Dance Erotika - Recap and Reflection... a Producer's Perspective

October 12, 2012
                                           Dixon Place
                                                                            UrbanErotika - InMotion
                                                                                                                                AMAZING...

Yes, I am patting myself and my two partners Mo Beasley and Jennifer Heslop on the back for putting together a phenomenal show.  Admittedly, a producer's perspective could be seen as biased, to which I say "meh"!  Anyone who understands the harshness with which many of us judge our own efforts gets what I'm saying here.

Yet, I find myself shouting to the world, "That was so much better than I expected!!!", and my expectations were already high...

So here are my thoughts and reflections on the show, the performers, and maybe a little background info here and there:

JULIA HALPIN and HAVOC MARCHE

Havoc Marche is a dancer of the "flexing" style and Battlefest Dance League "King of the Streets" of 2011-2012.  The day he walked into the UrbanErotika auditions back in August, the mouths of every woman in the room hung open in delirious shock.  He caused a conversation of overlapping voices all yelling, "We want him in every show!" 

Julia Halpin is a dancer I already know, a unique blend of modern, classical, aerial, and Latin dance, choreographing gorgeous works.  I have been entranced with her solos for the last 2 years...

Immediately, of course, I wanted to put them together and see what sparked.  I love the fusion of different styles (blame it on my addiction to "So You Think You Can Dance").

Obviously, they killed it.  Opening the show with 2 linked solos, and then finishing their story with an incredibly steamy duet to close the Seduction Suite, I was giddy, GIDDY, I tell you!  I gave them the storyline, but they took it over and choreographed the hell out of it. 

Much love and gratitude to them both from this humbled heart.

JOSE BATISTA and ALEX MARTINEZ

Almost every Monday night, you will find li'l me at a local nightclub, salsa dancing my tail off.  One rare night I missed however, was the night Jose and Alex performed.  I saw that evening's event pics on the intravenous feed that we call facebook, and there they were.  I knew I had to have them in the show.  Something new, something rarely seen in the dance or Erotica scene - two men salsa dancing as a couple in performance.  Something that NEEDED to become part of the erotic conversation, yes?  Yes!

It took me a month find them, but it all worked out in the end...  (And much thanks to DJ Woody and Talia Castro-Pozo for their help in that!)

Jose and Alex are from OUT Salsa NYC, an organization whose purpose is to promote salsa dancing in the LGBTQ community.  And these guys certainly did themselves proud.  Starting their piece with Jose center stage as the beginning of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech pours from the speakers (with many noises of approval from the audience), followed by the music and Alex dancing his way forward.  Fancy footwork, spins and flips, and a wonderful addition to our show.  I missed my chance to say goodbye as they zipped out to yet another performance, but I'm so glad they were there.

HEAVY CREAM

Goodness, what to say about the Man in White?  A former member of the Blue Man Group, and veteran of UrbanErotika, we were thrilled when he said yes, he would do the show.  Heavy Cream, who true to his name is dressed as a 1950's milkman, complete with white hat, started with a music video, complete with Ice Cream truck and innuendo-filled rap song, followed by a more personal and in your face song directly to the audience.

There is a saying, when someone doesn't look like their parents... "Maybe you're the milkman's kid".  Ha!  Well, if Heavy Cream had been delivering the dairy back then... I'm just sayin'.  It's not often a man can make you wet with the ice cream truck jingle.

ADORATION, by RENEE' FLEMINGS

Starring:  RAVEN SOLANO, ALEIJUAN AFURAKA, MIEKO GAVIA and... ME

It's hard to know what to say about the piece I'm in, simply because I'm in it.  I'm told it was great.  I'm choosing to believe it.

Renee, who graced our stage last month with a bluesy rendition of "Fever", complete with dancer Havoc flexing his way into the audience's... um... hearts, is also a playwright and she sent me excerpts of her pieces from "Kiwi Dreams and Other Erotic Fantasies".  As she described her vision of Adoration, it hit me.  Yeah, like BAM.  A theatrical movement piece, sexy, seductive, and a little twisted in a very good way.  Her direction was clear; she knew exactly what she wanted from us.  And we gave it to her...  yes, we did.

The cast:

Raven Solano - Yes, OK, he's my oldest friend in NYC.  He's also mad talented and a damned charming gypsy devil.  Yes, I mean gypsy devil.  Check him out in Viva Patshiva.

Aleijuan Afuraka - A stunning performance artist, exuding sensuality just by existing.  And an UrbanErotika veteran who we will be seeing much more of this season.

Mieko Gavia - Awesomeness defined.  A true gem from our auditions.  She rocked our premiere show in the skit "Consume" (as mentioned in the Huffington Post review, ha!), and another one who will be returning frequently to our stage this year.

Me - ................ yep, me.  We'll assume I held my own with the others, shall we?  ;)

JAZZ AIN'T DEAD® featuring Jazz Dance Artists - Candice Michelle Franklin and Victor Reddick, Vocalists - Rajdulari Barnes and Billy Davis, Alto saxophonist - Roger St Charles, and Music Arrangements by Chris Rob

First up in our Sweet Bliss section - The Jazz Ain't Dead Dancers.  Candice and her group have rocked our stage a number of times, from our jazzy Juke Joint show to our 10th Anniversary Women's Herstory performance last March at the Kumble Theater in Brooklyn.  This time around they brought their own version of "Overjoyed".  First, singers Rajdulari Barnes and Billy Davis walked on with saxophonist Roger Charles.  Music began... gorgeous voices sang out, Candice and Victor floated onto the stage, and beauty was made.  A true representation of Sweet Bliss.

The poet known as JOSIE PAUL

Another of our staggeringly talented finds from the audition process. When submitting, Josie sent along a published poem along with her headshot and resume.  Hooked.  When she finally walked into the audition room, looking half rockabilly, half bookworm, and 100% her own unique self, she not only floored us with her poetry, she nailed it with some serious Nina Simone-esque acapella singing.  To this show she brought a slam style poem, a subway story of seeing THAT person at the other end of the subway car, fantasizing, dreaming, and then....she's gone. 

Oh, and you should see what she has in store for us on the next show... I already know.  That's why I'm smiling.

MABINA BanAFRIKA - ETO'O TSANA, LECIE MASON, JENNIFER AUGUSTO, with drumming by FITZ SAM and CESSLIN NTADI

I'll admit it.  To me, this piece feels like home.  A piece of my past.  And something I have been trying to find a way to include for quite a while.  Eto'o Tsana, founder and choreographer of Mabina BanAfrika, is an amazing teacher, performer and all-around human being.  OK, I'm gushing.  After spending 3 years in a Congolese dance company of a different tenor, it has been rejuvenating to learn from Eto'o.  And the piece the group did that night brought the house down.

This was the premiere of "Ebandali", a dance of beginnings (love, self exploration, and longing) to the wonderful Brazzaville interpretation of the rhythm of Mutuashi, which originates from the Baluba people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It started off with three voices singing of those they long for, and it ended with the audience clapping and cheering along to the rhythm of the drums as Eto'o and company danced their way off stage.  Sexiest ending to Sweet Bliss EVER.  

I can't wait to see what they will bring to our March show next year... 

...............

The RAW SUITE - I have to mention this separately, because people do so enjoy putting our Raw Suite into a narrowly defined box, which is not where it belongs.  We have referred to the Raw Suite as the Dungeon, and people automatically assume it's all BDSM and nothing else.  But it isn't.  It's BDSM and SO MUCH MORE.

The Raw Suite is filled with those things you may find a little uncomfortable.  It frees your inhibitions, stretches your boundaries, makes you a bit sore in places you didn't know you could be... (No dear, I'm talking about your mind.  Your body will follow.)  Think of our dungeon as the place where all your darkest fantasies roam free.  Or are bound and gagged, depending on which way you lean...  The Raw Suite is unfettered honesty.  Explicit content.  And sometimes, irreverence.  

Which leads me straight to:  exHOTic OTHER and SISTER SELVA

When Mo suggested exHOTic other of Brown Girls Burlesque for the show, I was a little...hesitant.  (Sorry Una!)  That lasted precisely as long as it took to watch the first video link of her work.  It turns out I'm a sucker for burlesque acts with social and political commentary.  Who knew?  What's even better?  Her sister is a burlesque dancer, too!  Yes!  So we booked them.

Ha!  Gameshow politics, sex, drugs, illuminating placement of past presidential faces, and so much more, all to the soft lilting tune of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors"... You'll just have to see the video, that's all I'm saying.  

A big blessed bravo!! to the sisters.  Thank you both so much!

LAUREN CLIFFORD - silks

I am infatuated by silks and the people who so effortlessly knot, slide and contort their bodies up in them.  A very happy lady I was when Lauren agreed to perform!  Recommended to me by Angela Buccinni of The Muse Brooklyn, a really cool circus/aerial/dance training space in Williamsburg, Lauren wrapped her skin in strips of black, climbed the long swath of ruby red silk in its singular pool of light and proceeded to twirl, flex, stretch and wrap herself up in it in a myriad of impossible looking ways.  Damn...

Hold on.  I need a moment....

...

...

Better.  It was absolutely lovely having Lauren as part of our show and I eagerly await her return as a contortionist in our "All Raw Show: Tribute to the Marquis de Sade" in December.

RAINMAKER

Rainmaker is an UrbanErotika VIP who will come up on stage and lull you into a sense of underestimation, of "what can this mild mannered dude do that's gonna shock me?"... The more observant folks in the audience might catch that glimmer, that quirk in his smile before he speaks.  And blows the whole thing away.  That's why we save him for last.  So you can walk away with your mind fully blown and an itch to do something you never thought of before.  His piece, "Skin", most definitely did that.

Being able to call him friend and know what a good heart resides beneath such a mind for debauchery is a minor guilty pleasure of mine.  ;)

.........................

More thank you's to those who weren't on stage that night but are proving to be indispensable, like our Administrative Assistant Sasha-ann Frazer, our Marketing guru Brandy Cochrane, and Wendy, Katie, Rob and all the rest at Dixon Place for having us.

And most important, my partners:  Mo Beasley, our show founder and host who brings his own amazing poetry to every show and who has brought to light some new facets of my world over the last 7 years.  And Jennifer Heslop, the woman who makes this whole thing work, and who keeps me (mostly) sane.

OK all.  Tired fingers and tired eyes...and more to write in the next post about last night's show (UrbanErotika Goes South...of the Equator).

Thank you, thank you, and thank you all again for being in this amazing performance.

Bless,

Shannon