Crazytown

THE KOREANS ARE INVADING!!!

We’ve all been so worried that North Korea would launch an attack against the U.S., that no one seems to notice that we’ve already been invaded… by South Korea.

By David Davila (playwright/songwriter)

 

This week I was almost trampled to death by a bunch of obsessed teenagers who were trying to get a peek at their favorite boy band. No, it wasn’t One Direction. No, it wasn’t The Wanted, or Justin Bieber, or any other rag-tag group of little white twinks. It was someone I had never heard of, and I’ve never felt so old… but I’m getting ahead of myself. This phenomenon starts with Psy.

You all heard the song, you saw the viral video, you did the silly little dance at that Pub the other night. Don’t try to tell me you didn’t, there was proof on Instagram! We all got caught up in Gangnam style. It’s a catchy song with a crazy little video to match. Psy seemed to pop out of nowhere with his unique image, and enthusiasm for sexy Korean women and wild dance moves. It’s infectious, and the infection has spread across the world as Psy’s video for his first U.S. single (18^th K-Pop single), became the most watched video on YouTube, toppling Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in a matter of weeks. It has 1.5 BILLION views! That’s a sixth of the entire world population!

Psy not only sold millions of albums in the U.S., he also did something much more important. He created a viral portal that has been connecting teenagers around the world to Korean pop music, also known as K-Pop, one YouTube click at a time. Now the portal is wide open and Billboard has even started counting down the top K-Pop songs of each week, which brings me back to the mob of screaming teens.

B.A.P. is not like any other boy band you’ve encountered in your life. Well, okay they’re a lot like every other boy band from what I can tell. They’re a group of six hot young twinkish boys who sing really well, and dance even better, but they have a distinct brand that will help them gain more male fans than your standard Backstreet Boys milieu. B.A.P. are all Korean gangsters!

 
(When you watch this video you'll understand why the teens were freaking out. It's pretty effing bad ass!!!! DAMMNNNNN!!!!! B.A.P. - One Shot)

ON YOUR TOES

Why a peak behind the curtain makes a better audience.
By Rachel James (Treasurer/Writer) 

I had the pleasure to see the final dress rehearsal of On Your Toes at Encores! this week.  It’s the final show of their season, and it was a great way to end a wonderful year.

While I have an undying love for Rodgers and Hart, I was not very familiar with On Your Toes.  I knew nothing about the plot, and the only songs I knew from it were “Quiet Night” (which I knew from performing the TENOR part in concert in college) and “Glad To Be Unhappy” (which I knew from The Mamas & The Papas).

 

What’s really phenomenal about On Your Toes is the sheer amount of dancing in it.  It opens with a vaudeville tap routine and there are TWO full on ballets in it.  In fact, I’m pretty sure this was the first point where Richard Rodgers began composing ballet pieces for his musicals (see Oklahoma and Carousel in case you have no idea what I mean).  And I’m talking PROPER ballet, people.  George Balanchine choreographed “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” and they were actually able to get the original choreography for this production!

 
This isn't Balanchine's choreography. It's Gene Kelly's choreography. And it's Vera-Ellen and Gene Kelly dancing in Words & Music.  So... you're welcome.

The best part about seeing the final dress rehearsal is that it’s just that... a rehearsal.  And between creation, rehearsing, and final presentation, rehearsal is definitely the most fun part.  Most of the time when you are invited to a final dress rehearsal, it is a performance.  It’s a chance for the creative team to perform the show for an audience, take notes, and tweak anything that needs to be tweaked before the paying customers begin attending.  Before the show begins, the director, producer, or someone of similar prestige comes out to welcome everyone and remind them that this is, in fact, a rehearsal.  And because it is a rehearsal, there is a possibility that they may have to stop.  But usually that’s just a formality and show goes on.  Possibly there are a few hiccups, but nothing that will stop the show.

That didn’t happen here.  I’m still not exactly sure what happened, but they had to stop the show just as the dance break for the titular song was getting into full swing.  It is a dance off between the hoofers at the University and the corps de ballet at the Russian Ballet.  And when they paused and swept up the stage and we heard “We’ll take it from the dance break”, the dancers reset, the music began, and the audience erupted into applause.  Once they finished the number, the applause went on so long that the next scene had to hold a full minute to let the applause die down. 

AN ASSAULT ON THE SENSES

After a decade with one of the premier companies in the world, a dancer decides he’d rather work in Nebraska. Part 2 of "Art Outside the City".
by Lauren Silverman Durban, writer 

(Last week, I told you about my discovery that art is alive and well in some surprising places, and I promised to introduce you to some of the super cool people choosing to live and work outside of New York and L.A. I’m always one to keep my promises, so here we go!)

______________________________________________________________________________________

“Sometimes audiences resent things that challenge them. It can be discouraging, but it makes me work harder. There’s always the struggle to find the balance between the palatable and the forward-thinking.”

Daniel Kubert is all about that struggle. As the co-founder of a company based on non-traditional, inter-disciplinary performance art based in Lincoln, Nebraska, he has created a niche for himself pushing boundaries. And while the Midwest might seem like a strange venue for that kind of art, his choices are calculated.

Daniel Kubert

His story is, like so many show business success stories, peppered with fortuitous meetings and mentors showing up in the right place at the right time. He grew up in Lincoln, a self-proclaimed “horrible student-- just really, really bad”, but with a singular focus on dance and theater. By his senior year of high school he was taking dance classes at the University of Nebraska, where a professor recognized his talent and sent him to a large regional theater audition. When he was offered a job with a show in Texas, a high school guidance counselor talked his parents into letting him get his GED and leave school. At 18 years old, he auditioned with 600 other dancers for a show being choreographed by Bill T. Jones at the Houston Grand Opera. Landing that show changed the trajectory of his life.

LIVIN' ON A DREAM AND A PRAYER PART 2

The thrilling conclusion to last week's blast from the past.
By Jen Littlefield (Choreographer/Librettist)

Welcome back Crazytown! As you might remember, we left off with me in LA killing time as I waited to hear if I'd made it into the life-changing, year-long training program at the EDGE Performing Arts Center (for the whole story, click here). I have no idea what the other 24 did to pass the time that night, but I went out with my friend and host for the weekend and his close friend who happened to be one of the judges. All I remember is this teacher telling me how much everyone in the room liked me, especially Cindra, and how he was sure I would be on the list tomorrow; don't worry.

Famous last words.

I got to the studio at 9am and headed straight to the bulletin board. I read the list. I read it again. Then I saw below; the alternate list. I was the third or fourth alternate. I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing for a while. How could this happen? This was my dream, my life. I was meant to be in LA training every day and preparing for my future as a dancer who was going to make a living dancing, and dance forever. I have no memory of the time between reading the list and finding myself in the director's office listening to his explanations of why I didn't make it:

"Jennifer, (I was still a Jennifer then), it just seemed like you didn't want it bad enough. I couldn't find the passion in your eyes."

LIVIN' ON A DREAM AND A PRAYER

Do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? My job this month has been like holding up a mirror to a time when I was more singulary determined and less prepared, but completely sure I knew exactly what was going to happen. I was a high school senior, of course. Join me on a little trip down memory lane...
By Jen Littlefield (Choreographer/Librettist)

This past weekend, Pace University had its third round of incoming student auditions for the performing arts department. These long two days were in LA as part of the National Unified Auditions, and we were available to see the (mostly) good, the (disappointingly) bad, and the (few but fervid) crazy in a tiny hotel ballroom with no mirrors and no accompanist. It's kind of brutal.

Oh the pain of curtained tables and carpeted floors...

But watching these seventeen and eighteen-year-old seniors auditioning for 5-15 different college programs, putting it all on the line for the chance to keep pursuing the life they love, I kept thinking of my last semester of high school and my own single-minded dedication to fulfilling my dreams at all costs…

When I was younger, I was a dancer, more specifically, a competition dancer. Have you ever met one of us? Most of you are probably now familiar with our kind thanks to SYTYCD and more importantly to Dance Moms. We're usually the jazz or contemporary dancers, the ones who have been doing this since we were 3 (I was 7 when I started, and boy was I behind), who live at our studios everyday from 3-10pm, who travel around our states and the country to compete against other dancers who live at their studios from 3-10pm… Basically, we are as dedicated to dance as Matt Saracen is to the Panthers.

A huge part of my life at this time were conventions:

DRAG QUEENS & DANCE TRAXXX

Mimi Imfurst may have been LAST in RuPaul's Drag Race ALL-STARS this season... but her music video is definitely THE BEST of all the former Drag Race queens' post-show releases... and the only one this queen is twirling to....
By David Davila (Playwright / Songwriter)

So Mimi gets a lot of smack from her sisters of fierceness on Rupaul's Drag Race. Those girls be reading her like 50 Shades of Gay, and they don't be lettin up! Personally I think the other girls are dead wrong about Mimi. They don't seem to understand her mix of Camp and Party Monster styles; and with that, the popular East coast queen came in last this season on Rupaul's Drag Race All-Stars.

It's that very same party monster style that makes Mimi stand out when it comes to party music, and Mimi's new song with her girl group XELLE is everything that her sisters wish they could create on the dance floor.

Overall, the many queens of RuPaul's Drag Race have created quite a few music videos on their quest to become the next Drag Superstar, but many of the videos are duds. Some of them are high quality vids, with bad quality songs, and some are hilarious songs that though funny, would never actually get radio play. The difference with Mimi's song is that it's actually good enough to be played on the radio. Here's Mimi's fierce video for "Queen."

 
(XELLE's music video for QUEEN.)

I peronally can't wait to see XELLE's music video play at XL dance club, so I can do some hostile vogueing. Just kidding, I don't vogue... anymore...

In honor of this fierce Queen's hot dance track with XELLE, I bring to you the best and the worst of those Drag Race All-Stars' music video offerings. You can decide which is which. ;)

How many times can I say "fierce" in one post? That's a trick question.

BOHEMIAN DREAMS: RAQUEL ALMAZAN

Discover NYC's most talented starving artists - before they're rich and famous. This week meet performance artist Raquel Almazan, and hear what she has to say about Butoh dance, pornography, and being a vegan.

 by David Davila (playwright / songwriter)

Performance artist, playwright, and actress, Raquel Almazan, has been making people laugh, cry, and think for several years on the downtown theatre scene with shows like SHE WOLVES: WOMEN IN SEX, DEATH, AND REBIRTH, and DEATH OF THE DOLL which explore modern female sexuality and social power.

Originally from Spain, the Spanish/Costa Rican artist moved to the US at an early age and lived in every Hispanic part of the country from Texas to Florida before setting her roots in NYC. I first met Raquel at the weekly Salon at INTAR THEATRE where artists share new works for a group of non-judgemental peers. Almazan was presenting a comical look at the her mother's travels through a racist, Southern, USA and I was rolling on the floor with laughter. Now she's presenting a new one-woman show at Dixon place beginning tomorrow that explores a porn star's journey from celebrity to outer-space refugee using mixed-media and Butoh dance that has me intrigued to say the least.

        

I caught up with the avante-garde performance artist, and hilarious stand-up comic, over soy-lattes at our local Brooklyn Bagel in Astoria to talk about her involvement with Butoh dance, its correlations to pornography, and how she wants to be Orson Wells...

Here's what she had to say:

DANCING BY MYSELF

Getting inspired by some classic routines from So You Think You Can Dance...
By Kimberly Lew (Playwright/Blogger) 

When I was younger, I did ballet for a couple of years, throwing on a leotard and shoes regularly after school. I quit right before I got to toe shoes, opting to don Nikes instead and take up basketball. It's not that I didn't enjoy dancing -- to this day, there's something almost comforting about learning a new little routine -- but I saw that the road to being a ballerina would be a hard one, and I decided to go a different path.

Still, dance has never failed to catch my attention, and one show in particular that has shown me the power of storytelling through dance has been So You Think You Can Dance. Every year, this show seems to find an amazing crop of dancers and pair them with a host of extremely talented choreographers, including Tabitha and Napoleon, Mia Michaels, and former contestant Travis Wall. Often when I need a daily dose of inspiration, I put on some of the best performances from the show and revel in the beautiful piece of art people are able to create through movement. Here are a few of my absolute favorites:

 

Chelsie and Mark performing to "Bleeding Love", choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon

This was the first time I was introduced to lyrical hip hop, and it was the dance that cemented my love of this show. The movements are precise, the story is genuine and gave this song a completely new context, and the acting is fantastic. Not to mention homeboy is representin' Hawaii. So much to be proud of.

MURPHY MADE: MS. KT

By Matthew Murphy (Photographer)

"I don't know how well I'll be able to move today," she said.  This was the sentence that KT Niehoff spoke before she proceeded to spend 20 minutes transfixing the room with her incrdedible improvisational skills. 

As a photographer I have been very lucky to capture some amazing subjects, and KT managed to set the bar very high for any future models.  This Seattle-based choreographic visionary was brought to me by way of Dance Teacher Magazine, and I can only hope that we will be able to collaborate in the near future.  I couldn't move around the room fast enough while watching her through the lens, anxious to capture every angle of her beauty. 

Here are a few shots from our session. 

MATTHEW MURPHY is a New York City-based arts photographer. His work regularly appears in The New York Times.www.MurphyMade.com
EMAIL HIM |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

 

KINSEY WHO? I PRESENT... "THE DICKTER SCALE"

If you’ve ever stood around the water cooler and questioned a co-worker’s sexual preference then this is just the scale for you.

 by David Davila (playwright/song-writer)

So this week I started writing about a very controversial issue in the gay community: barebacking. However a short blog quickly got really complicated and now I’m delving deeper (so to speak) into the research. Not first hand research silly, like statistics and interviews and stuff. Jeeze! So until it’s finished I thought I would wet your appetites with this guide to how gay all your friends are.

Kinsey isn’t the only one who can invent a scale to measure gayness… or is it gaiety? My scale is way more fabulous because it uses the colors of the rainbow (the REAL rainbow, not that scientific ROYGBIV nonsense!) ... oh, and don't get it twisted, this has nothing to do with measuring any part of a gay man's anatomy.

So without further ado I present David Davila’s DICKTER SCALE.

CODE RED: Alert your “straight-chaser” friends – The first level on the Dickter scale is reached when a man has at least one OGT. An OGT, is an Obviously Gay Trait, made famous by my fifth favorite movie of all time, Broken Heart’s Club. So if your boy is obsessed with contemporary interior design, goes to Jason Robert Brown sing-alongs, or watches reruns of Designing Women; Code Red! Code Red! Code Red! There's a chance he may turn...

CODE ORANGE: Diva Worship – Most little boys Hero Worship. It’s a real thing, you can look it up. They become obsessed with a sports star, or Michael Jackson, or their fathers, but little gay boys Diva Worship. It doesn’t go away either, it only grows stronger as they grow up, collecting more Divas to worship along the way. If you know a man that owns every single Mariah album, or has three pictures of himself with Bernadette Peters on his facebook… I’ve got news for you… you’ve reached Code Orange!

CODE YELLOW: Confirmed, or “rumored” contact – Once a man let’s his inhibitions go, and decides to make contact with a member of the same sex, he’s reached Code Yellow. A lot of guys do this in secret or on the DL so that they can remain hetero in their straight lives. It’s their business if they want to continue being “straight,” but if you’ve so much as heard a rumor from someone that they’ve hooked up with dudes… they move up to code yellow.... regardless of whether or not the rumor is true (it usually is.)