The News Review:
- Day 2: Big Brother housemates break the ice with break-dancing
- Good Vibrations From Step Afrika!
- Good kitchens sometimes need to break rules
- Rootz Underground reigns at the Village
Day 2: Big Brother housemates break the ice with break-dancing
Daily Mail – Jun 1, 2007
Two crews squared up for a street-style stand-off with eachdancer competing directly against an opponent. Some interesting moves were on display as the girls tried torecreate the Bronx circa 1981. The 11 housemates were told to devise their own break-dancingroutines with political activist Carole Vincent 53 and wannabeactress Shabnam Paryani 22 have been chosen as the two teamleaders. First on the floor was Shabnam whose moves were morestreetdance than breakdance. Then came Carole with cartwheels caterpillars while CharleyUchea 21 tried out a painful looking headstand. A greengloved Lesley Brain 60 bounced around like a startledrabbit before getting on all fours. WAG-wannabe Chanelle Hayes 19 swapped slick togs for a bandana- but forgot most of her team’s moves… Some interesting moves were on display as the girls tried torecreate the Bronx circa 1981. The 11 housemates were told to devise their own break-dancingroutines with political activist Carole Vincent 53 and wannabeactress Shabnam Paryani 22 have been chosen as the two teamleaders. First on the floor was Shabnam whose moves were morestreetdance than breakdance. Then came Carole with cartwheels caterpillars while CharleyUchea 21 tried out a painful looking headstand. A greengloved Lesley Brain 60 bounced around like a startledrabbit before getting on all fours. WAG-wannabe Chanelle Hayes 19 swapped slick togs for a bandana- but forgot most of her team’s moves. But when indie-loving Emily Parr 19 ditched her skinny jeansfor baggy pants and tried a “windmill” Shabnam was impressed.
Good Vibrations From Step Afrika!
Washington Post – Jun 1, 2007
Put the whole eight-dancer troupe together (with three guest artists) and — well we’ve already talked about what that felt like. And what did it look like? Picture birds of prey swooping in for the kill. ne work a free-for-all of fierce one-upmanship brought together the whiplashing torsos and pelvic gyrations of rural African dance with the speed and fury of urban American break dancing. This piece called “Ndlamo 2007 (the after party)” was modeled on a Zulu dance party in South Africa where Step Afrika! has hosted a dance festival since 1994. Just when you thought you’d seen all the rubber-band moves these dancers could produce someone sliced through the air with a few one-handed leg-scissoring capoeira kicks to make sure we were still paying attention. There’s a sense that they’re on a mission… He says Step Afrika! is the first professional company dedicated to stepping. What jumps out in the performance is the group’s marriage of traditional steps to 21st-century bodies gym-honed Pilates-perfect flexible as titanium alloy. “The Deacon’s Dance” left an especially memorable mark when Michael Forde launched himself into a swan dive that would earn cheers at the deep end of a swimming pool except he was soaring down to the hard stage landing on his hands with his legs fishtailing above him. I have never seen anything like it on land or water. In the moves that followed it was as if his body parts occupied different dimensions head careening one way torso flat as a board legs rocketing somewhere else. This was a virtuosic performance to make the venerable Alvin Ailey dancers sigh. In fact Step Afrika! did Ailey one better with the freshness of its gospel numbers such as “Deacon’s Dance” and “Wade.
Good kitchens sometimes need to break rules
Globe and Mail – Jun 1, 2007
Accent these cabinets with a glittery crystal pendant light and your kitchen will sparkle like a shiny new diamond. Hey there’s no rule saying kitchens can’t have a bit of glam factor!Minimize allowancesThe rules say you need 42 to 48 inches to open the refrigerator dishwasher oven or to get around a counter but I tend to push the limits by reducing the clearance (usually not more than 36 inches) in favour of achieving more counter and storage space. Lets face it preparing meals is not a group effort in most homes and there doesn’t need to be enough space to choreograph a dance routine. In all my years of pushing the limits no one has ever complained after their kitchen went in (it only seemed to be a problem on paper). Hardware mattersThere are two components to this thought. First don’t cheap out on your hardware as it’s the final detail the jewellery of your kitchen. Make sure you choose something you love (as long as what you love isn’t the whimsical type of knob featuring flowers vegetables or any cutesy motif motifs are bad).
Rootz Underground reigns at the Village
Jamaica bserver – Jun 1, 2007
As the flashes from innumerable digital cameras lit up the stage Stevie G shook his head loosening his locks and bounced up and down in place for a bit. After a bit of patter Newland said that they were going into a time machine playing “. songs from the summer of 2008 – so if you see me getting crazy (as if he were ever anything but). doing some dance moves wha no buss yet. “Riverstone followed with Charles Lazarus making his fingers blur across his instrument’s fret board and Moss-Solomon providing back-up vocals but with no dancing from the lead singer – yet. Then he started moving with a start-stop motion his upper body rolling his dreadlocks flashing once or twice. The drummer wore a cowboy hat in camouflage colours and his head bopped as he played… At times throughout various songs Francis would yell ‘Dubwise!’ and pure instrumentals often with a hint of a one-drop rhythm and various improvisations reinventions and variations would become the order of the night. This was the case on Bjork’s There Is More To Life Than This Eek-A-Mouse’s A Wha Do Dem Edu Lobo’s Upa Neguinho (a Brazilian song delivered in its original Portuguese by Francis) John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and others before they took a break. Towards the end of their break two guest artistes appeared: drummer Craig ‘Phlee’ Lee and singer the temporarily disabled Petrus Chang. Third World’s 96 Degrees In The Shade was their first song Petrus keeping his voice relatively soft as did Phlee with the beat he elicited from his instrument. Things took a sad turn with Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide which was dedicated to a friend who passed away recently and whose grandmother died shortly before her. The Free Willys returned. For the entire night Francis had punctuated his set with off-the-wall comments such as ‘Free your mind and your ass will follow that’s what George Clinton says’ ‘We’re having fun up here and we hope you are too if you’re not well.