Arts & Entertainment
Nab an assistant teacher gig
Awesome Aids: Becoming a teacher’s assistant can further your dancing and your career.
Have you ever wondered who those extra dancers are in the front of your class? They’re probably the teacher’s assistants. A TA is a young dancer who is chosen to help a professional instructor demonstrate or keep order during his or her class. The benefits: Being a TA allows you to spend extra time in the dance studio with your teachers while helping other students with their technique can actually help you to more fully understand your own critiques and areas that need improvement. So being a TA isn’t just a job, it’s a great way to bring you one step further in your dance career! Read on to learn more.
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment || Published in: Dance Spirit Magazine
Hollywood actress
Growing up with images of dance role models like Mikhail Baryshnikov and Twyla Tharp, Victoria De Mare believed that dancing could be her life-long career. But when she suffered a break in her fifth metatarsal at the age of 21, she was forced to reckon with a tough new reality.
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment || Published in: Dance Magazine
Law professor: Indian classical dancer
Natasha Bakht never really had to choose between her legal and dance careers. In fact, until she was 22 and received an invitation to dance full time at the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company in London, Bakht (who is from Toronto) didn’t realize that being an Indian classical dancer could even constitute a career.
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment || Published in: Dance Magazine
Fight club
These days, cinematic “heroes”—of the noble, valiant variety—have gone the way of parodies or, if you’re lucky, Disney cartoons. But creating such a character, and putting him through the paces of a “cold, cruel, indifferent world,” was exactly what David Mamet, the writer-director of “Redbelt,” had in mind.
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment || Published in: Metromix.com
‘Thriller’ chills and disco thrills
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, this year’s Tribeca Drive-In—part of the Tribeca Film Festival’s outdoor-screening series—will feature ghosts, ghouls and Solid Gold dancers at what’s being billed as “the world’s largest zombie disco.”
We caught up with director John Landis—the man behind the “Blues Brothers,” “Coming to America,” “Animal House” and countless other classics—for the scoop on what went into the making of this epic music video.
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment || Published in: Metromix.com
Canadians in Shorts: The Bravo!/FACTPhenomenon
If we can agree with the 1979 New Wave song which alleged that video killed the radio star, in an age of attention span deficit, could short films be threatening the feature’s future? Read more…
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment || Published in: Moving Pictures Magazine
On Location: Ausfilm
Countries (especially those as far away as “OZ”) hoping to lure foreign film productions to their shores must compete with ferocity to showcase their territory as a bounty of pleasant conditions, skilled crews and financial incentives. And for good reason. When a big-budget movie comes to town, it brings with it a raft of A-list actors, directors and production teams, which can then translate into revenue, jobs for locals and excellent exposure for the country, often boosting tourism and the location’s international reputation.
AUSFILM
Australia’s federal content attraction organization, Ausfilm, is headed up by Sydney-based CEO Mark Woods, who describes the organization as a “gateway” for foreign, or “footloose,” producers to access both federal and state-based incentives and services. “Any producer can come to us and give us their script. We read it, tell them what the federal incentives would be, offer a soundstage base, and perhaps a second unit,” explains Woods. “We work closely to place them in the right state; if they need snowfields, that is going to limit their options. If they need a desert, that’s going to be a different state. We navigate the shortest route for producers to get what they need.”
While each Australian state offers different motivations and lays down different stipulations for bringing productions to their territory, if an overseas production plays its cards right, a combination of state and federal incentives can account for some 15 percent of its budget. Read more…
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment || Published in: Moving Pictures Magazine
We Can Dance if We Want To
New York is internationally renowned as the city that never sleeps, but visitors are surprised to learn that the Big Apple is not so hot on dancing.
Of the thousands of city bars, clubs and restaurants, only 275 hold cabaret licenses. Move your hips in any of the others, and chances are the staff will ask you to stop, for fear of a fine.
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment || Published in: AM New York
Brassy Bette Midler is back
She’s unmistakable. The sassy, confident tone, the curls, that smile – Bette Midler has graced the stage, both big and small screens, and now she has arrived Down Under to give Australians a taste of her stage show Kiss My Brass. Read more…
Filed under: Arts & Entertainment || Published in: The Australian Jewish News