Tabitha&Napoleon Big Boi at the Ballet!
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Fashion, Dance, Music & PoP culture as a liFestyle
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i - V I S I O N i - A N A LY Z E i - N E T W O R K
An online mini series filmed and hosted by So You Think You Can Dance alumn, Ivan Koumaev. Watch as he takes us behind the scenes of this summer’s season. Special guests such as former contestants Travis Wall, Lacey Schwimmer, and Nick Lazzarini, or judges and choreographers like Mia MIchaels and Mandy Moore update Ivan on their lives, the show, and their opinions about Season 4 of SYTYCD.
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Mick Jaegger - Exclusive Painting by Ocean Clark for movmnt - Find out more about Ocean on his website at at oceanclark.com
letter from the editor
life as a . g n a r e m o o b Throw it out there,
just don't let it hit you in the face. As I entered the iMAX theater in uptown Manhattan, privileged enough to attend the premiere of Martin Scorsese's passion project, “Shine a Light,� a documentary/concert featuring The Rolling Stones, I had no idea the impact the film would have on my perception of every day relationships and even general public interaction. Self image, where it comes from and what outside factors affect it, suddenly became a topic for much introspection. I wouldn't classify myself as a fan of The Stones at all; I am familiar with only a few of their songs - I can't seem to 'get no satisfaction' from them. Needless to say, my first thought about experiencing an entire concert of theirs in a movie theater left me craving a bed to catch up on those extra hours of sleep I never seem to get.
As I continue to grow within, and constantly learn about life and its uncertainties, I realize how much my mind can trick me with pre-established ideas about everything. We live according to examples and references instead of merely living in the moment. Watching Jagger and Richards bounce around like teenagers defied the idea that I know they are in their sixties. The way they dedicate themselves to the stage, their guitars, their talent, for this rare and unique feeling of personal 'satisfaction' left me inspired in a way I didn't anticipate when I walked into the theater. This issue is dedicated to those who succeed and evolve for themselves while being able to give genuinely. Whether it is to a friend, a loved one or an entire audience, the gift of giving will reward each and every one of those with a true heart, and with talent. You never know how the boomerang will get back to you, or who it is going to pass along the way. What matters is how you sent it.
David Benaym
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Cut to inside the theater with me, eyes wide open, jaw on the floor, looking like Wile E. Coyote's brother. I can still envision myself watching the giant screen. But wait -- how is that possible? I obviously never saw myself watching it in third person, yet somehow this is how I remember the scene. We always imagine the moments we lived to be totally different than what we actually experienced. For instance as I was watching, I immediately thought about the 'Letter From the Editor' you are currently reading. In a way, this awareness altered my experience of the movie itself.
content
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YOU REMEMBER THIS PICTURE? Alison Jackson opens up to movmnt magazine and tells all about this picture page 24
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content
42 40
22
62
ALISAN PORTER OPENS UP
ABT'S INSIDERS LOOK
fashion
dance
42 14
BIG BOI AT THE BALLET
music
YAEL NAIM IS LALALA...
pop culture
TABITHA AND NAPOLEON Duo - 12 Portrait of hip hop choreographers Tabitha and Napoleon
Quotes with character - 62 Exclusive preview at ABT's new Book of photographies
Finding a true soul - 14 Meeting Yael Naim, the voice behind the Macbook Air melody
playlist: Video saved the radio star - 70 10 Songs that became smash hits because of their music videos
Pan out - 18 A bird's eye view of Feist Music Video Director, Patrick Daughters
semi precious weapons - All dressed up - 72 Why Justin Tranter looks better in your party dress
A “big” chance: hip-hop and ballet collide - 22 Outkast's Big Boi talks about collaborating with Atlanta Ballet
Your song - 74 Column/interview by Mario Spinetti
Voyeur! - 24 Celebrities shot by Alison Jackson with a different angle
Music Reviews - 75 Duffy, MGMT, Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend, The B-52s, Goldfrapp, The Helio Sequence
VIP: Ricky Marcelino Palomino - 31 CONFEssion of a bad boy - 78 by Rasta Thomas
Jesse baylin leaves her mark - 32 Profile Believing is seeing - 34 A 2-D life in a 3-D world A Choreographer's Roar - 38 Lion King's Dancers create their own company the truth about alisan - 40 Column by Alisan Porter
An all-encompassing artist - 79 Profile on Laurieann Gibson
IntheHeights
Wake-up call - 56 The Olympics are no game The Pulse of Cyberspace- 59 The digital evolution of dance 8 - movmnt magazine - 7 - SUMMER 2008
Heightened Expectations - 42
A fashion story photograsphed by River Clark. On the set, movmnt meets with the performers a few weeks before the show recieve the TONY for Best Musical. Text and Interviews by Jayzel Samonte. Photography by River Clark.
Letter From The Editor: Life as a boomrang - 4 Contributors - 10 Next Issue - 80 Subscribe - 81 Affecting movmnt - 82 Directory - 82 Credit for the Cover page 50 Photography by River Clark Design and Artistic Direction by David Benaym, assisted by Anjuli Bhattacharyya, Photo shoot executive production by Gina Pero.
contributors
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From the tormenting angst of audition waiting rooms to the ambitious lure of a touring company, Jayzel is slightly bewildered and immensely marveled by his accidental adventure in journalism. His incongruence in this medium may be salvaged by his adoration for theater, arts, and writing. Recently transplanted from the idle sun of Los Angeles, Jayzel anticipates his kinetic welcome to NYC and is thrilled to join the movmnt team.
Anjuli is an optimist at all costs, believing that a little bit of love can go a long way. She is a Renaissance woman of sorts, with a love for all things arty. As a dancer, writer, painter, and graphic designer, and not even she knows what else, Anjuli is always geting her hands sticky with new projects that keep her worka-holic demons at bay. She has been dancing for twenty years, and has the utmost appreciation for what movmnt brings to her world, and is honored to be able to give back. In this issue, Anjuli interviews music artist, Yael Naim, about her life as a New Soul.
johnny
cheuk
anjuli
bhattacharyya
Samonte
jazel
Johnny Cheuk is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Hong Kong. He started his career in 2001 after attaining the Diploma in Digital media from the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education. He likes using different materials to create artworks. He usually blends computer graphics with watercolor, pen and ink to explore creative possibilities. His works have been published in various magazines, book, websites and exhibitions.
fashion, dance, Music & Pop Culture as a Lifestyle
clark
river
movmnt.com Co-Founders David Benaym & Danny Tidwell _______________________________ Editor in Chief & Publisher David Benaym Content Editor Anjuli Bhattacharyya
Consulting Editor Gina Pero
Artistic Advisor: Danny Tidwell Copy Editor: Matthew Murphy Associate Music Editor: Bruce Scott Associate Dance Editor: Taylor Gordon Columnists Mario Spinetti, Alisan Porter, Mia Michaels, Rasta Thomas Contributing Writers Jayzel Samonte, Blake Davis, Laura di Orio, Kyle J. Malenfant, W. Westley, Rob Brock Contributing Photographers River Clark, Laura Crosta, Nancy Ellison, Alison Jackson, Cory Jones, Gary Land, Charlie McCullers, Rosalie O'Connor, Steve Vaccariello Videoblogger: Ivan Koumaev (movmnt.com/ivan) Contributing Stylist: Paloma Perez Contributing Graphic Designers / Illustrators Ilan Benaym, Ocean Clark, Johnny Cheuk, Pierre-Alexandre Poirier
riverclark.com
Sincere thank you for their devotion and passion for movmnt to Jordan Bradfield and Natalie Greer, who deserve a much better tittle than “intern” Advertising advertise@movmnt.com - Tel: +1 646 486 1128 movmnt.com/movmntmediakit.pdf Board of Friends Debbie Allen, MichaelAnthony, Alexander Dubé, Denise Roberts-Hurlin, Denise Wall, Vivian Nixon Special thanks for their help and support April Cook, Arlette Emch, Jacob Flynn, Nick Lotuaco, Ricky Marcelino Palomino, Ryan Saab, Amy Sato, Gil Stroming, Lacey Schwimmer, Rickey Yaneza from rickey.org, Ted at bsytycd.com, Travis Wall, The Pulse, Break The Floor, Monsters of Hip Hop, 19 Production
magazine is an e-maprod*Inc. Publication 139 Fulton Street - Suite 709 - New York, NY 10038 - USA Tel: +1 646 486 1128 - Fax: +1 646 290 9196 movmnt@movmnt.com Magazine Site: movmnt.com - Social Network: movmnt.net myspace.com/movmnt - youtube.com/movmnt
To subscribe please call Toll Free: 1 866 713 4946 Circulation customers: Call Curtis Circulation Company: +1 201 634 7400 All rights reserved. movmnt is a trade mark of e-maprod Inc. Reproduction in part or in full is prohibited without permission of the publisher. movmnt welcomes new contributors but cannot be responsible for unsolicited materials. movmnt assumes no responsibility for content of advertisements. The views expressed in movmnt by contributors or editors are not necessarily those of the publisher. “On the Seventh Day, He rested from all his labor, and made it holy.”
Issue VII - Summer 2008
Printed in the USA on Recycled Paper
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River Clark is a fashion photographer and aspiring filmmaker. His work has been shown in 42 states and 14 countries to date. For River, photography is a challenge of rhythm and energy; it is knowing how to evoke the desired feeling or sensation and when to capture it at its climax. A photograph is a single moment frozen for eternity that has the power to be an explosion of energy, joy, sadness, lust, laughter, desire, hatred, love, agony or ecstasy. Each of these powerful experiences can be stilled into one single frame and brilliantly immortalized for all to see. Great moments pass us by every day and his job is not only to create, but also capture and save those moments for the world.
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portrait
& duo
tabitha napoleon
t's not going to be easy!” yells Tabitha D’Umo passionately on national television to over 200 hopefuls auditioning in Las Vegas. The crowd struggles through a sharp, athletic combination while she observes with Napoleon D’Umo, her husband and artistic teammate. “This is 'So You Think You Can Dance!'” she reminds them, the popular show where the couple participates as choreographers and judges in season four.
But these newlyweds are not part of the deep talent pool that the choreographers usually soak in. Though their list of past coworkers includes the likes of Beyonce, Missy Elliot, and Justin Timberlake, they are still open to the styles of everyday people. “Generally we like to watch a person move freely on their own, and from that we see what kind of personality comes out,” explained Napoleon during the series premiere in June. “Then we cater to that.”
“We like to watch a person move freely on their own, and from that we see what kind of personality comes out.”
tabithad’umo
Between muddling over competitors next to Nigel Lythgoe on Fox once a week, and creating movement for MTV's Randy Jackson Presents: America’s Best Dance Crew, the duo also appears on their own in the new TLC show, “Rock the Reception.” Here, engaged couples match with notable choreographers to plan that infamous “first dance” for their wedding, making the memorable moment on the dance floor a powerful one for both the lovebirds and their guests.
“That’s our job,” added Tabitha. “Make them look the best with what they can do.” If working with three television shows isn’t enough to satisfy their spark for movement, they also are heavily involved in teaching and choreographing for Monsters of Hip Hop, a 6-year old dance convention that tours 12 cities and hosts a performance in Los Angeles that keeps on getting bigger and bigger every time around. Of the noteworthy faculty “both are often the most requested teachers,” according to Andy Funk, the heart and mind behind the most pro-active dance convention in the Hip Hop world. “They are two of the most down to earth, honest, and creative people in the
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business,” he says. “They have worked incredibly hard and have developed a spotless reputation that will help them maintain a very long and prosperous career in a difficult industry.” Tabitha and Napoleon have been a working couple for the past ten years, and “the chemistry between them, combined with an almost dorky sense of humor, has the class laughing and wanting more,” notes Andy Funk about his faculty duet. Aside from choreographing for these workshops, NBA and NFL teams, commercials, award shows, and casino entertainment, Tab and Nap as a lot of dancers call them recently launched Nappytabs, a convenient name to remember for this new street wear they designed. They don't miss an angle of their own marketing effort, offering t-shirts, hoodies, accessories, and more gears through their website but also via regional retailers, and conventions like Monsters of Hip Hop or The Pulse. “We’ve started a trend for dancers around the world,” the pair writes on their MySpace, where they have over 1,800 friends admiring the styles. Through their busy schedules, Tabitha and Napoleon together are a striking force in dance, gaining visibility in the commercial world and helping to bring the industry to a wider audience through popular culture. What’s next? Taylor Gordon nappytabs.com
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“i
babel with a true heart i n t e r v i e w
w i t h
y a e l
n a i m
In a world bombarded with trials and tribulation, finding sane and good-hearted souls is truly a blessing. To find that those people also make the music you’ve come to use as an antidote for your hectic day is priceless.
Photo by Julie Harnais
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Photo Report and Interview by Anjuli Bhattacharyya
interview
Yael Naim. You may recognize her name, or you may just recognize the infamous “la-la-la-la” refrain from her song “New Soul,” recently featured on a MacBook Air commercial. Either way, she’s made an impact. It was rumored that Steve Jobs, the CEO of Mac Computers, personally picked out the song. “It’s not a true story,” Yael admits. “What happened is that one guy from the Apple team heard “New Soul” on the radio in L.A. He was so excited that he called the radio station to figure out what it was and he played it for his team. Then they proposed to add “New Soul” to their ad, and [Steve Jobs] said yes.” It’s no doubt that with the
success the MacBook commercial has brought her she will become the sensation in the US that she already is in France. Yael attributes the recent success to her producer, drummer, and good friend, David Donatien. In fact, Yael refuses to interview without him present because he played such an integral part in the making of her album. Yael first met David when she returned to her birthplace of Paris after living in Israel for 18 years and serving two mandatory years in the Israeli army. On a serendipitous occasion, they were both asked by a mutual friend to play at a show. Yael was playing piano, and David was playing percussion when a little improv session during rehearsal led to a moment of clarity between the two. At their next meeting, Yael
had David listen to five songs she had recorded and arranged herself. “I discovered her words and how well she could play. I was really impressed by this, it was really incredible,” David says. “We decided to meet again a few weeks after. Then she had me listen to 200 songs of hers.” Not only is she multi-lingual, but can also play piano, guitar, and sing like an angel. On top of being a talented musician, she is also an excellent performer. She was first discovered in the French hit musical, Les Dix Commandements (The Ten Commandments) as Moses’ sister. Her prolific talent had David exclaiming, “Who is she? She is really crazy!” He decided to help her start a new project. They worked together for two years, recording
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i
discovered such a person when I watched French-Israeli artist, Yael Naim, perform on stage at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. The house was packed with an eager audience waiting in anticipation to sing along to their new favorite Mac tune. Yael’s idiosyncratic voice (which mixes the soulfulness of Norah Jones, the tenacity of Fiona Apple, and the power of Tori Amos) floated through the ballroom. The innocence of her stage persona radiated a feelgood vibe into the crowd, causing even the most hardened of New Yorkers (including the mullet guarding the stage door) to turn to their neighbor, throw their arms around them, and sing hopeful lyrics into one another’s faces (a scene you might only imagine seeing at Disneyland in “It’s a Small World”). Her performance had everyone leaving the ballroom wanting more-- more good music, more good feelings, and more time in her presence.
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in her small apartment in Paris. Yael says that recording in the place she lives gives an intimacy to the recording process. “For me it’s important, any time I have an idea, to just get there and do something. Even if it is just one hour. I get very frustrated if I cannot do anything, because it’s not next to me.”
you know, what covers it, and just find the composition.” She was able to overcome the stigma of Britney Spears by stripping the song down to a soulful melody, infusing the over-produced pop version with a sense of taste. “It’s a good song,” she defends, “and an interesting exercise for us to arrange it like this.”
Yael’s self-titled album, which features songs in French, Hebrew, and English, received “Album of the Year” at the French Grammys in January 2001. She is also recognized as the first Israeli to have a Top-10 Billboard hit in the US with “New Soul.” The majority of the songs are in Hebrew, which David encouraged because Yael had strictly denied herself to release any songs in Hebrew before their collaboration. Her debut album In a Man’s Womb, released in 2001, flopped in the US, despite the fact that most of the songs were in English, but managed to get some play time in France. Yael says she never felt quite right about it. The Hebrew songs in her new album reveal a more genuine side, which is the reason why, even with the language barrier, it has fared well in the US.
Musically, she and David want to continue to be curious and do new things. “We’ll just naturally choose the songs that touch us the most, and see what is the best for the emotion of the song. This is what we look for, it’s the emotion. So it can mean everything,” Yael reveals of her future endeavors. Atop the list of future endeavors is collaborating with up-and-coming artists like Kevin Michael, who Yael recently sang with on French television program, Taratata. “It’s really only now that we’re beginning to collaborate a little. Kevin was the first, I think,” David explains, lamenting that they would love to do more collaborating if they could find more time. Which won’t be soon, because on top of a tour in Europe, where they will play at the Brussels BotnaiqueRotonde (an equivalent of Madison Square Garden), they “will have a lot of promotion to do because the album is [being] released in eighteen countries,” David says.
Through her songs she travels from optimistic, to melancholy, and back again. Planted among them is a cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” “In the beginning, it was just a joke,” Yael confesses of her inspiration behind the choice. “I wanted to take something that is from a different musical universe...and see what would happen if did it my way... take all the external packaging away,
Yael’s innocent originality can be seen in her video for “New Soul”. In the video, she occupies a small apartment decorated with pictures of her band members and walls painted like a forest. A serene feeling overwhelms her, but
Getting personal with Yael
curiosity quickly takes hold, and she realizes that she can knock the walls down. The barriers fall and she is floating in the middle of a lake surrounded by the very same forest that was painted on the apartment walls. “It was a mix, like everything we do between us,” Yael says of her and David’s idea behind the video. “We were in the apartment, where we recorded [the] whole album, and David said, ‘oh, I think I see some water and nature around. I feel that we have to be in nature.’”
«I'm a new soul I came to this strange world Hoping I could learn a bit 'bout how to give and take» Yael Naim, 'new soul'
Photo by Julie Harnais
Anjuli Bhattacharyya: I have a strange question; in what language do you dream? David: In French! Yael: Well in it depends on the people, if it’s French people, then it’s in French. If they’re Israeli, then it’s Israeli. And if I dream of you, I will dream in English. AB: I heard that you’re brother was a DJ: Have you ever started any musical ventures with him? Yael: Oh, I would love to. It’s in the process. He’s 20 years old. He’s building himself; he’s really talented. His name is Ayael, and I’m sure he will make beautiful music.
Yael welcomes the world with open arms and a rejuvenated grace, extending her musical family to the likes of you and me. With the love that she spreads through her music, the discovery of good-hearted people will emerge from every ear blessed with the sounds of her soul. AB yaelweb.com Special Thanks to: TJ Tauriello at Atlantic Records Brian Orloff - US Tour Manager for Yael Naim Yael Naim and David Donatien for being such genuine souls.
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“It really represented the fact that we were closed for two and a half years, but, in fact, we were not closed because this work made us really open after it. Once it was released, I felt really connected when the walls fell, like the world is here,” Yael says. “And also, in the clip, you can see our friends, people who played on the album; people that are close to us. Something that is really important to us is to have a musical family, and a team that is really close to our hearts.”
n a P . . . Whether
you know it or not, you’ve probably seen Patrick Daughters’ work. After years of making a name for himself in the music video world, he hit it big when his collaboration with indie-rocker Feist (on the video for “1,2,3,4”) was picked up for use in an iPod Nano commercial. The video, which didn’t contain a single cut, may have gotten his name out there, but Daughters is no one trick pony. By Matthew Murphy
The Scene: Int. A cramped New York City apartment - Night
t
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he camera circles and we see a geeky young magazine writer with glasses sitting on the couch. As he turns on his television we move into yet another iPod commercial with trendy music. There’s counting, like we’re sitting in a kindergarten class. A woman in a blue sequin jump suit is accompanied by a crowd of people that whirl around her like clothes in a washing machine. The Apple logo comes up on the television screen in an attempt to get us out the door to the nearest retailer. We rotate back, picking up the curious boy as he lifts himself off the couch. Drop down to reveal the carpet squishing beneath his toes before his feet hit the hardwood floor that his desk rests on. Floating up his body we follow his index finger as it touches the pad to wake a computer from slumber. A quick search brings up three key terms: “1,2,3,4,” Feist, and Director: Patrick Daughters. The arrow
follows the lead of the man’s name and within a few clicks we’ve reached a bio of the video’s director. Dark hair and a face much younger than the Spielberg’s or Scorcese’s pops onto the screen. The boy sings to himself, “Tell me that you love me more,” as we come off the screen and pick up his eyes. He speaks softly, “Why do you do it in one take, Mr. Daughters?” Click. Click. Click. Reflected on his glasses is a list from the screen, and we rotate to see it, reading like a Who’s Who of popular indie artists: Death Cab for Cutie, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, and, of course, Feist. Zoom in on his fingers as they punch keys. The camera lifts up to reveal a video on the screen: “Maps,” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Daughters tracks across a cafeteria-- another long shot. People linger and he follows as they walk toward an empty stage. A singer comes out of the wings and begins playing his guitar as the camera closes in on his face. Another rotation, and we see the writer puzzling over his subject. His brow furrows as we hear the clatter of computer keys.
“Music videos aren’t what they used to be,” he pauses. “No.” The camera snaps around as the cursor moves backward, deleting the last few words. The clattering keys begin again and words emerge on the screen. We read along with them: Why does Daughters do it? The fluidity, the lift, the way it makes me feel... Music videos have evolved over the years, using seizure-inducing editing techniques in an effort to keep teenagers engaged. That is, if you ever see one anymore. MTV has sequestered their rotation to a small, two-hour slot in the mornings, filling the other 22-hours with mind-numbing reality TV. In this type of climate, it makes it all the more impressive that Patrick Daughters has been able to break through. The boy whispers to himself: “What about his background?” A browser window comes up on the screen and he searches more. Reads. Thinks. Writes: The thirty-three year old Berkley, CA native recently left his old
t u O
portrait
Like Coppola, Daughters appears to be drawn to projects that are the equivalent of indie rockers dressed in clothes from the Gap: all the credibility of something off the beaten path delivered in mainstream packaging. We now circle our writer at an ever-increasing speed as he speaks and types at the same time. It’s not just that his music videos appeal to a commercial market.
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representation (from his days as an award winning short film director) for the “The Director’s Bureau.” The emblem for the group is a black and white eagle with wings spread open that seems more suited for the Oval Office than up-and-coming directors. But the “Bureau” isn’t a government agency, it’s an elite collection of talent that brings him one step closer to the top-tier of Hollywood. Only eleven directors are represented through the “Bureau” and Daughters is one of them, listed right beneath indie film royalty Sofia Coppola.
He recently went as commercial as you can get: directing 30-60 second advertisements for companies as mainstream as Clark’s Footwear. But what makes Daughters unique is how he is slowly redefining the meaning of “mainstream.” A majority of the artists he has worked with (including The Shins, and Beck) started indie, but signed with major record labels within the past few years. It seems less than coincidental that Daughters’ music video debut (the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps”) put the previously underground band in heavy rotation on VH1. And Feist, already well known on the indie circuit before Daughters, found herself the recipient of four Grammy award nominations shortly after their collaboration began. In short, he is delivering indie to the masses.
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The writer stands. He grabs a tape recorder off the desk and begins pacing back at forth at a hurried speed. The sentences flow out of his mouth and float through the room: But it was Feist who was the first artist to do as much for Daughters as he did for her. “1,2,3,4,” put his name in the spotlight, even becoming such a pop culture staple that it was lampooned on MadTV. He didn’t build his resume using a single style, but the one shot technique he employed in several videos is the best representation of a theme that is apparent in all of his work- a joy that makes for a universal appeal, which Apple latched onto. Instead of accentuating the music by cutting in relation to the drive of the beat, he uses his camera as a tool to move the viewer around the space. Fluidity is the
key; it engages and empowers the viewer, and creates a neareuphoric experience of the songs he works with. The camerawork is as polished as Fred Astaire’s shoes, and many videos contain choreography and saturated colors that hark back to the golden age of movie musicals...with a modern day twist. His progression up the ladder of the directing world has been almost as steady and seamless as the camerawork in “1,2,3,4.” Even though specifics are under wraps, Daughters will soon make his feature length debut as a writer and director on a project produced by the team behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The camera follows the tape recorder as the boy drops it on the couch. He collapses beside it a moment later. We sit in silence as he surveys the room. He picks up the remote control and turns on the TV as a commercial for a Zune media player fills the screen. Fluid camerawork, trendy music, and joy; he gets up and goes the computer once more. A quick search brings up the words “Zune,” “Music,” and “Patrick Daughters.” The boy smiles as we fade to black.
MM
thedirectorsbureau.com
experiment
a Big Chance Hip-Hop and Ballet Collide
By Taylor Gordon | Photo by Charlie McCullers Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky…OutKast. Yes, Big Boi Antwan Patton, one half of the six-time Grammy award winning hip-hop group, has joined the ranks of musicians whose beats turn tutus. Last April, Atlanta Ballet shattered tradition when Artistic Director John McFall collided two worlds in creating the new ballet, “big.” “The collaboration is all about expression, and what we’re doing is translating my music into the form of ballet,” explains Big Boi. “It’s fun. It’s freaky. It’s definitely something people will be blown away by.” Despite his lack of ballet knowledge, Big Boi was game for the project when McFall approached him to be a part of his new project. “You wouldn’t think someone of that star status would be that open to other ideas about how to interpret the music,” says McFall, but it’s the meshing of the two styles that created an infectious heat.
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“The open mindedness that comes with it is really cool,” says dancer Courtney Necessary. “Especially on Big Boi’s part, to take a big risk on such a different form of art.” With hip-hop finding an epicenter in Atlanta, Georgia, McFall says that the
style has long been a voice for the area. Yet the rest of the season includes classics like “Romeo & Juliet” and “Cinderella.” Why stray so far from fantasy? “I look at hip-hop as being an American fairytale because it tells all kinds of stories that are relevant in our time and in our community,” McFall notes. Maybe the music, but not the movement typically associated. “It’s absolutely not hip-hop choreography; that’s the last thing in the world I would have considered doing.” A fresh track from Big Boi’s solo album, to be released this summer, premiered as the ballet’s finale, choreographed by Lauri Stallings. Audiences for both ballet and the band united for the six performances
at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. “Whether they come for the ballet or for the music,” says Necessary, “I think they will appreciate both equally after seeing them work together.” TG atlantaballet.com myspace.com/bigboi
“When we were in the sound studio listening to the musicians rehearsing it just really takes right off the ground.
It’s something that’s so exhilarating you can feel the energy, the sense of being connected. They’d rehearse a few evenings a week and some nights the dancers would go. I brought my little girls, and that was a pretty significant experience.” John McFall Artistic Director, Atlanta Ballet
F ive Q u es t i o ns T o B ig B o i
What was the process of selecting the songs? Lauri Stallings and I picked out the music together. She is a very creative girl and is very serious about her craft, and we talked things over. Everything just clicked. It’s all art, baby. What were the differences between preparing for the ballet as opposed to a concert? [For the ballet,] I’m on stage with 40 people, not including my band, which has 10 members. And it’s a wild show, man…feeling the dancers behind you and feeling the rhythm and really
being aware. It’s fun though. The movement is so in sync. What has been the best part? I closed the show with a brand new song from my solo album, “Sir Luscious Left Foot - The Son of Chico Dusty,” that’s coming out in July. I couldn’t wait to see it on stage. To see the work that went into translating this new song that’s never been performed on a stage before was very moving. Would you do this kind of collaboration again? Hell yea! They’re already talking about maybe taking it around the U.S. and possibly Europe, so that everyone can get the experience.
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What attracted you to the project? I wanted to see how the motion and the movement went with my music, and they nabbed it perfectly.
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exclusive!
Voyeur! INTERVIEW BY BLAKE DAVIS
«It's a world exclusive! You're the first one to see it!»
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An Insider's Look And Interview With Provocative Photographer Alison Jackson
«It's a world exclusive! You're the first one to see it!»
n
ormally I would just delete an email with a title like this, only this time it was from photographer Alison Jackson. Attached in the mail was a photograph of Britney Spears, but not the kind that we are used to seeing: her in a Taco Bell line at three in the morning, in some state of vehicular emergency, or walking down the steps of a courthouse looking distressed. In this picture, she was dead, lying in a casket with her arms folded, and all around her were photographers fighting each other for a picture. At first, it seemed funny, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a possibly believable outcome of this whole media circus surrounding one troubled girl’s out of control spiral and the public’s morbid fascination with all of it. If photographers were allowed at her funeral, they would surely be there, kicking each other’s asses to get the best shot. It seemed a fitting and bitterly funny conclusion to the conversation I had with the
photographer recently about the public's fascination with photos that pry into other people’s lives. Alison Jackson has spent most of her career exploring this issue in her work. She first came to prominence as a photographer and artist with a now infamous photo series called Mental Images, featuring spot-on look-alikes of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed holding their supposed mixed race lovechild. The pictures were so convincing that they caught people off guard, and ever since, she has been causing double takes around the world. Some of her work has included behind closed door photos of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe in each others arms, photos Madonna at home ironing clothes and doing housework, and Michael Jackson smearing lipstick on the face of his little boy. She even published a set featuring the “lost year” of George Bush from 1972
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to 1973, depicting him partying shirtless with Saigon bar girls and passed out next to a bottle of Jack Daniels. She recently took look-alikes of David and Victoria Beckham to Tokyo to go shopping, and was mobbed by hordes of people brandishing cameras. Even after she told them that they were impersonators, the crowds didn’t care, which gets at the heart of her work. Her photographs are not merely clever jokes. They are provocative extensions of rumors and suspicions that already exist in the public consciousness. Her pictures make the leap for you. They also frequently indict the very people looking at them, the public that hungers for this kind of invasion of privacy. When we look at a photograph of a Princess Diana lookalike giving the camera the finger, she isn’t just saying fuck you to the person taking the picture, but also to the people who are looking at it - fuck you for making my private life a valuable commodity. When we look at Britney Spears lifeless in the ground, she is predicting a future not just for an unfortunate celebrity, but for us as a culture. Her work might seem to be trumped by paparazzi everyday, but her photos ask the questions that theirs don’t.
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movmnt Magazine: Where does it all end? Alison Jackson: That’s the question, isn’t it? It’s a slow spiral downward. I think it’s just going to get worse.
I have an interesting story about that actually. When I was in school I did this piece for my senior thesis: I made a sculpture – it was of a cross. I then carefully lit and took a photograph of the cross. And for the piece, I put the sculpture and the picture of the cross right next to each other. When people came through the gallery, they all went straight up to the photograph. They were captivated by it. They wouldn’t even look at the sculpture. The real thing was sitting right next to them and they would have nothing to do with it. When you take a photograph of something, it becomes an object. It stops being three-dimensional, it loses its texture, its sense of presence, its context. It stops being real, and I think it’s easier for people to deal with something that’s not real than something that is. The other night at a concert I saw people watching the entire show through cameras on their cell phones and video screens on their digital cameras. They were missing the experience of the concert. That’s interesting. Making a movie of the concert had a higher value in their minds than actually being at and watching the concert.
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It’s very apocalyptic: death by camera.
It’s tragic, right? Well that’s the danger, isn’t it? When you photograph your own experiences and photograph yourself, you turn yourself into an object as well. You can look at your own life outside of yourself. The image is more seductive than the real thing. That’s sad. I know people who meet other people on the internet based on photographs of a body part. It’s the objectification of the real person. Nobody should be reduced to a body part. You miss a real conversation and real interaction, and the excitement of all that. But more importantly, photographs lie. They 100% lie. The way a photograph is taken or cropped, you lose all context. I think about that classic photo of the naked little girl in Vietnam in the napalm attack. That picture has become iconic. There are photos of her a year later and she is healthy and happy and just fine. There are much larger stories that pictures don’t tell. It’s funny because articles get smaller and smaller in magazines and newspapers and pictures just keep getting bigger.
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The nature of photographs and films are to look good. They pull you in, but they only tell a partial truth, never the whole truth. What the problem is with a culture that values pictures and technology the way ours does, is that these partial truths suddenly become the truth. It becomes a culture based on half-truths. Most of our information is [gathered] from images and on screens, and most people don’t realize that this information is typically 2nd or even 3rd hand, and most of these images are positioned by Editors, or Producers in the case of video. These things are rarely real. What I’ve been finding alarming lately is that people are smart enough to know this and they simply don’t care. They don’t care if it’s a lie. If it doesn’t directly affect them and if it’s entertaining, then who cares? We are so far removed from the foundations of what’s real. Princess Diana was lying in the back of wrecked car literally bleeding to death, and she was surrounded by photographers taking pictures. No one was calling for help or trying to get her out of the car. Were these images more important than a human life? The implications of this are extraordinary. What happens when we don’t care about the real thing anymore? Why isn’t anyone outraged?
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alisonjackson.com
Pihoto by Cory Jones | C Event Pics
VIP
Ricky Marcelino Palomino
Independent Artist, 26 years old Phoenix, AZ
“Gravity and time
are just a state of mind� myspace.com/rickymarcelino
coming next
Jessie Baylin
leaves her mark Text by Bruce Scott Photos by Laura Crosta
Soulful, introspective, and wise beyond her years (she’s only twenty-four), Nashville-based artist Jessie Baylin is much more than just Scarlet Johansson’s best bud and Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill’s fiancé. Set to release her major label debut Firesight this summer and with it a nationwide tour, Baylin is fast on track to becoming the next big thing in the music industry. Already a star in her own right, Baylin has amassed an intense grassroots following on the strength of both her debut album, You, as well as high-profile touring slots with musical heavyweights John Mayer and former Cranberry Delores O’Riordan. But success wasn’t exactly buzzing around the corner of her hometown, Gillette, New Jersey. Like many an artist, Baylin had to pull herself from the comforts of home and set out on a journey that sent her California bound. Headed for the ever-bustling city of Los Angeles straight out of high school, Baylin says she simply felt “like there was something bigger for me out west. I packed up a U-Haul with all my clothes and books and drove across the country with my parents. I wasn’t [as] intimidated by Los Angeles as I thought I’d be. I was more inspired than anything else which was reassuring.”
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It was in LA that Baylin’s publisher, Kathleen Carey, put her in contact with Grammy-winning songwriter and Norah Jones collaborator Jesse Harris. What began innocently enough as a “songwriting date” soon blossomed into a prolific songwriting relationship, soon evolving into Baylin’s debut album, You, as well as her major-label debut, Firesight. “It happened quickly and organically. [Harris] walked in to my old apartment, and I had just come up with this lyric and melody and I started singing it... twenty minutes later we had a song (“The Glitter”). He then recorded a guitar part he thought I could write some lyrics to. I recorded his part onto my tape recorder—and I’d never worked like that before, with just a track—but again, that song happened naturally, and turned into “See How I Run.” But perhaps Baylin is most at home on stage, where she often performs barefoot. Having toured extensively with artists such as Newton Faulkner, Teitur, and James Morrison, she has also been a part of the Hotel Café Tour (“Hotel Cafe is where I’ll always go back to. It’s more than just a music venue, it’s a community and a little world in itself”), and will also be performing at the much anticipated Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee. And as if that’s not enough, Baylin was lucky enough to tour with alt-rock legend Delores O’Riordan from The Cranberries. “Dolores was lovely to be around and had a lot of wisdom to give me… the girl has sold millions of records, was broken by the business, and had willingly stepped back into the beast with four kids in tow. She didn’t seem afraid and I liked that. She had her kids on the bus with her, and I thought that was the sweetest thing and very inspiring.” One listen to Firesight and it’s clear that Baylin is the real deal. Her voice, smoky and deeply evocative, is capable of communicating more than just the lyrics allow. No surprise then that Baylin’s idols are of the highest order: Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Billie Holiday, and Barbra Streisand. “When I listen to them sing, [I] can hear them put their guts into the song and the performance. It melts your heart because they’re so believable. My goal is to keep digging deep and going to that unpredictable place as a songwriter and as a performer. I want to be surprised by myself, so that I’m along for the ride as well.”
BS
jessiebaylin.com
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society
is Remember
when People Magazine actually had articles? And reported on world events? Remember when people sat down and actually read their newspapers? Sure, people still read news, but they are more likely to get it scanning headlines on AOL as they sign into their email each morning, or laughing at the latest photoshopped picture of Zac Efron on Perez Hilton, than by reading an article in The New Yorker.
By Blake Davis - Design by Johnny Cheuk
There was an article in The New York Times recently about film critics being laid off at daily and weekly publications around the country, including high-profile critics from The Village Voice and Newsweek. With declining readership, film critics have been thought of as expendable, especially with the rise of bloggers and self-appointed film critics on the web. Even Roger Ebert, after decades of appearing on his television show, has finally retired his thumb. It’s a seemingly small change in the bigger picture, but it’s a significant one. In a world where people look at their news on their iPhones, is there any time or room (literally) to read a fullpage piece about how bad the new Indiana Jones film is compared to the spirit of it’s predecessors? Much less a piece about the presidential election?
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With the rise in technology, information as a whole has become more visual – be it through photographs, on television screens, or on the internet. A photograph with a couple of quick sentences
typically does the trick. Wanting to know more about a topic has been relegated to the territory of geeks wanting to obsess over every detail, whether you are a political nerd or a movie nerd -- there are websites for that. The rest of us just want the basics. But when exactly did that become the standard? We live in a country that has more information than ever, but far less knowledge. In the new Errol Morris documentary, Standard Operating Procedure, the recent scandal at Abu Gharib is explored not so much as an indictment of the torture and abuse that occurred there at the hands of American soldiers, but as an indictment of the evidence that exposed the deplorable situation. Which, as we now know very well, were a series of photographs taken by the officers stationed there. They featured the prisoners bound and posed in degrading sexual positions for the soldiers’ amusement. The officers posed with the tortured and humiliated captives, smiling as if they were in Spring Break photos, giving thumbs-up signs to the camera. The photos are pretty damning of the mental and physical abuse that went on there. One prisoner who was said to have died of a heart attack was seen in photos with his nose broken so horribly that cartilage was poking through his skin, his lips busted open, and teeth knocked out.
What Mr. Morris’ documentary does very well is ask the simple question: What is it that I’m seeing in these photographs? It starts by asking, who took these photos (the answer: a Superior officer). The officers in the photos were lower in rank, and clearly acting under the full awareness of their superiors. The prisoners are bound in strategic stress positions that were clearly not thought up on the spot. In the photos, there are obvious signs of physical abuse and torture, which are a violation of the Geneva Convention. They are also evidence that the American government at some level sanctioned the use of abuse, torture, and murder in this facility. These kinds of actions would have to be cleared by higher ranking military officials, ultimately reaching up to Washington D.C. and the President.
What is so interesting is that the film looks closely at the photos, and asks questions about them, and about the nature of photos altogether. It isn’t content to be given a visual image and simply accept it. It is smart enough to realize that an image is only two-dimensional, and the actions that took place were threedimensional. They happened to three-dimensional people, in a three-dimensional world that has sounds and smells, and moments that happened before and after the photo. The film puts them in their proper context and reveals a piece of a much larger puzzle. The notion of a few bad apples at Abu Gharib quickly becomes implausible and ridiculous. The Abu Gharib photos are reminiscent of the iconic war photo “Flags of Our Fathers,” where soldiers are seen valiantly raising our country’s flag at great odds. It is heroic-looking photograph, and supposedly embodies the spirit of what our nation has always fought for. But the photo itself is a sham. It is a staged photograph that inspired a PR campaign to sell war bonds and raise money for the effort.
Ironically, to this day, it still stands in most people’s minds as a symbol of our country. Clint Eastwood’s film, Flags of Our Fathers, was a great film about the topic. It addressed how our idea of heroism has been manufactured, and more interestingly, that our need for heroism is also something that has been created. Errol Morris addresses this idea as well in his film, saying that the notion of a scapegoat is a fiction – that the truth is always infinitely more complex and ambiguous and unsatisfying. An image like “Flags of Our Fathers” is more appealing and more digestible. That might be part of the appeal of a photograph – that it isn’t real, that there is ultimately no responsibility to
Seeing is
Believing
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The American media displayed the photos on the news for weeks, portraying the soldiers in the pictures as monsters. They were singled out as bad apples who were acting on their own, and the entire situation was spun endlessly by the government until the entire thing went away without much of an outcry from the American people.
a photograph. Looking at war or history through a lens is easier to deal with than looking at a bleeding human being two feet away from you. In different ways, what these two films are saying is that pictures lie. They are cautionary tales about visual information, and the blind acceptance of what you see. They are also amazingly relevant films, given that we live in a society that values visual information more than any other form. Even in the case of something far less serious, like tabloid photos in a magazine, they insist that it is absolutely essential to question what it is you are seeing – and that sometimes, the most important part of what you are looking at might lay outside the frames of the picture.
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For example, why is Britney Spears being photographed at a Burger King at three in the morning? Who woke up, stalked a girl at her house until she was hungry enough to go get food, then followed her to the restaurant, got out of their car and yelled and flashed their camera at her while she was ordering a hamburger? What kind of person is this? What is their motivation for such a violation? The answer is most likely to sell a photograph to be run in a magazine
for someone’s personal enjoyment. Do people ever ask, what is my role in this? Am I paying for someone’s privacy and peace and safety to be violated on a regular basis? And in a media saturated society, the pictures that make it to our newsstands and television screens are chosen and cropped by editors, and shaped into the most interesting versions of stories by film and TV producers. The visual information we eventually get is never first-hand. And with the rise of dating and hook-up websites on the internet, people meet other people online based purely on a picture. But does a picture represent who they are as a person, how much fun they are, or how they will treat you? Does a photograph of a body part represent in any way what kind of a lover they might be? Does it tell you anything about their history or if they are safe? Photos have not only made their way into our private lives, but for many people, have become the driving force of it. Visual imagery is undeniably more alluring than blocks of words, but it has its limits. Images aren’t capable of telling a fully rounded picture. At concerts now, the crowds are blanketed with the glowing LCD screens of cell phones or digital cameras recording the show. People watch the screens more than the show itself, as if the
is
As is frequently stated on Oprah Winfrey’s show and in books like The Secret, visual imagery is at the cornerstone of who we are. If we can see something in our minds, we can become it in the concrete world. Visualization is at the heart of many philosophies. And there is a truth to these notions – everything that exists now exists because someone imagined it and could see it in their minds, and then went about making it happen. Mental images are where buildings and cities started, where space ships first took flight. Most forms of meditation revolve around visual imagery. Even many musicians see their
songs in visual form as they are writing them. In the recent documentary film Blindsight, a group of blind teenagers climb a peak of Mount Everest lead by a blind guide. Having been blind from birth, how did they achieve such a difficult goal without some sort of mental image of the mountain they were climbing? To see yourself doing something in your mind might just give you the courage and a road map of sorts to take that leap. When you don’t have pictures to go off of, imagination can still make things possible. And although mental images might get at the truth of things in ways literal imagery cannot, it is still something that is unreliable. Memories change over time – sunsets get more beautiful, fights get more violent, high school crushes become more idealized. And things that were once heartbreaking or devastating are suddenly laughable little stories. We change over time, and the memories change right along with us. Visual memories can lose their weight and meaning too. As vivid as a world in someone’s mind can be, the context of those images is just as relevant.
photos don’t represent the disgust, the remorse and helplessness some of them were feeling at the time they were taken. One of the soldiers considered the act of posing for a picture to be an act of defiance against the government that gave her permission to do these things. By having those pictures taken, they would exist as documentation of the crimes that went on there. In a time when information is controlled and filtered for you, to not question the context of the images in your daily life is like downsizing all of your critics. Without a dissenting voice in society, that society ceases to question what it is being told. And to do that, you become a person sitting in an audience at a magic show being wowed by the tricks being paraded in front of your eyes. Sometimes seeing really shouldn’t be believing.
BD
The soldiers in the photos taken at Abu Gharib were doing monstrous things, but those
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act of eventually playing back the moment is more important than the actual moment itself. Will that little recording say anything about the experience of being at that event, in that community of people? Could it possibly capture the actual sound or lights or temperature of the place? Would it say anything about your mood, whether you got in a fight with your girlfriend or boyfriend that night, or how a particular song affected you? Visual images are limited the minute they come into existence.
profiIe
r a y m e r c e r
A Choreographer’s
roar
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By Taylor Gordon Photos by Rosalie O'Connor
Hailing from Omaha, Nebraska, Ray Mercer was always a big fish in a small pond – that is, until he joined the cast of Broadway’s The Lion King, leaving everything behind to tackle the jungle of Manhattan. Not only is he performing 8 shows a week in Disney’s longstanding hit, but he is also pursuing choreographic opportunities with his own performing group. “Choreography for me is like being a painter or a songwriter,” he explains. “I’ve always had a story to tell. Whether it’s a lie, or the truth, or a personal experience. It has to come from a real place for me.” Mercer started dancing at age 17 after doing children’s gymnastics, which “just wasn’t creative enough for me; it was kind of stagnant.” He went on to study at the University of New Orleans before dancing with Chicagobased Deeply Rooted for two years. But it was his first step on the Broadway stage that ignited his ambitions. “You realize then that you are one of a small pool of people. I knew that I had been blessed with something really big and I had to take full advantage of it. I have been working hard ever since.” In 2005 he earned the Gypsy of the Year Award from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and performed at the Dancers Responding to AIDS “Dance from the Heart” event last December. “I was so thankful because they let me close the show. It gave me so many other opportunities. Wow,” he exclaims, “that was one of the great moments of my choreographic career.” Both him and his dancers describe his style as very physical, with influences from Ulysses Dove and his experience dancing on Broadway. He admits to sneaking in time to work on his own movement during his pre-performance warm up.
“He’s so excited about his work,” says another dancer, Lisa Lewis. “He’s incredible.” TG
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But that’s not all the show has given him. “The most fortunate thing, I think, that has dropped into my life is that I have brilliant dancers right here in ‘The Lion King.’ In a weird kind of way I have my own mini-company to work with.” Some days they rehearse 3 or 4 hours before heading to the theater for a performance. “He’s an amazing choreographer,” says Kristina Bethel, a fellow “Lion King” dancer. “He has a knack for making me feel like he’s really taking my personality into consideration.”
column
me The Truth About
Alisan Porter By Alisan Porter
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At first glance you may not think you know Alisan Porter. In fact you probably do. So let's play Jeopardy: “ - First known as “Curly Sue,” she has transceded the child star stigma to become a well-rounded woman establishing herself as a theatrical performer, dancer, and musician.” Who is Alisan Porter?
Growing up in three places can sometimes be too much for a kid. For me it was a blessing. Each place had a profound influence on my artistic development and shaped me into the artist I am today. In my hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts I learned to dance and had my earliest experiences in “the Studio.” In Los Angeles, I became an actress and worked in TV and Film. In Connecticut, I developed my knowledge of music, songwriting, and love of the theater. Each experience helped me get one step closer to answering the question, “Who is Alisan Porter?” At age five, I was the youngest person to appear on “Star Search” and was a five time Junior Vocalist Champion. The experience catapulted me into a career in film and television. Over the next ten years, I worked for some of the biggest directors and brightest stars in Hollywood. My “claim to fame” happened when I was cast in the John Hughes film “Curly Sue,” at the age of
ten. As a child, I felt I was doing exactly what I was meant to do; I could not have imagined doing anything else. But, as the buzz from “Curly Sue” wore off, so did my desire to do film. After years of working as a child, I decided it was time for a break, so my family and I moved to Connecticut to try suburban life. Luckily, my high school had an amazing theater program. I remember transforming: from a little scared freshman who people only knew as “the ‘Curly Sue’ girl,” to a confident theatrical performer, walking the stage as “Anita” in West Side Story. The role made me feel empowered, and I gained respect from my peers. It was then that I knew that I was still a performer. I rediscovered my passion, but instead of wanting to perform for the camera, I desired to be in front of a live audience. This desire, along with my love of dance led me to be an avid competition kid—I thrived, and loved my summers in NYC or Orlando at Dance
Masters of America (DMA), or Showbiz Nationals. I will never forget those years of my life where I found my best friends and created some of my fondest memories. I can't even begin to explain the treasures I hold from those memories. After high school, my life was filled with a whirlwind of experiences. My family moved back to LA, and I stayed on the East Coast and performed in “Footloose” on Broadway. I then moved to Malibu to chase a surfer dude, taught dance at a wonderful studio, started a band, played Miriam in “The Ten Commandments” at the Kodak Theater, recorded my first record, spent four years playing music in Los Angeles, and did a plethora of musicals and random shows. Then, in 2006, I moved back to New York because I was cast in the revival of “A Chorus Line” on Broadway, to play the same role that my mother had 30 years before. I finished “A Chorus Line” a year and a half later, spent
four months in the city losing my mind, and then finally came back to California. Here I sit in my apartment in the San Fernando Valley, twenty six years old, semi-accomplished, wanting so much more, and yet thrilled with what I have already accomplished. I look at my past, and sometimes feel like that child is not me. It feels as if I am a mother watching my child grow up. Now, I look in the mirror and I see an average woman who likes to cook, who lives to dance, and who loves her sisters and dog more than anything else. I see someone who sometimes would just rather sit at home and watch “Lost” than perform for a crowd of people. But then I remember—deep within me there is a burning desire to reach beyond that third balcony to God, to the top of the world, and just bare my soul. I know I cannot live without that feeling. I often reflect about who exactly I am. It is sometimes hard for
When I feel connected with the Universe and free myself from my worries, I thrive and have the ability to achieve anything I set my mind to. Life constantly keeps me on my toes, never calling on the phone to let me
“Then come the lights shining on you from above. You are a performer. You forget all you learned, the process of technique, the fear, the pain, you even forget who you are. You become one with the music, the lights, know it’s coming. It just shows indeed one with the dance.” up. It can be so hard to stay in the moment, not allowing my feet to move ahead of my brain, or vice versa. How do I stay present and connected? Simple. When I am on stage performing, I am fully engaged in the present moment, the world could fall down around me and I wouldn’t miss a beat. I try to live my life this way—every moment counts and everything that we live can be turned into art, if we have the audacity to try to improve the world and make it a better place to live and to create. myspace.com/thealisanporterproject
Shirley Maclaine
Photo: Steve Vaccariello
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other people to see me as anything but Curly Sue. I ask myself if they know I’m a dancer. A choreographer. A teacher. Do they know I write my own music and play with my own band? Do they know I have struggled with addiction and am now proudly a sober woman? Yes, even I didn’t escape the child star curse! To me, all these things make up who I truly am. I know that all the things that I have been through, all the ups and downs, could never stop me from moving forward as an artist. The music I write reflects who I am, who I have been, and who I want to be. The choreography I create stems from human experience, love, and passion for life. To me, the most important way to go through life is to stay open, honest, and willing to change.
cover story
d e n e t h g i e H
Exposure
When In The Heights opened Off-Broadway in the summer of 2007, no one could have guessed that it would move to Broadway and become one of the most popular hits of the season. After making the transfer, it’s clear that it exceeded everyone’s expectations and then some. movmnt
gets cozy with the hearts and souls of the show and finds out what gives this Tony Award winning Best Musical its pulsing beat.
Text and interviews by Jayzel Samonte Photography by River Cark Styling by Paloma
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movmnt team on location with David Benaym: Anjuli Bhattacharyya, Gina Pero and Ryan Saab
This page: Lin-Manuel Miranda Leather car coat, Operations Dress pants, Gucci Karen Olivo Dress, Roberto Cavalli Stilettos, Giuseppe Zanotti Left page From counterclockwise starting far left: Seth Stewart Vintage cazal sunglasses, Rare Eyewear, Military coat, Dior Homme V-neck T, Swarovski Slacks, DsQuared2 Nina LaFarga Tank, Betsey Johnson Corset & bottoms, Agent Provacateur Stilettos, Sergio Rossi
Andy Blankenbuehler Blazer, Gaultier Dress shirt, Versace T-shirt, Obey Luis Salgado Hat, Philip Treacy Button down, Pink T-shirt & slacks, Calvin Klein Shoes, models own Shaun Taylor-Corbett Newsboy cap, JJ hats Vest, Prada Button down, Ben Sherman Jeans, Diesel Andrea Burns Dress, Christian Lacroix
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MANDY GONZALES Dress Prade
Nina LaFarga Tank, Betsy Johnson Corsett & bottoms, Agent Provacateur Stilettos, Sergio Rossi
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Luis Salgado Vest and Pinstripe pants, Kenzo Sneakers, Nike
and celebration of the Latino community.
sings a Latino voice, cultivated from a genuine Latino mind.
Not since “West Side Story” debuted in 1957 has Latino vibrato echoed center stage with the kind of jubilance that transcends cultures and possess mass appeal. “Heights” is innovative and modern, but unlike American youth culture, the show reveres its ancestry. No matter how far astray the syncopations and bass thumps edge the music, or the grit and grime of rapping make it sound like it jumped out of the radio, the songs are rooted in a classic Broadway vocabulary. Because when all is said and rapped, “Heights” is still a bona fide Broadway musical. And although Lin-Manuel Miranda credits his musical predecessor as “one of the greatest [shows] ever written,” he quickly notes how its social commentary has provided a sort of stigma for Latinos, a blessing and a curse. Perhaps the core of this ‘curse’ is also Miranda’s blessing. Unlike “West Side Story,” “Heights”
Performer and “Heights’” assistant choreographer Luis Salgado was all too familiar with this curse. When he read in the blogs that the show he was working on prior to “Heights” would probably not see a Broadway opening due mainly to the fact that its cast was predominantly Latino, he couldn’t help but feel a slight pang of uncertainty. He had fought adversity and doubt on every front, including his parents, who were not quick to celebrate his love for the arts. “Mambo Kings” (which was slated to open on Broadway in 2005) never reached New York, although the ripples of those blog postings resonated in the psyche of Salgado, who couldn’t help but wonder if they were right. Salgado, after all, was born in Puerto Rico, and unlike Miranda, who found artistic nurture in the bastion of Wesleyan University, Salgado’s ambitions left him fending for his own. His parents preferred he pursue a career
Seth Stewart Baseball jacket, DsQuared2 White tank, 2xist Belt, Diesel Pants, Obey Gold sneakers, Nike SHaun Taylor-Corbett Sweater, Energie Tie, Calvin Klein Button down, Etro Pants, Kenneth Cole Shoes, Guiseppe Zannotti
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t
he adage, “the show must go on,” must have never encountered technical sound issues. But as In The Heights composer and breakthrough star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, walks on stage to address the antsy crowd, it is clear something is wrong. The set, which portrays a slice of the uptown neighborhood, Washington Heights, looks strangely inauthentic sans the vibrant fiesta of children, street vendors, and the boom-box soundtrack that greets cabs en route beyond 180th street. After an explanation and apology for an uncommon technical delay, he begins to fill the stage with the needed energy and satiates the audience's growing hunger for Broadway spectacle with an impromptu rap incorporating selected theatergoers into his amusing banter. Miranda is a true showman, and in this moment of improv, we encounter a slight glimpse into the wonder behind his frenetic, witty mind and raw voice-- a voice that lends itself to a new inspection
in medicine or law, and it wasn’t until he started his own dance school at the age of 17 that they began to take him seriously. So he took his passion and wandered over to New York, where he found, as he best puts it, “[his] Disneyworld.” “It was paradise, I could take a dance class any time, in any style. In Puerto Rico you had to wait 'til Wednesday at 8pm to take a jazz class.” Salgado adds, “Here you could take a class at eight at night or eight in the morning!” With new direction and instruction, Salgado implemented a new philosophy. “When I first came to NY, I tried very hard to stay away from my Latin influences because they came too easy for me. It’s who I am. I wanted to push myself so
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Nina Lafarga
Luis Salgado Hat, Philip Treacy Button down, Pink T-shirt and slacks, Calvin Klein Shoes, Model's Own ShAun Taylor-Corbett Newsboy cap, JJ Hats Vest, Prada Button down, Ben Sherman Jeans, Diesel
far away from what was my comfort zone.” With the kaleidoscopic hues of performers in New York, Broadway, like most American media outlets, is still recovering from a deficiency in providing performers like Salgado their respective spotlights. Luckily, Salgado’s assimilation into musical theater found salvation in his heritage. “It wasn’t until ‘Mambo Kings’ that I realized...I need to celebrate who I am and my culture. I don’t need to limit myself. I will have the opportunity to do everything else that I also love, but it’s only by celebrating the one thing that I am, that all of the other things will happen.” For Salgado, and every performer like him bearing the sometimes marvelous, sometimes stifling burden of being Latino on Broadway, vindication got its opening night.
If the nuisance of technical issues yielded Miranda's improvisational antics, then all was forgiven when the lights gleamed as the show opened. In a sort of graffiti symphony, the story goes through three days of life in Washington Heights, exploring the different aspects of struggle contained in the tight-knit neighborhood. Miranda, who leads the cast as Usnavi (the proprietor of the local bodega), blazes the stage with the opening number rightfully titled ‘In The Heights.’ The number infuses the vibrancy of the neighborhood with a counterpoint: all the frustrations of unpaid bills and heat waves. We are introduced to the cast
of eccentric characters, like the owners of a car service and their daughter, Nina (Mandy Gonzalez) who has just returned home from Stanford University. Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz), whom Usnavi considers his grandmother, tickles the stars and purchases a lottery ticket -- unknowingly altering the fate of her loved ones. Before destinies can be etched, “Heights” explores relevant social issues like Nina’s struggle to pursue higher learning in lieu of her parent’s financial welfare. Gentrification and assimilation incite characters to move on, or 'to the West Village.' Luck, love, and lottery culminate in an award-winning musical that poses the same question to today’s
Seth Stewart Vintage cazal sunglasses, Rare Eyewear Military jacket, Dior Homme T-shirt, Swarvoski
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Like Washington Heights (the neighborhood where the show takes place), the cast of In The Heights is eclectic and gutsy. The show is a visual melting pot of urban flair rooted with distinctive traditions of other worlds. Rhythmic beats adorned with rap soliloquies compel an unforeseen admiration for a genre not yet heard on a Broadway stage; a genre best encapsulated in that moment of technical blunder, when Miranda’s freestyle rap vacillated to show tune camp as an audience member requested the cast sing a few numbers, to which he replied, “We don’t have voices like Ethel Merman, we need to fix the mics.”
immigrants as it did to the passengers of the Mayflower, or as Miranda puts it “essentially, a question of home-- and what, or where, home ultimately is.”
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In a city that is the cultural Mecca of the world, “Heights” has ushered a new crop of theater aficionados. Luis Salgado broke his subtle machismo with a misty observation of a crowning moment in his career. His mother had always enjoyed his performances, but never seemed immersed in anything beyond his solos. After watching In The Heights, Luis was met by his mother’s excitement and meticulous mental notations on the production and story. She wanted to share her thoughts about characters and songs. It was a rare and special moment for Salgado. Cast member Nina LaFarga, who is a first generation American to immigrant parents from Cuba and Trinidad, also reveled in her family’s emotional reactions, although her father, sadly passed away before the show’s Broadway run. Prior to “Heights,” LaFarga (whose killer looks are made for music videos) danced with the likes of Mya, Jennifer Lopez and Alicia Keys, as well as in Broadway shows like “Aida,” and “Sweet Charity.” But this show allowed her to embrace her ancestry in a way those other jobs didn't. “The story of the show is about immigrants moving from other countries in general, but specifically Cuba and other Spanish countries. I was seeing my life in this art piece, in this show. And what was difficult for me was finally I’m in this show that’s about me, something that my father could really understand.” Nina, with a bittersweet smile adds, “I wanted him [to] see me doing something that represented our culture and he was never able to do that.”
MandY Gonzalez Dress, Prada Shoes, Converse
“Heights” has a universal story about human struggle that is aided by its abundance of musical styles. Shaun Taylor-Corbett, whose small stature defies his enthusiasm, avidly attests to
this. The product of parents both prolific by their own measure in the entertainment industry (his mother choreographed the movie “Fame”), Shaun is adamant about the power that the diversity in the show produces. “It’s a revolutionary show that hits home with musical theater lovers and people who have never seen musical theater.” Although he is only an ‘honorary Latino,’ as he jokingly alludes to the character Benny in the show, his love for “Heights” is genuine corazon. With a cast equipped with experience ranging from Priscilla Lopez’s legendary Diana Morales in the original Broadway production of “A Chorus Line,” to Seth Stewart’s stint dancing on tour for Janet Jackson and Madonna, one can see the dynamic mélange of performers and backgrounds that incite the show’s unique synergy. Choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler didn’t cast dancers with traditional dance backgrounds. Blankenbuehler's talent of conveying a dance landscape true to the streets required dancers whose abilities interpreted these gyrations authentically. It's that authenticity from every level of the creative team that makes “Heights” such a captivating evening. When posed with the question of choosing one singular moment in the show that captures its true essence, Miranda’s choice was definitive. “There’s a character in the show, the piragua guy,” he notes of the flavored ice street vendors synonymous to Washington Heights, “he sings, ‘keep scraping by, keep scraping by…’ I think he’s a perfect metaphor for anyone in this community. The odds are stacked economically against you and you just gotta keep scraping and hawking what you’ve got.” After scraping and hawking from Puerto Rico to the George Washington Bridge to the Great White Way, In The Heights and its spectacular cast serves us something worth savoring.
JS
intheheightsthemusical.com
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Counter Clockwise Lin-Manuel Miranda Leather car coat, Operations Dress pants, Gucci Luis Salgado Hat, Philip Treacy Button down, Pink Slacks, Calvin Klein Shaun Taylor-Corbett Vest, Prada Button down, Ben Sherman Jeans, Diesel Andrea Burns Dress, Christian Lacroix Andy Blankenbuehler Blazer, Gaultier Dress shirt, Versace Karen Olivo Dress, Roberto Cavalli Stilettos, Giuseppe Zanotti Mandy Gonzalez Dress, Prada Seth Stewart Vintage Cazal sunglasses, Rare Eyewear Military coat, Dior Homme
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Nina LaFarga Tank, Betsey Johnson Corset & bottoms, Agent Provacateur Stilettos, Sergio Rossi
authenticity
The Process of
A ndy B lankenbuehler
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movmnt: In The Heights features a good amount of street dancing; did you cast performers with non-traditional dance backgrounds? Andy Blankenbuehler: Our dancers don’t have traditional dance backgrounds. We cast the show to be very much like a street show, so these dancers are very good at what they do- better than I am at what they do. They’re not traditional musical theater dancers- they’re really talented so they’ve done a bunch of Broadway shows, but this is more their forte. They specialize in different things, like Luis is a really great salsa dancer and is familiar with lots of different Latino styles, whereas there are other dancers in the show who are more specialized in hip hop. As a choreographer I try to pull their strengths out of them and really use their personality. The challenge for me when I started was I didn’t have a lot of experience choreographing hiphop or salsa. I understood what needed to happen in terms of storytelling, and my vocabulary is diverse, but hip hop was sort of an extreme that I hadn’t choreographed in, so I had a lot of research and pre-production to do to figure out how to choreograph vocabulary that I wanted. The cast was great because I would do a step, and if the step wasn’t perfect, by the time they added their own things to it, it brought the show to life. Can you tell us more about the importance of authenticity in a show like In The Heights?
Andy: We had to figure out what was authentic...and it’s a very deep question for the show. Part of the authenticity was making it look like real people in the city; people who have daily struggles, people who have to take the subway, people who are hot because it’s in the middle of a heat wave. Then there’s another kind of authenticity, which is that the show is very much about Latino heritage. [The creators] wanted attention paid to the specifics of their cultural dances, so that was another level. And then a third level of authenticity was that musically we live in a very contemporary world in the show, so authenticity for that meant that the dancing had to look like what the audience was hearing, because for the general audience who sees the show, they don’t know anything about hip hop. They’re more of a traditional audience, so if they could see what they’re hearing, it’ll make more sense to them. What was the process like for you? Andy: What I had to do was begin research. I watched MTV and VH1 constantly, and figured out which artists I liked and which grooves I liked; what styles of choreography I felt matched that world. As soon as I figured out the world I wanted them to live in, then I had to start experimenting. I’d analyze the syncopation of the movement and find how the syncopation could match our music. It was a really long process. With the Latino styles, we used Salsa
dancing in the show in social dance settings, in a dance clubso those numbers weren’t so interpretative. I didn’t feel the need to learn Salsa dancing inside and out; I felt the need to understand it enough to shape it. With Luis as my associate on it, we were able to say ‘oh this is this kind of step’ and we’d find the step together. Then I crafted the number like a story ballet, so the audience followed the story line...it just happened to be dancing the whole time. But with the hip-hop and the more contemporary movement, it’s very interpretative. So with that movement I felt that I needed to be able to execute it on my own, so I went to L.A. and studied for a few weeks, and then I took classes in New York. I brought people in the studio with me, and they would coach me on learning stylistically how to approach the music, so that when I started choreographing, it met that world. It was a very long process. I worked for about six months before I really started the show, [then] it took us several months to choreograph. The style of choreography is very contemporary, was it important for you to create something that was also timeless? Andy: I think structurally, we created a musical that’s not so much timeless, but a very accessible forum. So if somebody is 65 years old and they’re Jewish and they usually see a show like Gypsy, they’ll go to our show and they’ll still be able to take in the show as if it were a normal Broadway musical. Structurally that was the first step in creating a show that would appeal to a lot of people but was also in a sense, timeless. I felt like the show needed to be really tight, the syncopation and movements very specific and chiseled. As the musical has a life, that timing will remain true to the music. If movement is big or flamboyant, it starts to become generic. The fact that our rhythms are very chiseled creates a structure in the show that makes the audience pay attention.
JS
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Andy Blankenbuehler | In The Heights | Tony Award Winner For Best Choreography
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magazine movmnt magazine would like to thank the cast and crew of In The Height along with everyone involved that made this story possible. Congratulations to Lin and his Broadway family for their well deserved Tony award for Best Musical of the Year Photographer | River Cark riverclark.com
Stylist | Paloma Perez hellastyle.com
Hair Stylist | Davis Carrasquillo Makeup Artist | Suzana Santos
We are not alone.
There’s a wonderful world around us. Full of fascinating places. Interesting people. Amazing cultures. Important challenges. But sadly, our kids are not getting the chance to learn about their world. When surveys show that half of America’s youth cannot locate India or Iraq on a map, then we have to wonder what they do know about their world. That’s why we created MyWonderfulWorld.org. It’s part of a free National Geographic-led campaign to give your kids the power of global knowledge. Go there today and help them succeed tomorrow. Start with our free parent and teacher action kits. And let your kids begin the adventure of a lifetime. It’s a wonderful world. Explore!
A National Geographic-led campaign
wake-up call
Have you ever wondered why the Olympics attract such an eclectic crowd? Not only athletes, but the expected sports fans, and, more surprisingly, dictators, resistants, terrorists, and activists. Here are a few historical events that demonstrate how the Games are one of the largest political platforms in the world.
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MEXICO CITY 1968 m — Black Power Hits Podiu hts moveAt the height of the Civil Rig erican -Am can Afri two ment in the US, cause medalists advocated that the than er they defended was far bigg Field the race they won. Track and los, n Car stars, Tommy Smith and Joh a pair of saluted to Black Power with d after stan ory vict the on fists ed rais mednze Bro and d Gol the winning 1968 the at race ter -me als in the 200 . Summer Games in Mexico City silent Their participation in the tion rega seg inst aga protest e due caused them to be sent hom es to pressure on the United Stat cs mpi by the International Oly Committee.
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The Whole Wild World Did you know that there are 10 fewer countries recognized by the United Nations than what the International Olympic Committee (IOC) permits to participate as a nation in the Games. Territories such as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Hong Kong compete as separate nations, despite legally being a part of another country. Before the Moscow Winter Games in 1980, the People’s Republic of China refused to participate because Taiwan had previously competed under the name “Republic of China.” For the Moscow Games, Taiwan competed under the name “Chinese Taipei” with a flag specially created by the IOC.
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In 1980 a US and nd 1984, issues s 6 u Moscow 4 other Western rrounding the C , of comp after the Soviet nations refused old War caused e b respons ting nations to invasion of Afg to compete at th oycotts of the G e h that the , the Soviet Unio80, the lowest n anistan. The boe 1980 Winter O ames. The s u ly ments a afety of their ath n opted out of mber of nation ycott reduced th mpics in nd anti-S s th le oviet hy tes could not b e Los Angeles to compete sin e number c e steria in O In 1988 the Unit guaranteed bec lympics in 198 e 1956. In at the C e a d u s S e ta o tes”. f “chauv 4, arguing Olympic algary W inistic se ntihockey mfeud, both coun inter Games, fo tr 1991 tha atch. The US sh ies battled it o r a fitting and h u t the Co is o t ld War q cked the worl to the bitter e torical conclu d n s uietly ca me to a with an unexpe d in a tense USAion to the close. cted vic tory. It w vs. USSR asn’t un til
tomorrow today
The Pulse of Cyberspace: By Taylor Gordon
nce a D f o n io t u l o v The Digital E
The dancers’ feet beat at the speed of light. Their technique is unparalleled. When they jump, they fly, and they could pirouette for days without effort. But there’s no chattering audience, no house lights fading, no scarlet curtain, no rumble of the orchestra, no spontaneity – and no third dimension. Founded by former professional dancer and choreographer Inarra Saarinen, Second Life Ballet mimics a real dance company but within the virtual space of Second Life, an internet program where users maneuver avatars through simulated experiences. Second Life avatars frequent their performances, giving dance a two dimensional home and a fan base. “We hear things like ‘We like Second Life Ballet better than real ballet!’”
New Media, New Worlds: Second Life Ballet
With animation programs and motion capture software, the need for the physical dancer to exist is slashed in the digital age. Technology is being developed to directly transport human movement into avatar movement in virtual space. If the user walks, their character will walk. Perhaps, with this, the screen actually will become the separating proscenium between performance and
“My imagination was captured by the possibilities of the new virtual medium,” says Saarinen. There are currently 20 online dancers, all handpicked by the artistic director like human dancers are chosen. They rehearse in real time, incorporate understudies, and make corrections as though they were dancers in true physical space. “The only difference might be ‘Can you fly higher on that exit!’” boasts Saarinen, whose dancers defy gravity on the computer screen. Real life audiences masked by
audience. Even video games like Nintendo’s Wii system allow bodies to dive into digital places on a realistic level, by hitting a golf ball or sweating through fitness routines. Can the nuances of dance be translated with Wii?
The Digital
f Dance o n io t u l o v E
dfield
rdan Bra
on by Jo
Illustrati
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Dance is conquering a new stage. The footlights of pixels, the wings of windows, the rhythm of the keyboard – dance is going digital and shifting a stifled culture into the 21st century.
Communication Technology Gives Dance a Voice Dance is inherently non-verbal. Yet every dancer has a story to tell, and the internet has become a microphone to thousands of silent stars aching to share their passion. The nature of the internet begs for interactivity, and dancers are raised to be opinionated – “This is good technique. She has a perfect body. He shouldn’t get that part.” When given the option to speak out we eagerly want to do so. Blogs allow artists to express their process, struggles, laughs, and preparations behind the scenes to a worldwide audience that is anxious to listen and respond. They humanize the artists who appear ethereal, untouchable, and otherworldly onstage.
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Mouthing off fans of dance television shows find listeners online, too. As much as the artist has a message to relay through movement, audiences have an equally strong, outspoken reaction they can share via message boards. Television Without Pity and other websites don’t necessarily cater to the dance world, but the connection is clear. Besides giving the audience a leak into the dance world, the internet connects artists within. Social networking websites serve the way dancers naturally build friendships. We grow up meeting others at summer intensives, annual competitions, or group performances. We see new faces and relationships remain for life – those we admire, those we can’t stand, those we compete with, and those we love. As growing artists we draw on these human resources cultivated in the past, allowing for future familiar collaborations. With Facebook, maintaining and building these networks is easier, and the dance world has eaten up the opportunities. Not only can we “Friend” those we already know, but we can meet others through our acquaintances with the ease of a click, expanding our artistic circle in echoing ripples.
Global Sharing of Movement Through Online Video If blogs have been the microphone to dancers, online video has become the megaphone to dance companies, projecting their work to an audience
Yet the quality of dance videos available today remains questionable. Elements of live performance can be lost when translated to the screen. “Especially in a visually artistic medium like dance, companies are crippled by the tools available right now,” says Marc Kirschner, General Manager of Tendu TV, a dance video website to be launched this summer. “We’re different than the free-forall ecosystem that already exists online,” referring to the abundance of user generated content showcasing any computer owner’s dancing skills, professional
(like New York City Ballet’s season previews) or otherwise (“The Evolution of Dance” amateur viral wave). “We will have respectful presentations of content,” says Kirschner. “Right now the work of some great choreographers is online, but do they really want their work shown next to videos of monkeys having bowel movements?” Or should they be grateful their art is being seen widespread at all? High definition is down the line, upping the quality of dance video to compare with the real thing. Distribution remains an untread territory as well. Could there be a global Wiki database where choreographers host archival clips of their work? Exclusive opportunities to air dance online where viewers have a night at the screen like a night at the ballet? Streaming videos of live rehearsals for a true peek into the creative process?
With new media it is also difficult for companies to draw the line on intellectual property rights. Many companies barely have contract precedents in place for television appearances, let alone an internet presence. When does it stop being okay to reproduce dance art without monetization?
A Digital Future? Even though dance is going digital, it is still a human art form, a three dimensional execution of movement as a performing art. Perhaps the live aspect has been removed through new media, but the life behind the keyboard remains the driving artistic factor. It is the personal connection the community extends online that complements the physical art in a way unique to the dance world. Digital dance won’t replace real performance, but it certainly is testing what’s in the spotlight. TG
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greater than one that can fit in any theater. Online videos serve the collaborative predisposition of the dance community, which harvests sharing amongst artists. What better way to archive work, spread buzz, and teach the art form, as so many dancers have done on YouTube.
portfolio
“QUOTES WITH
CHA “
Marcelo Gomes The theater is dark. The orchestra is booming. And the audience is scarce, save a few company members. One woman is hunched behind a camera in the center of the seats. It’s a dress rehearsal at American Ballet Theatre, and Nancy Ellison is working her magic. As the music plays and world-class dancers execute the movement, one sound permeates the ears of those in the theater—the clack of a camera shutter. The moments Ellison captures collect as files on a memory card; files that she will meticulously comb through afterward, looking for the emotion combined with the line of the body that add to the unique power a dance photograph can possess. A collection of these photos can be see in her new book, In Classic Style: The Splendor of American Ballet Theatre. The documentation of the company spans a year-and-a-half of performances, but Ellison only spent a total of twenty days shooting the photos. That’s not to imply the process was a breeze. Capturing an art form (especially one that is defined by movement) through a collection of still photographs presents a challenge that only the most accomplished of photographers can tackle.
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So what happens after the photographer’s job is finished, when the book is published and the dancers are left to reflect on the results? movmnt’s Matthew Murphy sits down with the dancers of American Ballet Theatre to see what goes into making the magic that Ellison captures in her book. Matthew Murphy Photography by Nancy Ellison
I literally wasn’t performing in my own skin; I was painted to appear darker than I actually am. Each act you get more and more paint on your body because you have less and less clothing on. This picture is from such a crucial moment in the show, as it’s the first time you are seen on stage. You have to stay in the moment and immerse yourself in the character like you are experiencing it for the first time, but you don’t even look like yourself; it was a huge challenge. Othello is such a beast. He’s so much larger than life. Even though he’s so different than me, I’ve experienced the central themes of the story: things like anger, regret, passion, and love that I could draw on. Of course, I’ve never wanted to strangle my lover, or die for love, but this character encompasses so much of what I enjoy about performing. After the curtain came down, I turned to [choreographer Lar Lubovitch] and said “This is what I dreamed of doing when I was a kid.”
GOME
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ARACTER” “QUOTES WITH
ABT CHARACTER”
ES
David Hallberg This section of James Kudelka’s Cinderella has to be the craziest running, entering, exiting, leaping, turning marathon I have yet to experience in a ballet. The moment I leapt into the wing (right after this picture) I was running to the next entrance, which was about eight seconds later. No matter what entrance or exit I did during this section, I was always dancing with a shoe in my hand. As a dancer you are taught to finish movement off, ending the line in the fingers and using them as a form of expression. This section, known as “Around the World” has technical power that exceeds everything before it. If it weren’t for that shoe, things would be a lot easier for the prince. He wouldn’t be searching for the foot to fit the shoe, he’d find his match, and wouldn’t have to worry about executing technically difficult movement in a cream suit, holding a shoe.
HALLBERG REYES
Jacquelyn Reyes
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This is one of the most dramatic scenes I’ve ever seen. Romeo has just killed Tybalt, and Lady Capulet comes down and discovers his dead body. The biggest challenge is staying in character whether you feel [the performance] that night or not. Sometimes it’s easier to feel the emotion and immerse yourself in the scene than others. Not many people witness a murder in real life, so it’s a difficult reality to create as a dancer. That being said, you can certainly pull on the emotional and physical fatigue that an eight-week season creates when doing this scene. Because of this removal from reality, there is a huge range of who takes it seriously or not. Since Romeo and Juliet isn’t as technical of a ballet for the corps as others, sometimes people think it’s “easier” and lose focus or get uncomfortable. Regardless of the fact that the physical toll is less in this ballet, I have to prepare myself mentally. Our training in school doesn’t always prepare us for acting heavy ballets like this. The scene requires life and truth, more than any other scene in the rep.
Stella Abrera Apart from keeping an eye on Cinderella for a year as an understudy, I didn’t have much time to prepare. I was officially put on warning to replace an injured dancer about two weeks before the show. I frantically watched as many videos as I could, every spare minute I had. Rehearsals were squeezed in when possible. In a nutshell, my whole Cinderella experience, from beginning to end, was a whirlwind.
ABRERA
This was my first leading role in a full-length ballet. Of course, having experienced injury before and knowing how devastating it is to miss any shows, my heart went out to the injured dancer I was replacing. But it was exciting to take responsibility for telling the bulk of the story and to be involved in the storytelling from the ballet’s first moment to the last.
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The kitchen scenes were especially complex with dozens of props, each with their own specific choreography needing to be danced on very specific music. The props played a huge part in telling the story of Cinderella’s life in the kitchen—that backbreaking, boring housework that prompted fantastic daydreams of impossible love. However, dancing barefoot is pretty uncomfortable for ballet dancers.
Sarah Smith The stairs are a big hit with the peasants in Swan Lake. The tendency when the pas de trois music starts is for the dancers to flock to the stairs to get a spot so they can sit and watch. Having a moment to rest during this exhausting ballet is crucial to the female corps, as we are on our toes two hours a show, eight shows a week. Unfortunately, as the ballet has been staged, my partner and I stand behind the fence while everyone else sits on the stairs.
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SMITH
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RADETSKY Sascha Radetsky Iago isn’t the type of guy to bring home to meet the parents. Much of the choreography between Iago and his wife Emlia is physically and sexually abusive. My Emelia was Stella Abrera, who is betrothed to me offstage as well, and she gamely withstood the rapes and beatings that I had to dish out as the ever-charming, misogynistc Iago. Behaving so nastily towards Stella posed a formidable challenge to my conscience and wellbeing, as did the post-performance conversation I had with her father.
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Iago is a character layered with so many dark, complex emotions. He’s more complicated than most villains, and—dare I say it—most princes or other protagonists. Portraying Iago allowed me to plumb a sort of shadowy, Nietzschian recess of my psyche, and sure…I took perverse pleasure in the experience! Truth be told, Marcelo and I didn’t throw each other around too extensively, but we did have our fair share of twisting and pulling, whispering and menacing. Marcelo is a big strong guy, and a world-class partner, so I felt secure when he manhandled me. At the same time, he’s a larger load to bear than the little ballerinas I’m accustomed to, so I had to be careful when lifting him. But Marcelo and I had a lot of fun together, and those good times overshadowed any physical difficulties we encountered within the choreography.
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/VideO_ /VideO_ /VideO_ s a v e ds__ __ a vtehde__
In 1981 MTV capitalized on a fairly new and novel idea, music video, and launched a cultural revolution complete with disc jockeys, liters of hair dye, and millions of viewers proudly proclaiming the now infamous slogan, “I want my MTV!” Music videos were not only a way to promote music, but also a means of creative expression that enabled innovators to simultaneously push social boundaries and record sales. We’ve now entered a stage in pop culture where audiences are more fascinated with reality TV than music video. Tune in to MTV or VH1 and you’ll see what I mean. Shows like “The Hills” showcase privileged, bronzed youth wallowing in their own romantic disparity with the intelligence factor dialed down to zero. Music videos themselves have suffered to a degree in a time where formula trumps innovation, leaving little room for artistic vision and creative collaboration between artist and director. But once upon a time, music videos were an exciting format that fused music industry icons and ingenious directors with great songs. These ten songs and corresponding videos rank among the most memorable. By Bruce Scott - Design by Johnny Cheuk
1983 Thriller Michael Jackson By 1983, Michael Jackson had already established himself as a force to be reckoned with on the music charts, but no one could have foreseen the magnitude with which his Thriller album would catapult him into mega-stardom. Much of this success can be attributed to the music video for “Thriller,” which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “most successful music
video” of all time. Directed by John Landis, and shot with a budget of $800,000, this fourteen-minute music video combines a multitude of prosthetics, a former Playboy pin-up, and a voice over from horror legend Vincent Price. And let’s not forget Jackson’s infamous red leather jacket.
1986 Sledgehammer Peter Gabriel Claymation, pixilation, and stop motion were just three of the techniques used to create this farrago of seemingly random imagery ever swirling ‘round Peter Gabriel’s head. Winning a record-making nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, this was also Gabriel’s only number one hit in the US, thanks in part, to the success of the music video.
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1990 Justify My Love Madonna Madonna and music videos have become synonymous over the past twenty-five years, thanks largely to her knack for working with innovative
directors and, let’s face it, never boring us. But “Justify My Love” may go down as Madonna’s most notorious video, which helped the single hit number one on the Billboard charts back in 1990. This Lenny Kravitz’ penned hit was released as a VHS single, a first for Madonna, after MTV banned it due to adult content. It went on to become the highest selling music video of all time. Exercising freedom of expression and breaking down taboos and social stigmas surrounding sex and eroticism, “Justify My Love” unfairly went down as a cheap marketing ploy by Madonna, but its impact on the role of sex in media has been long lasting.
2000 Untitled (How Does it Feel) D’Angelo D’Angelo’s 2000 single “Untitled (How Does it Feel)” is a top notch, soul-drenched ode to pleasuring a woman. But it was the music video that will forever go down in infamy. Featuring a presumably nude (and incredibly toned) D’Angelo, the camera doesn’t stray much from the singer’ s face, chiseled torso, and pelvic area, a move that generated enough buzz to aid the track in becoming a top twenty-five hit.
1985 Take On Me A-Ha When Swedish hit makers A-Ha initially released their breakthrough track “Take On Me” in 1984, it failed to catch on with audiences worldwide. But after producer Alan Tarney stepped
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1979 Another Brick in the Wall Part II Pink Floyd One of the most innovative and widely respected bands to emerge in the history of rock, Pink Floyd, outdid themselves with the concept-heavy double disc 1979 album, The Wall, which centered around lead character Pink, whose wall was a symbol for isolation and misanthropy. The lead single, “Another Brick in the Wall,” shot straight to number one in the US upon its release, but the song is equally remembered for
its corresponding video in Alan Parker’s 1982 film The Wall, set to the music of the same album. In it we find putty-faced school children on assembly lines stumbling into meat grinders and then revolting and burning down their schoolhouse.
1991 Give it Away Red Hot Chili Peppers Initially deemed too weird by MTV upon its release, it wasn’t until fans sent in hundreds of letters a day that the network gave “Give it Away” any rotation. Featuring the band members painted in gold thrashing wildly in the desert, the video was distinctive enough to now be remembered as one of the most extreme videos ever made. It also enabled the single to get radio play and has
since become a concert staple for the band, one they often close the shows with.
1994 Sabotage Beastie Boys Perhaps the most notable in a series of unforgettable videos by Beastie Boys, this Spike Jonze directed video parodies 70’s crime dramas where glorified cops like Starsky and Hutch once ruled the streets. Its extensive airplay on MTV helped it become a fan favorite and modern rock hit for the Brooklyn-based group.
1985 We Are the World Various Artists “Cheese” is one of the words that may spring to mind when remembering this mammoth collaborative Ethiopian famine-relief effort “USA for Africa”, but “We are the World”’s social impact is undeniable. The song (and music video) features an astounding thirtyseven vocalists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Cyndi Lauper, Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder, and The Pointer Sisters, and hit number one in over fourteen countries.
1991 Losing my Religion REM Operating like a series of moving paintings all relating to the darker themes of religion, REM not only scored their biggest hit with “Losing my Religion,” but also turned in their most successful music video to date. Heavy rotation at MTV helped keep this blistering ode to romantic obsession number one on the Modern Rock charts for nearly two months.
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in and remixed the track as we know it now, sales went through the roof with over 1.5 million sales of the single alone. However, it wasn’t until the release of the music video, which combined pencilsketch animation with live action, that the sales for “Take On Me” jumped up to roughly 9 million.
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Photo by Tommy Couture
“It’s not my fault I look better in her party dress,” sings Semi Precious Weapons’ frontman and gender-bender extraordinaire Justin “Precious” Tranter on “Magnetic Baby,” the kick-off single from the band’s first full-length album, We Love You. As New York City’s most forthright glam revivalists on the scene, Semi Precious Weapons, whom Vogue has described as “unashamedly crass and deliciously animated,” have been blazing trails everywhere they go. From partying with Kate
Moss at London’s Death Disco club to nabbing top honors on Village Voice’s Best Band Reader’s Poll, the self-proclaimed “garage-glam” band seems intent on taking on the world one rock n’ roll lover at a time. And with their anthemic guitar riffs, sexually charged lyrics, and electric live shows, there’s nothing stopping them from doing so. movmnt’s Bruce Scott recently had a chance to chat with frontman Justin Tranter on playing live, fantasy sex with rock stars, and Tranter’s successful jewelry line, Fetty. If you’ve seen Tranter onstage, you know the look: skintight flesh-toned pants, stiletto heels, tattered shirts, and waves of
bleached hair over raccoon eyes splattered with glitter. Standing at six-foot (sans heels), Tranter’s dazzling onstage image commands attention. But this isn’t merely a persona contrived to entertain the fans, this is also Justin in real life, with a little help from his friends. “Tommy and Roy Couture are amazing designers and stylists that have a store in Brooklyn called Alter. They really helped to actually make me look the way I always thought I looked! They got me in heels and panty hose. My sexuality is very genderless, and so is my look.” Inspired as much by Jessica Simpson as his friends at Alter, what some may find surprising is Tranter’s lack of acknowledgment in regards to legends of Glam’s
Photo by BP Fallon
S emi
P recious
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DRESSED UP
Tranter’s look isn’t the only reason Semi Precious Weapons has landed legions of fans worldwide—among those Sylvain Sylvain & Steve Conte of the New York Dolls and legendary rock producer Tony Visconti. There is also the band: Cole Whittle on
bass, Dan Crean on drums, and Aaron Lee Tasjan on guitar. With riffs that are sure to please glamheads and frat boys alike, and a sound big enough to get even the stiffest crowd off their asses and tearing up the floor, Semi Precious Weapons is perhaps most fully realized live. “Performing live is our favorite part. Hands down. I love an audience, I love my band, I love doing my makeup before a show, I love playing new cities, I love going to cities we have been to before and watching the audience grow. Let me say it again, we love an audience.” And audiences love them as well, especially New York audiences who voted SPW Best Band in the 2007 Village Voice Reader’s Poll. “We were pretty fucking excited. For reals. Our fans are very dedicated and they came through big time.” And SPW will come through for their fans with a new live DVD slated for release late summer, 2008. The DVD, which Tranter says is “turning out [to be] really ferocious,” will come equipped with a copy of their album, We Love You.
Aside from the band, Tranter has also had a good deal of success with his jewelry line, Fetty. “[It] started as band merchandise, but expanded so quickly that it took on a life of its own. It is sold at Barneys NY and Barneys CO-OP’s across the country. Our newest line is Diamond Braille. I am planning to expand into different price points and globally, bitch!” But for the question we’ve all been wondering since “Magnetic Baby” blistered its way through our speakers, does Tranter really look better in her party dress? “Of course I do. Have you seen my legs and ass?”
Bruce Scott semipreciousweapons.com thefetty.com
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past. While David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and T-Rex’s Marc Bolan spring to mind for most of us, they were furthest from Tranter’s when creating the band. “I didn’t even know who T- Rex was until SPW had been around for six months. We just embraced the glam thing because I have always liked to get dressed! And yes, Jessica Simpson inspires me, she is an influence. She is beautiful, blonde, and is a damn good celeb. If I can be as good of a celeb as she is, but actually have artistic talent, life will be good.” And apparently, Simpson isn’t the only blonde Tranter has his eye on. “I’d like to have a three-way with Courtney Love circa 1995, and Stevie Nicks circa 1976. They are stunning, passionate kunts (Tranter’s signature spelling) with blonde hair and huge personalities.”
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“What’s the measure of a great song?” Songwriter and performer Mario Spinetti talks with songsters Brandon Intelligator and Damon Donau at a place of mutual resonance -- their “alma mater,” NYU – to get to the bottom of it. We enter a floor of practice rooms “illegally,” using our former school ID's. Down the hall is a teacher's study, door ajar and decked to the nines with a grand piano, red velvet drapes, full-length mirrors, and airconditioning; we’ll take it. For all the money apparently spent on scenery, the lighting is gruesome. But among three independent writers in the same boat, what’s a little more honesty?
Your Song By Mario Spinetti
Mario Spinetti: How do you define a song? Damon Donau: Well, “Happy Birthday” is a song. It stems from melody. It has a theme. It's a melodic expression of ideas.
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Brandon Intelligator: But then there are bands like Autolux that make melody out of noise. DD: That’s true, but I think a melody has to be singable. MS: What about lyrics? The classic definition of a song is “lyric set to melody.” Yet some instrumentals are songs, like “Billy’s Bounce” by Charlie Parker, or any other number of [instrumental] jazz standards. DD: I grew up a huge fan of The Who, and in the liner notes Pete Townshend was always credited as the writer, but occasionally Robert Daltrey would be credited with writing a song. After some research I discovered that he had just written the lyric, and that never sat well with me. A lot of the time a lyric is essential, but if you’re just writing the lyrics,
that’s poetry! To me it’s more about the music, because you can sing gibberish, like jazz scatting, and it can be a song. MS: Some might also say the power of a great song is to inspire. Is there a song that got you started on writing? BI: Every song on Abbey Road (1969). I always thought that Beatles record was the way music was supposed to sound. DD: Frank Sinatra. When I was six I won a talent show at the Mount Airy Lodge in the Pocanos singing “New York, New York.” I caught the crooner bug. Then, when I was 9, I became obsessed with Nirvana; Nevermind (1991) made me want to get a guitar and write music. BI: Green Day was also huge for me in junior high. When I started writing songs I was always stealing Green Day tunes by accident. And that still happens. DD: It still happens all the time. BI: Picasso said, “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” MS: Does adversity make for better songwriting?
DD: Personally, I’ve been dealing with a lot more “real-life” experiences since graduating from college. Stupid things, like struggling to pay rent. There’s a lot more “real” pressure than there was in college. So that puts me in a different place, and I have different things to say. BI: Definitely. In college I actually wrote a song called “Han Solo” about Han Solo from Star Wars. Lyrics used to be such an afterthought for me. Now they’re completely in the forefront. DD: When you start with a lyric it’s much different. BI: It’s a little more honest. I sympathize with Damon. After college I was writing about the frustrations of not being able to find a job, and of course love is always at the forefront, so I started doing a lot of juxtaposition between the frustrations of finding a job and finding the right girl. Both equally frustrating!
MS: So you're saying experience dictates style. DD: Exactly! And there’s so much more freedom to that than just saying you’re going to write “pop music,” or “rock music.” MS: Like the kid that says, “I’d like to be a pop star now.” Or worse, “I’d like to be a punk 'artist' now,” which is so different from the genre’s innovators, who grew up on the Lower East Side actually living the life. DD: You can try and force this thing, but the best material just comes out of being yourself. I look back at what I used to write in college and it just seems so whiny and insecure. Now, out of school, I have my own convictions. I’m not trying to write about someone else’s. If I did, it would be hollow. When you find yourself really believing in what you’re saying, I could give a shit whether somebody agrees with it or not.
We kept on talking through most of the night, as songwriters are apt to do. I sat on and listened in marvel at all of the ways great songs had been written in the past. But the most striking moment to me was that last line from Damon. That’s what a great song is. Hell, that’s what great art is. If you want to be technical, a song should have a melody, and itmay or may not have a lyric, but the bottom line is that in order for it to be substantial it has to come from a place of truth and experience -- otherwise why write it? myspace.com/therestlessep myspace.com/intelligatormusic
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The B-52s It was roughly thirty years ago when a band called The B-52s came to be after an evening of Chinese food and heavy drinking in Athens, Georgia. For the five members that night— Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, and siblings Cindy and Ricky Wilson—no one could have foreseen the impact they would have on music and pop culture as we know it. Beyond the beehive hairdos and resuscitated dance moves of generations past, the B-52s would go on to stake out a sound all their own, cemented in tracks like “Rock Lobster,” “My Own Private Idaho,” and, of course, “Love Shack,” where the vocal interplay between Fred Schneider’s deadpan observations and the luscious harmonies of vocalists Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson became forever embedded into the public’s consciousness. It has now been sixteen years since the release of their last album, Good Stuff, which was, at best, a moderate success in the shadow of its monster predecessor, Cosmic Thing. Thankfully for fans old and new, Funplex is infectious, fun, and features some of the best melodic hooks and harmonies Kate and Cindy have ever generated.
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funplex Opening with “Pump,” our favorite party band makes one thing clear: this is a party album, and the sex is cranked up to the max. With lyrics like, “I look at you and I’m ready to pump,” and “lick my belly, turn to jelly, spread me thin, I’m in,” Kate Cindy, Fred and Keith—all in their mid to late fifties— don’t seem to have lost any of their sex drive. In fact, much of Funplex is an ode to embracing ones sexual self, whether it be space sex (“Love in the Year 3000”), sexual awakening (“Juliet of the Spirits”), or just plain getting freaky (“Ultraviolet”). The music is amped up, as well. Employing producer Steve Osborne, who recently helped rejuvenate the careers of New Order and Suede, Funplex dances this mess around with the speed of a cosmic dancer and the shimmer of a disco ball. But what’s most compelling about Funplex is how well The B-52s indefatigable sound translates to their new-millennium makeover without ever losing the charm, and kook, that made them so distinct back when they released their eponymous 1979 self-titled debut.As with all things bordering on brilliance, you either get it...or you don’t. It’s too easy to miss the point of the B-52s,
and disregard their talent for making some of the most exuberant party anthems the past thirty years have seen. But imagine the next party you go to without “Love Shack” causing attendees to tear up the floors, or “Rock Lobster” educing strange noises and fits of glee from everyone around, and you might get the point. There will always be a time and place for The –B-52s, because there will always be a need to stop taking life so damn seriously, and, in the words of our favorite party band, “tell your skirt to take a hike” and “do a white-hot shimmy in a lurex gown.”
BS
astralwerks.com/b-52s mypsace.com/theb52s
Hot Chip made in the dark
Charmingly nerdy, and with a penchant for hiphop, London-based electro pop group Hot Chip have made a career out of defying c lassification. With Made in the Dark, the group takes its hodgepodge tendencies to even greater heights. From R&B to electric guitar driven ballads,
beat-heavy pop to unabashed dance music, Made in the Dark offers something for everyone. Once again, the connecting thread for the music is the oddball charm strung throughout the album’s thirteen songs. It’s the same dorky lovability that made
willingness to make a dance anthem if they so please. And if tracks like “Shake a Fist,” “Ready for the Floor,” and “Bendable Poseable” are any hint, Hot Chip has gotten quite good at making its listeners shake their stuff on the dance floor.
Hot Chip such a thrilling pop act back in 2004 with their debut, Coming on Strong. What’s different this time is their confidence in beats, and
hotchip.co.uk myspace.com/hotchip
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Vampire Weekend
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vampire weekend
Photo by Tim Soter
Upper West Side indie-rock darlings, Vampire Weekend, more than live up to the hype on their fetching self-titled debut. This catchy collection of upbeat tunes about grammar, architecture, and campus life, unabashedly appropriates everything from Afro-pop and New Wave, to Chamber music. Owing as much to Paul Simon as they do Talking Heads, Vampire Weekend manages to sound fresh, yet familiar at the same time. Led by Ezra Koenig, these four former Columbia University students have garnered much attention as of late, even before the official release of a proper album. Now with Vampire Weekend, they have a chance to back up the buzz. The most straightforward Afro-pop song on the album, hit single “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” manages to name drop Peter Gabriel, Louis Vuitton, and the United Colors of Benetton in about as many lines. Quirky and contagious, “Oxford Comma” is an obscure lesson in grammar that aggressively begs the question “Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?” While third single “A-Punk” is a radio-ready ska inflected throwback that the band recently performed on Saturday Night Live with und erstated cool. With a rise to fame reminiscent of New York buzz band of the past, The Strokes, one might ask, are Vampire Weekend too good to be true? While The Strokes subsequent releases never lived up to the hype of their debut, it remains to be seen if Vampire Weekend can withstand the test of time. At the moment though, they are the “it” band to beat, and after repeated listens, Vampire Weekend still sounds fresh and effortless.
W. Westley
vampireweekend.com myspace.com/vampireweekend
The Helio Sequence has always been a band that’s almost impossible to categorize. Folk- Electronica? Progressive indie-pop blues? The bastard stepchild of My Bloody Valentine and Bob Dylan? Fortunately, the inability to pigeon-hole the band has never stopped them from continuing to chart their own course, mixing genres to create emotionally anchored epics.
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For all the ambient noise, layered strings, and wall of sound elements, The Helio Sequence’s strengths lie in frontman Brandon Summers’ raspy, whiskey-soaked, voice and Benjamin Weikel’s driving drumbeats. They stand out, even amongst all the extra sonic bells and whistles, and keep the album grounded enough to avoid drifting into Moby territory. On the duo’s third release, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, the band’s vision finally comes into focus. “You Can Come To Me” starts off sounding like an Atari video game by way of a Casio keyboard, until it slowly adds layer upon layer of sound, and builds to a rewarding climax. “Hallelujah” is a soaring anthem that grabs you from the first note and never lets go, while “Shed Your Love” finds Summers “Drinking the dark wine of the New York night” against the quiet loneliness of an acoustic guitar and whispered ambiance. But, ironically enough for a band known for it’s musical bag o’ tricks, the album’s clear highlight is the stark and bare-boned “Broken Afternoon,” which features Summers at his most Dylanesque, weathered and worn. The track is hauntingly beautiful, and there’s a purity to it that sets it apart from the rest of the album. This is not to say the disc isn’t without it’s flaws; “Captive Mind” sounds like a poor man’s Interpol, and “No Regrets” could be a leftover from Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions. But when it delivers, it really delivers, and for a band that takes this many risks, the payoff is well worth it.
Rob Brock
theheliosequence.com myspace.com/theheliosequence
The Helio Sequence
keep your eyes ahead
Duffy
rockferry
Upon the UK release of her hit single “Mercy,” Aimee Anne Duffy became the first Welsh female to top the pop charts in over two decades. Following her radio success, Duffy brings us her first album, Rockferry. From start to finish, Duffy and Co. wonderfully execute a fusion of Detroit soul and Louisiana blues, all expressed through classic jazz instruments, acoustic guitars, rolling synths, and percussion nuances. The strength of these throwback arrangements is only rivaled by this Welsh indie-pop soloist’s unique and intelligent vocal arrangements. The title track of Duffy’s freshman album is your first stop on a pleasant ride of jazzy finger-snapping rhythms under a vocal style comparable to the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Natalie Cole. Album highlight “Delayed Devotion” grooves to acoustic guitars, violins, and a pop/soft-rock rhythm, whereas the retro and lyrically powerful “Stepping Stone” is sure to satiate aficionados of classic tube amplifier reverberations. Musically and vocally, Rockferry’s ten tracks leave nothing to be desired except, possibly, a second feel-good album. We can thank the UK for sending us another uplifting indie-pop/soul album from an extremely accomplished vocalist. Welcome to America, Duffy; we hope you enjoy your stay as much as we will.
Kyle J. Malenfant
MGMT
iamduffy.com
oracular spectacular
Brooklyn-based MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular is one of those rare near-perfect debuts that indubitably marks the arrival of a musical mainstay. The band, which was born out of a shared love for music between two college students, consists of Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. They didn’t initially take themselves seriously as songwriters...that is, until Columbia Records offered up a six-figure recording contract. Teaming up with Flaming Lips’ producer Dave Fridmann, the youthful duo have made an unforgettable album that shape-shifts genres and sounds, ranging from psychedelic to electro-funk, new-wave to garage-rock. Here we find singer and guitarist Goldwasser seamlessly morphing from a young Mick Jagger (“Weekend Wars”) to a sexed-up and shirtless Prince (“Electric Feel”), his lilting soprano sauntering over tightly written tunes made epic by Fridmann’s mammoth production. Lead single “Time to Pretend” may mock-prophesy their path to fame being corrupted by sex, drugs and self-destruction, but these kids are far too smart for those shenanigans.
Bruce Scott
myspace.com/mgmt
Goldfrapp
seventh tree
Marked by a combination of sensual, smooth, and poppy vibes, this UK based electro-glam duo’s third album, Supernature, is easy to fall in love with. Seventh Tree, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory’s newest installation, takes a dramatic sidestep from the danceable funk we became addicted to with Supernature. Turning the dial down a few notches, Seventh Tree finds the duo settling into down-tempo rhythms and ambient synths. Many of the earlier cuts on the album could soundtrack a modern yoga class, sans the trip-hop beats. As you listen to the opening track, “Clowns,” Goldfrapp’s voice saturates your mind as you retreat into Zen heaven. Psychedelic nuances fill every track, all the way to the highlight, “Caravan Girl.” As if the duo had a short-lived burst of enthusiasm at the end of the album, this cut is less dreamy, and more synth-rock oriented, with rolling drums, choral harmonies, and distinct lyrics, a la pre-mainstream Killers. It reminds us that Supernature had a great influence on the radio, as it pushed Goldfrapp into household stereos. Conversely, Seventh Tree does not produce a track one might expect to hear on the radio; but no complaints here. Thankfully, Goldfrapp lead us back to the underground/indie groove that established them in the first place. The tenth and final track “Monster Love” is as close to a lullaby as you can get; a perfect way to close this set. While the album might not make it into your “workout” playlist, it should fit well alongside your massage oils and chamomile tea. Give it a spin as you are driving home from a wild night out, or just to help you sink into that favorite cozy chair back at home. You might find that you not only love to rock with Goldfrapp, but you love to unwind with them too.
K J. M
goldfrapp.co.uk mypsace.com/goldfrapp
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OY BdaBof a Confessions We live in our heads. Our hopes, our dreams, our weaknesses, our delusions… essentially our reality, is created by what we let ourselves see. I believe the fundamental reason one has an attraction to an image is because of the inspiration we get from it. This inspiration is so important because it motivates us to be our best self and builds our ego—yet another sector of our self-created existence. Whether that inspiration is a person, a book, a ballet, a movie, or a picture… it doesn't matter; it is simply this quest to satisfy our ego that pushes us to do the things we all hope to be remembered by. After all, if it's worth doing, it's worth remembering. When I was a kid I used to watch Bruce Lee films and talk to my Michael Jackson poster in my bedroom. These two, above all, were my heroes and I wanted to grow up to be just like them. Via the acute attention, support, and love of my parents, they sought out the best teachers in the world to help pave the way for the career and life I so desired as a seven year old. After two decades, the struggle to become a great artist still burns inside of me. The only thing that has changed is my coming to terms with the fact that I am not a film or pop star. My goals have changed as I have allowed different inspirations to inhabit my brain. People like Nureyev, and Baryshnikov now fuel me to become a better dancer. Am I delusional to think I can fill their shoes? Maybe. But without striving to create a better reality, what is there? I believe greatness lives inside all of us, most are just too lazy to fight for it. One compliment and we become complacent; it’s an illness that I started buying into after my first good review. Perhaps what a critic or a fan says about me is all that I am. But I can't sleep at night knowing that my contribution to society has already been printed in the New York Times. I have to believe that there is more. Trying to define myself as the dance artist I want to be remembered as is the battle I now fight for everyday. It is a challenge that goes hand in hand with defining myself as a person. Ironically the goal is always the same: to be a better one, a great one. Who and what is a great one? To me: one that inspires someone else’s reality.
Confessions of a
BadBOY 78 - movmnt magazine - 7 - SUMMER 2008
Rasta Thomas
badboysofdance.com
an all-encompassing Laurieann Gibson
She has a do-it-all attitude that gives her an incredible ability to make a name for herself in the hip-hop world. She is Laurieann Gibson. As hip-hop invades the studio, stage, screen and streets, the world is here to watch. She is everything: choreographer-teacher-dancer-singer-actor-designermodel. But most importantly, Laurieann is setting her gift free and watching it soar.
portrait
Artist By Laura Di Orio
When she moved from Toronto to New York at the age of 17 to train at Alvin Ailey, Gibson encountered the intensity of Dunham, Horton and Graham techniques. Perhaps it has been this technical background that has set her apart from other commercial dance choreographers and reserved a place for her in the future of hip-hop. Yet as Gibson realized she no longer wanted to do modern dance, opportunities elsewhere began to emerge. In 1993, she landed a gig as a Fly Girl on “In Living Color” with Jennifer Lopez, and soon after went on tour as a dancer with Mary J. Blige. Her connection and talent must have been evident, as she was asked to choreograph for the then rising star Blige and continued to do so for albums and tours to come. That was only the beginning of her long list of choreographic contributions. With over three-dozen music videos and television shows to her name, her credits include some of the biggest names in the music industry – P. Diddy, Alicia Keys, Brandy, Usher, Mario, Clay Aiken and Hilary Duff. Her style of teaching and choreographing has been seen all over the country. She remains involved with Broadway Dance Center’s The Pulse, a dance workshop tour of which Gibson is a faculty highlight. During the influx of dance-related movies in the past few years, Gibson served not only as choreographer for 2003’s hit “Honey,” starring Jessica Alba, but also played a role in the film. The movie’s story is similar to her own – a dancer with big dreams and the path that leads her to the top. After “Honey,” Gibson continued to find herself in front of the camera. For three seasons of Diddy’s reality series “Making the Band,” Gibson worked as on-air choreographer for the show’s contestants. Only after a highly publicized on screen blowout between Diddy and Gibson, involving rumors of thrown chairs, did Gibson say “no more.”
Most recently, Gibson became the face of Frontline, Capezio’s line of hip-hop clothing and footwear. The products – a blend of comfort and style, girly with an urban touch – are reminiscent of the young, fresh and fun spirit that Gibson embodies. At this rate, it appears as though Gibson’s resume will be never ending. Who knows what she will do tomorrow or where she will show her face. But with the drive she has, and the talent to match, it's no wonder people are beginning to realize Gibson is “addictive.”
LDO
myspace.com/laurieanngibson
79 - movmnt magazine - 7 - SUMMER 2008
One may wonder if that falling out was perhaps meant to be. Since then, Gibson has been able to delve into even more projects and create a more prominent name for herself. She is becoming the star. And now, with a singing career on the rise (her first single “Addictive” came out earlier this year) and an interest in fashion speeding off, the words “dream big” ring true.
8
Belie
Crea ve &
80 - movmnt magazine - 7 - SUMMER 2008
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affecting movmnt dancer’s fit Capezio capeziodance.com Dance Outfitters 109 Volvo Parkway, 14 Chesapeake, VA 23320 Tel: (757) 563-6100 danceoutfitters.com Discount Dance Supply discountdancesupply.com Frontline frontlinedance.com Sugar and Bruno sugarandbruno.com Yumiko yumiko-world.com
lessons learned The Ailey School The Joan Weil Center of Dance 405 W. 55th Street New York, NY 10019 Tel: (212) 405-9000 alvinailey.org Broadway Dance Center 221 W 57th St - 5th Floor New York, NY 10019 Tel: (212) 582-9304 bwydance.com
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Debbie Allen Dance Academy 3623 Hayden Ave Culver City, CA 90230 Tel: (310) 280-9145 debbieallendanceacademy. com
In The Heights Richard Rodgers Theatre 226 West 46th Street New York, NY 10036 Tel: 1-800-Broadway broadway.com intheheightsthemusical.com
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Jump - Break the Floor Tel: (212) 397-3600 breakthefloor.com Nuvo - Break the Floor Through July, 2008 Tel: (212) 397-3600 gonuvo.com
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The Pulse on Tour July 4-7 New York, New York July 25-27 LA thepulseontour.com Steps on Broadway 2121 Broadway New York, NY 10023 Tel: (212) 874-2410 stepsnyc.com
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directory Agent Provocateur 133 Mercer St. New York, NY 10012 agentprovocateur.com Ben Sherman bensherman.com Betsy Johnson 498 7th Ave. 21st Fl. Tel: (212) 244-0843 betsyjohnson.com
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