miliosr

I'm very happy that the Academy nominated Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There. The best performance I saw in 2007!

He was excellent in I'm Not There (the Bob Dylan biopic from last fall) as the "mid-70s Dylan" and there's already been good word about his performance as The Joker in the upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight. He was heading toward a great career . . .

innopac -- you might consider Coryne Hall's biography of the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, Little Mother of Russia.

It's a "good read" and it gets at the time/place/events you allude to in your original post without being "academic". Marie Feodorovna married into the Russian Imperial family and she saw it all -- the assassination of her father-in-law (Alexander II) in 1881, the reactionary rule of her husband (Alexander III) from 1881-1894 and the disastrous revolutions of 1905 and 1917 under rule of her son Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra. For a work of popular biography, the book does a good job of imparting what life at the top was like and gives some flavor of how the contradictions in Russian society at that time -- economic modernization vs. political autocracy, Western vs. Eastern culture -- so stymied the Romanovs.

I hope Ernestine Stodelle's efforts to preserve the works of Doris Humphrey weren't in vain. Unfortunately, performances of Humphrey's works are very few and far between these days. The Limon Company performs one or two Humphrey pieces during its New York seasons (which aren't always annual) but rarely takes the Humphrey repertory on the road. Is the Humphrey repertory becoming a "dead" repertory due to lack of performances?

I'm thinking of the Miles Davis record On the Corner (1972). This was the record where Davis really put the screws on in terms of blending a lot of stylistic elements that, at first glance, look like they don't belong together -- jazz playing, Stockhausen, Jimi Hendrix, Sly & the Family Stone, etc. Critics of the time villified Davis for this record; accusing him of "selling out". But he (and the record) proved to be a major precedent setter because the principles he set down continue to influence hip hop/dance/mash-up music to this day.

(Davis actually had a great rejoinder to a critic who told him he couldn't follow what Davis was doing with his early-70s jazz/rock/funk phase. Davis said, "What am I supposed to do? Wait around until you catch up??")

Stockhausen had an enormous influence on 70s-era Miles Davis who, lo these many years later, influences all sorts of people (whether they know it or not.)

If It Had Happened Otherwise. I'm a big fan of "alternate worlds" stories [Note: Loved the Marvel Comics title What If? as a kid and my favorite storyline on the 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows is the "parallel time" adventure] and this book deals with just that. Originally published in the 1930s, it contains various alternate takes on real historical events (i.e. If the Moors in Spain Had Won, If Booth Had Missed Lincoln, etc.) Fun to read on a cold winter's night.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers always leaves me with a bittersweet feeling. As much as I love the movie, it's a little depressing to watch and know that people like Howard Keel, Jane Powell and Tommy Rall (and Michael Kidd) would find fewer and fewer opportunities to work in musical films (as the studio system began to crumble around this time.)

I returned yesterday from my yearly Deadhead-like pilgrimage to see the Limon Dance Company. This year I picked their December 6-8 residency at the Zellerbach Theatre on the University of Pennsylvania campus. The Penn stand was the company's last series of performances prior to the year of anniversaries in 2008 -- the centenary of Jose Limon's birth, Carla Maxwell's 30th year as artistic director and senior dancer Roxane D'Orleans Juste's 25th year with the company.

While I greatly admire the way Carla Maxwell has allowed the company to branch out from its core Limon and Doris Humphrey repertory by programming compatible works by other choreographers, I was happy to see the spotlight turned squarely on Limon on the eve of his centenary. The repertory for all four performances consisted of Suite from a Choreographic Offering, The Traitor and The Moor's Pavane.

Suite from A Choreographic Offering (1964)

This suite of dances from the original, much-longer A Choreographic Offering is Limon's tribute to his mentor (and original company artistic director), Doris Humphrey. Set to Bach's A Musical Offering, this dances contains "variations, paraphrases and motifs" from 14 dances Humphrey made for either the Humphrey-Weidman company or its successor company, the Jose Limon Dance Company. Limon created this work after he experienced an artistic dead stretch between 1959-1963 and the work heralded a major upswing in his creative fortunes until he died in 1972.

The work itself consists of an opening dance for thirteen, continues with a series of solos, duets and quintets and concludes with a final dance for thirteen. The dance is completely abstract and tells no story other than, perhaps, the story of the Limon technique as Humphrey conceived it, Limon developed it and the followers conserved and extended it further.

I last saw this work in 2005 and thought it was quite the most lovely thing I had ever seen. Seeing it again, I was struck once again by its formal beauty and the almost classical feel of the piece. As for the dancers who brought it so vividly to life, I was especially taken by Ryoko Kudo and her formidable strength in the second solo and Kathryn Alter and Daniel Fetecua-Soto and their high spirits and quicksilver speed in the duet.

I could go on and on about this work but I'll leave the final word to a young man of college age who I overheard say the following about this work during the first intermission on the first night: "If I joined a company, it would be this one, because the movement is just so beautiful."

Agreed, young man, agreed.

The Traitor (1954)

The second piece on each program was this revival of a work that (I believe) has not been seen in almost three decades.

In all honesty, I approached this work with some hesitancy. It appears on the Three Modern Dance Classics DVD and I have never found it particularly engaging or even intelligible. Seeing it onstage for the first time, however, made me realize how badly the televised version of this dance contained on Three Modern Dance Classics fails to convey Limon's true spatial and theatrical intentions. In performance, the dramatic events of the piece become immediately intelligible and, freed from the obstacle of close-ups and cuts, Limon's harmonious spatial design is restored.

The Traitor is Limon's retelling of the Biblical relationship between Jesus and Judas. Francisco Ruvalcaba, now the senior-most male dancer in the company, was striking as the Judas figure and revealed himself to be a powerful dramatic dancer in the mode of Limon himself. Jonathan Fredrickson, in his second season with the company, essayed the Jesus part and he was reasonably effective in it. The biggest limitation for him at this point is his youth. With time, he will grow into the part and the drama of his dancing will grow in amplitude.

What struck me the most about this dance, though, was how much it reminded me of El Greco's late-period paintings. Limon very famously admired El Greco and, to me, the influence was readily apparent in this work. Watching The Traitor is like watching an El Greco canvas spring to life before your eyes. The contorted bodies, the ecstatic expressions, the color combinations of the costumes, even the set which evokes Old Jerusalem -- they all point toward the power and majesty that was El Greco during his final phase.

El Greco is my favorite painter so I was very pleased to see a dance work that appeared to pay homage to him. That being said, I will be the first one to admit that, if you don't like El Greco (and not everyone does), then you won't like The Traitor. The very Expressive style of both is either a turn-on or a turn-off and I doubt very much that there will be much middle ground to be had.

The Moor's Pavane (1949)

My previous encounter with this work occurred in January of 2006. At that time, I was of mixed minds about the production. While I thought the work itself was as sturdy as it had ever been, I couldn't help thinking that the company lacked the right dancers to bring the work to life fully. My encounter with the dance left me wondering whether modern/postmodern/contemporary dance was still capable of producing the larger-than-life personalities which this work demands.

The company presented two casts over the course of four performances and I must say I was much happier with both of these casts than I was with the one I saw in 2006. Francisco Ruvalcaba and Raphael Boumaila split duties as The Moor (Othello). Of the two, I preferred Ruvalcaba if for no other reason than he was a better physical match to Iago (Roel Seeber, in all four performances) than Boumaila was. Seeber is very tall and I felt he overdominated the smaller Boumaila in that cast. Ruvalcaba and Seeber are much more evenly-matched in height so their interactions with one another seemed more like a contest of equals.

Seeber was new to the part and, at first, I wondered how he would fare as The Moor's Friend given his natural jolly stage personality. But he rose to the occasion as he was very sinister throughout the piece. Ryoko Kudo, new to the role of Emilia when I saw the work last (and much-improved), matched Seeber all-the-way and their bizarre relationship was spellbinding to behold.

One thing that really caught my attention this time was the opening tableaux of the four dancers in the pavane. The dimmed lighting created an ethereal effect where the four dancers in burgundy (The Moor), white (The Moor's Wife), mustard (The Moor's Friend) and orange (The Friend's Wife) resemble nothing so much as figures from an Eastern Orthodox icon and glow like figures in one. It is a powerful moment and, at one of the performances, the college student behind me gasped.

So, there you have your 2007 status report on the Limon Dance Company. I had a splendid time but then I freely admit I'm biased in their favor so feel free take this review as a serious review or as a fan letter. See you in 2008 with another review!

P.S. To the distinguished-looking older gentleman I was speaking with during the first intermission on Saturday night: If you read this, thanks for commiserating with me about the squatter in my seat. I thought she would never leave!

Week Ten - Ratings

Performances - # 2 (24.2 million viewers)

Results - # 1 (24.9 million viewers)

Miliosr Report - Week Ten - The Finale

Well, the Curse of Kelly Monaco is alive and well. Here is your final finishing order:

01 Helio/Julianne

02 Mel/Maks

03 Marie/Jonathan

I was hoping for a Mel/Maks win but, given that I was on the ABM (Anybody But Marie) train, I'm content with a Helio/Julianne win.

Helio is now the fourth celebrity male to win this competition since Kelly Monaco won the disco ball in Season One. If one of the celebrity females couldn't storm to victory this season (given the relative strength of the women in comparison to the men), then I'm not sure a celebrity female will ever win again.

Performance Night

Each couple performed two dances -- a judges' choice and a freestyle.

I was surprised at how flat all of the judges' choices dances were -- there wasn't a single one that came close to the best dances of the prior week. Alas, the worst was yet to come.

I was so looking forward to Mel and Maks' freestyle and, instead, was shocked and disappointed by it. I thought it was odd, disjointed and unmusical. What happened in the space of week? The easy, obvious person to blame would be Maks, whose responsibility it was to choreograph the freestyle. But I wonder if rehearsal time was also a factor given that Mel starts the Spice Girls reunion tour next week. Maybe a combination of both? Regardless of where the blame lies, they picked the absolute wrong time to have a bad night.

Mel and Maks' freestyle was nothing in comparison to Marie and Jonathan's, however. In case you missed it, Marie was costumed as a grown-up doll. On paper, the idea was OK since Marie sells a line of dolls on QVC and the dance (especially the classical ballet) has a whole history of dances based on dolls and puppets and mechanical creatures coming to life. Unfortunately, two things sunk this dance to the bottom of the ocean. First, Bruno hit the nail on the head when he compared Marie and her doll costume/make-up to the Bette Davis character Baby Jane Hudson from Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? I kept waiting for Marie to say, "Ya ain't goin' nowhere, Blanche!"

The second, and bigger, flaw to this freestyle is that Marie never danced. All she did was make herky-jerky movements! At the end of the day, the competition is about dancing -- not imitating a doll -- and the absence of dancing in this freestyle just killed it.

I wasn't wild about Helio and Julianne's freestyle (it was sloppy in parts) BUT they came out on fire and performed it to the hilt. On a slow night, where the five previous dances had been mediocre at best and disastrous at worst, Helio and Julianne gave the audience the dance of the night and the last thing the audience would remember prior to voting.

I will go to my grave believing that Mel and Maks lost the competition on Monday night as much as Helio and Julianne won it. (I think Mel and Maks were at a mild disadvantage already going into the final round given that Helio (with his suave Brazilian looks) and Julianne (with her All-American wholesomeness) made for the kind of romantic pairing which is more likely to appeal to viewers of this show than the adult eroticism Mel and Maks had together.)

Results Night

Let me take this opportunity to single out host Tom Bergeron for his stellar performance as host. Even when the dancing is nothing special, his numerous, wonderful quips are always entertaining. Grade: A+

I am neutral about musical guest Celine Dion but the lyrics from the Titanic theme song drive me up and over the wall:

"Near/far/wherever you are"

It's not exactly Johnny Mercer, is it?

Mercifully, Marie went first. What followed was the two remaining teams performing a "couples pick" for the judges. I thought Mel and Maks were great on the night but, unfortunately, they were 24 hours too late. The judges tied both couples so it all came down to the audience vote which, as I have already noted, allowed Helio and Julianne to capture the title.

Final Thoughts

I'm starting to believe those fans of the show who say that Dancing With the Stars seasons are a lot like the movies in the Star Trek movie franchise -- the even ones are good to great and the odd ones are mediocre to bad. I would put Season Five in the mediocre category -- better than Season Three but nowhere near as good as Season Four (let alone the still incredible Season Two.) Here's hoping Season Six is a return to form!

Bye!

I saw an interview with Cameron Matheson on the TV Guide channel and he said that, "Maks doesn't lack for self-confidence!"

I think that self-confidence cuts both ways with Maks and his celebrity partners (Tia, Willa, Laila and Mel). It can be thrilling to see him so dominate the stage but sometimes it can create an odd imbalance between him and his celebrity partner. That being said, his partnership with Mel was my favorite of the four he has been a part of it (probably because Mel's outgoing personality meant she wasn't left in Maks dust.)

The Miliosr Report on the finale coming soon . . .

Ratings - Week Nine

Performances - # 1 (22.8 million viewers)

Results - # 3 (21.0 million viewers)

kfw -- I would be interested to read your reaction.

I didn't come away with the feeling that Bob Dylan was somehow missing from the film. If anything, I thought the film would be incomprehensible if the viewer didn't have a fairly encyclopedic knowledge of key incidents and figures in Dylan's life. (This is especially true during the Cate Blanchett segments.)

Went to the movies twice this weekend to see two films (actually one film and one movie) that couldn't possibly be more diametrically opposed -- I'm Not There and Enchanted.

I'm Not There is a meditation on the life of Bob Dylan that is almost impossible to explain in words. Here's about as close as I can get: If Luis Bunuel had made a film about the life of Bob Dylan for the Lifetime network, then it would be like this. Six different actors play Bob Dylan during seven periods of his life (Christian Bale plays him twice) but none of them actually plays a character called Bob Dylan in the movie. Got that?

As a film (and the creators of this work definitely consider it a FILM), I found it difficult to absorb -- the non-linear non-narrative was very off-putting. At a certain point, I turned my brain off and enjoyed the two glories of the piece -- the cinematography and the performance of Cate Blanchett as mid-60s era Bob Dylan. Seldom in recent years have I seen a film as ravishingly photographed as this one. Even when you don't have a clue what is going on (which, I concede, may be the intention), your eyes are delighted at every turn. Blanchett, meanwhile, is absolutely astounding -- she is scarily believable.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I went to see Enchanted and found it delightful. This movie posits the question: What would happen if the lead female character from an animated Disney fairy tale found herself in present day real-life New York?

The joy of the piece is that the lead character -- Giselle (!) -- doesn't change as a result of her foray into New York -- the people around her do. Amy Adams is super in the lead. Given the potential to irritate the audience by speaking throughout in "Disney fairy tale speak", she instead comes across as winning and uncloying. James Marsden plays the prince who follows her from the animated world to the live-action world and he reveals himself to be a talented comedian and singer. And Patrick Dempsey is just too handsome and romantic as the down-on-love lawyer Adams meets in New York. It all ends the way you think it will but who cares? Only an unsentimental wretch would care!

Miliosr Report - Week Nine

Too Many '30s'

The teams performed a ballroom dance and a Latin dance. The judges gave out no less than five '30s', which led to tremendous bunching on the scoreboard prior to the audience vote:

01 Mel/Maks 25.0%

01 Helio/Julianne 25.0%

03 Jennie/Derek 24.2%

04 Marie/Jonathan 23.3%

My favorite dance of the night was Mel and Maks' Viennese waltz. I have had some heavy things to say about Maks in the past, primarily in regard to his inability to yield the spotlight to his celebrity partner. But Monday night was the first night where I felt he allowed Mel to claim the spotlight and the performance was all the better for it.

And those traveling splits Mel executed were just about beyond belief.

The Bottom Two

The two teams left standing under the Red Lights of Doom on Tuesday night were Jennie/Derek and Helio/Julianne with Jennie/Derek leaving.

While I thought Derek made real progress with Jennie over the course of the season, I wasn't surprised when Tom Bergeron called their names. In recent weeks, Jennie made a number of unfortunate remarks during her interview segments implying she would be perfectly happy if she went home. Those remarks were hardly the kind of thing that would fire up a fan base to get out there and vote and sure enough they didn't. With Mel, Helio and Marie campaigning full-tilt (on and off the stage) for the victory, Jennie's ambivalence was a surefire way to exit the competition.

The Final Three

I honestly have no idea what to predict for next week. I am curious to see if Jennie's supporters will continue to vote now that she's gone. My guess is that Jennie's fans will get behind Mel or Helio in so far as Jennie's core supporters may feel that Marie should have gone instead of Jennie. Still, you never know until the votes are counted.

See you next week!

Ratings - Week Eight

Performances - # 1 (21.8 million viewers)

Results - # 4 (17.6 million viewers)

I, too, would like to see Mel pull out the win this year, especially after seeing those four traveling splits she did during the Viennese waltz on Monday night. But, as sidwich noted, I don't know how strong her core support is. I think she will need to capture the lion's share of Jenny's core support if she hopes to outlast Helio and Marie.

This has been an odd season in many respects but, again, I agree with sidwich that the absence of a clearcut lock for the win at this stage of the competition should make the finale more interesting than usual.

Miliosr Report - Week Eight

If I computed the judges' scores correctly, here's how the teams fared in terms of percentages:

01 Helio/Julianne 21.7%

02 Mel/Maks 21.3%

03 Cameron/Edyta 19.4%

04 Jennie/Derek 19.0%

05 Marie/Jonathan 18.6%

The Bottom Two

Again this week, host Tom Bergeron made a point of stating that one of the two couples in the Bottom Two wasn't necessarily in the Bottom Two. Such as it was, the Bottom Two consisted of Cameron/Edyta and Jennie/Derk with Cameron and Edyta going home.

By all rights, it was Marie's time to leave but, given the death of her father the previous week, I doubted the audience would vote her off and sure enough they didn't. That being the case, Cameron and Edyta were reasonable bootees. He was decent enough over the course of the competition but he had reached the limit of what progress he was going to make. So, it was time for him to go. Poor Edyta, though. Even with someone as spectacularly fit as Cameron, she still couldn't get over the 5th place finishing spot she always finds herself in.

The Final Four

I feel like this season has sputtered to the Final Four rather than raced toward it. With the exception of Mel, none of the competitors has really caught my fancy. My dream finale would be Mel vs. Jennie but I suspect I'm going to get Helio vs. Marie.

Ratings - Week Seven

Performances - # 3 (20.5 million viewers)

Results - # 9 (17.1 million viewers)

Miliosr Report - Week Seven

I had to miss the performance night due to home repair issues so I'll get right to the results.

The Bootees

The last two teams left under the red light of doom were Jane/Tony and Jennie/Derek BUT Tom Bergeron made a very pointed statement that one of these two couples wan't necessarily in the Bottom Two. In the event, Jane and Tony were the next couple to leave the competition.

Having not seen their performances on Monday night, I can't comment on how well they did or did not perform. Based on recent performances, however, my hunch is that this was the right time for them to go. Jane cut an elegant figure on the dancefloor but, unfortunately, I think that proved to be her undoing. There was a certain elegant sameness to all of her performances and, ultimately, that may have caused the audience to lose interest in her. In addition, she has a mildly prickly demeanor that probably didn't do her any favors either.

Five celebrities left -- Mel, Helio, Jennie, Cameron and Marie.

Ratings - Week Six

Performances - # 1 (21.4 million viewers)

Results - # 5 (18.9 million viewers)

I would disagree -- politely -- with the notion that the modern dance is somehow more cliched than the classical ballet. Having sat through ABT's productions of Le Corsaire and Romeo and Juliet in recent years, I will argue to the death that the classical ballet can be every bit as inane as other dance forms -- and then some!

I want to get back to the notion of the audience vs. the artists in modern dance. I understand where people are coming from when they say that modern dance artists should not cater to lowest common denominator tastes in the hope of finding an audience. But I also think many current modern dance (and ballet) choreographers present work that is almost willfully obtuse. It's as if the notion of presenting work clearly and directly to an audience somehow makes them "less serious". So, you get the multi-page manifestos that have nothing to do with the people noodling around on stage, grim-looking costumes, dim lighting, somber expressions, etc.

The original modern dance practitioners -- Duncan, the Denishawn troupe, Graham, Humphrey-Weidman, Limon -- had very serious artistic objectives but they also were keen on finding an audience. Looking back, I think the big split from that way of thinking happened in the early-60s -- most clearly in Yvonne Rainer's famous (or infamous) "no" manifesto decrying all of the theatrical values found in the classical ballet AND the modern dance of Graham and Limon at that time. It seems to me that large portions of the modern dance world took Rainer's rallying cry too seriously to heart and, over the course of the last 40 years, have produced a body of work that is "serious" but, deprived of the kind of theatrical values that the average dancegoer looks to for cues, is ever and ever more unappealing to a general audience.

Sorry if this isn't making any sense -- I'm having a hard time putting this into words.

I wonder if the move away from narrative dance in modern dance in the early 1960s has resulted in a dead end for modern/postmodern/contemporary dance. I understand why the Judsonites rebelled against the historical/literary dance of Graham and Limon but sometimes I question whether a non-narrative dance shorn of "plot" is something that the casual dancegoer (as compared to the hardcore viewers on this board) can relate to. (Obviously, mine is a minority position since it goes against the whole critical grain of the last 40 years which posits that abstraction in dance is the way forward.)

Miliosr Report - Week Six

Let's get down to business this week with the most shocking elimination ever!

The Bottom Two

Sabrina/Mark and Cameron/Edyta were in the Bottom Two this week with Sabrina and Mark leaving.

There was much shock on the night that Sabrina was out but I must confess that I wasn't as surprised as the audience, the hosts, the judges or the other competitors. Up until this week, Sabrina and Mark have always been at the top in terms of the judges scores so we've never had a good test of how they were registering with the audience. This week, they tied for fourth with a so-so foxtrot. Sure enough, they were gone the next night.

I don't think it was time for Sabrina to leave the competition as I think she was a better dancer than several of the other remaining competitors. BUT (you knew that was coming) she had a number of things working against her that destroyed her the second the judges' scores drooped:

1) I'm convinced there was a portion of the audience who resented the fact that Sabrina earns her living as a professional dancer. Granted, she's a hip hop dancer but, in the minds of some, it appeared that she had an unfair competitive advantage.

2) While Sabrina was one of the strongest celebrity amateurs technically (if not the strongest), I found her dancing hard and graceless. I've said it before (and I'm sorry to sound like a broken record on this score) -- the key to victory in this competition is to make the audience fall in love with you and your professional partner. Kelly/Alec, Drew/Cheryl, Emmitt/Cheryl and Apolo/Julianne all did this and they stormed to victory in the end. Sadly, Sabrina and Mark never displayed that magic (or were able to convincingly fake it) and that contributed to their ouster.

I was more surprised that Cameron and Edyta were in the Bottom Two. I'm not quite sure what happened with these two as Cameron is showing mild improvement and they have good enough chemistry together.

Going Forward

This has been an unpredictable season in many respects, not least because of all the drama (death, fire, fainting, food poisoning, etc.) I honestly don't have a clue who is likely to go home next which, after the last two predictable seasons, is refreshing.

Here are the six remaining couples at the halfway point:

Mel/Maks

Helio/Julianne

Jennie/Derek

Cameron/Edyta

Marie/Jonathan

Jane/Tony

See you next week!