Cesaria Evora

Nicholas Ashford

The New York Times Magazine featured Corinne Bailey Rae, Solange, and Les Nubians modeling beautful gowns and their natural hair. Check it out.

Yes, Melanie, You Can Dance

Season 8 winner, Melanie

Congratulations to Melanie! She was announced as “America’s Favorite Dancer” on the So You Think You Can Dance finale.  While not one of my favorite seasons of SYTYCD, there were some truly talented dancers on the show this year. Melanie, for instance, was a revelation: always grounded, with beautiful extension, and lovely control.

 Tomorrow notes on the finale!

 

Stamp It! Romare Bearden Stamp Release in September

On September 25th, the U.S. Postal Service will release four stamps featuring art work from Romare Bearden. Bearden produced art over a 50-year period, and is perhaps best known for his collage work.

You can learn more about each of the designs here.

The titles of the works, from left to right are: Conjunction (1971); Odysseus: Poseidon, The Sea God—Enemy of Odysseus (1977); Prevalence of Ritual: Conjur Woman; and Falling Star (1979)

Cannot Wait…Columbiana

I am so excited to see this. Yes, I know there will be problematic pieces, yes, ok. And it’s going to be very violent. But I am still so excited. Suspension of disbelief! Suspension of disbelief!

Columbiana will be released on August 26th. The fact that Michael Vartan is in the movie makes a direct connection to me to Alias, in which Vartan played a key role.

Margaret Richard is Body Electric

Man, PBS is great…a little jog down memory lane. Margaret Richard was the original, before PX90, before Ab-busters, Margaret Richards kept us in white high tops, neon spandex (why thebelt, what does that do?), and the all important scrunch socks.

Thank you Margaret Richard. And the music – it’s classic.

 

A Moment

Such a beautiful song, sung by such a wonderful artist, with a thoughtful approach to song-writing.

A friend reminded me of the sheer beauty of the melancholy and reflection of this song. The pure music – as Adele says, she makes music for listening, not for eyes.

Thank you Adele.

Is SYTYCD Racist, Sexist, and Ableist Too, Part II

I don’t think I even need to really write much, not when there’s a routine, like this:

An Afrojazz routine that seems to me mainly an excuse to put people in inappropriate ethnic body paint, with some African dancing and without context.

I am also confused as to why the womyn now appear on stage in little more than bikinis. As a former (amateur) dancer, I understand how important it is to be able to see the lines of the body, but still. Really? Across the board, the dancing seems far more sexualized – and has been increasingly sexualized through the seasons (side-eye, to Benji Schwimmer’s sister). Jordan, one of the dancers actually did a stripper pop, which is just more of the same – she gave a very similar audition. The response from Nigel, his open leering, that’s not entirely about technique is what is so telling. Jordan’s technique, you can see from her balance, extension, and control (it’s very easy to loose balance) but, hmmm, yeah. I wonder how this performance would be perceived if she was a darker-skinned womyn?

Kat Deely made one slip, confusing Robert with Mitch – unexplainably the two Black men were asked to re-do their solos. I also find it interesting that only Brown folks or folks who were not identifiably white, were selected to be in the bottom set of couples. Thankfully Sasha was not included in this group.

In a huge surprise, the judges decided not to let anyone go. Instead, next week, two couples will be eliminated.