Dance lovers across the world just participated in a “first.” That is, the first live webcast of an internationally-recognized dance company’s live premiere of a new, evening-length work, aptly titled “Being Together”.

Misnomer Dance Company used ustream.tv to broadcast last night’s show, which closed the premiere run of Being Together, a trio of new works by Chris Elam. Ustream has a live chat feature side by side with the video, and the excitement in the internet audience was palpable. According to the Misnomer blog, there were 1800 computers connected to the webcast, to the 74 members of the live audience in the Joyce SoHo in New York City.

In this age of multitasking we were somehow all able to watch the show while typing away and discussing things as they happened. Fellow bloggers Selly, Nichelle and Rob were there as well. It was truly a new experience for me and many others. I hope this medium will be employed more and more for those that may not have the time, the money, or the right location to see groups like Misnomer.

I loved the first two pieces. Too Late Tulip was my favorite in terms of aesthetics. It had a wonderful flow and a quality of movement that was at times floaty and eathereal. Rock. Paper. Flock. was a whimsical piece that wove commentary and improv into a larger, structured format. Wearing his “choreographer’s hat” (an old hat/goggle aviator combo), Elam gave assignments, and sometimes bossy commands and complaints to his dancers. Much of the movement in this one had an animallike quality that really showed Misnomer’s capacity for partnering.

Things went really well until after intermission. The final piece in the trilogy, Zipper was unfortunately blocked by a big youtube inset which covered about 1/3 of the screen. I have to say that I wasn’t able to pay too much attention to the piece with that in the way.

Still, it was agreed that we were happy to have been present at this first of what I hope is many webcasts of this kind, and that the technology of it will no doubt quickly evolve and improve. If you missed the webcast, check back at misnomer.org as they will shortly be sharing an archived video of the webcast for a limited time.

This whimsical ad from LG (being shown in Korea, I believe), depicts figures from Matisse paintings coming alive, interacting, and dancing.

iGoogle, the personalized homepage version of Google, has rolled out a dizzying array of artist themes with which to customize your web searching experience. There is everything from Jeff Koons, to Diane von Furstenberg, to the Wiggles. Imagine my delight when I found Mark Morris — the only dance company for the time being– among the options. Now every time I go to Google, I am greeted with a different image of my favorite dance company.

Here’s a screenshot of how it looks. Click for a larger version. There’s no mention on the Mark Morris dance company’s website about how this came to be, but what great exposure! I wonder if google plans to include more dancers in its artist lineup.

I was finally able to catch Bravo’s new dance show, Step It Up and Dance, tonight during its first showing. The nice thing about Bravo is that they rerun shows a lot, so I’ve been able to watch the first two episodes as well.

This show is definitely starting to grow on me and I really enjoyed this third episode.

SIUAD (as I shall hereafter call it…pretty ugly acronym if you ask me but the whole title is too long to type) follows the tried and true Bravo reality competition show formula that started with Project Runway. The host is a model/actress type, there is a middle-aged male mentor, and several judges– 2 fixed the others rotating. There is generally some sort of fast challenge in the first part of the show which will determine things such as teams and immunity for the second, longer elimination challenge. Someone is eliminated each week, but not before the show’s proprietary goodbye catchphrase and final instructions by the hostess. Project Runway and Top Chef have pretty utilitarian final instructions to the effect of “now go pack up your shit (i.e., knives/sewing supplies) and leave.” SIUAD’s is the painfully contrived, “It’s time for your last dance.”

SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN EPISODE THREE AND DO NOT WISH TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED OR WHO WAS ELIMINATED

The first two episode’s challenges were relatively ho-hum for me, but I love a good dance-off, and that is just what the challenge was in the third installment. Dance-offs require not only great skill and technique, but the ability to improvise, to stay cool in the face of a challenge, and to always have one more event more amazing move up your sleeve. It also requires a good sense of humor.

The audition challenge introduced guest choreographer Dave Scott (Stomp the Yard, Step It Up 2), who had the dancers learn a very challenging hip hop combination in one hour. As I watch this show I can’t help but compare it to that other dance show, and I like how the format of SIUAD goes a little deeper into the process of learning and rehearsing choreography. PR and TC have certainly increased my respect for the fashion design and restaurant businesses and I hope this show will have the same effect on the public for dance. One thing I wish they would show is the lengthy preparations that dancers have to do to warm up before they can even start doing choreography. There is so much time, repetition, and hard work involved just to get to those first steps so a dancer’s body can be at its best and diminish the risk of injury.

The result of the audition challenge was that Dave Scott picked Janelle, Miguel and Cody as group leaders to select teammates for the elimination challenge. The three groups had to choreograph two 20-second sequences for the dance war, as well as be ready to freestyle and clown (intimidate and make fun of the opposition’s dancers) on their own.

This show is more than just dancing– it also tests the dancers’ ability to choreograph. Janelle’s group was fierce and deservedly won the challenge. Because she has immunity for next week I suspect if she does not do well on a non-hip hop challenge she is going to be very vulnerable to elimination.

I was so happy that Oscar had immunity this week because the judges said he would have been at great risk if he hadn’t. Oscar’s currently one of my favorite dancers in the competition. He’s an amazing and mature dancer, and he’s just so darn adorable. Of course, I do have a thing for Italian men (I’m married to one after all) so that endears me, but he also just busts out with the funniest little things, like attaching the Italian word “uffa!” (rough translation: gee whiz!) to an otherwise English sentence and complaining about how grounded hip hop is, “I just like to JUMP!” He’s very exuberant and I hope that his personality and technique will carry him forward for a long while in the competition, hoping that there are some challenges more in his idiom along the way.

Another contestant that is growing on me is the Christian Siriano-esque Miguel. Just like the Fierce One, Miguel’s got crazy hair and a knack for trash talking. He’s got some mean vogueing skills in his bag’o'tricks, but he’s also got a really cool style all his own that he can back up with technique. There’s also a vulnerability behind the facade which is appealing.

My dark horse nominee is Tovah. Hands down she is the most beautiful dancer of the lot with amazing lines and grace. She is humble, likeable and honest. Although she’s done middlingly well on the challenges so far, they just haven’t catered to her strongest points. I’d like to see how Janelle fares in a ballet challenge. I just have a feeling Tovah will be with us for a while.

Jessica was eliminated tonight and I can’t say I was very surprised. At this point in the competition it’s hard to have formed much in the way of attachments to particular dancers (though if he’d stuck around I think I would have been a James fan). She was the only one of the lot that had not danced professionally and although she really gave it her all and was not short on ability, she lacked the maturity, experience, and self-belief to make it very far in a competition like this. We were also not very impressed by her attempt at doing the worm, but I think we have to go easy on dancers who are not trained in breakdancing– something that may be far from the experience of a professionally trained modern or ballet dancer.

I’ll be on a plane during next week’s show, so my next recap will likely be delayed by a couple days. Luckily, Bravo does make the full episodes available on its website. It you’ve missed any of them so far, you can access them here.

Peeps are no good for eating (unless they are toasted over a campfire and sandwiched between graham crackers and chocolate), but they are ideal for a plethora of silly activities.

Namely, the Washington Post’s Peeps Show contest, wherein enterprising entrants put together and photographed dioramas featuring peeps. The results are absolutely delightful. Take for example this recreation of the mass Thriller dance put on by the prisoners in the Phillipines.

The only thing that sucks about this is that I didn’t know about it.  I have grand plans for next year– Peep Lake, anyone? Or how about Peeptrouchka, The Peepcracker, or Peep Side Story? The pink bunny ears would make excellent pointe shoes.

In more DC Peeper Madness, the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority put out the most hilarious (and low-budget) PSA you will ever see. They are building a new stadium for our baseball team, the Nationals, and Metro is trying to get people to take public transit rather than drive for opening day.  If this video won’t convince you to metro it, I don’t know what will…

I think I would be a brilliant choreographer if I could just somehow record all the people dancing around in my head. Somehow I still haven’t managed to take the highly innovative and artistic ideas I have over the threshold of my mind into reality. One time when ideas are clearer is when you have just awoken after a dream, but by the time you’ve woken up enough (if you don’t fall back asleep) those thoughts have become fuzzy and incoherent.

Enter the Dream Recorder. While it’s not a TiVo for my head, it does seem to visually detect certain dream patterns from visual cues as you sleep, gently awakens you with a sound, and records your voice as you groggily recount your dream. It can also be used to wake you up at the most optimal moment in your sleep cycle, which, given the insomnia and subsequent daytime exhaustion I’ve felt lately, might not be a bad idea.

Via tango blogger Danzarin.

I’m very happy to follow up on a previous post in which I complained about quodlibet’s lack of commenting system. As I mentioned before, quodlibet is a blog about dance and technology from an academic viewpoint. Matt raises so many interesting points and takes sometimes controversial opinions on different issues at times and it was frustrating not to have a way to keep the dialogue going. He has now instituted commenting for “some” posts.

Also, he plans to work on the “plain English” issue I [perhaps overly harshly] mentioned. In retrospect, some things seem snarkier than I intend them to be.

My hip hop Christmas post was so popular, I took it upon myself to intensely scour the internet for more dancing holiday cheer. The results are mixed, but all brought a smile to my face. (Oh, and I promise, there is no Nutracker to be found in this collection).

First up, we have more machines getting into the act (please refer to my backhoe post), and this time the only human involved is, in the words of the youtube summary “A geek with way too much time sets up a Christmas light show with musical accompaniment.”

I love the “homemade” quality of this video, but for something truly spectacular, check out the videos on this page. It must be a year-round obsession for this homeowner!

Secondly, we have this dancing cop in Rhode Island. “Every year Tony Lepore comes out of retirement at Christmas time to hit the streets and bust a move.” The man certainly has enthusiasm. I just hope he doesn’t cause any traffic accidents! You have to click on this link to see the video.

Thirdly, we have this down and dirty Christmas street dance-off. Do I need to say anything more than that it is set to the sweet sounds of the New Kids On the Block Christmas album?! It gets a little sketchy when Santa Claus arrives, but up until that point, it’s a lot of fun.

Finally, you’ve probably all been bombarded by people “Elfing themselves.” I think it’s a cute idea and some of the dance moves are actually pretty good. I have made a very very special one for all of you that is quite appropriate to the season (and also to our Christmas destination, Iowa). Click here to see it.

UPDATE: I just came across a cute dance around the National Christmas Tree at Dance-A-Day. Very nice effects! Watch it here.

I’m being freakishly prolific tonight. Insomnia will do that to you. The theme today seems to be pop culture. I apologize for the lame post title– I just couldn’t resist.

According to tech blog GigaOM, Stanley Burrell, aka MC Hammer, is launching tech startup DanceJam.com, a dance-centered social networking site.

DanceJam aims to bring together various dancing communities. The site will include videos from aspiring dancers everywhere as well as Hammer and his celebrity pals. It will be driven by contests that include offline regional meetups, and be monetized through ads and contest sponsorship. The company — which is based out of a few offices in the Bay Area — hasn’t given us a firm launch date. The latest word is “mid-January” — but last week it opened up part of its site to the public so as to solicit videos to have ready for the launch.

GigaOM interviewed Mr. Burrell/Hammer for its video podcast. One term that he constantly threw around was “dance culture,” as in “Dance Jam is a place where the dance culture can hang out.” From what I can tell by exploring the pilot of the site and watching the interview is that dance culture for the purposes of Dance Jam is dancers who want to win money and fame in show business through competition and casting deals. This does not appear to be a venue for exalting the art of dance, but rather to advance the business of dance as entertainment– sort of a lovechild of HotOrNot and So You Think You Can Dance– and to monetize the technology in the process through related advertisements for instructors, competitions, and the like.

While its implications for the world of dance as art are limited, I think we need to view things like this for what they are and use that as a starting point for our appreciation (something I have said many times about SYTYCD). As with any social networking site, its success and quality will depend on a critical number and activity level of the users. One valuable role that I think that Dance Jam does have the potential to play is to sift out the videos that are worth watching [from an entertainment perspective]. There is lots of dance video footage on YouTube, but you certainly have to sift through a lot of crap to find the good stuff.

The treadmill: not just for exercise anymore.

This music video for Here It Goes by the band OK Go has been very popular on the internet. I love that it is done all in one shot, and the choreography and use of exercise equipment as dance partner is pretty innovative.

OK Go were not the first to conceptualize a treadmill dance, however. Take the opening song to The Taming of the Shrew in the play-within-the-movie Kiss Me Kate. The gondola-rowing action is particularly masterful.

(I apologize for the craptastic quality on this video. I couldn’t find any existing clips and have no idea how to properly transfer video from DVD so I videotaped the DVD playing on my laptop. Someone please let me know if I’m violating all sorts of copyright laws.)

As with so many of these dance crazes that rise to popularity via youtube, an astonishing number of people have tried to recreate the OK Go treadmill dance and posted to youtube. Of course, it’s kind of lame when you only have one treadmill. However, some even managed to secure the appropriate number of machines at a healthclub for their own youtube shoot. None of them are worth showing (though you can view two examples via the links in the previous sentences).

The most successful recreation did not employ actual treadmills. Here is a swing dance piece which incorporates the Ok Go choreography quite effectively.

This, on the other hand, was too wierd not to share. Yes. It’s a shrimp. Running. On a treadmill. To the music of OK Go.

For an amusing take on dances with another type of inanimate object, check out Move the Frame’s blog post on Chair Dances.