Dance life

So the Black Eyed Peas song ‘I Got a Feelin’ may not be the best, and at times it’s pretty annoying, but I have to admit that it’s generating a bunch of cool videos.

The first one I heard about through the Gazette. A french school, Comm-UQAM or something, put together a video to the Black Eyed Peas song.  It took a lot of preparation, but the cool thing about it is that everything came together perfectly and they shot it in one take.  The camera man walks through the school taping people lip sync to the song and act out the lyrics.  Everything is perfectly on time and really cool, so check it out!

The next video is known as ‘The Famous Oprah Video.’  This one has the Black Eyed Peas on stage performing their song to a huge audience in Chicago.  This video also took a lot of preperation because as the band sang the audience danced along perfectly in sync with each other and the song.  It starts off with one girl dancing alone at the front of the audience while everyone else stood still, gradually as the song goes on more people start to join her until the entire audience is participating.  The best part of this video is when all the audience members ducked down creating a really cool domino effect.  I was blown away, like Oprah, and I’m sure you will be too:

So even though the song may be annoying and always stuck in your head (especially after you watch these videos…haha is it stuck in yours?)  the videos are great and well put together!

This weekend my friends and I went to Toronto to see SYTYCDC being filmed and it was so surreal! It all started with Michelle, my dance lurking best friend, who went on the site and registered to see the show.  Hearing the news that we’d been invited to see the top twelve filming show seemed like a distance dream, but I knew we’d make it happen.  After the six hour drive to Toronto we arrived at our hotel exhausted.  The next day we before I had time to process everything we were in a taxi on our way to the filming studio.  We shuffle through the halls lined with SYTYCD posters until we get to the waiting room, full of teenage girls like us. 

While we’re standing around listening to the employee Josh explain all the rules we were asked to move to the opposite side of the room.  Confused but obviously willing to comply, we move to the side of a Joe Fresh stage.  Without much explanation we’re dancing front row in the Joe Fresh station with dozens of other girls for the show.  After that exhilarating yet slightly embarrassing experience we’re ushered outside to wait in the hallway.  In the hall Josh, the off stage MC, was picking out girls to get their place in the audience first.  He walked right by us after saying he wanted energetic girls, so naturally I had to scream in his face to show I was pumped.  Turns out he didn’t like that much, so he walked by us numerous times picking out girls all around us.  Finally, after our smiles faded, our whole line was led into the audience mosh pit.  Turns out Josh was choosing girls to be on the balcony, and we got to stand exactly where we wanted – first row in front of the judges. 

I enjoyed every second of being there, while the cameras were rolling and while Josh was keeping us entertained during the breaks.  We were in our places almost an hour before the show was due to start, so we were entertained by a cute little eight year old named Harper who was hip hop dancing on stage for us.  While the audience was filing into their seats I noticed a few girls in Christmas suits.  The Rockettes were there and during one of the breaks they showed Josh a few kicks!  The audience was sprinkled with dance celebrities, from former SYTYCDC contestants, including Vincent from last year, to choreographers. 

Before the show even started we were filming our screams.  These cheers would be the shots used to show the posters for each couple because we couldn’t hold any posters during the show.  The stage manager told us to cheer as if we’d just watched a dance and we filmed it over and over - once for each couple and a few more times with different lighting.  There was so much fake cheering going on that I was coughing and fake screaming for a large part.  I thought I’d lost my voice, but when the dancers walked on stage I forgot all about it and screamed even louder. 

When the show finally started I was going crazy.  We needed to make an aisle in the mosh pit for the judges to walk through, and I was at the edge of that aisle meaning I was inches away from the judges as they passed.  Tray actually double high-fived me as she passed and Jean Marc grabbed my hand, along with most of the other girls in the front row.  It was such a fun show, and everything was happening so fast.  No double takes, if they make a mistake they make a mistake, it felt very real and I loved that.  At the first commercial break Leah (the host) walked to the edge of the stage and looked right at me and said she has the same dress I was wearing.  I was in shock, I barely understood what she was saying and it was even harder to reply.  Leah looked beautiful and she was such a sweet heart all night. 

The whole experience was surreal, there’s no other word to describe how I feel about it, but it was something I’ll never forget!

I have encountered a slight problem with the way I decided to write about each SYTYCDC episode… I was hoping to write blogs on the best dances of each show and include the video of the dance being performed.  The problem is the videos don’t go up on YouTube for a while, and I end up writing about a good dance weeks after it’s been performed.  So it seems odd writing about episode two after episode three is long gone and the fourth one is coming up, but I blame Youtube. Well at least the video of Vincent and Amy dancing Blake’s contemporary went up eventually…here it is:

It’s very creepy, but I love it cause it’s well danced and well ‘acted’. In the opening video Vincent seemed as if he couldn’t be that dark and menacing character, but he really pulled it off during the dance; at times he even looked possessed (like around the 2:59 point.)  Every detail of the dance was well executed, from the smallest finger move that opened the dance to every jerky movement Amy does while she’s being constrained by Vincent. It wasn’t just creepy it was emotional too, and typical Jen Marc seemed to be on the verge of tears when it was time for him to comment on the dance. 

I loved this dance, and I love Vincent even more – he’s so SYTYCDC in my opinion.  The French accent, the name, the adorable ballroom dancing, and the cute personality.  Vincent is one of my favorite dancers, and I hope he goes far, I hate seeing this couple in the bottom, two out of three weeks isn’t very good, so they better pick it up!!!

My mom sent this video to me in an email and it was hard to believe what I was watching.  This is what the email said:

Recently, in a televised modern dance competition in China - a very unique couple won one of the top prizes and received the longest standing ovation.

She was a dancer, who had trained since she was a child.  Tragically, she lost her entire left arm in an accident and fell into a state of depression; so she decided to coach a children’s dancing group.  From that point on, she realized she could not forget dancing. She still loved to dance and wanted to dance again. She tried to do some of her former routines but without her arm she had difficulty maintaining balance. She practiced strenuously and developed a dance routine - always dancing alone in her studio.

He was not a dancer. He lost a leg in an accident and he had fallen into a deep state of depression. They met - and her goal immediately became to help him become positive about life again. She taught him to dance and in her studio they danced together and developed a routine as their lives and friendship became closer.

Their life together, behind the closed doors of the dance studio - was one creativity, challenge, determination, practice and sometimes failure. Their focus was on doing what others said would be impossible. Several times it became so difficult and frustrating for them that they gave up, broke up. But life alone, without each other, brought them back together again and they became even more determined to perfect a dance routine to a point where they might try to dance outside the studio to see what friends and family thought about what they were doing all that time inside the studio.

Their friends and family were so supportive they encouraged the couple to enter a dance competition, which they finally agreed to do. Only later did they realize the competition was to be televised locally. We will now see the first - and to date only televised performance of their dance…

It took a lot of courage for these two to perform, but what amazes me is the strength they each have while performing the dance.  They male dancer is unimaginably strong and he not only holds himself up with perfect posture but he lifts his partner better than some able-bodied dancers can.

Good for them!