Tonya Plank's Blog, page 27

Alvin Ailey: New Dances and New Productions

Alvin Ailey season is upon us! I attended two performances over the weekend and, of course, they made my weekend. I'm always so happy when I come out of an Alvin Ailey performance. Particularly with their new, 50-dancer Revelations, which I think is only for this year because it marks the dance's 50th year anniversary. I've always thought of this dance as the quintessential American dance, and it's so stunning seeing the stage completely filled with dancers. For some of the solo sections like "I Wanna Be Ready," they triple up the number of dancers, and they often use students from the Alvin Ailey School and from the Ailey II company for the larger sections like "Pilgrim of Sorrow" and the "Honor Processional" from "Take Me To the Water." So, please, if you're in New York, try to see one of the 50-dancer versions. They're only showing that production of Revelations on certain dates, so make sure you check the City Center schedule. I hope they consider doing this a few times a season in the future, though, because (expensive as it probably is) it's really so brilliant.

Also, my new second favorite dance is now Cry. I've seen it twice this season, and don't really know now if I've ever seen the whole thing. Maybe I've only seen Judith Jamison dance it on video and I've seen the individual sections before onstage, never in whole. It was created by Mr. Ailey in 1970 but this is a new production. This year they have three different dancers dancing the three solos. The first solo is set to Alice Coltrane's "Something About John Coltrane," and was danced the nights I saw it by Linda Celeste Sims on the first night, and Rachel McLaren on the second. They were equally spellbinding. This section, to me, is very powerful, the movement is very modern, with lots of sharp staccato movements meant to convey strife and longing and fear and a whole host of emotions – along with clever, ironic uses of a towel-like sheet – and it requires very powerful dancers.

[image error]

The second section, the adagio set to Laura Nyro's "Been on a Train," which often nearly brings me to tears, was danced both nights by Constance Stamatiou, who is really growing on me this season. She's a really beautiful, very "womanly" dancer, and she is really growing to have a great stage presence.

The third section, the more rhythmic African section, set to the Voices of East Harlem's "Right On, Be Free," was danced both nights by Briana Reed, who's always been one of my favorite dancers in the company. She was out of most last season and I'm so glad she's back. Mr. Ailey dedicated this dance to "all Black women everywhere – especially our mothers." I love how it begins with a powerful evocation of oppression and ends with a celebration of African roots. I hope they perform it every season.

The two new dances I've seen so far (there are many to come in the next few weeks), are Christopher Huggins's Anoited (which is a world premiere this season), and incoming artistic director Robert Battle's The Hunt (which is new for Alvin Ailey this season).

[image error]

The Hunt is great fun! I loved it. I could see that one every night, just like Revelations. All six dancers are men and it depicts, as the name implies, the rituals involved in preparation for a hunt. It conveys how physically and mentally grueling the hunt will be as a test the men's limits, and it also showcases the athletic power of Ailey's male dancers. And the music is mad fun! It's Les Tamours du Bronx, wildly percussive, so much fun! I joked on Twitter that I needed to get it for a workout tape. Seriously!

It's certainly a male moment in dance! This dance received loads of applause and a full-audience standing ovation. In Revelations, which followed, "Sinner Man" then received huge whoops and hollers from the crowd. As they should have. But the women of Cry deserved a full-audience standing ovation too! Not fair!

Christopher Huggins's Anoited is really beautiful. Huggins is a former member of Ailey and this dance is a tribute to the leaders of the company, both past and present. The first section is a really lovely duet by Jamar Roberts and Linda Celeste Sims, with the two meant to depict Alvin Ailey and Judith Jamison.

[image error]

Over the music we hear Jamison's words to Ailey, when he told her he was sick and asked her whether she would take over the company. "And I said, 'Of course!'" she repeats many times. At the end of the duet, he lies down, and she sadly kneels over his body. These two dancers are perfect to represent Ailey and Jamison. If this company does have a "star" right now it's Linda Celeste Sims, and Jamar Roberts, with his physicality and stage presence is larger than life.

In the second section, set to more percussive music by Sean Clements, Jamison is joined by four other women known for keeping Ailey's legacy alive over time: Sylvia Waters (director of Ailey II), Denise Jefferson (director of the Ailey School, who recently passed away), Nasha Thomas Schmitt (director of Ailey's arts in education program), and Ana Maria Forsythe (director of the Ailey / Fordham BFA program). The women are all dressed in celebratory purple and they dance a rhythmic, high-charged African / modern combo.

In the third and final section, entitled "52 and Counting," the dancers all come together and are joined by others, all dressed in red. They dance to a fast-paced beat, sometimes in ensemble, and breaking into duets replete with thrilling lifts. It reminded me a bit of the second section of Love Stories, or of Tharp's The Golden Section and it stood for me as a celebration of some of the more contemporary pieces the company is known for. Amidst all this, the figures of Alvin Ailey and Judith Jamison return, and perform another beautiful lift-heavy duet, this time with Roberts dressed in white.

I'll write more as the season continues. As I said there are many more premieres to come (check out City Center's website for the schedule). For now, I'm off to a Nutcracker by the Royal Ballet. I love the diversity of dance

All photos from AlvinAiley.org. Top photo by Christopher Duggan; all other photos by Paul Kolnik.

My Take on BLACK SWAN

I saw it over the weekend. Overall, I thought it was hilarious. Totally campy and just plain funny. Way too silly to be scary though. And I think Aronofksy was going for both. So, to me, it failed to that extent. But it may have just been me. Maybe I just have a dark sense of humor, because I went with two friends – one a ballet fan of the Gelsey Kirkland era, the other not. They both loved it and were on the edge of their seats throughout, although they also laughed quite a bit (particularly Gelsey Kirkland friend). Gelsey Kirkland friend said it reminded him of Dancing on My Grave. I must read that! I don't know why I haven't yet…

Anyway, so if you don't know the story, it's about this young ballerina who dances with a New York City ballet company housed in the Koch Theater. The artistic director (played by Vincent Cassel) is basically Peter Martins but with brown hair and a French accent.  Peter Martins guy tells the company that they are doing a new production of Swan Lake and to attract new audiences, they are going to cast a brand new ballerina, a new face. The old prima, Winona Ryder, is approaching menopause anyway. Never mind that she looks the same age she did in Reality Bites, at least to me. Apparently this company doesn't have a system of principals and corps members because no one has any idea who the new face is going to be.

Peter Martins guy soon reveals that he favors Nina (Portman), but thinks she can only do the White Swan. He thinks she'll have trouble with the Black Swan (he never uses the names Odette and Odile, which I know annoyed some ballet fans on Twitter, but I think it would have alienated non-ballet audiences had he used those names). He tries to seduce her (literally) in the name of getting her into the character of the Black Swan, which of course in the film is characterized as a sinister, conniving slut. But maybe he goes too far and unleashes the inner beast in Nina. She suddenly seems hell-bent on destroying herself (and she's had problems in the past with self-mutilation and, it's hinted at, anorexia). Or, maybe it's that a new dancer from San Francisco (Mila Kunis) is trying to destroy her in order to take her place as the lead. My biggest problem with the movie is that it's billed as a thriller but we never really find out the answer to that question. At the end, you're still left wondering WFT was that about??? I mean, you're left wondering that with many David Lynch films too, but with those, if you think long and hard enough, you can piece it all together. This, I don't think so. I think it was just meant to be scary, sexy, creepy, gory camp.

For serious ballet fans, you have to suspend disbelief. Natalie Portman I thought did an excellent acting job, and her dancing is very very good for someone with very little training. I know Sarah Lane was supposedly her double, but you never really see any stunning dancing. The camera mostly focuses on Portman's arms – and Benjamin Millepied did say he focused on the port de bras when training her and Kunis because you just can't teach someone with no training to go on pointe and do the fouettes and pirouettes and all. So, you simply have to suspend disbelief that someone at Nina's level would land the lead in the first place. And if you're looking for thrilling dancing – the fouettes, the lightening-speed chaine turns, a beautiful pas de deux, etc., you're not going to get it.

When we were all walking out, I did hear a couple people say now they wanted to see Swan Lake. Of course I hope it renews interest in the ballet, but it does worry me a bit that people will be disappointed, because the film makes it seem like the black swan pas de deux is a sex scene. The Peter Martins character keeps yelling at Nina to "seduce me, seduce me!" During a break he rhetorically asks Millepied (playing the role of Siegfried) if he would ever sleep with Nina (except he termed it differently). No one in the audience laughed but me. What am I the only New Yorker who reads the tabloids??? But in the ballet, the ballerina seduces both Siegfried and the audience with her allegro dancing, with her athletics. It's more dance than theater; the seduction is in the dancing not the acting.

The whole thing had a Valley of the Dolls feel to it. Barbara Hershey is Portman's mother, and she seems a bit off herself. You sometimes wonder if the mother (who never made it out of the corps, and who left ballet to have Nina) is trying to sabotage her daughter as well. There are some really funny (though I'm not sure if they were meant to be) screaming screeching cat-fight scenes between the two of them. But I think the funniest are between Winona Ryder as the aging ballet star forced into retirement and Nina, particularly those involving discussions of how to get ahead in the ballet company (guess; not by great dancing)… I miss Winona Ryder. I miss movies like Heathers…

Anyway, I still don't know how to feel about this movie. I'm happy that it's put ballet on people's minds again, but how misleading is it to what an actual ballet performance is all about? What do you guys think? It seems to have received fairly good reviews from the film critics.

Does a Ballerina's Weight Affect the Quality of a Performance?

So, if you haven't heard, the New York dance world is all up in arms over NY Times chief dance critic Alastair Macaulay's review of New York City Ballet's Nutcracker. The full review, which is here, I think is generally pretty good. But then he begins his concluding paragraph with this:

"This didn't feel, however, like an opening night. Jenifer Ringer, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, looked as if she'd eaten one sugar plum too many; and Jared Angle, as the Cavalier, seems to have been sampling half the Sweet realm. They're among the few City Ballet principals that dance like adults, but without adult depth or complexity."

Angry reactions have abounded: here are a couple on Huffington Post. In the second piece, Jennifer Edwards, quoting critic Eva Yaa Asantewaa (a friend of mine), notes that Ringer has had an eating disorder in the past and argues that this sentence was disrespectful, reckless, and irrelevant. Edwards also quotes an earlier reflection of Macaulay's on his role as dance critic:

"My job is to be a professional aesthete with serious criteria; and I share my perceptions and my values with the reader as best I can."

Edwards concludes by posing two questions:

"1. Do you read the Times dance reviews? Has this changed over time?

2. Do you feel reviews of this nature are of use to venues, arts organizations, audience members, aspiring young dancers, and artists?"

I wrote a little comment on HuffPo but thought I'd elaborate a bit here because I think it's an interesting, and complicated, issue.

I definitely don't think a dancer's weight affects the quality of a performance unless the dancer really can't dance. I've seen Ringer dance pretty recently and she is a tiny thing with no weight problem whatsoever. I didn't see this performance but I've always thought she was technically a very good dancer with a lot of charisma, particularly in roles like the one Melissa Barak recently gave her where she can act as well as dance. And I think Jared Angle is one of the best male partners – if not THE best – City Ballet has.  I think Macaulay just wanted to be snarky – that's part of his critic's voice. I think he thinks he's being funny. Maybe snark and sarcasm in critical reviews are partly a British thing? I see a lot of it though in reviews these days.

I think Macaulay knows a lot about dance history and I get the most out of his reviews when he focuses on that – on the history of a production, how this compares to others' or past productions, the history of the performers, the artists, etc. I generally like his Nutcracker review, most of which focuses on Balanchine's unique take on Tchaikovsky. The serious parts of it are very illuminating and show why this production is important and thus why a reader of his review might want to go see it. So the snarky part about Ringer's weight seems really out of place. I actually re-read the sentence and that directly following it a few times, thinking maybe he meant that Ringer and Angle were dizzy, dancing with childish abandon when they usually dance like adults. But, no, I think he has to mean that they were both plumper than usual – the same as everyone else's interpretation.

In response to Edwards's question 1 above: I do remember former chief critic John Rockwell making references to dancers' bodies, albeit not with the same snarky voice. In particular I remember him likening Marcelo Gomes's legs to "tree trunks," which offended some dance-goers. But it also seemed that he really loved Gomes and he'd lauded his dancing in the same review. So then it didn't seem like he was making a value judgment, just a description.

It is tricky, because it's hard not to talk about bodies since they're kind of inherent in this art form. I offended readers (mainly on Facebook) once in my review of Burn the Floor on Broadway by saying that the tiny Broadway stage looked way too crowded during the ensemble numbers with all of those dancers and the band sharing it. I said it looked particularly crowded when Maks Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff were the leads, as opposed to Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis, since the former two – Maks in particular – were so large. I didn't at all mean it as a criticism of him, but of the staging (and I suggested they take the band off of the stage, like in Tharp's Movin' Out). And, everyone who's read my blog for any length of time knows that I often prefer larger dancers (Veronika Part, Marcelo, Roberto Bolle, Vaidotas Skimelis – come on!) But I was still attacked and even told if I didn't remove it, those people would never read my blog again.

Also, sometimes a partnership just doesn't work right when one dancer is too large for the other. Sometimes certain movement, certain styles look better on one dancer because of that dancer's physique. I think those are valid criteria for judging the quality of a performance. But it can still get out of control – as in So You Think You Can Dance when the judges just start talking about the dancers' bodies. How many times did they have to remark on Josh Allen's butt? I always felt embarrassed for the whole show whenever that happened but everyone else seemed to think it was funny. But of course New York Times is not a corny TV show.

What is the purpose of a newspaper review anyway? To let your audience know from your educated perspective what is good and bad about a performance, and whether or not they should spend their money and go see it. I don't really like Edwards's second question because I don't think the purpose of a review is to be of use to venues, artists, aspiring dancers, and arts organizations. The critic's duty is to his readership – a general audience of potential dance-goers trying to decide whether to spend their money on a certain show. The critic has to be honest about what she thinks did and didn't work in the show and why. And I also think for the presumably well-educated NY Times audience it's nice when the critic goes into the history of a production, of a dance, the way Macaulay often does. But the critic can't be protecting the artist from hurt and also serving his readership of potential dance-goers. Otherwise, he's going to end up lying to someone.

Which gets back to the issue of whether a dancer's weight gain or loss is a serious criterion in judging the quality of a performance. I think it's ridiculous that someone would think it is, but what do you guys think? Why are we, as a culture, so hung up on weight anyway? People are always criticizing certain dancers for being too thin as well…

Happy Belated Thanksgiving from North Carolina

So I went to North Carolina to visit my mom and cousin for Thanksgiving. I really needed to get out of New York for a while, as I've been developing a real love / hate relationship with the city for the past few years now. My second novel, which I'm trying desperately to finish right now, is also set here, like my first, and I need to be here to do research. But I also derive much of my inspiration from this crazy place – from the people, the neighborhoods, the culture, the art, the public places, the landscape, the architecture, the history. I don't think I can ever really leave it. Yet, it's so hard to work here with all the noise (which prevents both sleep and, at times, access to your own mind), the total lack of privacy, the constant over-stimulation. Not to mention the expense, which I now feel the weight of so much more than when I had a full-time law job. So, I don't know. Maybe someday I really will move to San Francisco or L.A. or Miami where things are more low-key (and warm!) Or maybe I'll just keep taking short trips.

Anyway, here are some photos of my much-needed trip to N.C. Very small town, very quiet, very peaceful, very relaxing.

Country road.

Local church.

Small restaurant in the small downtown area. It was the only place I could find open the day after Thanksgiving. There were just enough people there for it to be interesting without being uncomfortably overcrowded.

Katy. Once a farm cat, she's become an indoor kitty since moving out of the country and into town. She's very sweet but she always refuses to look into the camera when getting her photo taken.

…unlike my cousin's cute little parakeet.

Cat and bird seemed to get along quite nicely. At least that's what kitty led me to believe… Twice when the bird flew off his perch to have some birdfeed, I found kitty suddenly sitting up all alert and ready to pounce…

My favorite little mall in Durham, built out of old tobacco warehouses, and which houses one of my favorite rare and used bookstores, Wentworth & Leggett.

Where I found an early edition of one of my favorite books.

Thanksgiving dessert: pumpkin cheesecake!

I'm Interviewed Today at the Frugal eReader

Hey you guys,

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I just got back from North Carolina late last night. I hope to post some pics soon – hopefully later today, and chat a bit about some great books I finished over the holiday, and write about what all I'm excited to see during Alvin Ailey's upcoming City Center season, which begins tomorrow night! So excited!

For now, here's an interview I did over at The Frugal eReader. This is one of my favorites, as Elizabeth, the blogger, asked such excellent questions! And she excerpted one of her (and my ) favorite passages from Swallow, which you probably haven't seen if you haven't read the whole book (since the excerpt is not from a beginning chapter). The Frugal eReader is, by the way, an excellent site to visit if you're looking for good indie books to try that are available in inexpensive ebook format.

Paperback Dolls and Nutrackers

I have a guest post up today at the Paperback Dolls blog! They're currently featuring New York authors and bloggers as part of their "Passport to New York" series. So, since I'm both, I talked about both my novel and the blog.

Regarding the blog, I gave their readers some recommendations on what to see in New York for the next couple of months dance-wise. I then realized I haven't done that for my own readers yet, because I've been so blasted busy. But of course everyone who regularly reads my blog knows what I'll recommend: Alvin Ailey, upcoming at City Center for the month of December (it's Judith Jamison's last season as artistic director so there will be lots of tributes to her); New York City Ballet's Balanchinian Nutcracker which has already begun and continues on through the beginning of the year; and ABT's new Nutcracker, which begins December 22nd and will be at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

I didn't have a chance to write about it but I saw a small sneak preview of ABT's new Nut at the Guggenheim's Works & Process event a couple weeks ago, at which choreographer Alexei Ratmansky and conductor Ormsby Wilkins spoke. Several excerpts were performed including Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes dancing part of the final Clara and the Prince pas de deux, the Russian dance, and some of the snow scenes. Ratmansky and ABT representatives had said earlier during a press conference that it would be pretty much traditional, but from what I saw it looks very modern. The costumes and sets – which are gorgeous and are made by Richard Hudson, the Tony award-winning set designer of the Lion King – are period, but the movement looked very modern to me, not at all classical. The pas de deux looked like lyrical and more romantic (without a capital "r") and less fairy tale-like than I've normally seen, and the Russian dance looked folksy and even a bit slapsticky rather than the classical bravura dancing we're used to with "Trepak." Anyway, Ratmansky had noted that the original choreography for this ballet is no longer extant so that's why there are so many different versions. The only two versions I'm really that familiar with, I guess, are Balanchine's and the San Francisco Ballet's two-year-old version, the DVD of which I reviewed a while back.

Anyway, I think the new Ratmansky Nutcracker is going to be a departure from the ordinary, and it will be interesting to see the whole and see how audiences react!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Dancing With the Stars Season 11 Finale, Night II

My favorite dance of the night, maybe of the whole show: Jennifer and Derek's waltz:

I also found The Situation's "I'm Too Sexy" dance hilarious fun and Kurt and Rick's competitive duet a total hoot. Of course some homophobic sports fans on Twitter watched the show for some reason (why?) and pronounced that dance the "gayest" ever on the show. Ugh, don't watch a dance show if you're going to be freaking out about guys dancing…

Anyway, so are you guys happy with the results? I really thought Jennifer would win. I didn't really have a favorite to win, but thought this was one of the best finales in recent history. I was just happy with the fact that there were three very different dancers / very different personality types up there, each of whom brought something wholly different to the dance. Still disappointed – and kind of shocked – that people made it more about politics than dance. Of course Sarah Palin now has to ruin it all with this speech she wrote analyzing other reality competition shows, like American Idol, and reprimanding contestants she considers lacking talent from not recognizing that and dealing with it like grown-ups (by not trying out for the show). Which is going to bring out more criticism of her daughter's performance on this show… Anyway, that is an issue for another day; I'm tired now

Blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hehe, here's a video I made of myself talking about my book for the Lit Chick Show, which I should appear on soon! You guys don't know how hard this was for me to make! First, I had to do about twenty takes because I got so nervous "in front of the camera" and kept forgetting my "lines." (That's why I keep looking down at the paper I'm holding, and looking up and to the right, which is for some reason how I often remember things). And then I'd finally get a decent one, but then I'd be not quite centered in the frame or my hair would be funny or the lighting would be off and creating a weird-looking shadow. I'd finally gotten a decent recording, but when I went to play it back realized I'd been so nervous I hadn't even heard that CAR ALARM going off for three-quarters of the clip… Ah, New York… Anyway, all I can say is I'm done!

Dancing With the Stars Season 11 Finale

So tonight is the finale, part 1. The three finalists – Kyle Massey, Jennifer Grey, and, I know, most controversially, Bristol Palin – are performing first a redemption dance (a former dance they didn't do so well in the first time around), and then the almost always entertaining freestyle.

First on are Kyle and Lacey re-performing their Foxtrot. Well, I can't remember the first time they did it but this was smoldering! I loved him! So dazzling, such a man! I love how he licked his lips at her at one point, while she did a little solo, before he took off after her. And when they did their side by side footwork, he seriously looked Fred Astaire-ish. This dance alone honestly made me want him to win. He was a marvel – excellent dancing and loads of style. What more can you want!

Next are Bristol and Mark re-dancing the jive. Well, this was definitely much better than the first time around, where they were in those silly bear costumes. I thought she was cute and he gave her lots of little shake-y things to do – with her shoulders, hips, and those cute sassy forward walks – but she looked a bit tired. Her legs weren't coming off the ground enough; there was a real imbalance between them. And she lacked his precision, which isn't surprising at all considering her lack of experience. And she looked a bit unsure of the footwork, though she seemed to get all of the steps right. Still, she did have fun and looked like it, and put on far more of a show than she did the first time around. I still don't think this is her dance though. I'm hoping for more from the freestyle.

Finally, Jennifer and Derek re-do their paso doble. Well, it was better than last time. She definitely had more control over herself. Derek didn't give her a whole lot of dancing though; gave himself all the flashy stuff – with the crazy cape swirling, the tour jete, the turning jumps. I mean, I felt like she didn't have a whole lot of chances to screw up here. But she did what she was given well. She looked polished, albeit a bit stiff in the upper body. That dance is so serious, it's hard not to look stiff though. Overall, I still feel it's not her best dance.

My winner for the first round is Kyle. Judges gave Jennifer the top score though (perfect score of 30; Bruno says he wished he had an 11 card).

Now onto the freestyle:

Kyle and Lacey do a full out funky hip hop to "Tootsie Roll." Yeah, I'm not so in love with the freestyle round. They rarely involve any ballroom at all. It seems like they're more for the pro ballroom dancers, who get to do something else for a change. He was a lot of fun though. Song was a lot of fun. It was the perfect dance for him.

Next are Bristol and Mark doing a Broadway routine ("He Had it Coming" from Chicago). I LOVED it! I can't believe how well she did for never having seen the movie, or any Broadway show before! I didn't expect her to do so well, since what she's done well on this show has been the real girl, the authentic person dancing ballroom at a social but elegant ballroom event, and totally stealing the show. But this required real performance quality, and I believe she pulled through. Though the judges don't… Audience seemed to love her though. I thought she had that Fosse-esque quality, with the hips, she used the props well – the chair, the hat, the cage, that crazy sash that they wrapped themselves up in! (Latin champs Max Kozhevnikov and Yulia Zagoruychenko have done something similar in a showdance, and I'm sure that's where Mark got the idea from, because I certainly don't remember that from the movie! – and damn, did she do well with it; that could have been a recipe for disaster, you know…). Seriously, she had that combination of jazz and tango down, and went back and forth between the two with surprising ease. I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I thought she did unbelievably well. I liked hers better than Kyle's anyway.

Now Jennifer and Derek: cute, they dance to "Do You Love Me" from Dirty Dancing. Wait, is that also from Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Well, it makes sense for her, of course. I thought she did well, but, honestly, wasn't great. She looked nervous and had a couple of flubs where she was a slight bit off on the footwork and on the rhythm. It didn't matter much; she was still a lot of fun and "sold it" personality-wise, and I guess that's what the freestyle is all about. Still seemed to be more dancing for Derek though, more tricks at least. Judges have nothing but praise though, and audience is on its feet.

There weren't very many lifts in this freestyle finale, huh? Overall, Bristol is my favorite for the freestyle round.

So, Kyle is my winner for the ballroom redemption round, and Bristol for the freestyle. I think Jennifer's going to win it overall though.

I thought Brandy and Maks were going to perform their freestyle though. I thought that's what the judges said last week. Instead, they're doing a little preview of Skating With the Stars. Huhm, maybe it will be tomorrow night.

Wow, Riccardo & Yulia Take Latin World Title!

Holy crap – according to Dance Beat, Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko placed first in the worlds in Bonn, Germany a couple days ago. When I first heard, I thought the current world Latin champs, Michael Malitowski and Joanna Leunis, might not have competed for some reason. But they did. They placed first only in Cha Cha. Riccardo and Yulia placed first in all other dances, making them the first American couple ever to be Latin world champs. I never thought they'd overtake Michael and Joanna – just because of the way ballroom competitions are, with the judges scoring couples the same year after year. I'm in shock!

Read more about the worlds, and about the Ohio Star Ball, in Dance Beat's current issue.