Eleventh Submission: Nichelle Strzepek

Posted on January 1, 2009 by unforbiddendances| 3 Comments

Nichelle, an enthusiastic dance blogger herself, emailed TDIAC on Christmas Eve with a whole list of clichés and YouTube links to match. In fact, she sent so many links that this post would be 11 feet long if I embedded all of the videos, so I’m leaving them as hyperlinks for you to click if you so desire. I challenge all of you to rise to her level of commitment to the cliché. The bar has been raised, people. It’s a new year.

She writes:

As a dancer and instructor I’ve seen plenty of clichés and probably perpetrated more often than I care to admit. So I have a few examples to share. Although I’ve never been heavily involved in competitive dance, I’ve seen enough to know that this sector of the dance world is absolutely riddled with cliché – enough to have its own blog. Some of the choreography is clever and at times the skill level of these kids is astounding, but its the nature of competition to have few new ideas. Some of my favorite competitive dance clichés:

Baring the midriff (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK_yfGl3s6A)
30 dancers – 1 male (usually in a solid-color, glittery shirt)
30 dancers! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98PKYAl3BgQ)
Booty shorts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji9qfxYNJOg)
Girl in boy’s clothing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzdC7GF_ib4) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDMx3D6jCDs)
“Edgy” choreography (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VegkN-HpAE)
The faster the better (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb0XzMiJgyQ) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoqhuzn3Suw) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDL3DV0Gjtw)
Bondage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16BmmgGL9w4) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02pTJwpQcfc)
Le Cirque (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsO4-V9qM-I)
Stomp-inspired tap routines (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihu3bDhi5vg)
Anything Fosse
Costumes from Fredrick’s of Hollywood (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k5ON5up9pA)
We get it, you can turn… (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k5ON5up9pA)
Young dancers that shimmy, run with their hands attached to their backsides, overact, and lipsync in between tricks. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laCeGZsMDDg)
This move: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzmIMLZ1t5E (battement catch turn)
This move: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQTgo6v_s9c (fouette turns)
This move: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNxrt0rHwRg (turns a la seconde)
This move: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBcgzaKtBi0 (switch leap)

Another favorite dance cliché….

dance movies:

girl trains herself to be a great ballet dancer
high class girl slumming on the street
hot boy encourages dancer girl to follow her dreams
rivalry, deception, and DRAMA
all the doubters and haters are proven wrong in the end
dancers can master any dance form in one video montage
dancing leads to you know what…

As someone who has been dancing for about 24 years, I can tell you for a fact that dancing never leads to “you know what,” no matter what those cheesy ballet movies of the 80s will have you believe.

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Blogged again

Posted on December 16, 2008 by unforbiddendances| Leave a comment

(And it feels so good.)

Nancy Garcia recently interviewed me for her Dance Docs blog. Read all about it as we discuss T-shirts, Rahm Emmanuel, and of course, This Dance is a Cliché.

Click here for the interview!

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Eleventh Submission: Kyle Beachy

Posted on December 2, 2008 by unforbiddendances| 3 Comments

Kyle Beachy, the almost-famous author with whom I share funny Gchat conversations, sent me a rather lengthy IM today with the following:

Kyle: this is only cliche for reasons i can’t even explain. but you’ll agree, i hope, because i have (at this very moment, of all the many many moments in my 30 years of life) never, ever seen anything so wonderful as this woman in her living room counting out these glorious steps.

His message included a link to this video:

And it resulted in the following conversation:

Kyle: perhaps it’s her tv? or perhaps the symmetrical towers of shelving flanking the tv? or perhaps the way her voice rises and becomes breathier as she steps? or the way her diagonals take her perilously close to the shelving and threaten to obstruct her line dance?
me: hahaha
Kyle: who knows. but i love it, i love it deeply, and it makes me terribly happy to share it with you.
me: or the fact her dance barely does anything at all
which is the premise of most line dances
Kyle: just. step. ping.
me: heel toe heel toe
thank you for bringing this into my life

Line dances are an aspect of social dancing I often forget about. I didn’t really grow up doing line dances and rarely find myself in a place where they are appropriate. I know the Electric Slide, courtesy of one of my late great uncles, and that’s about where it ends. But they are cliché in a pretty fabulous way; they’re accessible to basically anyone because they are usually just a series of steps, making them easy to perpetuate and therefore play out. The fact that this woman is dancing in her living room is a whole other level of cliché, which relates to YouTube culture and the fact there are people dancing in front of tripods in living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, baby rooms, laundry rooms, etc. all over the world and broadcasting them on the Internet.

Talk to me about line dances. Which ones do you know? Which ones do you enjoy? Which ones are heinous and should never be repeated? I know nothing, people. Teach me!

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TDIAC gets BLOGGED

Posted on November 30, 2008 by unforbiddendances| Leave a comment

The Urgent Artist, also known as my new favorite blog, has a very interesting post (written by Sarah Rosner, who sent in the Tenth Submission) on the concept of cliché in dance and mentions this project in the process. She quotes the NYT’s review of Australia, which includes this brilliant line:

The usual line about kitsch is that it’s an affront, a cheapening of the culture, a danger. “Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession,” Milan Kundera wrote. “The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch.”

True, but it doesn’t make the second tear any less wet.

Read the entire entry, though. It’s full of profound thoughts about why we continue the same patterns and if that’s really such a bad thing in the end. Thoughts? Should we always attempt to break our patterns and find that uncomfortable place? Does repeating an idea or concept you are all-too-familiar with completely inhibit you from beinq original and unique? How far can we break from “the comfortable” (for fear of being too cliché) before our work is completely inaccessible?

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Tenth Submission: Sarah Rosner

Posted on November 19, 2008 by unforbiddendances| 1 Comment
What up, party people? TDIAC submissions have reached double digits! Definitely time for celebration.
I received an email from Sarah Rosner from The A.O. Movement Collective and The Urgent Artist Blog (check it check it), who had some wise words to say about cliché in general:
Like you, i feel frustrated by cliches, and actively avoid them in my process of dance making, although i’m not as concerned about them ending up in the final product.  Does that make sense? If it comes as a honest result of investigation of new and interesting questions and ideas, then, gee, maybe this practice of so many people asking different questions and getting to the same place is really what a cliche is after all – heartfelt emotion made slightly cheesy (queasy?) by it’s overuse due to commonality.  But if it ends up in my work because i’m too lazy push myself to ask something that hasn’t been asked before, or see it in a way that’s new, well then shoot me in the face.
I’d rather not shoot you in the face, Sarah. I’m sure you’re pretty, and I’m not violent.
She also submitted a little cliché scenario:
Anyway, as a dancer who would be identified as modern or postmodern, here’s the one that kills me because i’ve had to watch it over and over again for the last four years.  It’s a crowd favorite, and sure to make all the po-mo eyes roll:
The “I’m doing ballet and or lyrical modern dance.  But Wait! My alignment is opposite to what it should be! My lines are broken! I have flexed feet where they should be pointed! My ‘broken technique’ is so clever!  I’ve transformed from ballet/lyrical into modern dance!” dance. That one. Please no more. We get it.
Funny how trying so hard to not be typical creates a cliché all of its own.

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A celebration

Posted on November 15, 2008 by unforbiddendances| 2 Comments

While chatting with my dear friend Kyle Beachy (buy his book!) this afternoon, I was reminded of the true essence of this project and felt the need for a slight clarification.

This project was born out of frustration with cliché. I would work on movement then suddenly find myself paralyzed, unable to think of anything else that I felt was truly unique or really expressed my full intentions. I would be sure that I was just recycling old movements of my own or that I had seen elsewhere. So instead of letting these clichés inhibit my creation process, I decided to embrace them and give them a forum. It was pointed out to me that this may be unclear, though, based on the fact that on the surface, we’re making fun of many of these overused aspects of dance. Our Gchat went a little something like this:

Kyle: but sarah i support cliches. that’s the problem…i want to be able to dance as badly and as cliched as i like without worrying about if my dance is cliche.

if i start thinking about cliches, i can get paralyzed.
me: haha
that’s sort of the point of the project, though
I get paralyzed, too
when choreographing
so the project is to embrace them
not necessarily make fun of them
just give them a venue
cliché only
Kyle: oh i see. well, then, yes. i will find you one, so long as you promise no to make fun of the played-outedness of the dancer, but instead revel in his/her tired moves, and applaud him/her for dancing at all.
me: you will be showered with applause
you do remind me that perhaps I should explain that, though
about the project
dancing makes some people so self-conscious and/or scared
especially if they think they’re about to be put in a venue where they will be ridiculed
Kyle: it’s a celebration, bitches. it’s supposed to be a celebration, bitches.
me: a celebration, indeed

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Ninth Submission: Scott Smith

Posted on November 15, 2008 by unforbiddendances| 2 Comments

Not to be outdone by his “good bride,” Scott Smith sent TDIAC the following submission this morning:

Like many cliches, this dance once had impact, it had meaning. And then this happened:

Now it is the province of drunk, puffy dudes at weddings.

It’s funny because I was considering teaching my 5th graders in the Bronx the Running Man, just for fun. I’d argue Scott’s assertion that the dance ever had impact, but it was definitely how my friends and I spent time during recess in elementary school. We also did this dance we called The Funky Chicken, but I’m pretty sure we made it up. It’s not like any other Funky Chicken I’ve ever seen before.

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Eighth Submission: Nina Schwanse

Posted on November 12, 2008 by unforbiddendances| Leave a comment

Nina wrote me last night, inspired by the fact she was finally able to steal wireless internet at her studio:

“Does this count as a cliché?”

After I viewed it, I had no words. If I could have spoken, I probably would have replied, “yes?”

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Seventh Submission: Shanna Honkomp

Posted on October 26, 2008 by unforbiddendances| 1 Comment

Running. What could be less cliché than a simple function utilized by most mammals? However, for some reason when you combine “running” with “dance,” the most awkward movements occur. Shanna Honkomp, a dance enthusiast, fantastic performer and wealth of dance trivia, sent the following submission:

The run. What run you may ask? THE RUN. You know the one. It’s in contemporary, it’s in modern, it’s definitely in lyrical, and it’s even found in classical ballet. Some poor las or lad is instructed to run.

Where?
Around the stage.
Should I look like a dancer when I run?
Absolutely not. Look as “pedestrian” (another favorite dance cliché) as possible.
Am I running somewhere or to someone?
No, but you can add your own intention.

This usually ends with the dancer flailing him/herself on the floor and quivering (please see Elizabeth Parkinson performing Purple Rain, in Billboards by Joffrey Ballet. This piece might have actually originated the cliché. Folks, that was 1993. It was original then, it’s played out now!)

In the clichéd words of Susan Powter, “Stop the insanity”!

We were at a get together over the weekend, and I made her demonstrate for my camera. (Yes, the giggling in the background is yours truly.)

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Sixth Submission: Erin Shea

Posted on October 21, 2008 by unforbiddendances| 1 Comment

The witty and concise Erin Shea is the first to respond to TDIAC’s pleas for non-professional dancers to submit clichés. While I wish she would have sent an original video of her (or her fiancée) doing this dance, Ms. Shea searched the Internet high and low for video representation. Behold:

She writes:

It has to stop.

Agreed.

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