let a little light in...

If you've been to Travis' blog lately, you know that So You Think You Can Dance has begun it's 5th season on Fox. You've read his "non-reviews" *gigglesnort* of the audition process so far. You might even have noticed that he's been my close to only blog haunt in a while. I'm still trying to find my bearings and he's been my safe harbour as I navigate in very rocky seas of late (Thanks bro, I'd name my next child after you were I to have one *hug*).

Back to the topic at hand... I relish the time spent watching this show. It's a little bit of heaven for me.
I've loved dance since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I even took tap as a little girl. It was something I did with my mother for a time. I loved it. It's still one of my absolute favourite dances to watch.

My love of dance comes from my parents. My father loved to dance, he knew how to partner. Daddy was from that long gone era where men were gentlemen and knew how to lead a woman across the dance floor. I'm certain this played a big part in Mom falling for him.


I can't tell you how I loved snuggling up to Daddy on rainy weekends to watch old Hollywood classics on public television. I was convinced my dad could have given Fred Astaire a run for his money. During those precious hours, I developed my first crushes: Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Donald O'Connor... *sigh* I wanted to marry them.

I don't know of anyone else who can pull this off (at 2:16):

On May 27th, I got a flashback. I was sitting, feeling sad, feeling blue... and the brothers Kasprzak danced onto my TV screen. And I knew. The same way I knew when I heard Taylor Hicks sing. I had just witnessed something special. Other avid SYTYCD watchers remembered Evan (what a cutie!) from the past season when he didn't quite make the cut in Vegas. Evan channeled Gene Kelly in an outstanding number (choreographed by his big bro) and Ryan was like the second coming of Donald O'Connor.

They've made it through to the very last group. Tonight, we'll know if we'll have the privilege of watching them dance every week for what I can only hope will be a VERY long time.

I've included a little gem... Evan dancing to Ryan's choreography in a throwback little film. I giggled, swooned, oooooohed and aaaaaahed as I watched this. I hope you enjoy it. I'm betting Travis will.

"After Hours" from Jason Eberly on Vimeo.

Do yourselves a favour and click on over to go lose yourself in the awesomeness that is Ryan Kasprzak. He's a hardworking, passionate choreographer/performer who is exactly what a show like this is all about... giving an awesome talent the commercial exposure he so richly deserves in the hopes that a brand new generation of kids will discover the Happy Happy Joy Joy that is dance.

throwing things together

I've been scouring the net for jobs to apply to and wasn't able to gather much for a post... but I do want to remind you that if you love dancing, my bro Travis is THE Lord of The Dancing With The Stars Reviewers *giggle*... so click on the nice kitty and go visit.
*Edited... the kitty won't link so you can visit Travis ICI


I saw this through a link posted by Katherine over at Jeff's blog and I must tip my hat to her. A most excellent torment indeed! *grin* Chicklet loved watching this and played it over and over again.

It's dancing!!!

Dancing, dancing, dancing!

I've been struggling with a very long week and looking forward to the weekend. My week is just a continuation of last week as I worked over the weekend. But the dancing I saw last night will allow me to finish my week without throttling anyone.

My challenge in presenting these clips of my favourite couples is the following.

I could expound profound and talk about the dances, but a) I don't have time and b) that's not how I experience dance. Basically, dance is, with all it's technique, all about the expression of emotion. It's about reaching a part within you and bringing it out to the surface. Sometimes it reaches deep within, in places you've buried and hadn't planned on ever letting out again. And other times it just makes you happy.

I've chosen one word for each of these dances. It was like a therapy exercise.

First up, I wanted to share with you the darling Allie and Gene Kelly-like Danny (for some reason, I associate her with pink) and their Quickstep, as engineered by Pierre Allaire (félicitations Pierre, quelle belle chorégraphie!):

The word is: CLASSIC

Second, this dance crafted by Sean Cheesman... an Afro-Jazz as interpreted by Lisa and Vincent-Olivier (my other favourite couple)

The word is: JOY

The cool thing is the dancers felt JOY and so did the judges... and my heart sings. Ok, and maybe a tear to my eye. The music was so very uplifting.

Now, on to Natalli and Francis (my other other favourite couple)and .... the RUMBA! mmmmmmmmm! The dance of Love. Gustavo Vargas gives us yet another beautiful story.

My word is: DESIRE (the other word is LEGS LEGS LEGS!)

Oh.. Congratulations to Francis Lafrenière and his real-life partner, Claudia Primeau... good luck representing Canada at the World Championships! (Did I mention he lives IN MY CITY????? THUD!!! Now I know why he looked familiar, I probably saw him at the supermarket while I was picking out my produce... THUD!)

And now.. a very powerful and beautiful dance as choreographed by Blake McGrath (you were right Blake, tears!) and danced by my absolute favourites, Arassay and Nico.

My word is: SOULFUL

This dance found my heart made it swell with emotion.

This dance was the expression of an emotion so many have experienced... the struggle with ending a relationship that just doesn't work. And the symbiosis between choreographer and dancers was powerful.

The smile on Chicklet's face when she watched this dance was too adorable, Lara and Miles have a wonderful connection and entertain in this Krump by Lil' C.

Chicklet's word: COOOOOOOOOL! (and BUCK! LOL)

Oh.. and I just have to say, I love Jean-Marc Généreux... Having Kenny Ortega and Pau Becker as guest judges this week was wonderful.

I'll catch up when the insanity of work allows.

Miss visiting you guys.

Smooches and hugs!

Lightness of being...

Too much turmoil and not enough smiling isn't good for a girl...

This week, Chicklet and I sat down to watch SYTYCD Canada's first competition show. We'd been watching the auditions and a few dancers had already caught our attention. We picked the performances that made us go SQUEEEEEEEEE and WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The judges are:

Luther Brown who has choreographed for the likes of Shawn Desmon and Keshia Shante;


Blake McGrath - a canadian dancer from season 1 of SYTYCD USA and a fierce choreographer;


Tré Armstrong who starred in "How She Move" and has worked with Missy Elliott and Sean Combs;


and last but not least, Jean-Marc Généreux (choreographer extraordinaire for SYTYCD USA) and a possible distant cousin of mine as he and my maternal grandmother share a last name!

So far, we've enjoyed watching just how talented the Canadian dancers are who are vying for the priviledge of becoming Canada's favourite dancer.

Now, I'll be frank. Nico Archambault... Oh My WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! and swoooooooon!
Montreal boys...mmmmmmmmmm! Yup... he comes from MY backyard! Nico is a lyrical dancer... but he HIT this first number!

Arassay Reyes is a hot thang... and Travis, she's got LEGS LEGS LEGS!!! and baby, HIPS HIPS HIPS!

HAWT!

And this dance started off the season.. a salsa by Gustavo Vargas! MUY Caliente!!!

So you know who I voted for...

The next couple I wanted to share with you is Lisa and Vincent-Olivier (another sweet thang from my backyard)...

They're both contemporary dancers and this routine was breathtaking... it was magic. Stacey Tookey did an outstanding job with this choreography... wow!

I voted for them too...

This couple... Allie and Danny (another Montreal boy *sigh*)!!

They are the CUTEST thang! Here they are doing a great rockabilly 50s jive choreographed by the UBER talented Melissa Williams.

And Jean-Marc is right: CHEMISTRY!!!

I voted and voted and voted!

There are some outstanding dancers in this competition. We're quite pleased... yup!

Poppin for Travis!

GENIOUS in advertising! And Canadian ad agency came up with it. Dude, we rock! SICK!