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Danny Tidwell-- and the matter of dancer career choices


Helene

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Does anyone else think his smile is a secret weapon? Everytime he flashes it, I melt.

You're absolutely right. That's why I think that the early-weeks' comments from the judges that Danny was 'arrogant' are ludicrous. He appears totally UN-arrogant with that face & smile. He's a great dancer -- so does THAT alone make him 'arrogant' in some peoples' eyes? Ridiculous! :tiphat:

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I also think that smile is a secret weapon: dazzling, confident, yet sweet and somehow a bit bashful. You are not melting alone carbro!

I think his other secret weapon may turn out to be Jamie (sp?) who is also without a partner now.

The partners are all mixed up at the midpoint of the competition which is now. Danny is as likely to get any of the female dancers as Jamie.

I don't think Danny comes across as arrogant, but to me, he does come across as remote when dancing in other genres, at least on television. I don't feel like he's thrown himself fully into the persona of other genres yet. Jessica, the ballet dancer from last season, had similar difficulty and was constantly picked on for her "lack of personality." (On the flip side, the ballroom dancers tend to come across as plastic and "mugging" when their dancing is blown up in close-ups on television.)

Personally, I don't think Danny and Jamie would be a strong partnership at all for purposes of the show. Jamie tends to come across as vacuous and immature, and I don't think the combination would balance each other out. (A Danny-Lacey partnership could be intriguing, though...)

This is all through the distortion of television, though, and not a commentary on how any of the dancers actually come across live.

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>Danny dances the samba with Lacey...

And their Samba was HOT! Best couple of the night, I thought, and the best couple of the season.

Lacey gives Danny a flashy, earthy sexiness, while Danny gives Lacey elegance and mystery. Together, their energy is top-quality professional looking even though Danny doesn't yet have much of a Ballroom vocabulary and Lacey doesn't have Danny's amazing technical background. Doesn't matter, you get swept away in the wonderful fun of the choreography. I do hope the show will (they SHOULD!) replay this performance again tonight before any cuts. It's that good.

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Lacey gives Danny a flashy, earthy sexiness, while Danny gives Lacey elegance and mystery.
I loved them both -- but not as a couple, at least not here. I didn't feel they were doing the same dance (even though Lacey wittily named their teaming "Dancey" :thumbsup: ).

I also have to ditto Mia's assessment of the dancers overall. Danny does have the total package, and he has to get out of his own way to get to the top. In the solos, I was disheartened to see one after the other dance this protest song with so much anger. Not that anger is inappropriate to these times, not that protest isn't called for. Thematically, the song reminded me of Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin' "*, which itself is a much more positive meditation that this song. But it was Sabra's performance -- filled with hope and can-do attitude -- that excited this child of the '60s, that assured me that not all of her generation have so bleak an outlook. This gal is doing more than "Waiting on the World to Change;" she's out to make it happen.

Now I'm looking for a Sabra-Danny pairing, even if they won't be "Dancey."

:off topic: *What does it mean when that very artist plays that very song for a US President's Inaugural, as was the case in '92? No matter that it was a changing of the generations, talk about cognitive dissonance! :wacko:

Editing to add: Nigel, from a video interview on the show's website: "We're not going to let Danny go." Click "The judges share their thoughts" on the menu on the right.

Which reminds me: Kudos to Cat Deeley for her dignified emceeing of the proceedings -- not an easy job. She provides the needed counterbalance to Mary's incurable chirpiness.

Edited by carbro
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:off topic: *What does it mean when that very artist plays that very song for a US President's Inaugural, as was the case in '92? No matter that it was a changing of the generations, talk about cognitive dissonance! :thumbsup:

And a shaky performance of that great song it was too.

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>Now I'm looking for a Sabra-Danny pairing....

In the "contemporary" style, YES!!! For me, it probably would not be a good pairing for a sexy latin dance, or any of the more classical Ballroom styles such as Waltz, Quickstep or Foxtrot. If the show is smart, they'll put "contemporary" in the hat with these two somehow..... Both excel in the "contemporary" style. I haven't been watching the show until very recently... Has Sabra danced any Ballroom yet?

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ditto carbro!!!

...and let's hope that genuine enthusiasm helps his popularity appeal with the now all powerful audience

I stand corrected on the Jaimie assessment. Let's hope the Sabra wishers get their request soon like the Lacey-Danny wishers did this past week.

I'll be watching...

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Congratulations to Danny on making it all the way to 2nd place on SYTUCD and, of course, to Sabra for taking first place. I could never understand what would make him abandon the world of classical ballet with such a bright future ahead of him there, but this article may go a long way towards explaining his decision to leave ABT:

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?...6&ran=95143

I hope he eventually finds his way back to ballet (for my own selfish reasons) but more than anything, I hope his new found fame and the support of this young audience helps him realize his potential and find his way in dance.

I can’t wait to see him dance live again (after the sytucd tour!) and my new hope/dream//fantasy is that after the tour he will join Wheeldon’s new company. Just a dream, I know - but stranger things have happened!

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I'd really love to see him back at ABT, but if he joins Wheeldon's group, I'll happily settle for that (as if I have any say). The article's last line is reason for hope, but a gut feeling tells me that Danny is through with ballet. In whatever genre, I wish him a long and fertile career.

He has shown himself to be more than an exceptional dancer, he is a gracious competitor, a class act through and through.

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...I like what Robert Weiss, former NYCB dancer and now artistic director of Carolina Ballet is quoted as saying in an article in today's Links:
"I don't understand So, You Think You Can Dance? either. It's really popular, but it's really sleazy … Beauty translates into a certain kind of goodness, a certain kind of morality.

There was so much in this article. Thanks kfw! I especially value these sentences:

*

"'Art's job is not to entertain,' said Attila Bongar of Hungary, a principal Carolina Ballet dancer and guest choreographer. 'It is to speak the unspoken.'"

*

"...if we lose our capacity for beauty, we lose our humanity."

*

"'All you have to do is pick up the newspaper or listen to the news at night; it's pretty grim out there,' Weiss said. 'Ballet is an oasis in the desert of human hopes.'"

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I just posted this in the Dancing with The Stars forum but thought it might be good to post it here as well. There have been a couple of posts about Tiler Peck's upcoming guest spot on DWTS. This just in:

NYCBallet just posted a link on twitter to a short article about Tiler Peck's appearance on DWTS. It says that she and Danny Tidwell will be on as part of the entertainment tomorrow night. They will dance with an ensemble of 12 dancers to a contemporary "number" by Travis wall. Here's the link:

http://www.bakersfield.com/entertainment/l...-with-the-Stars

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I hope Tiler Peck got paid well to make that very brief "appearance."

Interesting to me that a former friend of mine used to shove the DC Kirov Academy down everyone's throats (her daughter never dance professionally in the end), and while I certainly am not familiar with everyone who has attended that school, the high profile former student's certainly have made interesting career choices. :beg:

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And Vienna, Stuttgart, Birmingham Royal, Dutch National, Zurich, Dresden, Houston, Kansas City, Aspen, Colorado and OBT, off the top of my head, from the past five years that I've been teaching there. Tidwell was a student at KAB awhile back. There's a career guidance class now, and an active placement program.

Back to the main topic - I don't want to hijack the thread, but amend the record -- and thank you, Hans. :beg:

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You're welcome :beg: I don't agree with certain Career Choices either (and often point this out to current students). I think there was a certain atmosphere in the school when Tidwell and a few other medal winners one might think of were there that has changed -- but that was before my time (not meaning to imply that I changed it!)

I didn't see the show -- what did people think?

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I am perturbed by the outlash of Danny's career choices. He and I were classmates together at the KAB and graduated together. He DID dance with ABT and I think Complexions at one point as well. It is bothersome to me to say what a good career choice is as long as he is happy and doing what HE wants to do. And to speak about the KAB when you have not even been there to find out first hand is uncalled for. I am surprised this thread has not been closed earlier. Let Danny do what Danny wants to do.

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