My favorite thing of the year!

In an earlier post I spoke about how I failed with the whole Paule Abdul Dance show because the producers asked me to make a skateboard dance and did not really feel it because I stayed true to real street skating and dance. Well.....

I win bithches! One of the best skates in the world and my prediction of 2010 Skater of the Year watched and commented on the clip that I posted on his Facebook wall. Not only that but he liked it! I win motherfuckers. Just cant imagine better props from someone so ill on a skateboard who liked my skateboard dance called Push Through it.

Here's what he wrote

Brian Gibbs>Shane O'neill
The goal is to get this dance completed at the Fantasy Factory. Would you like to skate in it with Rob and my dancers? I see that Chanel can Dance too! Hola!


December 27 at 4:11pm · Like · Comment · Share
Shane O'neill wow thats insane haha i cant dance like that though haha
December 27 at 4:28pm · Like

James Franco for President!

Hollyweird actor and fellow artist/weirdo is for sure one of the coolest dudes out there. How many actors are writing novels, doing soap operas and calling them "performance art", smoking unicorns while being a full time student???? James Franco that's who bitches.

Franco has new film out directed by Danny Boyle titled 127 Hours. Aside from what the press tells you about this film, its not about a man cutting off his own arm. The film is a celebration about the human spirit because lets face it, most of you would have died a long time ago being stuck in a cave for 5 days with your arm pinned to a wall by a huge space rock of destiny.

I'm not gonna say the film is an easy watch because its not. I was sweating and thought i was gonna have to vomit a few times but I held through. Below is a video of James with his family and his granny has some choice words for all of you who have not seen the film.

Christmas Greetings From the Franco's from James Franco

Merry Xmas

Happy Holidays to everyone. As a gift from me (bill cosby) to you, here's Fat Albert.

Thom Yorke Tuesadays speacial edition featuring "A study of things gone wrong!"

Today's edition of Thom Yorke Tuesday is taken from a work that I did earlier this year in New York titled "A study of things gone wrong!" part of the Chronos Project. This work is divided into four sections with two of them featuring Radiohead songs. Most people will only notice one. W'ell get back to that in a second. After the jump I'm going to post directors commentary so that people can get a better understanding for how the artist works.

First i would like to give a very big thank you to the dancers and artistic team who did such a beautiful job in making this happen. Could not have done it without you. Clearly:)

Enjoy!

A Study of Things Gone Wrong! from T.A.G.San Francisco on Vimeo.

• Section 1. -Devils(coming up from the ground) This piece could have been easily the best part of the show if we had more time to work out the phrasing and also been able to use a fog machine. Even so, I'm still happy with it.
• Section 2. 5zNY- I wanted to use 5 dancers for this section and do more with live instrumentation. The plan is to make this a D.I.Y. dance and to extend it. There is still a lot more material or "Bsides" that I never got around to setting. Hand claps, stomping and all.
  
• Section 3. Big Trouble/Country loving- A complete. Signed, sealed and delivered. Its in the bag. Something interesting about the duet is that every time we perform it in different venues I always switch the lighting around. Even had a set built for us on tour in Socal.
• Section 4. Twisted Words-The "Bobble heads" and "Mean Girls" section I want to do more with the spacing and change some of the timing but I love the lights that I created for it. Especially at the top of the dance.

Question for you! what Radiohead song did I play backwards during 5zy with my voice looped over?


hmmmm............



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Camille A. Browns

I found a fun video of Camille A. Brown's Been There, Done That! performed by Brown and the incredible Juel Lane.

Hold it down you two!

lookie what i found!

Wim Wenders has a new 3d dance film premiering at the Berlin Film Festival about the late Pina Bausch.

The visuals look stunning and I cant wait to see it.

PINA - Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost from neueroadmovies on Vimeo.

thoughts?

Pointman Cometh

All you would have to do is some circuit crossing and rewiring and the Pointman from UNKLE could perform for childerns birthdays.

...or maybe not.

whatever you want to do.


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Fail Fridays

Today I'm starting a new feature titled Fail Fridays. FF's is supposed to show that life is not always grits and gravy. Setbacks will happen and no matter how hard you try, disappointments will happen too. What I'm setting out to do is use myself as mirror for failures because a lot of people have this impression that i have an awesome life. The fact of the matter is that I'm constantly let down but i use the setbacks as more fuel for my fire to make it happen. Real hustlers don't stop Hustling. We just refine the game.

And on to the post we go....

Earlier this year i was asked by some producers (come to find out they were a PA) of a new dance reality show to audition with my "Crew". Not only did they want me to audition but they also wanted me to make a skateboard dance. The reason being is that they saw one of my skateboard vids on YouTube which makes sense. Everyone knows that my ass skates. Me being me, i cant just do something. I made a "Squirrel Dance for christ sake! No one wants mediocre so i thought of ways to make a real Skate Dance while being true to both forms. Upon hearing the news that they wanted me to make a skate dance I grabbed my "Crew" and we hit the streets to work on some material. The very first thing i did was teach the dancers the coordination's of certain skate tricks so that the dance was authentic. Technically i have been skating longer than i have been dancing and its very important for me to do them both justice. It would be too easy to be cheesy.

Long story short after working for 2 weeks on a 90 second dance we took it to LA for the auditions. Once we got in line with girls no older than 12 with stage Moms carrying all the props around in 2oo hundred dollar jeans we instantly knew that this was not gonna end well. As the camera crews were passing by trying to get group shots and interviews with the dancers in line we shunned the cameras and hid back while everyone else were screaming all of the fake screams that would get them on TV.


Any who, Once we did the audition for the judges i was very happy with my "Crew" because we had never danced the piece so well not too mention we had a great time. I landed all of the tricks that were supposed to go down and the partnering work was great to. Oh, all of this was on a skateboard mind you. After we had finished the dance one Judge stood up clapping. The other looked over at us and said "I see where you are going with this but its not gonna work out for the show". I had no problems with that until she went on to say " I think that you guys should go back and work on your technique". Lets see here...... One of my dancers got accepted to that Paris Opera School and shes an American. Currently shes working with Alonzo King getting ready to go dance in Monaco. The other will be onstage tonight dancing a principle part for a new Xmas show that is getting great reviews. Me i was on a fucking skateboard like they had asked! After her remark she looked at me as i was huffing and puffing and asked "did i have anything to say?" because i was silent. I said "No" "you asked us to make a skate dance and that's what i did" then walked out. No need to waste my breath with a response. After hearing her comments about technique i knew that she had no fucking idea what dance is aside from tricks and tricks with poor technique. Why would i waste my time trying to work in that arena? The whole experience was a huge epic Failure because i was going for instant glory. That's the truth of the matter. Fame and money was my motivation. Instead all i got was an epic FAILURE.

What i had learned from the whole experience was to stay true to yourself. Still to this day I'm pleased and happy with the dancers for the work that they put in and also the dance itself which was something that i wanted to do for the past 10 years anyways. This whole experience was a good kick start to finally make me do it and i did good job with the choreography. Now I want to expand it and go further but first we need to jump into to some classes:)

Here's the draft version of the Skate dance titled Push through it. I cleaned up the rough spots and transitions.




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Female Dance makers.

Earlier today i was thinking about how most of my favorite dance makers are for the most part Female. A departure from the theory that Choreography is a male dominated field. Im not gonna argue and say that there aren't more male choreographers (does not mean they are any good) out there but it seems to me that the people who are starting to make significant impacts and who are worth there salt are women! Something that i have noticed over the past couple years is that most of the shows that i have been to or student choreography showings is that the women seem to be making the best work.

A great example to support what i am talking about is looking back in dance history which i had to study as a student at the North Carolina School of the Arts is all of the female pioneers of modern dance. Martha Graham a trail blazer of American modern dance right along side Merce Cunnningham and Paul Taylor. Her technique is still being taught in schools all across the globe and her impact is still felt to this day not too mention her company is still performing her reps. There would be no Batsheva Dance without her. Next Pina Bausch who started Dance Theater incorporating text, speech, pedestrian gestures and film to her movement. Down the line you have Twyla Tharp who was one of the first Resident artist at American Ballet Theater under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov whom was the artistic director at the time and the one to appoint her.

Now we have a whole new crop of women who are making splashes in the dance world. My favorite choreographer Crystal Pite not only is a world renowned choreographer with her own company Kidd Pivott but she is also artistic associate at the Netherlands Dance Theater with her rep in some of the best contemporary companies out there. Camille A. Brown also a NCSA alumni has her second work being performed with Alvin Aliey this season has also done work for Hubbard Street, Philandanco. She now has her own company too with rave reviews. There also a lot of new Females choreographers on the rise like Emery Lecrone who has staged work with Oregon Ballet Theater, North Carolina Dance Theater and is on fast track to doing a lot more. One of my personal favorite women out there is Celia Rawlson-Hall whom has the potential to become the next Bausch.

Next year im encouraging one of my dancers Alex Jenkins to start developing her own works because its important that she gets the experience because i see that there is a talent there and its always good to have someone help motivate you.

As a male choreographer i know that i have the talent to do great original works because i have the chops to do it but the bar that im trying to reach has been set by all of these great women. It would be an honor and pleasure to share the stage with any one of them.

heres a video of Crystal Pites work with Cedar Lake.

Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue from Caleb Custer on Vimeo.

Misty Copeland soloist of American Ballet Theater is starting to blow up. Shes turning into an icon between being the 1st black soloist of ABT, her international guestings, Payless Shoe ads, being a Proactiv spokesperson not too mention dancing with an artist named Prince.

here is her new ad for Blackberry featuring an old classmate Mr.Alabama Blaine Hoven.

Light that Ass on Fire.

My man Diddy is out promoting his new album Last Train to Paris and decided to have a live USTREAM party to celebrate with his fans. In the tradition of keeping it sexy my man had some bitch butt naked in the hot tub just chilling. Her ass WAS chilling before some of the product in her hair did some chemical reactions with that candle behind her and lit her ass on fire. I dont know why she did not dip her head in the bathtub like a normal person but even with a head on fire a real bitch wont mess up her do. Gots to preserve the sexy.


take that

take that

take that.

uh huh.



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2 of my favorite things.

Street League Skateboarding made a best of video featuring Ryan Sheckler to the music of Radiohead.

The track is called Reckoner off of the album In Rainbows.

Say what you want haters but this kid is hands down no argument better than you'll ever be mo fuckas!


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New Music

Kanye West recently dropped the new track Christmas in Harlem.

take a listen.
Kanye West featuring CyHi Da Prynce - Christmas In Harlem by Hypetrak

Black Swan Show Girls Mash up

Due to the fact that Natalie Portman is a ghost to me i dont care to see her new ballet themed film Black Swan. However......That does not mean that i would not watch the mash up of Black Swan and Show Girls.

THom Yorke TuesdayS

When i purchased Radiohead's Amnesiac in Paris back in 2001 i had this song on repeat on my CD player (yes im getting old) for 8 hours on my train ride to Florence to visit my brother.

I forget how addicting and haunting this song truly is.

take a listen for yourself.

Busk

Welcome to my blog the Canadian female choreographer Aszure Barton who just had a sold out season at the Baryshnikov Arts Center with her new work Busk.

What is it about Canadian women dance makers?

Interesting getting what you worked your whole life for. Sometimes the "come up" is better than the actual product but i cant complain.

there's so much more work to be done.


Life is all about the Journey.

Lets see where we end up.



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