicago – 36 shot; 7 fatally so far:
https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-shooting-violence-shootings-gun/11207924/
It appears the brothers took advantage of the extra hour last night as the clocks turned back.”
AesopFan,
Will you be playing ukulele and singing “Chattanooga Choo Choo” for family and friends? Just curious. Thanks.
The general theme of the WH and the Left is that all the problems in the US and the world are caused by COVID-19, racism/White supremacy, and/or climate change. Plus the new line is that they won’t be explaining the how of this in any detail because we are all too ignorant or stupid to understand the very complexities involved so we should all just sit-down, shut-up, and obey our smarter-betters.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-accused-of-mocking-americans-intellect-you-think-theyd-understand-what-were-talking-about
Sure wish there was a newer thread to put this in but it’s not even “Jazzing for Blue Jean” much less jazz.
“…racism/White supremacy…”
Ah yes, the lock-step, obscene perversity of the zombie-like, auto-slogan-spewing woke is certainly something to behold.
Here’s a clear-eyed, eloquent slap-down of woke/Democratic Party perversity:
https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/11/07/winsome-sears-and-the-rise-of-woke-racism/
H/T Blazingcatfur blog.
@ Wesson – my teacher is very firm about having semi-annual recitals. We’ll have performances by everyone from very cute new piano students to a bunch of us oldies-but-goodies. Some of the teenagers are quite talented (one family has a dad who is a very accomplished piano player, although his day job is as a shooting instructor and gun salesman).
@ geoffb > Here is what Biden said: “What — like, for example, if I had — if we were all going out and having lunch together and I said, ‘Let’s ask whoever the — whoever is at the next table, no matter how — what restaurant we’re in — have them explain the supply chain to us.’ You think they’d understand what we’re talking about?” Biden continued. “They’re smart people. But supply chain — ‘Well, why is everything backed up?’ Well, it’s backed up because the people who supply the materials that end up being on our kitchen table or in our — in our fam- — our life — guess what? They’re closing those plants because they have COVID.”
It’s a shame one of the reporters didn’t ask Biden to explain the supply chain. Especially since they are not closing plants because of Covid.
However, some plants may close because of Biden’s vaccine mandates.
https://notthebee.com/article/you-will-be-to-blame-proctor–gamble-employees-just-threw-down-the-gauntlet-to-their-company-on-the-vaccine-mandate
Much as I hate Twitter, hit the link and watch the “ad” by irate employees.
And stock up on your shampoo and toothpaste.
AesopFan,
We have to have, in each household, the inventory that used to be held at the distributor level because the supply chain is no longer to be trusted to always have things in stock. We can for some things but the scary part is in spare parts for things like your furnace, your car, frig. Or worse the repair parts for electrical distribution, water systems. All kinds of little parts that, if they are not available – right now – things get very dicey and icy.
But I’m sure the “Big-Brain-Biden” knows all and sees all and it will all be fine as BBB turns his almighty mind to fixing everything.
@ geoffb > “We have to have, in each household, the inventory that used to be held at the distributor level because the supply chain is no longer to be trusted to always have things in stock.”
About that “just in time inventory” system — now’s the time.