The Click Heard Round the World

Music Video "I Wish" by Matt Palmer features PMT Dancers

I enjoyed this music video "I Wish" by R&B artist Matt Palmer.  It features several dancers I know from PMT Dance Studios: Pavan Thimmaiah (choreographer), Matt Lopez, Alan Watson, and Antonio Boss. Great dancing and cool choreo that nicely accentuates the music and the emotion.

The song is pretty damn catchy, and Matt Palmer has a smooth and easy style.  His full LP is due out in September.

Yehoodi Video Talk Show #612: Ninjammers, Hot Shots, Bad Mullet Dancing and More!

Yes, it's another episode in the somewhat erratically released Yehoodi Video Talk Show, starring yours truly and my buddy Spuds.  For those that don't know, Spuds and I do a regular audio podcast talking about what's happening in the world of lindy hop / swing dancing.  And every few months or so, we get together and do a video edition of our show where we highlight some of the best and most awesomely bad videos of swing dancing out there.

Think of it as Mystery Swing Theater 3000.

This episode we talk about the Ninjammers performance troupe killing it at the Montreal Jazz Festival, some classic clips of Mable "Queen of the Soundies" Lee, and shamelessly mock people attempting to do "the Swing."

Watch it all at the official Yehoodi Talk Show Page.  You can also download and subscribe to our vids and audio podcasts on iTunes to get them on the regular.

Badass Video Monday: "Eye of the Tiger" Performed on iPads by B-boys

This music video by alternative artist Scott Harris has everything I love: an homage to cheesy 80s music, all the music was produced on virtual instruments on the iPad, and it's performed by two fresh b-boys.

I don't know about you, but this gets me hyped on a Monday morning.

The two b-boys are Kid Jazz and Shea Butta. Directed by Jordan Hollender.

Country Music: Many who like hip-hop like this (Facebook doesn't lie)

Perhaps Facebook might want to tweak their "like" algorhythm a bit. Just sayin.

Or maybe there's a wider market for "hick-hop" than I know?

Transmedia / transatlantic hip-hop music video integrates Second Life, Twitter, Skype & YouTube

Here's a creative and fun music video by Philly-based hip-hop artist Legrand that is exemplary for a number of reasons. First off, fun song! Secondly, created as a collaboration between Legrand and a group of 20 students at the Tokyo campus of Temple University, it's an interesting example of what can be accomplished using fairly accessible desktop and online tools, collaborating across great distances.

Most interestingly, the video was designed as a single continuous screen capture.  According to Professor JJ Aucouturier, the music video combines: Windows XP, Vista, OS X Snow Leopard, Ableton Live, Wordpad, Notepad, Firefox, YouTube, Twitter, Gmail, Second Life, Skype, Google, VLC player and Camtasia Studio. Not only that, they received Skype calls from Andre 3000 and Legrand, tweets from Kanye West, and emails from YouTube, Andrew Landry, Michio Ueda and Ok Go.

Really clever! Congrats to everyone involved. More on how it was produced after the jump...

[Link to original video.]

West Coast Swing & Lindy Hop in LeAnn Rimes "Swingin" Music Video

I gotta say that I enjoyed this music video "Swingin" by country music singer LeAnn Rimes.  The "dance contest" set-up was very cute, and the mix of west coast swing, east coast and lindy hop dancing was cool to see.  I'm sure for most viewers, it's all just "swing."  Only dance nerds like me are watching this and going, "hey, that's a charleston lift! And they just did a basket turn!"

So who's dancing in the video?  Jordan and Tatiana are most noticeable, and you can't miss Benji Schwimmer's 1,000-watt smile.  My friend Atalanta reports from some internet source that "Benji Schwimmer choreographed and Tatiana Mollmann, Jordan Frisbee, Kyle Redd, Sarah Vann Drake, Ben Morris and Jessica Cox [are featured dancers]."

That said, you will not hear this song at any lindy hop dance anytime soon.  The rhythm and feel just doesn't work for lindy movement.

[Link to original video.]

"Opus Jazz": a ballet film with grit, sexiness and fun

My friend Mike sent me the info about a showing of the new dance film "Opus Jazz" last night at BAM.  I jumped at the chance to see this loving paean to legendary American ballet choreographer Jerome Robbins, which aired on PBS a couple of months ago. 

Told in five acts, the film re-creates Robbin's legendary choreography, originally performed in the 1950s, for a new audience.  But more than just a stage production on film, the production has these top rank ballerinas dancing in street garb in various gritty settings all around New York City, from the pre-renovation High Line, to the McCarren Pool, Coney Island, Red Hook, and Carroll Gardens (at the school of my friend Regina!).

A blend of ballet, modern and jazz movement, it's thrilling and unpredictable from beginning to end.  I love how the camera work serves to highlight the dancers in off-beat and evocative ways, shooting from above, very low, and sweeping in, but without any of the music video quick-cut techniques that have become standard for dance on film. All filmmakers who want to shoot dance should study this film (I'm looking at you, Jon Chu.)

My favorite piece is the second act, danced by the lovely Georgina Pazcoguin, along with some dynamic male dancers in a raw industrial space.  I love the mixture of male power and female allure and teasing in this piece.  But really they are all terrific in their own ways, showing a remarkable range of emotion and style, while being truly Robbins-esque to the core.

As a vernacular dancer, I have my own prejudices against "high" dance forms like ballet as sterile, stodgy and boring. "Opus Jazz" just tooks those preconceptions and bitchslapped them against the fence.  Jerome Robbins lives on.

The Beasties Said it Best about Brooklyn (pic)

Taken in my backyard in Prospect Heights.

$35 from Brooklyn Industries. (Yes, it's a girls tee.)

They Might Be Giants: the Puppet Show!

Last night, Rafi and I saw the fantastic "Puppet Playlist" show put on by Sinking Ship Productions, an experimental theater group that combines puppetry, music and movement in fun and engaging ways.  Their "Puppet Playlist" series is a selection of short puppet acts, interspersed with musical numbers, all around a particular theme.  Last night's was "They Might Be Giants," which is a rich well of material to draw from, as you can imagine.

I was thoroughly entertained by the variety of acts, from the melancholy to the madcap to the philosophical.  I never thought I would be so moved watching two cans of soup discussing whether they truly exist once their labels are removed.  And the piece done to "Birdhouse in Your Soul" was magical.

Apparently Sinking Ship Productions is involved in  the "New Deal for Small Business" contest, with the grand prize being $5,000.  I loved their video describing their plans for how they would use the money. If this sounds like the kind of scrappy theatrical effort you'd like to support, head over to this website and vote for them.

Colin Huggins' guerilla music video "Until It's You" (video)

I love this new guerrilla-style, one take music video by Colin Huggins for his new single "Until It's You."

Colin is not only a gifted independent musician, he also demonstrates his considerable popping, lindy hop, and moving sidewalk dancing abilities! I love how the dancing just gets wackier and more elaborate as the video goes on.

Buy his single "Until It's You" on iTunes. Go, Colin!