The News Review:
- Principal lifts dance ban
- Catch of the day
- ‘No No Nanette’: Positively Silly but Fun to Watch
Principal lifts dance ban
Denver Post – Nov 30, 2006
” Principal Charles Salter who canceled Aliso Niguel High School’s homecoming dance earlier this year is allowing the Aliso Viejo school’s winter formal to go forward as long as students and parents sign a lengthy contract with a long list of admonitions. Students parents and administrators helped craft the new rules which disallow “freak” dancing but he reserved the right to cancel future dances if students fail to live up to the standards. Freak dancing has gained widespread acceptance in recent years propelled by rap music and the sexual images in hip-hop videos. Critics say the dance’s carnal positions – girl bent at the waist boy thrusting behind her – go far beyond previous generations’ bumping and grinding. Clashes between outraged adults and sexualized teens have being played out at school dances across the nation and crested at Aliso Niguel after a jungle- themed back-to-school dance in September. Salter had been imploring parents for months to get their children to stop “freaking” and even showed a video of the school dance to hundreds of parents at back-to-school night. After the September dance Salter canceled future dances until students parents and administrators crafted a plan to stop freak dancing… If a student is suspected of being under the influence he or she will be given a breathalyzer test. School officials also will search purses and limousines for contraband. If students break any of the rules their parents will be called and they will be kicked out of the dance.
Catch of the day
St. Petersburg Times – Nov 30, 2006
So there may be a swimming pool-themed video in the works?(Laughs) I suppose it could happen. Give me the CliffsNotes version on how the Here It Goes Again video came to be. The A Million Ways dance was a routine we came up with so we could just drop our instruments in live shows and break into dance – the idea being that if you can keep people confused it's a much more interesting show. I got my sister to choreograph this dance for us because she had been a ballroom dancer for many years and we shot this videotape of it just as a practice tape to see what it looked like. We put it on the Internet and before you know it it was downloaded a bajillion times.
‘No No Nanette’: Positively Silly but Fun to Watch
Washington Post – Nov 30, 2006
It’s “No No Nanette” billed as “the New 1925 Musical” and it will beat you over the head with light and frothy sweetness. It may have been the Roaring Twenties for most but it was the Snoring Twenties for the writers of this confection five guys you’ve never heard of who strung together a bunch of mostly forgettable tunes linked by the flimsiest of plots and managed to make a mild hit out of it in 1925. (Maybe theatergoers needed a break from all that roaring. )Except for two songs that developed lives of their own the peppy “I Want to Be Happy” and the slyly lilting “Tea for Two” which is a much lovelier song than you may realize this show might have been forgotten except for a revamped 1971 Broadway version that was a bigger hit than the original. Lazy Susan is using the 1971 version which takes quite a while to generate momentum. Eventually the hardworking cast gets it moving taking the audience rapidly through the tunes terrible jokes and insipid story while stopping occasionally for some fun-to-watch tap dancing… McCormack) wants to travel down to Atlantic City for some fun with her gal pals before marrying boring straight-arrow Tom (Dan Cullen). Everybody ends up by the sea and the story peters out somewhere in the second act although the show coasts along nicely on songs and dance until the end of Act 3. Kolb stops the show in its first explosion of tap dancing in “I Want to Be Happy” leading an ensemble of zaftig chorines. The song pops up again when Julie Wolf one of Jimmy’s three problematic lady friends does a smoky down-and-dirty version played for laughs and heats up the joint. “Tea for Two” anchors Act 2 with goofy Tom and ingenue Nanette starting it off as a lovely duet before the ensemble expands the simple but elegant melody into a full-fledged dance number. It works well either way. Anne Stuecker makes her way through several vapid songs as Billy’s wife Lucille before coming to the solid “Where Has My Hubby Gone Blues” showing she can master the stage when she has good material.