DURHAM—At 8:30 Saturday night, Oct. 24, Michael Jackson fans gathered at The Pavilion at Durham Central Park for a tribute to the late entertainer calledThrill the World. It was a part of a worldwide event meant to synchronize participants at 12:30 a.m. UTC/GMT doing a dance similar to the one in Jackson’s “Thriller” music video.
The first“Thriller” dance took place in Toronto in 2006, in an affair that drew 62 people and set the Guinness Book of World Records’ “record” for most “Thriller” dancers in one place and time. By last year, the event had gone global and attracted more than 4,000 did the (nearly) inimitable dance.
Approximately 40 people turned out to the Durham gig, which was planned and executed locally within a span of two weeks.
Footage taken by Belem Destefani. Video produced by Belem Destefani and Sarah Ewald.
Tonight at 7, N.C. State’s Campus Cinema is showing Decasia, Bill Morrison’s hypnotic collage of decaying film stock from the early days of motion pictures. For lovers of the visual arts it’s a must-see, well worth a trip to Raleigh if you don’t live there.
For a preview of sorts, check out this short Morrison made two years after Decasia. Using the same methods and collaborating with the same composer (Michael Gordon of Bang on a Can), Light Is Calling is an 8-minute feast of images and sound that someone was thoughtful enough to post on YouTube in high definition (for best results, click through to watch the video on YouTube, then be sure to click the little “HQ” button at the bottom right of the screen to see it in high quality).
Each year, thousands of young ballerinas dream of entering The Juilliard School, the pre-eminent conservatory in the United States for professional training in the performing arts. Of those, only hundreds actually work up the resume—and the nerve—to show up for one of nine regional auditions held annually across the country.
The day begins with an advanced ballet and modern dance class—where three-fourths of the applicants are weeded out. The survivors from that round present a two-minute solo they’ve prepared: two whole minutes to show your full range and achievement as a performer. In New York, 22 members of the dance faculty are your audience—not the entire department, perhaps, but a generous representation nonetheless.
They sit and silently watch you perform the work in the video clip here. When you finish, they don’t applaud. Instead, one just says “Thank you,” and you leave.
Should you make that cut, you’re invited back to be taught a section from a piece out of Juilliard’s repertory, to see how quickly you pick up new choreography, how you function in an ensemble rehearsal, and how you respond to corrections. Survive that, and there’s the interview; a cozy one-on-one, with open-ended questions about everything from your source of inspiration as an artist to your views on the greatest challenge facing your generation.
Thousands dream of joining the ranks of famous alumni, including Martha Clarke, Susan Marshall, Ohad Naharin and Paul Taylor; of being taught by a faculty that has included Martha Graham, Anthony Tudor and José Limon.
Hundreds apply.
In the end, only twelve are chosen.
This year, one is coming from Raleigh. Her name is Lea Ved.
Footage of the 2009 American Dance Festival program Past/Forward with performances of Faye Driscoll’s There’s So Much Mad in Me and Laura Dean’s Infinity, as reconstructed by Rodger Belman. The piece Various Stages of Drowning: A Cabaret by Rosie Herrera is not shown here, but will also be performed.
Images of Doug Elkins and Friends performing Fraülein Maria at the 2009 American Dance Festival. Commentary and production by Belem Destefani and Sarah Ewald.
Frequent Indy contributor Kate Dobbs Ariail saw the show Monday night and just published this review at cvnc.org.
Images of the world premiere of Flowers of the Bones and a performance of The Rite of Spring by H. Art Chaos at the 2009 American Dance Festival. Commentary by Belem Destefani and Sarah Ewald. Produced by Byron Woods.
“But…it looks really different when it’s placed on ballet dancers!”
That’s what ADF sources told us when we asked about the differences between the version of Decadance that festival goers saw here in 2004 and the version Cedar Lake Contemporary Dance performs this week at DPAC.
Though the company provided us with the 30-second clip above, you can view a 5½ -minute excerpt from the company’s website here.
The work constitutes a potent fast-forward through ten years of choreography Naharin created for his Batsheva Dance Company in Israel. Vivid sequences excerpted from works including Naharin’s Virus and Anaphaza pointedly critiqued the politics of coercion, surveillance, intimidation and religious extremism, while others probed the questionable ethics of erotica. Its original decanting at ADF gave audiences an example of artistic protest as bracing as Maguy Marin’s One Cannot Eat Applause—and possibly more entertaining.
We’ll let you judge the differences between the ballet dancers above, and the original version, below:
Collaboration with Sarah Ewald and Belem Destefani.
Exclusive photo call footage of Emanuel Gat’s Winter Variations at the 2009 American Dance Festival. Dancers: Emanuel Gat and Roy Assaf. Commentary: Dance critic and correspondent Byron Woods. Produced by: Belem Destefani and Sarah Ewald.
Lisa Creech Bledsoe on "Notes from IgniteRaleigh: To be a spark, and not to be rickrolled": "Speed dating for the tech set," funny! Nice write up of an incredible event. I'm voting for Scrubby next year. Scrub-by, Scrub-by, Scrub-by!
Lisa aka @glowbird (the boxing chick)
DK on "Notes from IgniteRaleigh: To be a spark, and not to be rickrolled": Just moved back to the Triangle from Seattle, which is where Ignite started. It kind of caught on and blew up really fast, and organizers had to keep upping the venue.
I think people have been looking for this kind of cabaret for a while. They like going somewhere and being a crowd together, and it's
Christine Fawley on "Notes from IgniteRaleigh: To be a spark, and not to be rickrolled": A fabulous night highlighting the diversity of talent and intellectual pursuits here in the Triangle. An event like this could be held every month and still barely scratch the surface of the passions of our community.
We were honored to be included and appreciated the support and enthusiasm of the crowd as we delivered "20
