Damian Woetzel in "Soul of the Game"

[sneds]

Hi!

OK...the last place I expected to see Damian Woetzel was on a show about baskeball! Right now "Soul of the Game" is on-a show that is looked at the way art, philosophy, dance, music, pyschology and theatre are intertwined with basketball. It's essentially a promo for the NBA, but so far an interesting look at the arts& basketball. Damian, Judith Jamison & Alvin Ailey Company, Mark Morris and Savion Glover were among those shown during the dance section.

We got to see several nice clips of Damian in "bike shorts" doing his gorgeous pirouettes and a closeup of his feet & legs in a series of entrachets. Drool.... Plus some voice-over including comparing his day of practice & performance to that of a basketball player's day with practice & game.

Darn it...one of those times you wish you had a tape in the VCR.

Kate

[Alexandra]

Interesting -- thanks for the alert, sneds. They do these shows from time to time -- interesting that this one was to promote the NBA. Usually it's dance people trying to show a connection to sports.

I remember one from the late '70s-early '80s where Twyla Tharp did a dance for Peter Martins and Lynn Swann (the latter a famous football player of the day).

[sneds]

Hi!

The show was quite interesting, though I think it was conceived as a way for NBC to attract viewers who would ordinarily not tune in until NBA game-time. I wouldn't have known about it, except that I'm on the Joshua Bell mailing list and we got a message saying that he would be on the show.

It was obviously filmed in NYC late last year or early this year-the dancers, actors and musicians were/are all temporarily or permanently based in NYC and judging from the marquees shown in one clip, "The Full Monty" was still open and "Thoroughly Modern Millie" was open or in previews.

The dance segment was, in my opinion, the best part of the show. Judith Jamison was very eloquent and offered some very apt insights on the "dance in basketball".

I wonder why Damian was chosen as "the ballet dancer"-certainly there are other popular dancers in NYC these days (Corella, Stiefel etc.). But, I think it was a good choice-though certainly not very tall by basketball standards, he has a long, lean, muscular physique much like many basketball players. Much of the focus seemed to be placed on his muscular legs-he was shown in short spandex shorts , the shots were of steps that emphasized his legs (pirouettes in seconde, entrachets) and at least once, the camera focused close up on his feet (neat-it's not often that we get to watch feet that close up-he has nice pointed feet in the entrachets/beats.

Kate