Dancing With The Stars Partners!

Although the full list of names will be revealed Friday, some of the dancing couples for the next season of "Dancing With the Stars" have been revealed.
"Entourage" star Debi Mazar will be paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Donny Osmond is rumored to be paired with Kym Johnson. The pair have reportedly already started rehearsing together.

Ashley Hamilton's dad, actor George Hamilton, revealed that his son will be dancing with Edyta Sliwinska, whom George danced with when he competed on the show.

The final dance partnership that has been revealed is the pairing of swimmer Natalie Coughlin and dancer Alec Mazo.

The remaining dance partners will be announced later this week.

New Dances On This Fall's DWTS

Four new dances will be introduced: the Bolero, the Charleston, the Two Step and the Lambada!

New Dancing With The Stars Cast Revealed

Season 9 celebrities have just been announced:

Aaron Carter - Teen pop sensation and the little brother of Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys
Natalie Coughlin - Olympic Gold medalist - swimming
Mark Dacascos - The "Chairman" of Iron Chef America
Tom DeLay - Politician and former Majority Leader of the Republican Party
Macy Gray - Soul singer
Ashley Hamilton - Actor and the son of Season 2 contestant George Hamilton
Melissa Joan Hart - Actress best known for hit show "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch"
Kathy Ireland - Former model and current CEO of a billion dollar design empire
Michael Irvin - ESPN radio host and former Dallas Cowboy
Joanna Krupa - Model and one of Maxim Magazine's "Most Sexiest Women In The World"
Chuck Liddell - Mixed Martial Artist and Ultimate Fighting Champion
Debi Mazar - Actor currently starring in Entourage
Mya - Sultry singer
Donny Osmond - 70s teen idol singing sensation and brother of Season 5 contestant Marie Osmond
Kelly Osbourne - Reality TV show star and daughter of famed rocker Ozzy Osbourne
Louie Vito - Professional snowboarder

Who will YOU be rooting for this season?

Crumpler Uses Dance To Improve Game

Tight end displays nimbleness on feet

By Jim Wyatt
THE TENNESSEAN

Alge Crumpler might look a little heavier these days, but the Titans tight end has never been lighter on his feet.

If you don't believe it, then you haven't seen him do the Cha-Cha, the Salsa, the Swing or the Sexy Rumba.

Michael Hosale, owner of the Fred Astaire dance studio in Brentwood, worked with Crumpler and his wife this offseason. He was impressed with the big man's footwork even before he saw Crumpler toeing the sideline after making a catch against the Bills last Sunday night.

"He moves extremely well,'' Hosale said with a smile as dance music played in the background. "Give me 10 guys like that, big football players, and not every one of them is going to move like Alge. Some of my students who've been dancing with me longer were amazed at how well he moved across the floor.

"I told Alge, 'If Dancing with the Stars ever asks you to be on, you should definitely do it.' … And watching him (Sunday), I think some of those dancing steps he learned paid off. He got a couple extra yards.''

Crumpler had predicted Hosale might take some credit for "my nimbleness at such a hefty size.'' The fact of the matter is the ninth-year pro has displayed nifty footwork for years.

He couldn't help but chuckle when he realized his dancing secret was about to spread. So when the subject of his weight came up, well, he danced around it like Fred Astaire.

"I don't want to get into a weight battle,'' said Crumpler, who's listed at 262 pounds but admitted he's nowhere close to that. "I won't give up my weight. Talk to LenDale (White) about his; he'll talk about it, but I won't. And I don't want to make an issue out of it either.

"As long as I am doing everything I am supposed to do — and I am — the production speaks for itself. … That's the bottom line.''

On Monday, Titans Coach Jeff Fisher said he'd like to see Crumpler get back to last season's weight but complimented his mobility.

Chances are Fisher doesn't pay much attention to the football benefits of dancing, though General Manager Mike Reinfeldt might. He's also taken lessons with Hosale.

Beefy blocker

Crumpler had three catches for 32 yards in just two series against the Bills. Teammates rave about his agility, even though he doesn't get the opportunity to run routes like he used to.

"He's smooth, fluid,'' fullback Ahmard Hall said. "It's impressive, really, at his size.''

In seven seasons with the Falcons, Crumpler caught 316 passes and was named to the Pro Bowl four times. Last season, his first with the Titans, he had a career low 24 receptions.

But he also developed into a better blocker, and with pass-catching tight ends Bo Scaife and Jared Cook also on the roster, blocking is expected to be Crumpler's primary role again this fall.

And that's where his added weight — whatever it is — has worked to his advantage.

"Every tight end wants to catch the football,'' Crumpler said. "But if I am asked to do something and I am good at it I am going to do the best I can. And as long as I am holding up at the point of attack and making the plays that are there, that is my main concern. …

"The blocking part, right now it is a thousand times easier than it has ever been in my career. When I make contact, guys are moving — that I'll tell you. And that is pleasing to me. But, yes, I still want to drop a few pounds.''

Guessing game

So just how much heavier is Crumpler this season than last season, when he was also listed at 262 pounds?

Well, that's anyone's guess. He weighed 275 pounds as a blocking tight end in college, and admitted he was flabbergasted when the Falcons assigned him a weight of 260 as a rookie. He hasn't hit that number his entire career, he said.

This week his teammates had fun with "Guess Crumpler's Weight," almost as if they worked at a county fair.

"He is mad at himself because he said he gained 10 more pounds,'' Hall said. "I'd say he's about 285.''

Rookie Jared Cook went higher, as if he had inside information. He introduced his parents to Crumpler at the Hall of Fame game.

"And when he walked away I was like, 'I can't believe that man is 300 pounds running like that,' '' Cook said. "Once people find out how much he really weighs, they're surprised.''

Linebacker Keith Bulluck wouldn't offer a number: "He probably ate a few more cheeseburgers than he did last offseason. And maybe a few extra dips of ranch dressing, too.''

Others refused to weigh in on the subject.

"We don't go there,'' tight ends coach John Zernheldt said. "He don't go there, and I don't go there."

Dropping pounds

Crumpler said he would keep working to lose weight.

"I'm not as heavy as I've ever been, but I have been at this weight longer than I anticipated,'' he said. "I have been this heavy before, I just dropped it a lot faster.''

Crumpler's size is helping him at the line of scrimmage as a blocker, but Zernheldt said there are limits.

"Optimum weight is how big you can be and still maintain the speed to play that position. Obviously we don't want him too big,'' Zernheldt said. "So he deals with that, and his knees are getting a little older. So he has to watch his weight for more obvious reasons, health reasons too.''

Crumpler would probably concede that, just like he admitted Hosale might be on to something — all those dance lessons, 15-20 in all, could help him on the football field.

"Anything you do from a movement standpoint helps your game,'' Crumpler said. "Because you can only do so many squats and cleans and sprints. There were some turns and dips … different things that I did that might've helped, I don't know for sure.

"But I know it was all in fun and my wife and I enjoyed it."

Dance Studio Held Dance-A-Thon For Charity

The Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan participated in a Dance-A-Thon last weekend, starting at noon on Friday and ending on noon on Saturday. There were lessons in Latin dances such as the Salsa, Merengue or Samba and also Country line dancing, Belly dancing, Swing, Jive, Charleston, Hip hop and even Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

All proceeds went to the Variety FAR Conservatory for the Therapeutic and Performing Arts, a non-profit organization that provides creative arts therapy and recreation services for children and adults with mental, physical and/or emotional impairments.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring joy to people who need it,” said Arlene Kass, executive director of FAR, which stands for Fun, Arts and Recreation.

FAR had been using money from grants from foundations to take about 15 students to get social dance lessons in Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Bloomfield for the past three years, but this year they lost some grants because of the economy.

So Evan Mountain, owner of the Fred Astaire studio, said: “No way we’re going to stop doing this … we’re going to find a way to get the money.”

That’s when they decided to hold this dance-a-thon, and use the money raised to send students to take dance lessons.

“It’s our way of helping them,” said Lada Reschikova, co-owner of the Astaire studio.

Kass said raising $2,000 will send 15 students for a semester, and $4,000 will send them for a year. Kass said they can only fit 15 students for an hour in the dance studio.

“When we tell them we can only take 15 children, the phone starts ringing — they love going,” she said. “If you see our kids dancing with their professionals, it’s really something. The students seem to sense that these teachers know they can do it.”

FADS is a national franchise with studios in many states, but the one in Bloomfield Hills is the only studio in Michigan. Reschikova said they do private lessons, groups lessons and dance parties.

The dance-a-thon last weekend was the first time this studio did something like this, Reschikova said.

So You Think You Can Dance Honors The Art Of Dance

From The Washington Post:

'Dance' Has All The Right Moves

By Sarah Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Melissa had the nano-dress, the spiked heels, the hiccupping rhythm. Even so, something was wrong with her cha-cha.

The judges on "So You Think You Can Dance" knew where the fault lay. Melissa is, by training, a ballet dancer, and those polite hips and her tea-at-the-Ritz posture had gotten in her way. No amount of sequins or daringly exposed skin could make up for the fact that her cha-cha needed a mojito. More heft, more hips, more Havana.

Her feet were "sliding all over the place." One judge said her legs were turned out too much; another said her feet turned in too far. Even her lips came under fire: They were too pursed.

"When you try and be sexy, you don't have to go over the top," cautioned Nigel Lythgoe, one of the regular judges and the show's executive producer. (Imagine, someone trying to tone down the sex on Fox TV.)

Melissa Sandvig was cut the next night, and rightly so. She had stumbled in the twin tests of technique and expression, getting it wrong -- albeit by the slimmest of degrees -- exactly where this show, episode after episode, so often gets it right.

With its fifth-season finale starting Wednesday and wrapping up Thursday, Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" is more of a runaway hit than ever. For the first time in its brief history, it will also air in the fall, returning Sept. 9, so fans won't have to wait until next summer to see more young hopefuls tackle two-minute duets in a range of dance styles as they vie for the title "America's Favorite Dancer." Fox is clearly looking for a knockout when it goes toe-to-toe against ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

I wish Fox all the best, because "SYTYCD" is the superior dance show. It honors the art of dance much more than it gets credit for doing. For all its TV-land glitz -- the skimpy frocks, the shirtless men, the sappy pop tunes -- there is a certain honesty about this show. It stems from the primacy of the dancer's work ethic.

Focusing on the efforts of trained dancers rather than those of sorta-celebrities and adventurous athletes, "SYTYCD" offers an education, teaching viewers that the dance profession is not about pampered divadom, nor does it rest on achieving a look or aping a style. While "Dancing With the Stars" is about faking it -- which nondancer can best acquire the look of a dancer without having paid a dancer's dues -- "SYTYCD" is about the real thing.

Which is why Jeanine Mason, a raven-haired jazz and hip-hop dancer sporting purple tail feathers and just a soupcon of a top, was in for some finger-wagging on a recent episode when she failed to achieve that rolling, deep-in-the-hips quality of the samba.

"You're going to have to be hot not only with the way that you look, but with the way that you dance," counseled sharp-eyed judge Mary Murphy, a former ballroom champion who can be counted on for the most astute observations about style, substance and the art of dancing.

Art -- on TV? On Fox? The show's popularity in a mass medium and on a network that hyped celebrity boxing makes it tempting to dismiss "SYTYCD" as mere dance candy, dipped in shallow camera-glam and thick with wow-factor to please a nation that's been on a ballroom bender for the past few years. But the TV screen is a natural frame for dancing. As the most visual of the performing arts, dance is ideally suited to television. PBS discovered this in the three decades during which, on its "Dance in America" and "Great Performances" series, it regularly broadcast the best in concert dance -- the big ballet companies, the most experimental modern dance, choreographers such as George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp and Katherine Dunham.

But with diminished corporate sponsorship and a priorities shift to more mass-market fare (pop concerts, travelogues and no end to self-improvement shows), the days of elite dance over the airwaves are all but over. Dance on PBS has dwindled to an annual "Nutcracker" broadcast and little else.

Televised dance has now come full circle, returning to the commercial realm that gave it a boost back in the 1960s, when NBC's "Bell Telephone Hour" gave Balanchine's New York City Ballet a Friday night audience far eclipsing its live-performance subscribers.

Even such a snob as Balanchine might not be so shocked at the turn broadcast dance has taken. He loved flamboyance and sexiness as much as the next guy; yards of leg, crotch-centric poses and body-baring outfits weren't exactly unknown in his ballets at Lincoln Center. Nor was firecracker technique. The kind of physical bravado you see throughout the duets and solos on "SYTYCD" is part of a deeply rooted trend in the world of ballet. The culturati may find a difference between a ballet star's corkscrewing leaps and the TV dancers who backflip as if they've been shot out of a cannon or jump like jack-in-the-boxes, but they're all part of the same tradition in dance. You can trace it back to noble origins, starting with the galvanizing athleticism on view in the first U.S. tours of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet in the late 1950s.

And consider this stunner at the end of "SYTYCD'S" hour-long results show Thursday: Lythgoe worked in a lament for the dance world's loss of "the great avant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham," who had died a few days before, on July 26. Cunningham, a giant among 20th century artists, is revered by connoisseurs the world over, but coming from the niche world of modern dance, his is hardly a name you hear on network TV. I thought I'd fall over when Lythgoe saluted him.

Yet perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. More and more, the art-world of dance and the reality-TV-disco-ball-world of dance are merging on "SYTYCD." True, there's an abundance of hard sell here, a few too many aggressively splayed-out, punched-up dance routines that rocket from pose to pose, instead of unspooling a cohesive, subtler dynamic statement. But frequently I've been captivated by artistry in both the choreography and the dancing.

Take Broadway-style dancer Evan Kasprzak, one of the four finalists: Small in stature, he can devour space when he moves and his rubbery face is full of theatrical expression. He's also musical and can toss off miracles of gravity-daring balances. As guest judge Debbie Allen once gushed at him, he can "handle a big woman" (many of his partners have towered over him) -- and he looks like a shoo-in for a musical theater career.

And then there's Kayla Radomski, a tall jazz and contemporary dancer whose world-class cheekbones and long, quick legs amplify her glamour quotient. She dances big, arcing from corner to corner and giving her disco bumps the same silky conviction as her reverse turns in the Viennese waltz.

What's fascinating about "SYTYCD" is how it spotlights old-fashioned dance values: discipline, following orders, teamwork and perfecting an aesthetic through a mix of hard work, innate ability and imagination.

Sandvig, the ballet dancer, moved with unusual clarity, each step etched in space. Her duet with Ade Obayomi (who was also cut after last week's call-in voting) in choreographer Tyce Diorio's jewel of a piece about a woman battling breast cancer was especially poignant, expressing courage, despair, support and resolve.

But in the end, Sandvig didn't possess the versatility the show demands, with contestants judged in such disparate styles as hip-hop, bollywood, disco, ballroom and Latin dance. Ballet dancers are trained to tuck their buttocks under and to pull up out of their hips and abdomen. For them, swinging the pelvis in the cha-cha or dropping their weight into the floor in hip-hop is like asking a soprano to growl the blues. Similarly, hip-hop dancers often struggle with the intricate footwork of the quickstep, or with any dance style that benefits from softness in the upper body (as most of the social dances do).

"SYTYCD" asks for an extreme version of versatile, but it is an authentic asset. Versatility is the buzzword in the dance world today -- the major dance companies, American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and so on, are all looking for dancers who can dive into a varied repertoire. "SYTYCD" kicks it up a notch. The diversity of styles these dancers are asked to master -- if only for a few minutes at a time -- is unheard of in the professional world.

Versatility doesn't come from mimicking steps -- each dance form has its own vocabulary and its own aesthetic. In hip-hop, for example, attitude matters, a defiance that enhances raw, weighty physical power. Obayomi found it in on one episode, impressing the experts of the form: "You have a real dirty kind of groove about yourself," raved Lil C, a krumper on the judges' panel that night. "This time you just sat in it."

The point he was making is absolutely valid: In moves from the urban alleyways as much as in the waltz, doing it right means being able to express the proper emotional tone, the core human intention.

The show could improve, however. The music for the routines is mediocre at best, drawn from "American Idol" winners and the pulpiest hitmakers. The special guests who drag out the Thursday results show are frequently not so special. Why no one in power cried out "for God's sake, no!" when Katie Holmes was booked to lip-sync and preen in a "tribute" to Judy Garland on the show's 100th episode is beyond justification. I suppose L.A. was fresh out of real dancers with star power?

Last season saw an artistic high point when several Alvin Ailey dancers performed an electrifying excerpt from the group's signature crowd-pleaser "Revelations." "SYTYCD" should do this routinely -- use its visibility to promote quality professional performances, and by doing so, it might lead viewers to seek out the art form on the live stage as well as on the dial. That would only broaden "SYTYCD's" base.

In many ways, the mass media are losing sight of the masses by pushing at the limits of their own idioms. Special effects threaten to overwhelm the movies. Television aims lower and lower -- and reality TV has yet to meet a low to which it can't sink. But despite its flaws, to its great credit "SYTYCD" has managed to stay personal and human-scale.

With the loss of Cunningham, Balanchine and other visionaries who have defined the world of concert dance, it remains to be seen how meaningfully the art form will be included in 21st century highbrow culture. But with the rise of popular dancing on TV -- and thanks to Lythgoe, Murphy and their colleagues -- dance's place in pop culture seems secure, at least for now.

And by the way, my money's on Kayla.

Could We Do It Just One More Time?

Eleanor Powell salutes Fred Astaire in this American Film Institute tribute taped April 10, 1981:

Tony Dovolani Starring In New Movie

Dancing With The Stars champion dancer and longtime Fred Astaire Dance Studios associate Tony Dovolani is starring in a new movie called "Pumping Up." This comedic film is produced by Angel Light Pictures and written by Peter Papageorgiou. It is about three Italian-American childhood friends who work out at a gym in Queens , NY. Every year is the annual Mr. Hercules weightlifting contest. The story focuses on how the contest affects their lives and relationship. Dovolani has signed up to play one of the major roles.

Dancing With The Stars, Season 9

ABC's Dancing With The Stars, Season 9, will premiere on September 21, 2009 at 8/7c. Rumors are flying about which celebrities will be competing this season. Some of the rumors include:

• Lou Ferrigno, actor and body builder.
• Sherri Shepherd, co-host of "The View"
• Kurt Angle, Olympic gold medalist and WWF professional wrestler
• Debi Mazar, actress

The cast will be revealed on Monday, August 17 on Good Morning America.

Not Your Grandmother's Cha-Cha

From the LA Times.com:

By Patrick Pacheco
August 2, 2009
Reporting from New York — At a recent rehearsal of "Burn the Floor" at the Longacre Theatre, Jeremy Garner and Sarah Hives sultrily moved through their paces, the heat amped up by their youthful beauty and personal chemistry.

When associate producer Peta Roby, sitting in the theater's orchestra, was asked what is the dance, she replied, "It's a cha-cha. It's traditionally an afternoon dance, not like the rumba or tango, which are more sensual evening dances. It's the kind that a young man could dance with his mother or auntie."

Really? Regarding the smoldering couple onstage, she smiled and added, "Oh, that? That's the edge Jason brings to it."

"Jason" is Jason Gilkison, the 43-year-old Australian director and choreographer of "Burn the Floor." And the "edge" is how the creators of this company of 20 dancers, two singers and four musicians intend to reinvent the world of ballroom for the Broadway production, which opens tonight. The emphasis is on youth (the median age is around 23), physical beauty and a rawness and grit that is distinctly Australian. Although the company is international (including some Americans, Europeans and New Zealanders), the majority are Australian as are the creative team and the producer, Harley Medcalf."

We wanted to make it more theatrical, to get away from the fake tans, stiff hair, and the costumes full of feathers and rhinestones," said Gilkison, a one-time international ballroom dance champion with his longtime partner Roby. "It's like finding a piece of your grandmother's jewelry, taking out the stone and putting it in a very contemporary setting. It captures the essence of the dances but with today's attitudes and expressions."

"Burn the Floor" arrives at a propitious time. Reality dance shows such as "So You Think You Can Dance?" and "Dancing With the Stars" have erased the musty stigma associated with ballroom dance and made terms such as paso doble a part of pop discourse. And the addition of Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff of "Dancing With the Stars" to the Broadway cast may seem like a marketing gimmick to take advantage of the popular program. A judge on that show, Carrie Ann Inaba, has also been recruited as one of the Broadway producers. But it was Chmerkovskiy who proposed the couple's involvement for the three weeks they are on hiatus from the TV show.

"It's everybody's dream to end up on Broadway, and they had come to me because they were looking for a really hot female dancer," said the Ukrainian-born dancer who met Gilkison and Roby at a Miami dance competition in 1990 shortly after his arrival in this country. "But Jason's vision for the show is so cool, so fast-paced and high energy that I said, 'Why not me and Karina?' " Even though Chmerkovskiy is a choreographer, he said he had no problem turning over the reins to Gilkison. "We put our two cents in but it's his vision."

Gilkison's vision for "Burn the Floor" has been honed from -- and is an informal tribute to -- his family's dance heritage. He was being literal when he compared ballroom dance to a piece of his "grandmother's jewelry." His maternal grandparents founded the Gilkison Dance Studio in Perth, Australia, in 1931, and his parents -- his mother a dancer, his father an actor -- continued the tradition. (The studio is still in the family, run by a cousin.) At age 7, Gilkison began his 36-year-partnership with Roby in that studio, which doubled as a club in the evening. In the late '80s and early '90s, the couple went on to become world ballroom champions in the amateur division (the first non-Europeans to do so) and to place third at the professional level. In fact, said Gilkison, the couple were interviewed extensively and were offered the lead roles when Australian film and stage director Baz Luhrmann began to develop the project that would become "Strictly Ballroom," the popular 1992 romantic film comedy. "Peta and I were so immersed in competition at the time that we wanted to stay on that path," Gilkison said.

Not surprisingly, Gilkison and Roby were among the first whom Harley Medcalf contacted when "Burn the Floor" started germinating 12 years ago after the producer saw how a short ballroom dance piece, presented as entertainment at Elton John's 50th birthday extravaganza, captivated the crowd. Medcalf thought that he might be onto something if he could capture that excitement in theatrical and film formats. (Later, two versions of "Burn the Floor" made it onto celluloid -- in 1999 and 2005.) Gilkison and Roby, who by that time had retired from competition, signed on, with Gilkison sharing co-choreographer credit with Anthony Van Laast ("Mamma Mia!") until a year later, he took over directing and choreographing entirely, apparently with the veteran choreographer's blessing.

Conceived initially as a stadium spectacular á la "Riverdance," "Burn the Floor" proceeded in fits and starts, beginning in 1998. "Ballroom dance was then confined to dusty hidden halls," Harley recalled. "All my contemporaries thought I was insane and they were right." Nonetheless, "Burn the Floor" played in 29 countries over the next decade with varying degrees of success. This is in fact the 10th time "BTF" has played the United States in one version or another. (A national tour of the Broadway show planned for next year would include a stop in Los Angeles.)But the previous tours (at one time growing to a caravan of seven semi-trucks and 80 personnel) did not always go smoothly. A 2000 U.S. tour was cut short by six weeks because of poor sales and high overhead. And the following year -- "with exquisite timing," Harley said -- they returned to Denver with a scheduled opening on Sept. 11, 2001. They opened the next night to an enthusiastic crowd, he said.

But, the producer said his "eureka moment" came when, in the middle of an arena tour, the production was booked into Boston's 3,600-seat Wang Theatre. While the seven semis idled outside, the show had to be considerably scaled down. "The more stripped back it was, the more it became about the dancers, the better it was," Harley said. "It was what had attracted me to the project in the first place, the dancers, that energy, that commitment, even that rebelliousness you find in the younger generation.'

Gilkison and Roby went back to the drawing board to corral that rebelliousness in a lengthy workshop in Perth in 2005 that is the basis for the current incarnation. Further refinement took place in an engagement at San Francisco's 600-seat Post Theatre in January. It was a six-week run that extended into 15 weeks, at the end of which the decision was made to go to Broadway. "We weren't getting the recognition and credibility that Broadway can confer," Harley said. "If we could get it right in a theater the size of the Post, we might be able to realize our full potential."

Joe Watson, the lead American producer, who booked the show into the Post and who has been general manager on such shows as "Tango Argentino," "Stomp" and "Swing," said the show has taken on "more heart and intimacy" for Broadway since the San Francisco run.

"It comes from Jason and the legacy that his family represents," he said. "He's captured that up close and personal feeling."Gilkison said there's no direct reference to that pedigree in the show and the audience may not necessarily even make the connection. But " 'Burn the Floor' is totally influenced by the vivid memories of that studio and that life," he said. "Peta and I grew up there. It was a place where people came to socialize, to have fun, to romance," then -- perhaps thinking of the more torrid dances that are a part of 'Burn the Floor" -- he added, "and more!"

Ballroom. Reinvented.

From newsday.com:

By Linda Winer, chief theater critic and arts columnist for Newsday

In the beginning, people danced to grab the attention of the gods - or, at mating times, to grab one another.

Eventually, someone realized that the moving was almost as much fun as the mating. Folk dance became the Saturday night fever of the countryside while, up at the castle, the rich were formalizing the ecstasy into ritual.
The dances became more and more intricate, until regular people looked stupid doing them. Ballet got too complicated for the abilities of Louis XIV's court, and social dancing changed from a participatory to a spectator sport.

Which brings us, sort of, to the shocking new popularity of dance on TV and, perhaps, on Broadway.

It has been four years since mainstream America began calling professional dancers by their first names - Melissa, Ade, Karina, Maksim. "Dancing With the Stars" has demi-celebrities perform with ballroom champions. "So You Think You Can Dance" auditions contestants of all styles from around the country and lets viewers vote them off the island.

I can't say whether this newfound appreciation will translate into new dance-literate audiences. Certainly the outpouring of emotion last month for a seriously abstract, poignant modern pas de deux about breast cancer on "So You Think You Can Dance" suggested more than just a disease-is-bad reaction to the subject matter.

It remains to be seen how many TV fans will make the leap into paying audiences for "Burn the Floor," the touring show that opens Sunday night at Broadway's Longacre Theatre featuring Maksim Chmerkovskiy) and Karina Smirnoff from "Dancing With the Stars" (for the first two weeks of the 12-week engagement).

But I'm amused to see the ads that promise "Ballroom. Reinvented."

If we really want to see ballroom reinvented, I suspect the unlikely place to be this fall is the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. There, Twyla Tharp is opening (with intimations of a Broadway transfer) "Come Fly With Me," her full-length musical based on the songs of Frank Sinatra.

Tharp has had her slinky, thorny, exhilarating way with pieces of Sinatra, but for the dance world, not for Broadway. The director-choreographer - who had a Broadway smash in 2002 with Billy Joel and "Movin' Out," then a crash in 2005 with Bob Dylan and "The Times They are A-Changin'" - made a ballroom duet for herself and Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1976 called "Once More, Frank."

Baryshnikov has memorably said, "Twyla's ballets make you feel like a fish in the sand. I always had the feeling I was out in a boat that had no sail, doing forbidden things."

Few have made forbidden things sound more seductive than Sinatra, and nobody in my lifetime has made his nuance more visible than Tharp. She did, after all, learn about American romance from working in her parents' drive-in movie theater in small-town California, and most of her career has functioned as a Missing Link between high art and pop. In 1982, she created a fantasy ballroom in "Nine Sinatra Songs" and, two years later, crawled back under our skin for more with "Sinatra Suite."

About the new show, according to the Alliance publicity, she intends to make audiences "remember that song, that dance, that special someone, that moment when you fell in love and fell in love again."

That doesn't sound much like radical Tharp, but if anyone can, I suspect she can.

This throwback to a more romantic time must also be part of the TV-dance appeal. There is a whiff of Fred and Ginger in the partnering, not to mention a sense of the old floor shows in fancy '50s nightclubs, the Ice Capades and Olympic figure skaters and, of course, the image of Tony Manero practicing his dips in front of three-way mirrors in Brooklyn.
Neither "Saturday Night Fever," in 1977, nor "Dirty Dancing," 10 years later, brought couple-dancing back to the heyday it enjoyed before the "Twist" taught people to dance with themselves in the early '60s. Music videos, especially those by Madonna and Michael Jackson, made a whole generation more sophisticated about watching stars dance - virtuosos, but solos with backup dancers.

What might be different now is an appreciation of partnerships. Not to read too much into it, but the return of dancing in pairs may signal
a hunger for mutual awareness. What's more, as Valentino proved, years ago, the tango can make a four/four downbeat seem like a naughty idea.

Instructor Helps Woman Dance Again

From kpho.com: (Phoenix, AZ)

By Jeff Butera

With flat feet and a couple knee surgeries behind her, Jeanmarie Elkins was convinced if she was going to get around, it would be in a motorized cart.

“I had pretty well resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be living the last 30 years of my life in the cart,” Elkins said.

Elkins was in that cart about one year ago, when she took her 4-year-old granddaughter to a dance lesson with instructor Joshua Ramirez at a Fred Astaire Dance Studio. Elkins was 68 years old at the time.

“Joshua happened to hear me mutter, ‘Gee, I wish I could do that again,’” Elkins recalls.

Ramirez, who was 24 years old, asked why she couldn’t. Elkins told him she had flat feet. He responded that he had flat feet, too.

“She was using that as an excuse, so I pulled off my shoe and showed her,” Ramirez said. “I’m a firm believer that if you want to do something, do it.”
So Ramirez helped Elkins find knee braces and arthritic shoes. Then he told her to stand up.

“I convinced her to get out of her cart and dance,” Ramirez said.

And she was able to. Elkins said Ramirez “pushed, pulled and cajoled” her and, over time, turned her into an accomplished dancer.

It wasn’t easy, though. Ramirez jokes that Elkins is “incorrigible,” and Elkins sarcastically retorts that she’s also “stubborn, independent and won’t give an inch.”

Still, with Ramirez’s help, Elkins became such a strong dancer that she entered dance competitions, often placing first. The woman who thought she would be confined for life to a motorized cart was now pursuing her passion.

“It has changed my life – literally,” Elkins said.

That’s why she asked to ‘pay it forward’ to Ramirez. CBS 5 News gave her $500 this week, and she gave it to Ramirez.

When we asked Ramirez what it was like to see Elkins change from a woman stuck in a cart to a dancer winner competitions, he said, “That feeling is why I do this job.”

Dancing Tweens - Big Drama, Tiny Dancers!

TLC premiered a new series on July 26th called "Dancing Tweens." This series followed three pre-teen dance couples as they practiced their steps preparing for strict ballroom competition at the Wisconsin State Dancesport Championships.

My Golden Dancers

Love is not Love

By Elita Sohmer Clayman

Shakespeare said it well in Sonnet 116, although sometimes it is hard for the average person to decipher what he meant. Here are a few lines from 116:

Love is not love

which alters

When it alteration finds

or bends with the remover to remove

O! No it is an ever fixed mark.

I am no Shakespearean scholar, by any means. However, I am interpreting it this way and possibly I am wrong. He means that when we love and things change, we still have to love and not be influenced by that change. We do not remove it. We have loved and will continue to love when changes appear. We do not let it leave us for any reason at all.

This can be applied to our ballroom dancing in a way. Many of us take lessons with a coach and that costs lots of money. Many of us as seniors do not have the money to lay out for this hobby. It starts out as purely fun and to some of us that is not enough. We want more. We want to compete, we want to showcase in front of our dancing peers, and, lastly, we want to excel in it for our own ego.

So we love this hobby or event or happening in our present life and we do not want to alter it in any way. We do not want to bend because it is a fixed mark in our life.

As seniors, we need this thing called ballroom dancing because it enhances daily living, is a good exercise tool, and it increases our kindness towards our self. We see our own being as a distinct and different person when dancing against the person we are in our daily life. It is as though we are two disparate personalities. We are family people and then we take on the personality of a different identity. That is good because we now are two special persons instead of the usual one.

Many of us look forward to this thing called dance that has entered our life and taken over it with great speed. The first night we took a lesson together, we went down to a record store to buy ballroom dance records. In those days, they were the large plastic ones which now are outdated and gave way to tiny discs called DVDs. We bought about five ballroom dance records. I was so proud to carry the bag from the record store into the house because it made me feel special that night.We went downstairs to the large family room in our home and moved the furniture and practiced that night what we had learned. By then, it was like eleven o’clock in the evening because we had gone out after that first lesson for dinner. The dinner was for our daily eating and also a celebration of the new thing we had accomplished that night.We tried so hard to remember what the coach taught us and then we decided from then on, we would take notes and then, eventually, I brought along a small audio recorder and recorded the lesson. There were no recording devices called camcorders then. So we relied on the audio tape and to hear the coach explaining the steps, etc. It helped some and along with the written notes, we could practice.

I remember one day when my husband went to work and I was waiting for the time to go and pick up my son and daughter at school. I tried to practice myself and thought: "My goodness, what have I gotten us into?" I had gotten into in reality the most promising thing I could attain as a couple and also for our mental and physical health. We were in our forties then and imagine now what it does for our health now as seniors.

Every time I watch Dancing with the Stars, I think of what we have accomplished. No flashy dances, no short and revealing costumes, no artificial smiles, and no judges to put us down. We have achieved and brought to fruition the magic of show business coupled with the magic of being ballroom dancers. In so doing, we have attained a high perspective into how exciting and illuminating this activity can be perpetual, never ending and eternal.

I have many email pals that dance and that is how we became those email pals. I have never met more than one friend from my email list. I feel like I know them as well as I know other friends. I have pictures of them so I can place a picture face with the written email message. We discuss our families, our health, our dancing, and - best of all - that we are all in this community of dancing. No matter how old we are, we are in the best society of them all - we are ballroom dancing people and we know we love it and we need no appraiser to judge us and to tell us how poorly we are doing or how good we are dancing.

I am no Shakespearean maven but I can sum it up as this: Ballroom dancing alters our life in a most positive way, so much so, that the alteration is with us forever.

Elita Sohmer Clayman

Baltimore, Maryland
Keep on Dancing

What Do Judges Look For In A Competition?

From danceruniverse.com:

If you love challenge and want to take the experience to the ultimate level, then dance competition might be for you. Whether it is the refined Ballroom or the energetic, sensuous Latin rhythm, many well-rounded dance enthusiasts literally live and breathe this delightful mixture of art and competitive sport.

Exactly what are the judges looking for when evaluating a dance competition? These highly acclaimed critics usually consist of former dance professionals and/or current choreographers. They are chosen to showcase their expertise in analyzing, evaluating and unanimously deciding the winners.

The judges' evaluation of performance is based on originality of the particular genre. Did the couple execute the dance and make it their own? Did they sell it? Was there chemistry between them? Were their respective personalities highlighted during the performance, along with their skills? Did they exude emotion? Was the performance real? Was it believable? Contenders must be actors as well as dancers.

The judges look for styling. This involves the dancers' lines which include posture, full graceful extension of their legs, arms, center balance and fluid continuity, giving the look of big, yet flawless and seamless.

Evaluation also includes the couple's individual and combined strengths as supporting partners. Did they hold their own on the dance floor, yet dance as a unit?

Musicality and Expression - The basic characterization of the dance to the particular music being played and the choreographic adherence to musical phrasings and accents.

Presentation - Does the couple sell their dancing to the audience? Do they dance outwardly, with enthusiasm, exuding their joy of dancing and confidence in their performance?

The most perplexing problem for judges is analyzing the contenders as a group while performing. It is not a one-on-one. In that one minute and thirty seconds of performing, the judges must go into multitask mode, simultaneously critiquing the contenders both collectively and individually in order to properly evaluate the performance and render the appropriate score.

Different judges have different preferences in what they want to see, and weight these factors differently. One judge might be especially interested in technique, while another wants to be moved by musicality and expression. While both factors are obviously important and need to be considered, it can result in couples getting widely disparate markings. Because the judge sees each couple for only a few seconds, anything that draws the attention, either positively or negatively, could very well be the deciding factor on how you are marked. Most judges try to do a conscientious job. And the use of a panel usually insures that the end result is the correct one.

Dancing is a process. The more practice, the better the performance. Competitions are designed to put dancers to the ultimate test.

And if you are worried that you might not have what it takes to become an accomplished ballroom dancer, consider this quote - Cannot act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little. - Anonymous studio verdict on the original screen test of Fred Astaire in 1933.

Walking on the Moon

Michael Jackson in motion
by Joan Acocella

If you watch a video of the Jackson 5 performing “I Want You Back,” on the Ed Sullivan show, in 1969, you will see that the group’s lead vocalist—Michael, the youngest of the five brothers—was already an A-list dancer at the age of eleven. Here is this fat-cheeked boy, in a pink Super Fly hat that he is obviously proud of, doing tilts and dips and fanny rocks and finger snaps, and tucking in little extras—half steps, quarter steps—between them. Most amazing is his musicality, his ability to respond to the score faithfully and yet creatively, playing with the music, moving in before and after the beat. Musicality always comes off as spontaneity, and he was loved, early on, for that quality.

Now turn to “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” (1979). Ten years have passed. He has started recording his own songs. He does fancier steps. But at twenty-one, as at eleven, he is galvanizing above all because of his naturalness. He hops with joy; he wags his head; his shirt comes untucked.
Then come the landmark videos of the early nineteen-eighties: “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” and “Thriller,” all of them for songs that appeared on the collection “Thriller” (1982), which is the best-selling album of all time. At this point, Jackson has just about everything you would want in a dancer. He is very fast, and, now that the adult musculature has come in, his whole body is “worked.” (This means that every muscle is stretched, and operating in the service of the dance. Nothing is blurred.) As a result, he has a sharp attack, and wonderful clarity. Watch him—as you can, for example, in “The Way You Make Me Feel” (1987)—dancing, silhouetted, alongside other men doing the same steps. You can’t see the faces, but you know which one he is. He dives into a step more intently, and shows it to us more precisely, than anyone else. Around this time, the videos are featuring some new moves—for example, multiple spins (which seem, at times, to have received technical assistance). And he’s now doing the famous moonwalk, which he picked up from break dancing. He has also started doing some rather dirty moves, notably the crotch-grab, which will endure, with striking embellishments, throughout his career.

The “Thriller”-period videos were instrumental in converting MTV from a backwater to a sensation. Jackson consciously aimed at doing that. “I wanted to be a pioneer in this relatively new medium,” he said in his 1988 memoir, “Moon Walk” (a book, incidentally, edited by Jacqueline Onassis). He spent a fortune on these projects. The 1995 “Scream” video cost seven million dollars—a record at that time. He didn’t like to call these works videos. They were “short films,” he claimed—and rightly, for he had them shot not on videotape but on 35-mm. film. “We were serious,” he said.
Jackson took his choreography from a number of sources: hip-hop, sock hop, “Soul Train,” disco, and jazz dance, plus a little tap and Charleston. By his account, he constructed some of the movement himself. “Billie Jean,” he says in “Moon Walk,” still had no dance component the night before he was scheduled to perform it in honor of Motown’s twenty-fifth anniversary. He went down to the kitchen, turned on the music full blast, and, in his words, “let the dance create itself” on his body. His moonwalk had its début in that number.

But on most of his dances he did not work alone. Michael Peters, Vincent Paterson, and Jeffrey Daniel, all of them experienced stage and TV choreographers, collaborated with Jackson. On the PBS special “Everybody Dance Now” (1991), in answer to a question from the dance historian Sally Sommer, Peters said that Jackson’s method was to put together some steps and ideas and bring them to a choreographer, who would then organize them into a coherent dance.

But, whether he went it alone or got help, the result was much the same. He didn’t have a lot of moves. You can almost count them on your fingers: the gyrating hips, the bending knees (reversing from inward to outward), the pivoting feet (ditto), the one raised knee, the spins, and, above all, the rotated or raised heel, which is what he gets around on. These steps are generally done staccato. He finishes the phrase and freezes, then finishes the next phrase and freezes. He also has some moves so natural that one hesitates to call them steps: lovely, light-footed walks, struts, jumps, and runs. He made at least one important innovation in music-video choreography—the use of large ensembles dancing behind the soloist—but beyond that he created very little dancing that was different from his own prior numbers, or anyone else’s. Yet many people were happy to see him, again and again, do the thing he did. Long after the critics soured on his music and his videos, they still liked his dancing.

Sometimes they had to take the dancing on faith. Jackson, who had a thorough knowledge of the movie musical, revered Fred Astaire. He records in his memoir how thrilled he was when Astaire praised him. The old master even invited him over to his house, where Jackson taught the moonwalk to him and his choreographer Hermes Pan. (Astaire told Jackson that both of them, he and Jackson, danced out of anger—an interesting remark, at least about Astaire.) But despite Jackson’s awe of his predecessor, he never learned the two rules that Astaire, as soon as he gained power over the filming, insisted on: (1) don’t interrupt the dance with reaction shots or any other extraneous shots, and (2) favor a full-body shot over a closeup. To Astaire, the dance was primary—his main story—and he had it filmed accordingly. In Jackson’s videos, the dance is tertiary, even quaternary (after the song and the story and the filming). The camera repeatedly cuts away, and, when it comes back, it often limits itself to the upper body. Jackson didn’t value his dancing enough.

Pop critics often say that with the “Thriller” album, though it came early —he was only twenty-four—Jackson went as far as he ever got musically. The same might be said of the music videos born of this album. The “Thriller” video became part of world culture. On YouTube, you can see a clip of fifteen hundred inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, in the Philippines, doing the “Thriller” dance in unison, in their orange uniforms. (Prison officials thought it would be a good lesson in discipline.) The later videos were not as popular, because they were not as good. Now, in place of dancing and stories, he ramped up the pyrotechnics. Smoke banks enclose him. Great flames shoot up behind him. (Back in 1984, while he was filming a Pepsi commercial, the special effects set his hair on fire. He had to be treated for third-degree burns.) Then come the computer-generated effects: he vanishes, he materializes, he walks on walls. With this abracadabra, good causes, mawkishly treated, make their entry. “Heal the World” (1992) gave us war, and abandoned children sucking their thumbs; “Earth Song” (1995) was about the destruction of the environment. This would have been O.K. if he had gone on dancing, but he didn’t, or not much. In one video, he just walked; in another, he just sat; in “Heal the World,” he didn’t appear. “You Are Not Alone” (1995), the major embarrassment of this late period, shows him as an angel, quite naked, with a vast pair of feathered wings. Needless to say, this ruled out dancing. Many of the late videos are heavy on self-aggrandizement; others, on self-pity. He, too, was sucking his thumb.
Occasionally, though, he would get up off his chair, and then it was like old times. The last known video shows him at a rehearsal for the London season he was about to embark on. He struts, he boogies; he snaps and pops. As CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, said, “This doesn’t look like someone who’s very sick to me.” That’s not to mention that Jackson was fifty years old and, because he was in rehearsal, was probably not performing “full out.” He was still a great dancer. Two days later, he was dead. ♦

DWTS judge part of "Burn The Floor"

Carrie Ann Inaba, one of the judges of the hit show Dancing With The Stars, is joining "Burn The Floor," a Latin and ballroom dance extravaganza on Broadway, as a producer. DWTS pros Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff will join the cast as guest stars for the first three weeks of the show's 12-week run. Appearing at the Longacre Theater, "Burn The Floor" will open on August 2nd.

Charity Dance-A-Thon in Michigan

Friday, Aug 14-15, 12:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m.
at Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Shake your booty for a good cause at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio Dance-A-Thon! Dancing starts at noon Friday August 14 to noon Saturday, August 15! We’re dancing round the clock to benefit Variety Far Conservatory for the Therapeutic and Performing Arts’ ballroom dance program for children and adults with mental, physical and emotional impairments. Private lessons are only $75, Group lessons only $10! Call (248) 454-1715 for more information!

So You Think You Can Dance 2009 Tour

Sunday, September 20: Manchester, NH - Verizon Wireless Arena
Tuesday, September 22: Boston, MA - Agganis Arena at Boston University
Thursday, September 24: Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
Friday, September 25: Mashantucket, CT - MGM Theater - Foxwoods
Saturday, September 26: Trenton, NJ - Sovereign Bank Arena
Tuesday, September 29: Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
Thursday, October 1: Columbus, OH - Nationwide Arena
Saturday, October 3: Detroit, MI - Joe Louis Arena
Sunday, October 4: Champaign, IL - University of Illinois Assembly Hall Tuesday, October 6: Chicago, IL - United Center
Wedneday, October 7: Minneapolis, MN - Target Center
Friday, October 9: Milwaukee, WI - Bradley Center
Saturday, October 10: Toledo, OH - Lucas County Arena
Sunday, October 11: Indianapolis, IN - Conseco Fieldhouse
Wednesday, October 14: Long Island, NY - Nassau Coliseum
Thursday, October 15: Baltimore, MD - 1st Mariner Arena
Saturday, October 17: Richmond, VA - Richmond Coliseum
Monday, October 19: Charlotte, NC - Time Warner Cable Arena
Tuesday, October 20: Duluth, GA - Arena at Gwinnett Center
Thursday, October 22: Miami, FL - American Airlines Arena
Friday, October 23: Tampa, FL - St. Pete Times Forum
Saturday, October 24: Tallahassee, FL - Tallahassee-Leon Co. Civic Center
Monday, October 26: Houston, TX - Reliant Arena
Tuesday, October 27: Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center
Wednesday, October 28: Grand Prairie, TX - Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie
Friday, October 30: Tulsa, OK - BOK Center
Saturday, October 31: St. Louis, MO - Chaifetz Arena at St. Louis University
Sunday, November 1: Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
Tuesday, November 3: Omaha, NE - Qwest Center
Thursday, November 5: Colorado Springs, CO - Colorado Springs World Arena
Saturday, November 7: West Valley City, UT - The “E” Center
Monday, November 9: Los Angeles, CA - Nokia Theatre LA LIVE
Thursday, November 12: San Diego, CA - San Diego Sports Arena
Friday, November 13: Glendale, AZ - jobing.com Arena
Saturday, November 14: Las Vegas, NV - Orleans Arena
Monday, November 16: Sacramento, CA - ARCO Arena
Tuesday, November 17: Fresno, CA - SaveMart Center
Wednesday, November 18: San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion at San Jose
Friday, November 20: Portland, OR - Rose Garden
Saturday, November 21: Everett, WA - Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center

Tickets sales begin on July 25th.

Dance In Puerto Rico!!!

The July 2010 Astaire Awards Championships will be held in the tropical paradise of San Juan, Puerto Rico at the El San Juan Hotel.

The El San Juan Hotel, an ideal retreat, is nestled along a beautiful beach and is surrounded by 15 lush acres of landscaped grounds - a perfect blend of tropical splendor and old-world sophistication. When you're not on the dance floor, you can relax on the white-sand beach, explore the city, or test your luck at the hotel's casino.