sidwich

I don't remember Benji having another sibling or cousin who danced, but there always seem to be plenty of Schwimmer-trained kids around. The Schwimmerites are pretty unmistakable, technically well-trained but with a very mechanical and over-the-top presentational style. In a lot of ways, I actually think Lacey Schwimmer is the best of them.

If Dmitri owns the only physical copy (which is what it appears), there is no legal necessity to act. Ownership of physical property (the manuscript) is entirely separate from ownership of the copyright (or lack thereof, i.e. public domain-dom). Even if the copyright falls into public domain, as long as Dmitri owns the only physical copy there is no reason that the family can't keep the manuscript safely in the Swiss vault indefinitely. However, if Dmitri plans to sell the exclusive rights to publish Laura, he must do so before the copyright falls into public domain. Otherwise, those rights are worthless.

I think that's something the producers have to weigh out, but on the other hand if the producers hadn't brought on Julianne as a new pro a few seasons ago there would have been no magical pairing with Apolo Anton Ono which ended up being the marquee draw that year. I do think though that after three seasons of Julianne, some of the magic was wearing off. Many of the message board fans that adored Julianne with other partners were characterizing her as "annoying" this season. I don't think that the show really missed Maks this year. The closest the show got to a beloved pairing this year was his replacement, Fabian with Marlee Matlin.

Technically, the only celeb I think is close to Kristi Yamaguchi is Mario. (Actually, in some ways, Mario is better). I think Jason has much more fan voting going for him, though, and between Kristi and Jason, I'm not sure who is ahead since neither has been in serious jeopardy. I don't think that DWTS is in any jeopardy anytime soon, because (a) all ratings are down, (b) DWTS is very cheap to produce, and per dollar spent, it's one of the most valuable shows on television. It's ABC's #1 show in terms of value to the network, and really only trailing FOX's "American Idol" in overall terms. But you're right, it is ultimately a concern. I suspect the producers are already working double-time to figure out a plan for next season. I'd also say I think some of it is burnout on the part of the pros as well. Pro-am competitions are very wearing on an instructor both physically and mentally. It's why very few top professional competitors will do pro-am until after their competitive careers are over. I think the producers need to evaluate whether they need to rotate out some of the pros because some of them look like they need to take a break. Some of the choreography is looking very tired.

I don't think she was ever a shoo-in to take the prize. This show is all about popularity. Dance quality only matters in that it can attract additional fans. I don't think it's Yamaguchi's fault at all. Like with all reality programming it's a casting issue. Once you've put together your cast, all you can do is turn the cameras on and go (with some editing room magic). This season the producers put together a very likeable cast of celebs, but what really draws the viewers in is great chemistry between partners. So much of what drew people into past seasons was the relationships between the couples like Drew and Cheryl, Apolo and Julianne, Louis and Lisa, Jerry Springer and Kym. I don't think it's been hard to predict who would win in most of the past seasons, but people tuned in to see what the couples would do each week. The producers haven't really been able to capture that lightning in a bottle this year. The most entertaining parts of the season this year were Adam Carolla's unicycle paso doble and Derek Hough's meltdown.

I suspect that Jason's support is pretty substantial. In my totally unscientific survey of women watching the show at my gym, Jason seems extremely popular with DWTS' core television and voting audience. Also, usually about halfway through the season, it's pretty obvious who is polling well based on who is receiving marks and comments far out of proportion with how they are performing. It was about this point that Kelly Monaco, Sara Evans, Helio Castroneves, etc. all started receiving greatly improved comments even though their improvement was relatively small. I don't think the producers like the idea of telling America that their favorite celebrity dancer really can't dance very well at all. TV audiences loved Ashley, though. I never totally got it, and I think she was mainly cast because she was one of Louis' students at the time. She'd been competing for a while, but I don't think she's been teaching in earnest much. But as I said, she was a likable personality, and she was very popular. Personally, I never got Alec Mazo, either. He always seemed like a very mediocre teacher, and to me, he came across very wooden on camera. TV audiences loved him, though. Someone good doesn't always come across well on TV, though. Brian Fortuna is a much better dancer, teacher and choreographer than either of them and (from what I understand) quite personable in person, but did not come across well at all on television. That's a very good way to put it. There are times when I get frustrated with the show because it seems like the judges prefer to reward someone who impersonates someone dancing well than someone who is actually dancing well. I don't think I've ever gotten over the gushing over Laila Ali, considering how little dancing she actually did. This is actually why I think the men have the advantage in the competition because it's easier for them to impersonate a good leader, since most of the audience don't have a fine enough eye to see who is actually leading vs. who is letting their pro backlead them through the routine and the judges don't point it out to the audience. I think in truth, though, it's not really possible to turn someone into a good dancer in the matter of a few months even with training eight hours a day. For example, for someone to realistically learn how to lead, how to guide someone else's body weight while managing one's own, it takes a lot of time to develop that sensivity. It takes a lot of dancing with many different partners to really understand how to work with a partner and have that be second nature. Realistically, impersonation is probably the best that they can do.

As dirac and others have noted, Acocella has some very thoughtful and interesting comments on DWTS and gender roles, but personally, I think she undercuts her very insightful thoughts with the condescending manner in which she writes and some blatant inaccuracies: 1. DWTS the stars is not a real ballroom/latin competition in any number of ways (for example, I still haven't figured out half the rules), but this is not one of them. DWTS is modeled after what is called a pro-am competition, and they are very common in the United States. It's a way that amateur students can compete without having to go through the trouble of finding an amateur partner. In a pro-am, a professional instructor will act as the partner of his or her amateur student through the competition. Only the amateur student is scored. 2. Not really. Some of them are. Louis van Amstel is a superstar and Charlotte Jorgenson is world-class as well. Next in status would be Karina Smirnoff followed by Maks Chmerkovsky and Anna Trebunskaya. Jonathan Roberts is one of the best around at pro-am. Cheryl Burke was up-and-coming but seems to have switched paths to the show and other business opportunities. But a number of the pros are really rather dime-a-dozen. Ashley Del Grosso was really nothing special, and I don't think Alec Mazo or Edyta Sliwinska were particularly well known. Kym Johnson is great for the show, but I don't think she had much of a competitive track record before DWTS: Australia. This is not to say I don't think they contribute anything to the show. I think they were all cast on the show for very good reasons, but I don't think it's correct to say all the professionals were stars in their field. The producers are clearly stretching some of the competitive titles to give some of them more cache. As to why they're doing the show, in the age old manner of what dancers do when they retire from performing, many of them are transitioning to full-time teaching and DWTS is unbeatable advertising on that front. For someone like Louis van Amstel so already who already has full-time professionals clamoring to pay top-dollar for his coaching services, I'm pretty sure he is doing it as a way to bring ballroom and latin dancing to a wider audience in the U.S. The topline is the first thing that most people see, but I don't think it's the main difference between an accomplished dancer and a beginner. With an unforgiving dance like Rhumba it was very obvious where people were in their development, and unfortunately, most of the celebs still can't walk across the floor without almost toppling over. Julianne was very smart when she stuck Apolo Anton Ono in a chair for most of their rhumba, because that was a major flaw in his technique that would have become very obvious if he'd actually been forced to perform. To me, the biggest giveaway is whether a student can move their center of gravity with certainty from one place to another as they move around the floor. That's why dances like Rhumba and Foxtrot with their super-slow tempos are often referred to as dancers' dances. They expose all flaws in technique. Once technique is solid, they are often showstopping, though. That's not to say that topline is not important because it very much is, but to say that it's the main difference... no, I would disagree. After movement of center of gravity, I would probably say connection with partner: can the student use his/her center of gravity in partnership? If that is not happening, the couple is not going to get very far no matter how good they are as individual dancers, and that is very obvious when watching dancers live. Two dancers without connection are never going to have the speed, dynamic, floor-coverage, etc. of dancers who have the technique to work together. Then I'd start looking at use of the upper-body. 4. I already said upthread why a deaf dancer is totally possible. A dancer with a prothetic leg is tough because I can't imagine how someone with a prosthetic leg can create foot pressure which is necessary, especially in the Ballroom (Waltz, V. Waltz, Foxtrot, etc.) dances, although Heather Mills did much better than a number of the celebs with two good legs. I don't think this is an inaccuracy per se, but as someone who has worked in reality TV, I'd probably characterize the heart of the show as "show about people learning to dance" and in a broader sense, people tackling something they never thought they could do. I think that is the arc that the producers are trying to create with each couple over the course of the season. I don't think it's about the toil and suffering per se. Not to get all heartwarming, but Adam Carolla had it right when he said that each person has a DWTS in their life, and I think that is why the show, for all its faults (and it has many), reaches such wide audiences in every country that it's broadcast in.

I think some of the article is very insightful, some of it is flatly inaccurate, and a lot of it is very condescending.

I'm not convinced of that at all. Like all soap fans, telenovela fans are quite passionate and it's a growing market in the U.S. I'm pretty sure he's coming in with some fanbase, it's just a question of how much and whether he can grow it. He also has Cheryl, who is a good popular in her own right and should be able to help him with some of his deficiencies. I don't think he's terrible, he's just not very good. I have him around the middle of the pack. Albert had the same problem all modeling celebs have, a total lack of fanbase. He also was a lousy dancer and Anna is a poor coach and choreographer.

I think every "ringer" on the show has made similar comments. I remember at the time both Sabrina, Joey Fatone and Mario Lopez all made a number of comments about how ballroom dancing was nothing like [iNSERT PREVIOUS DANCE TRAINING HERE]. Personally, I'm not sure if those comments fuel the "ringer" fire anymore, but I think it's human nature to get defensive. Interestingly, while I was watching Kristi doing her mambo on Monday night, I did note that a lot of the things in the earlier comments are actually very weak. The coordination of her knees is very off at times, she gets off rhythm, and she loses connection a number of times. Actually, every time Mark tries to lead a turn is a good demonstration of all three. She needs to learn to hold her core when the arm goes up for a turn. She's falling backward out of her turns. To be fair to her, I don't think mambo is a great dance for Mark. I don't think many of the pros are much more than superficially familiar with Mambo (Tony and Fabian being the exceptions) since it's not a Latin dance most of them would compete and most of them received the bulk of their training outside of the U.S. Actual mambo content is rather low during most of the "mambos," although it's never pointed out because I don't think any of the judges can recognize it either. During most of the Steve/Anna mambo, I couldn't even watch Steve because I was distracted by the ginormous steps Anna kept taking throughout the dance. Mambo is a very "under you" dance, and I kept wanting to tell Anna to tighten it up. Interestingly, Priscilla Presley is the only celeb I felt was really on her way to connecting her hips movement to the knees and feet. Although she's not the dancer Kristi is, her movement felt more "organic" and less contrived. Random notes on other people: I don't think Cristian has a posture problem per se. He can stand up straight, but he doesn't while he's dancing (vs. Drew Lachey who actually had a physical problem). I think he has a big problem with trying to look at his feet while he dances, and Cheryl needs to break him of that habit and get him to focus on lifting his center up. (That being said, I don't think he's going anywhere for a while. He should have enough fanbase to keep him until at least middle of the pack). Jason is releasing his hip with the change of weight when he needs to hold it until the leg straightens. At the moment, he has reverse Cuban motion going. Penn is afraid to walk into Kym. His feet are far apart but the steps are shallow which is the opposite of what you want (feet passing close by each other with deep steps). Shannon's foxtrot is excellent for the first half, but falls apart in the second which is common. Maintaining the relative position while moving in and out of the figures is much of what is difficult with Ballroom dances. But great start for a beginner.

I'm not sure what appealed to the millionaire or his family, and whether his family donated the money because they were afficionadoes or whether they did it because it was a socially lauded thing to do. My former colleague went because he was invited. I think it's probably a combination of both. I would guess the the illusion fabric helps the create the appearance of a longer line in some cases (the same reason many skaters have nude colored boots or pull their tights over their boots). I know many ballroom dancers use fringe, tentacles or feathers on their costuming to enhance the look of their movements, and I would guess it's the same reason many ice dancers seem to like the "ripped fabric" with their costumes (the swirling fabrics probably makes the fast turns look "snappier"). Bright colors probably show up better against the ice. The only skaters I can remember wearing white were Torvill and Dean and they were already well on their way to winning their third straight Worlds at the time ("Barnum" in 1983). Interestingly, watching "Dancing With the Stars" last week, I was thinking Kristi Yamaguchi's champagne-colored gown looked very nice on TV, but would be exactly the wrong thing to wear in a live competition. The very neutral, beige tone would not stand out and her movement would get lost in the background of the wooden floor. But with the magic of TV close-ups, the gown looked lovely and tasteful.

I am strangely reminded of a cocktail party I was at many years ago. I was mentioning to a colleague of mine that I was going to be attending a ballet the next evening, and he turned to me to ask a question. The family of a friend of his, he said, gave $5 million (!) dollars a year to ABT, and had taken him to a performance recently. As he put it, "... so you see the guy spin a few times and jump around the stage...after ten minutes you've seen them do their thing, why do you have to sit through 2 1/2 hours of it?" Well, my first reaction was "What a waste of $5 million dollar seats!" But he was totally serious (and by the way, my mother's reaction was the same when we went to go see the Kirov perform "Swan Lake" albeit not from such expensive seats). There are media that just do not speak to some people. For myself, I think as with every media, some of what is created is sublime and most is quite banal. Am I the only one who remembers ABT's "Pied Piper"?

Someone (maybe Jim Steinman?) is working on Spider-Man: the Musical. I haven't quite gotten over it.

I think it's deceptive to compare competitive Ballroom (in the global sense) and ballet. In ballet, you're mainly referring to dancers who are performing for an audience who are paying to see them dance. Their attention is a given. The ballroom dancers you are referring to are performing for judges, and more importantly they are competing for their attention, usually through 3-4 rounds of dancing where they are sharing the floor many other couples. It usually starts with multiple heats of 12-16 couples on the floor at a time. Perhaps if you are a returning champion, you can afford more subdued costuming and choreography, but most couples are desperate for any way of getting the judges' attention so they can have a shot to get to the next round. Believe me, for the most part the dancers know the costumes are questionable in an aesthetic sense, but that's not what they're designed for. If you watch ballroom dancers in exhibition, both choreography and costuming are usually much more interesting.

Most of the broadcast coverage of Worlds in the U.S. is being carried on ESPN. Heather Winfield usually has the most reliable TV schedule of figure skating around: http://heatherw.com/mk/sch.htm

Notes on the other ladies: Shannon is too tall for Derek. Derek is a respectable 5'10 or so, and Shannon looks like she's at least 5'8 which is 2-3 inches too tall for him. As noted above, Derek needs work with her on the coordination of her legs and using her feet. Right now, she looks like she's dancing on a pair of toothpicks. I found this routine strange in that Derek didn't choreograph much to a traditional chacha rhythm. I'm wondering if Shannon had a hard time with it. Speaking of, I'm not sure why the producers paired Marisa with Tony, when Shannon needs a tall(er) partner and Marisa would probably be better off with a shorter one. Anyway, although I am not a fan of Tony's choreography or teaching at all, I don't think Tony choreographed a routine devoid of content. The part he performed had a decent number of set ups for Marisa to do cha cha content. She just didn't perform them, and considering Tony's always been deficient in teaching his DWTS students how to follow, he couldn't lead her through them. I also have to say that while I thought she was fabulous in "Hairspray!", about 30 seconds into her B-roll, I was strongly tempted to fastforward through her entire segment. After watching Monica's B-roll, I was expecting total disaster of trainwreck proportions and honestly, it just wasn't that bad. There is a lot for them to work on, but there are some very nice points in it as well. Unlike most of the celebs, she does seem to have some awareness of her knees and feet. Jonathan can go overboard in the novelty themes of his DWTS routines sometimes, but he was very smart in giving her a prop to focus on because otherwise I think she may have stopped breathing altogether and passed out. Priscilla Presley was also very nervous. Even though she starts out in a good position, by the end of this routine it's pretty ragged (which is common for beginners). She has very little control of her upper body, and with her anxiety, her shoulders are almost up to her ears by the end of her routine (Monica has the same problem). Marlee does have a good sense of rhythm, actually a better sense than at least 2 or three other celebs and they can hear. She and Fabian are charming. Fabian is clearly working with her to develop her following skills as quickly as possible, but it looks like she has the weakest center out of all the ladies. Her hips release forward constantly in this routine which inhibits Fabian's ability to lead and her ability to follow. I see many stomach crunches in Marlee's future. One thing I forgot to mention, the other thing I think Kristi and Mark had difficulty with is the pivots toward the end of the foxtrot. She really doesn't bend her knees and charge enough into the pivots, and to be fair to both of them, pivots are an advanced level move that most respectable coaches would not attempt with a beginner (too much rotation and coordination between partners). Personally, I'm not sure if things like pivots and oversways (dips) are worth it on a show like DWTS since the lay viewing audience really can't recognize how difficult they are. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by all the choreography by the pros so far. There are usually a number of routines which I find poorly designed i.e. lacking content, badly balanced in terms of skills used, inappropriate for a beginner, etc. I think all of the routines in week one were designed (if not executed) to show both open and closed work, different positions and a variety of skills.

Actually, her comments do make sense to me. I think what Yamaguchi is trying to express is a few of the technical points in ballroom dancing. 1. In International Latin and American Rhythm, there is a very fine coordination that occurs in the straightening of the knees as weight is transferred from foot to foot. For example, in Mambo (her dance next week), weight is accepted onto bent knee which gradually straightens until the free hip swings through. This, in very simplified terms, is what produces Cuban Motion. This will not occur if you do not bend your knees (Shannon Elizabeth), dance only on bent knees (Mario), or try to swing your hips independently of your knees (almost everyone). In Ballroom, both International Standard and American Smooth, you virtually never fully straighten your knees. I don't think Yamaguchi literally never thought about whether her leg was straight, but I don't know that figure skating demanded the microscopic attention to that coordination that solid beginner training in those areas does. In Ballroom and Latin, whether the leg is bent or straight and when it occurs matters a lot. Many beginners take a lot of time to really develop a conscious awareness of what they are doing with their knees. 2. I don't think figure skating boots allow for a true point of the foot. I noticed this when I was watching Sasha Cohen dancing in ballet slippers on the Stars on Ice tour this year. Her feet were flopping around like dead fish. She couldn't point her feet at all. 3. Connection is a technical term in ballroom and latin (and all of its partner dancing cousins) referring to the connection of the partners' respective centers of gravity, something she would not have had to develop in her pairs skating. The one really obvious problem I'm noticing with her is that she is letting her right arm go behind her in closed position. Mark has her holding her head and neck in a pretty good position and she's maintaining it well (something Sabrina had a hard time with in the beginning), but in doing, she's letting her right arm drag behind rather than lifting it up and towards her partner to help maintain her frame. I'm sure it's something Mark is going to point out to her on the tape. That being said, she is benefitting hugely from her previous training, and many of the issues that I was wondering about that like the positioning of her feet seemed very minimal, probably from a combination of talent and hard work. I've seen ballroom dancers take up figure skating later in life (recreationally, not training for the Olympics) and they've done very well very well quickly, so there is definitely a significant overlap in skill sets.

Notes on Men: Cristian has some awfully big honking heel leads, which I'm suprised Len didn't mention since they're such a pet peeve of his. And the posture is not good. Cheryl has some work to do, although being kicked off early last year and getting some rest seems to have done her good. Her dancing has more energy than it has in a few seasons, although she could still brush up some of her technique. Julianne really has her work cut out for her with Adam. He's really not coordinated at all (surprising for an ex-boxer), and he seems pretty rhythm deaf. I think Julianne was trying to will him back onto the beat, but it seemed to result more in the impression of a Great Dane dragging along a chihuahua. I feel like either she or Adam offended someone on the show for getting "Mellow Yellow" as music, and I'm not sure why she thought it was a good idea to wear a mumu for the foxtrot. Jason is surprisingly unselfconscious about his height and I am very impressed by his coordination. He has long limbs but he can control them, which is unusual. I also like that he has very neat feet. They're not flopping all over the place. He's placing them well. For example, when he steps together, he actually puts his feet next to each other rather than in some random place that is kind of close together. Mario is exceptional for a beginner, and Karina knows she is very lucky. Out of all of the seasons DWTS has been on in the U.S., Mario has by far the most intuitive sense of lead I've seen from any male celeb, including Drew, Emmitt, Mario 1.0, etc. He gets that the lead comes from the center and not from the arm, and that bodes very, very well for them in the future. They're already getting much more dynamic from their dancing than they other couples so far, and that is because they're able to use both of their body weights to generate power. He needs to work to control his knees. He's not achieving true straightening of his knees which is a problem in creating full range of movement in his hip action (as well as not being very pretty). But he's well on his way. He's the guy to beat on the men's side. As an aside, I would not have expected him to be such a fan of the show (and that's how I interpret his overly enthusiastic fawning on Karina). The producers hit the jackpot. Kym is going to have a hard time just because Penn is so big. I don't think he's clumsy, but he has a lot of mass to move around the floor and control. Kym is one of the tallest female pros on the show, and Penn makes her look tiny. Guttenberg is better than I thought he would be, and seems to be this year's bid for Jerry Springerdom, although he has the potential to be Ian Ziering as well (that is, enthused to the point of discomfort). Unfortunately, Anna is not nearly as good a teacher or choreographer as either Kym or Cheryl although probably a better dancer herself than Kym and Cheryl put together. I don't remember a whole lot of this routine other than it seemed to be one of Anna's better efforts from a choreography standpoint. I remember thinking one of the male celebs needed to learn to commit their weight rather than being caught flat-footed in the middle of movement and that might have been Guttenberg. I had to be at something last night so I haven't had a chance to look at the women yet.

I used to see his daughter Hannah at events in NYC when I still lived there. My heart goes out to her and the rest of the family.

I think that is true of a great many songwriters, but less and less true the more the writer is a musical theatre writer, especially one post-Oklahoma!. Personally, I think most of Sondheim's song have a very hard time living outside the pieces for which they were written, the occasional hit like "Send in the Clowns" being very much the exception. As dirac astutely noted, pre-Oklahoma! many theatre songs were written in ways that enabled them to live on as pieces outside of their shows. They were written with as much an eye to becoming pop hits as pieces of a story. For example, does anyone really remember the context of "My Funny Valentine" (it's a love song to a character named Valentine, in Babes in Arms. It was very common for songs to be written for one show, dropped and then inserted into another show. The Gershwins' "The Man I Love" was in numerous shows before finally becoming a hit. But after the Rodgers & Hammerstein that became harder as songs became more and more tailored to specific characters and stories, and I think with Sondheim, the spiritual song of R&H, it becomes extremely difficult. The only song I can remember of Sondheim's being dropped and reinserted is "Johanna" from Sweeney Todd, and I've heard that some revivals still put the song back in its original context. Company's songs do better out of context than most but it's one of his earliest. It's hard to imagine much of Sunday in the Park with George other than in excerpts of the show. Regarding the orchestration question, it's not an area that I know a lot about. I think composers that do their own is very much the exception and not the rule, with first Bennett and now Tunick being the first choice of top-flight composers. Gershwin did do more of his own as he became more experienced.

I think virtually any film is theoretically eligible for the major awards. I'm not even sure that there's a requirement that the film be feature length or not. So, for example, films in a foreign language (e.g. "Il Postino") and animated films ("Beauty and the Beast") have been nominated for "Best Picture," and Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren have won for "Best Actress" in foreign language films. Conversely, the rules for "Best Foreign Language Film" are pretty labyrinthine, involving not only % of film in a foreign language, but things like funding and producers. In the past, the rather puzzling strictures of that category have knocked out films like "Il Postino" from that race. As a practical matter, the Academy Awards are first, last and always a marketing tool by the Hollywood studios and producers to promote their films, so it is unusual for someone completely outside of that to do well. Risk of the losing that priceless publicity was the main reason why there was such a major push to get the writer's strike settled before the awards. Cotillard benefitted from, among other things, speaking English fairly well, and campagining hard for the award when Julie Christie, the original front-runner, didn't seem to care one way or the other. I would not be surprised if Cotillard becomes the next Penelope Cruz (beautiful and respected foreign film actress picked up by Hollywood studios to become a mainstream star). Thank you for clarifying. What I mean is that Zhang Ziyi is the only Asian actress I can think of who is discussed as viable star for mainstream, big-budget studio films. And I do think that much of it is that she is considered stunningly beautiful by many Westerners, with a classic "China doll" look. Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh have made some inroads, but neither have them have nearly the profile that Zhang does. And Maggie Cheung does not seem to care to come to the West, although she speaks the best English out of any of them.

I don't think she would have had much of a shot in any case, if the film were still in Mandarin. I can't think of any Asian winning an Academy award for acting since the recently departed Miyoshi Umeki, and that was still for a mainstream English-language, Hollywood studio film. I don't think films from East Asia generally make it onto the Academy's radar as candidates for major awards. Non-English speaking Western Europe is barely there (Cotillard's win was the first for a foreign-language speaking actress since Sophia Loren), and the Middle East is somewhere behind East Asia. To tell you the truth, the only reason I think "Lust, Caution" got the attention it did is because Ang Lee has had success in English language, Hollywood films. The only Asian actress I can think of that's made it onto the mainstream radar in the U.S. is Zhang Ziyi, and that's mainly because she's so "Western pretty."

Ms. Matlin will be interesting. In the real ballroom/latin world, the deafness would not be the disability you might think it would. The dances are built around a rhythm not the music itself, so really you could set a metronome and the dancers would be able to perform. In true competitions, the dancers have no idea what music will be played, they only know the rhythm and approximate tempo. It's quite striking, actually to watch dancers rehearse, since there is often a dozen couples rehearsing in a single ballroom and obviously not all of them can play their music, so while a cha cha is playing on the sound system, couples will be rehearsing everything from V. Waltz to bolero and everything in-between. I think that is especially true for a follow (usually the woman). As long as the couple as connection (that is, from a technique perspective, she is able to feel his center of gravity and frame and "read" his weight changes), she will be able to pick up the rhythm he is dancing to without hearing the music at all. As an aside, this is what follows have to do when the man has no ability to dance to the music playing. Otherwise, she risks injury. As Liz says in "Strictly Ballroom," "Where the man goes, the lady must follow!" For a while, my long-time coach was coaching a deaf dancer, and I don't recall her dancing being that strikingly different from anyone else's at that level and certainly better than average. I don't know how quickly Ms. Matlin will be able to develop her connection and frame. Some people can pick up on it very quickly, others take a long time. It's not intuitive for everyone. But quite a few of the pros on DWTS are quite good at disguising it and other flaws which could be quite glaring otherwise. Jonathan Roberts in particular did a very good job with choreographing around Giselle Fernandez, who as far as I could tell had the frame of overcooked spaghetti and seemed totally rhythm deaf. Louis van Amstel all but picked up Lisa Rinna's feet and put them down again in the early weeks. I think deaf leads (usually men) have a harder time, and from what I understand, they have to pick up the beats from the floor or vibrations. There is an excellent deaf man out of Virginia, as I recall though. He's quite exceptional and can lead with a partner and still stay both on rhythm and hit the accents of the music on the fly. Really amazing.

I think I was most put off by the cut of the Beggar Woman from the opening scene. I felt like it unbalanced the piece as a whole, and missed laying the groundwork for a crucial part of the story. The revelation at the end didn't feel quite the same, although perhaps that was part of what Burton was getting at. If so, I didn't think it was very effective. I also really did not understand the point of the long extended scene with Anthony and the Judge in the middle of "Johanna." It seemed rather pointless and I think it's usually handled much more economically and effectively onstage. I also thought that Burton got a little over-the-top with the emphasis on how horrible 19th Century England was for so many people. I wanted to shake him and tell him, We get it! Oliver Twist with gore! I did think cutting "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," was absolutely the right call. I don't think there's any way that the stage opening could be effective on film. It's far too much of a stage technique. I didn't feel strongly about the cuts of "God, that's Good!," and I was okay with the trimming of "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" although I think in cutting, it would have been better if they kept more of the edge of madness from the end. (By the way, over the weekend I noted that someone has posted a clip of Celia Keenan-Bolger performing "Green Finch..." online from the Kennedy Center production. She's quite wonderful.) The other thing I did like was the casting of an actual child in the part of Toby. It's not something that's easily done on stage ("The Secret Garden" for example was constantly having to recast Colins because the boys' voices would change), but on film it was perfect. I do think it could have been even more perfect if they'd kept the introduction of the Beggar Woman to bookend the destruction of innocence, but I still thought it was good. I haven't decided how I feel about the cutting of "Kiss Me" or the changes to the end of the asylum scene. I suppose the powers that be felt that the American audience had to have someone to root for, and not everyone could go bonkers.

I finally saw this over the weekend (yes, two months after I said I would!), and found the whole experience very interesting. I know the theatre piece fairly well, but I went with my brother who has no familiarity with the material at all. When the lights came up, he turned to me and said, "That must have been so much better in the theatre!" I think there are some definite problems with the movie, but I really didn't think Depp or Carter's vocals were much of an issue. I wouldn't pay to hear them sing live, but they were not nearly so bad as to be distracting to me, at least. Carter clearly struggled with "Worst Pies in London," but otherwise I thought she was quite good, surprisingly good. A very dry Mrs. Lovett but I enjoyed her performance, both the humor and the twisted humanity she put into the character. I had a much harder time with Depp, who I never felt like totally had a grasp on the character. I think he's given much better performances before in other movies, and I felt very disappointed in this performance. I liked some of the edits to the story, but I think others were misguided and/or ruined the pacing of the storytelling. On the whole, I was not into Burton's interpretation at all. It seemed sadistic in it s use of gore, and failed to really put over the tragedy of it all. The music did prevail, though. Tunick's orchestrations are stunning, and sometimes it seemed best to sit back with the eyes closed and be transported.