Robert Muraine (aka Mr. Fantastic) and Shugamai Johnson

Found this Ikea ad featuring two amazing dancers:

I first saw Robert Muraine when he auditioned for SYTYCD. He made the top 20, but decided not to continue, recognizing that he'd be like Cedric: an amazing dancer in his own style, but not ready to branch out. He and Philip Chbeeb did a dance-off that was awesome. Chbeeb also had made the top 20, but got pneumonia and had to drop out. Muraine went on to be a protogé of Nigel Lythgoe who had him on another dance show (that I did not care for) where he got to show his talents to a wider audience. Anyone who makes a living as an artist knows that residuals from commercials pay the bills, so I hope this ad from Ikea is paying Robert so he can keep on dancing.

And where did Shugamai Johnson come from? Yeah, baby!She's a "liquid" dancer rather than a popper like Robert.
Here's a video about the making of the commercial:

Here's Mr. Fantastic vs Phillip Chbeeb (aka Pacman). Who do you like better?

Will Chbeeb be back this season? here he is against D-Rock with a great song by The Gap
I think Chbeeb has great musicality as well as popping skills. I'd love to see what he could do in other dance styles. I hope he auditioned again this year.
(cross-posted at SYTYCD 5 Social)

Fan girl dance critic

In the comments to Rachel Howard's recap of the SYTYCD Top 6 Eliminations show, I posted a rather banal comment about my opinion of the elimination of Mark (wah! sad!). But then I received some interesting email that were replies to my comment at Voice of Dance (which should really get rid of their lousy comment structure, because the resulting dialogue is completely out of order and thus hardly intelligible). Professor of Dance and writer Mindy Aloff, whose name I recognized from having read her reviews in The Nation and other publications, asked what readers of Rachel's article, viewers of the show, thought of the choreography. I think it's worth reposting her question, because she brings up a number of issues that folks have been discussing, in a variety of venues in the dance world, and in the fan boards.

"Would be interested to find even one reader's assessment of the choreography--especially since the show, itself, which I like, takes a lot of care to emphasize the subject. Does anyone (apart from Rachel) care? Would it make a difference to anyone if these were gymnasts rather than dancers? What, in your view, makes the dancing, well, dancing? And what do you all think about the fact that, say, in the rehearsal segment for the Viennese waltz, we actually heard a Viennese waltz (by Johann Strauss, Jr) but in performance the Viennese waltz choreography had to be performed to pop music. Why do you think the producers made that change? Aren't you all dancers and dance fans? Don't you have views on stuff like this?"

My reply, and her response as well as the responses of others are a little hard to follow because the site has a lame comment feature, but I want to know what people think of her question and all the questions that come with it.

Are we just suckers for a pretty face, a scripted showmance, a pop ballad? are we manipulated by the judges' vague and tendentious commentary that does little to educate us about what to look for in the performance or the choreography? Does it all boil down to "I may not know much about dance, but I know what I like"? What is the difference between saying "I lurve Mark" and "Mark is the best dancer on the show" (or Will, or Katee, etc). America's best dancer vs. America's favorite? Did "Ameriker get it right/wrong?" How do the "experts" talk to the "fans"? (and of course these are not at all mutually exclusive categories!) Does the fact that Nigel is plugging American Idol by having the Viennese Waltz danced to a David Cook song instead of Strauss mean that serious lovers of dance feel cheated? Does the NappyTabs "lyrical hip hop" live up to the desire of some fans of hip hop to have something closer to their experience visible on the show? What are we missing when we don't have judges or experts educating viewers about what it is they see when they look at dance?

I really want to read Aloff's book Dance Anecdotes now, because she has collected STORIES about dance. I'm fascinated by how we respond to dance, how we talk about it, the role of the professional critic, the expert, the judge and also the response of the amateur, the dance lover, or the viewers rendered temporarily insane by their intense crushes on the performers.

One thing that bothers me is the sneering remarks about "fifteen year-old girls who just have crushes on the dancers" that I've read in more than one forum. I was one of those fifteen year-old girls whose love of dance first manifested itself in a violent crush on a dancer I saw perform with the American Ballet Theater back in 1970(?) or so, Ivan Nagy. He wasn't yet a principal, I believe, but he was no longer in the corps de ballet. All I saw was a performance that captivated me, and a photo in the program, but I was madly in love.

I was my mother's ballet buddy. She would get season tickets to performances at the San Francisco Opera House for whatever dance performances were going on--The San Francisco Ballet Company, American Ballet Theater, the Joffrey Ballet--and I got to come along. I wasn't a dancer myself (I kept injuring my ankles and knees) but I was madly in love with dance. And with the dancers. I would develop an intense obsession with some dancer during the performance and crush on the photo in the program at home. I was completely enamored of Ivan Nagy of the ABT before he went on to dance principal roles, and later transferred my affections to Fernando Bujones after I saw him dance in Don Quixote with Natalia Makarova. My Nureyev crush set in when I saw the 1972 documentary film I Am A Dancer , and it was as much about the revelation of artistry as it was about his charisma. It was a fixation on the beauty, the eroticism, the passion of dance and what I fantasized to be the life of the artist. Sure, the fantasy was probably fueled by hormones, but it was also a manifestation of my yearning for beauty, for passionate expression far beyond what I had (yet) experienced in my daily life. I went on to cultivate my passion for dance by viewing, reading, participating, study. But it was the fangirl crush that got me started, just the way Will Wingfield saw Dirty Dancing and said "I want to do that!"
I have many different relationships to dance and dance talk now, beyond the girly crush, but I still find myself smitten with the "coup de foudre", the lightning bolt crush.

So, still in the throes, I leave you with this:

What Cat said.

SYTYCD update

No, I'm not going to be able to do the job that Ted did, but here are some links to recaps and posts I've found through the BSYTYCD site. If it's a little Mark-centric, hey! No secret he is my fave.



Great news! Natalie's Top 6 Music Recap has found a home at Television! You Black Emperor. I wonder if Leee! will have a chance to weigh in or if Comic-Con flattened him? Doesn't this picture NEED to be a LOLCat?

My home town paper the SF Chronicle's dance critic Rachel Howard recaps the performance show at Voice of Dance: So You Think You Can Dance: Difficult Decisions and the Eliminations episode. I always appreciate her separate scores for choreography and performance, and her expert reviews.

Tonya Plank (aka Swan Lake Samba Girl) recaps at HuffPo on the Final Six eliminations show. I appreciate Tonyas ballroom/classical dance background, and her positive approach to reviewing dance performances.

A super, fierce heart-felt tribute to Mark Kanemura at the blog The Fat Lady Sings, by former theater performer, acting and dance coach who sees Mark as a force of nature.

Dancer/writer/photographer Matt at Ranting Details has some wicked and telling thoughts about the performance episode, but won't be able to blog next week. Wah!

BeckyLooo over at If a TV Falls in the Woods is too busy being wildly successful at having her TV script filmed, and having been invited to play a major organizing role in the Obama campaign to blog Sytycd; congratulations to her!

VH1 Best Week Ever recaps the results show and they are not fans of Lady Gaga.

Ducky Does TV asks fans if they have been blowing hot and cold on the show this season as he has. His witty extended recap of the results show is on After Elton.

And at Give Me My Remote, there were some tears.

Smug Doug is not wild about the top four.

Pond Culture's take is always slantwise, but often quite astute.

LA Times Show Tracker attends each show and talks about what happened off camera.

BuddyTV does the usual phone interviews with Mark and Chelsie

Probably going to be a Mark Kanemura fansite, a collaboration between The Fat Lady Sings and The Markers (IDF fans), because people want to know where he's going next. May I say how much I adore the*WUB*, the gifs, sigs, montages, avis, and sweetness on the Mark Kanemura fanthread? (I wish I had some bouncing emoticons to put here.)

I won't be doing this every day, but the season's almost over, and I'll keep you posted when the next iVan blog goes up, or if you want to pass on any tidbits you come across, feel free to send them along.