performance – Juanita Collins

April 30, 2015

Brought to you by the letter Z for Jazz, baby!

Zap! …I really can’t believe the month is over and this is the last A-Z challenge post! No more daily Nita in your inbox!

I love the letter Z. There are a lot of great things I could have written about that actually start with a z, but I found out just a few minutes ago that today, April 30th, is actually International Jazz Day!

Jazz hands, everyone! Yeah!

Today I’m going to show you a couple of original fusion pieces I choreographed for the dancers to perform to LIVE Big Band music back in 2011. Bellydance meets Big Band!

OMG it’s the most amazing feeling to be on the big stage with a full 18-piece big band behind you. Amazing! I wish every dancer could experience it.

First, here is a new one that hasn’t hit my website yet (because I only uploaded it to YouTube about 10 minutes ago). Orange Colored Sky!

And here they are again, dancing to another great big band standard: Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

And last but not least…and entirely appropriate for the very last post of the A-Z in April challenge: our Rockin’ the Casbah FINALE done to New York, New York.

Phew! Can’t believe it’s over. It’s over, baby!

I hope you had as much fun this month as I did!

I’d love to hear from you…which post was your favourite?

I’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge. One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday).

…but don’t go away! I’ll still be blogging, just not every day, regular as clockwork!

April 28, 2015

X is for Xylophone!

C’mon…raise your hands. How many of you think of this little toy when you hear the word xylophone?

Actually, the term xylophone also includes instruments such as the marimba, the semantron and the vibes. BUT (for you purists – I’m talkin’ to you, Mr. C…) while vibes are often called xylophones, they aren’t actually a true xylophone. This is because, unlike the xylophone, each vibraphone bar has a resonator tube with a motor-driven valve at one end that produces a tremolo. Also unlike a true xylophone, the vibraphone also has a sustain pedal like a piano.

Does hearing the xylophone have the same effect on you that it does on this cat?

I hope not, because I’ve assembled a few very short clips for your enjoyment:

Take a breath and hold onto our seat for Ralph Heid, the worlds fastest xylophone virtuoso playing the Flight of the Bumblebee!

Do you prefer jazz? How about the master of the vibraphone, jazz-giant Lionel Hampton!

How about the William Tell Overture featuring Dan Marquis on xylophone with the Indiana Wind Orchestra:

Perhaps you prefer your xylophone to be more…organic?

Or maybe you prefer zen-xylophone (this is actually very neat and worth the watch)…

And how about a piece of classical music written especially for the xylophone:

Would you like to make your own xylophone?

I’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge. One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday)

April 17, 2015

O is for Old MacDonald’s Daughter!

…performing to a little something by Frank Sinatra at Saqra’s Showcase, November 2009

I’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge. One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday).

April 4, 2015

a De-lovely Dream!

It’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s delectable, it’s delirious, it’s dilemma, it’s de limit, it’s deluxe, it’s de-lovely! Am I dreaming?

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter D!

Here are Colin Donnell and Laura Osnes singing “Its De-Lovely” from the 2011 revival of the Cole Porter musical, “Anything Goes,” which made its Broadway debut in 1934. Cole Porter wrote both the music and the lyrics for the musical.

From the liner notes:

IT’S DE-LOVELY was born when Cole Porter was taking a cruise. While watching the sun rise over Rio, from the ships deck, Cole remarked ….”It’s Delightful” ; his wife, Linda, responded with….”It’s Delicious” and their friend, actor, Monty Woolley threw in ….”It’s De-Lovely” . Porter used all three comments in the song.

And if you love Big Band music the way I do, here’s the 1936 version done by Eddy Duchin & his Orchestra with Jerry Cooper on vocals (vocals start after the one minute mark).

Another great Cole Porter song is Dream Dancing, originally recorded by the great Ella Fitzgerald in 1978. Here it is performed by Gabrielle Stravelli at the Metropolitan Room July 31, 2014. Wish I had been there!

D is also for Dance, right? Here is Saba Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble performing to Dream a Little Dream of Me, which was written by Fabian Andre, Wilbur Schwandt and gus Kahn in 1931. This dance is the dream sequence from the opening of act II, Rockin’ the Casbah, April 2011 in Whitehorse, Yukon. Fawn Fritzen on vocals.

I’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge. One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday).

April 3, 2015April 3, 2015

C is for the Casino Opera Choreography

I’m participating in the Blogging From A-Z challenge. One blog post for each letter of the alphabet, each day of April (except Sunday).

C is for the Casino Opera Choreography!

The inspiration for this particular choreography was Badia Masabni, the founder of modern Egyptian dance as we know it today, and her famous nightclub, called The Opera Casino, which opened in Cairo in 1926.

Here, Egyptian dance was taken from street entertainment and chaabi (popular dance) and put on the stage in a theatre/nightclub setting for the very first time. Soloists began showcasing props and dancing in front of “chorus lines.” Another first, important for today’s modern bellydance troupes, was the beginning of choreographed ensemble dancing. For the first time, audiences saw groups of Egyptian dancers performing choreographed pieces together on the stage.

One of the very first choreographies I wrote for the dance troupe (Saba Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble) was inspired by Madame Masabni’s Casino Opera. This piece was written in 2002 or 2003. This performance was filmed in 2006.

I won’t criticize the work. It was an early attempt and pretty good, considering. Simple. But then, so were the early ensemble dances at Badia Masabni’s establishment.

I based the costume for the choreography on the 1940s style chiffon skirt and matching chiffon covered bra typically worn by Samia Gamal and other dancers of that era.

The music is Nebtiti Minin el Hikiya, from Jalilah’s Raks Sharki 5 cd.

Enjoy!

July 9, 2014July 9, 2014

Moved to tears by the Ural University Choir

Here is something about me that I bet you didn’t know: I love choral music. LOVE it.

Did you know about Kathaumixw? Kathaumixw is an International Choral Festival in Powell River, British Columbia.

Choirs come from all over the world to participate!

And here is something wonderful: every second year, the First United Church in Salmon Arm brings one of the visiting choirs here to perform for us.

This year the Academic Students’ Choir of the Ural Federal University in Russia traveled up to perform for us. These young people are Engineering students at the Ural Federal University. They are not music students (thought maybe they should be).

The choir opened with O Canada and I immediately burst into tears. Not because I am patriotic (I am), but because these young people had taken the trouble to learn it. And oh, I have never heard O Canada sung like that. The harmonies! You would have cried, too.

Honestly, I cried throughout the entire first set. At the end of it, my face was crusty with the salt tracks of my tears.

If I had been alone, I would have sobbed out loud when, at one point, the choir moved out of their formation and encircled the audience, singing a South African hymn with hands raised. We were surrounded by music, gathered in, lifted up. It was, quite literally, awesome.

Awesome: inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence or admiration; causing or inducing awe.

(…and by the way, what word do we have to replace Awesome with now that it has been devalued into a trite slang term? What do we say when something moves us emotionally? How do we label an experience that so much bigger/greater/stupendous than ourselves?)

Anyway, for the record, I want to say that listening to the choral performance and watching the conductor, Svetlana Dolnikovskaya, moved me to tears and filled me with a sense of joy and awe.

Here is one of their European performances that I found on YouTube to share with you. Close your eyes and relax. Listen and enjoy!

I wish you had been there. You would have been moved to tears, too.