On Sunday, we went to see the matinée of Ballet Across America III at the Kennedy Center. This is something they’ve been doing for, well, three years – hence the III in the name. They bring in a bunch of ballet companies and they do an evening of short programs. There are 9 companies represented and three different programs each with three of the companies. The day we went, we got to see North Carolina Dance Theater, Ballet Austin, and the Dance Theater of Harlem. This was the program we wanted to see, so we were happy. In short, it was a delightful night of ballet of all kinds. That is one of the things we like best about this kind of thing – we get to see the styles of different companies; how they dance, what kinds of dancers they like, what kind of choreography they do. It’s really interesting.

The N.C. Dance Theater did Rhapsodic Dances with music by Rachmaninoff. There were 5 couples in different colors. The dancing fit the music beautifully with the combinations of dancers changing as the different parts of the music changed. At one point, one of the ballerinas, slipped of her tutu and used it almost as a fan in a fan dance. I liked this one and it was a nice opener, but found that it occasionally got a little pat. Beth liked it more than I did, but I liked it and the music was lovely with an excellent piano (Arkadiy Figlin).

The next was Ballet Austin doing a piece called Hush (not based on the episode of Buffy, however). This used Phillip Glass music. I was a little worried about what this would be like since I’m not crazy about Glass’ music but this was a much more conventional piece, almost romantic, I thought. The dancing was very romantic as well, flowing and graceful with some of the dancers showing an amazing amount of flexibility. I liked this quite a lot, more than Beth (but I’m a romantic when it comes to ballet). Again, the orchestra did a wonderful job with another fantastic piano soloist (Lisa Emenheiser).

The last piece was Dance Theater of Harlem. They did Return choreographed by Robert Garland. This used prerecorded music, however, since that music was Aretha Franklin and James Brown, I had no complaint at all. The songs were “Mother Popcorn,” “Baby, Baby, Baby,” “I Got the Feelin’,” “Call Me” and “Super Bad.” This was a real crowd pleaser, a combination of pure ballet with pure funk. Beautifully lyrical when needed with hip shaking street moves added in. An openly sexy ballet. Their story is also interesting since, they had closed for 9 years due to debt and bankruptcy and have just recently restarted with a new set of young dancers. If the reaction of the crowd is any indication, they will do well.

Last night (Thursday) we went back to the KenCen to see “Anything Goes”. This is the touring company of the revival that won a Tony last year. It was delightful. To begin with the music and songs are by Cole Porter so that’s a big win right there. The choreography was wonderful with romantic dancing as well as big production numbers and big tap numbers. Just what you would want from a musical from the thirties (originally). The plot is a frothy silly conglomeration of gangsters, heiresses, lounge singers, and more , all on board an ocean liner going from NYC to England. The lead is Rachel York who gives you what a real Broadway musical star ought to. She really can sing the Cole Porter songs like they should be sung, from the smokiness of “I Get a Kick Out of You” to the rousing title song (with tap dancers on three levels). Her duet of “Friendship” with Fred Applegate was really funny and it was great to watch two professionals working together and having fun. And she can dance up a storm, too. This show has showstoppers aplenty and more classic standards than almost any show I’ve seen.

I know it seems that all we do is go to the theater but thats because this year we had subscriptions to both the Kennedy Center Ballet season (which we have had for years) and the regular theater season (because there were a number of shows we wanted to see), so there are times when we have something every week (or more).

Next week, I’ll probably write about what I’ve was watching on TV or reading or both.

Right. Made it for a second week. I think that’s a record

During the last week we went to two theatrical performances. Well, one and a half.

The first was at the Kennedy Center and was The Guardsman. This is a new translation of an 1910 comedy by Molnar. An earlier translation was filmed with Lunt and Fontaine as a light comedy. It is about a married theatrical couple (The Actor and The Actress) who have been married for nearly 6 months. This is how long every one of her numerous affairs have lasted. The Actor believes his wife is getting restless and is ready to leave him, so he decides to play the part of her ideal lover – a guardsman – so that he can test her love and win her again. This production didn’t work for us. We found the new translation clunky and unfunny. Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori in The Walking Dead) was the Actress and we both found her without charisma and I thought she seemed uncomfortable on the stage. We both found the best performance was the Maid, a small part, but played very well. I thought the Actor (played by Finn Wittrock) was OK, and may have been better if the script hadn’t been so bad. I can’t tell you if it improved in the second act, because we left at intermission. We just didn’t feel like staying and watching more of the mess. I think we’ve only done that once before (and we couldn’t remember what it was). I have to say that the reviewer in the Post completely disagreed with us and loved it. Oh yeah, the set and the costumes were excellent.

Then last Saturday night we went to the Arlington Cinema and Draft House to see a performance of Cinematic Titanic. This is Joel Hodgson and some of the others from MST3K – Mary Jo Piehl, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Coniff (TV’s Frank), and J. Elvis Weinstein (who did Tom Servo) – doing the MST3K thing and riffing on a bad movie. LIVE!!! The movie at the showing we saw was Danger on Tiki Island. Before the movie they did some comedy routines. These weren’t so good and I think they would have been better served by just introducing the folks and letting then do a few funny things as part of that. Once they took their places and the movie started, it was great. It was like living through an MST3K show. And, since it was the late show and only adults, it was a dirty MST3K. There were times I was laughing so hard that it was getting hard to breathe. They still have it. We all had a wonderful time. If this shows up where you live – catch it!! The tour schedule is on their website – http://www.cinematictitanic.com

See you next week!

Fast Forward congratulates all the Nebula Nominees!

http://www.sfwa.org/2013/02/2012-nebula-awards-nominees-announced/

Jay Lake is an award winning writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy and one hell of a nice guy. He’s also been a guest on Fast Forward. Jay has been fighting colon cancer since 2008 and is currently on his fourth round of chemotherapy. Right now this doesn’t seem to be working and things aren’t looking so good for Jay.

One of the new things that could help is to do a full genome sequencing for him which could lead his doctors to a new treatment path for him. There is a fundraiser going on at YouCare.com (http://tinyurl.com/anqp49z) right now. Please donate something if you can. Just to help you decide to give, there are a number of Acts of Whimsy that a number of leading SF authors have offered to perform as donations reach various levels.

So, please, help a good man fight a bad thing, help raise the level of whimsy in the universe, and as alot of folks have been have saying – Fuck Cancer!