The News Review:
- Shake it ’til you break it
- Conklin: Madisonians can relate to Simpsons
- Pop and Rock Listings
- Maja Salvador (Fairy god) Mother Lily’s chosen one
- Distilling Dystopia n Pointe
- From Soweto to the Festival Hall
- Interview: Toughest role for comeback star Pfeiffer
Shake it ’til you break it
Mail Tribune – Jul 27, 2007
Think beads and sequins tattoos and body piercings spirited ululations from the audience. The somewhat traditional “Pharaonic dyssey” the first number on the multimedia show (translation: most of the music is recorded) introduced the dancers most of whom seem to have single names in the style of Cher or Madonna. The early numbers were a nod to Egyptian and cabaret-style dancing with scantily-clad dancers in glittery costumes. But there is no pretense of real traditionalism here. This is not a folk show. What it is is a melding of Egyptian and cabaret with tribal fusion a funkier offshoot that started in the San Francisco Bay Area and has since spread to Europe. “Wings of Isis” featured the dancer Bozenka with snaky movements lots of quivering and finger cymbals… Later in the show “Escape to the Pacific” even wove some Polynesian chops into the program for all the Tahitian Turks out there. If there’s weakness here it’s the lack of live musicians and the fact that the dancing becomes somewhat repetitive. How many times can you shake it until you break it? Still it’s a colorful athletic show. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail bvarble@mailtribune.
Conklin: Madisonians can relate to Simpsons
madison.com – Jul 27, 2007
But in all honesty I'm more like secondary character Disco Stu. No I don't wear polyester pants suits or have a giant '70s fro. but I have been known to break into dance moves at any time. It totally embarrasses my kids when I start the robot dance in the cereal aisle at Pick N Save… but I have been known to break into dance moves at any time. It totally embarrasses my kids when I start the robot dance in the cereal aisle at Pick N Save.
Pop and Rock Listings
New York Times – Jul 27, 2007
’Connor’s portraits of the lovelorn and depressed sung over simple guitar strummings with the guileless vulnerability of a 2 a. phone confession are dry but not unsympathetic: “Maybe she’s on her lunch break thinking of you. ” She plays as part of the East River Music Project with.
Maja Salvador (Fairy god) Mother Lily’s chosen one
Manila Standard Today – Jul 27, 2007
” Now Lily is again waving her (invisible) magic wand to play fairy godmother to a young starlet whose only dream is to become a big star. She is launching Maja Salvador to full stardom via Regal Entertainment’s My Kuya’s Wedding a comedy about a brother who is about to marry his fiancée and how his younger sister turns things upside down. This is Maja’s biggest break so far in the movies. Maja joins a long list of stars that Lily has chosen to play fairy godmother to in the past and the most recent include Richard Gutierrez Angel Locsin Jennylyn Mercado and Iza Calzado. The names that have been closely associated with Regal Entertainment are Maricel Soriano Gabby Concepcion Richard Gomez among others. Mother Lily says: “Maja deserves a big and good film project because she is a very versatile star… “f course I’ll be doing “Can This Be Love?” which I sang when I was still part of Smokey Mountain and a collection of classic love songs” he adds. “But mostly the show will have lots of production numbers like a showdown between the two divas and an inspirational production with the whole cast. ” Jeffrey recently co-produced Dance Project 001 the first all-original all-Filipino dance compilation album featuring all-female artists including his sister Arnee. The versatile performer has also established himself as a budding entrepreneur. “I am currently running the family business which manufactures and markets various cleaning products” he proudly shares. “I’m the president and Arnee is VP for finance. ” We already have our brand Mismo available in all JC Spice outlets and our second line Sureclean will be out in all Botica ng Bayan outlets very soon.
Distilling Dystopia n Pointe
New York Sun – Jul 27, 2007
At other times the shadow play on the backdrop created an enormous open door upstage left spilling a shaft of light running diagonally to the downstage right corner. Architectural monumentalism dwarfed the dancers silhouetted within the projected frame. The dance language of “Metapolis II” is catholic employing every variant of modern dance vocabulary and every tempo of locomotion from utterly static to frenzied gyration all of which fall easily within the versatile dancers’ capabilities. Movement styles morph and merge throughout the piece which revises an earlier “Metapolis” that Mr. Hahid had created for the modern dance National Choreographic center in Charleroi Belgium in 2000… Flamand became artistic director in Marseille in 2004 he re-choreographed “Metapolis” for the classically trained Marseille dancers and now some of the women are on pointe. But pointe work is not really essential here; it seems just like another element thrown into the mix. There is however a striking image of one woman on pointe who wears something like an officer’s greatcoat it’s like seeing Vronsky of “Anna Karenina” break into a bourr?Toward the end of “Metapolis II” the dancers all stand on the bridges their backs to the audience watching footage of some type of exploding destruction. This might have been a good place to draw down the curtain. But some of the best was yet to come. van Dam left his forestage station and began to stroll among the dancers like the classic “flaneur” of urban mythology.
From Soweto to the Festival Hall
Belfast Telegraph – Jul 27, 2007
"There was one type you could calm down with smoke and one you could calm down by splashing water in your eyes" she says thoughtfully. It’s one of several anecdotes – always modestly quietly told – about growing up in Soweto under apartheid that make the 28-year-old soprano’s London debut in the lead role of Carmen Jones next week all the more remarkable. n the morning of her first preview performance the RFH is a hive of noisy activity but in the haven of her dressing room the leading lady is giggly and relaxed in spite of having to cram an interview a photo shoot make-up and a sandwich into her lunch break. As she talks she’s constantly turning round spreading her arms to emphasise a point or constantly making eye contact in the mirror checking that I’m listening. Several pairs of bejewelled silver stilettos are strewn about the floor and an impressive range of cosmetics stands by the mirror. For now Maswanganyi is bare-faced and dressed down in a khaki shirt dress gold sandals and hoop earrings her hair sticking up in a wild halo. She’s strikingly beautiful though she says her looks are not integral to the part: "Sexiness is somebody else’s opinion… She wasn’t interested in just playing a sultry femme fatale. " Kelly has shifted the action from 1950s America to 21st-century Cuba and roped in choreographer-to-the-stars Rafael Bonachela (still best known for his work with Kylie Minogue) for some salsa-inspired dance routines. Maswanganyi who relaxes by doing lambada dance classes has loved working with him: "He likes the way I naturally move" she tells me. For Maswanganyi Carmen Jones is the embodiment of a free spirit. " She’s a character who is free to do what she wants. She doesn’t like it if things don’t go her way. Everybody else is almost just there to fill out her life rather than her putting something into their lives.
Interview: Toughest role for comeback star Pfeiffer
Belfast Telegraph – Jul 27, 2007
I’m playing a racist’. I talked to my family because I understood that the message of the piece was really impor tant and certainly the message of the movie is anti-racism and anti-bigotry. I wanted to make sure my kids understood this is what the movie’s about; it’s a really important film and in order to do a movie about racism somebody has got to be the racist and it’s me!” she says laughing nervously almost as if she is still not entirely convinced herself as to why she took on this remake of John Waters’ 1988 cult classic though this time based on the recent Tony-Award-winning Broadway production about star-struck teenagers on a racially-segregated 1960s Baltimore dance show. “But I’m so glad I did it because I had a lot of fun playing the part even though there were some lines I honestly could not remember because they were so hateful. Literally I’d be doing a scene and I’d come up blank. I’d be looking at Dana (played by her co-star Queen Latifah) and it was interesting what my brain did.