My friend Jen is putting on her one-woman all singing, all dancing show on Broadway on Monday March 2nd. Tickets for "Jen Brooks: The Musical" are a recession-friendly $10 with advance reservation and $12 at the door! At The Reprise Room ,245 West 54th Street (btw Broadway & 8th Ave). For reservations call 917-660-3420. Looks…
Category: Dancing / Music
Learning from the legend: the original b-boy Ken Swift
I made it to Ken Swift’s weekly breakdance fundamentals class last night at PMT Studios, despite being dead tired from just returning from the Global Kids retreat that morning. Ken Swift is a legend in the breakdance world, an original innovator of most of the basic steps that make up b-boying today. It was a…
Daptone Records in Bushwick was robbed!
Brooklyn Vegan reports that the amazing indie soul label Daptone Records was broken into a couple of days ago! They lost a ton of equipment including: a Fender Super Guitar Amp and Deluxe Guitar Amp, an HP laptop computer, one desktop MacIntosh computer, 2 Yamaha NS10 monitors, a vintage Harmony Rocket Guitar, one steel string…
Sponsor me at the Global Kids Dance-a-Thon: help our kids get to college!
On Friday, March 6, I'm participating in Global Kids annual Scholarship Fundraiser Dance-A-Thon. I will be squaring off against some of our high school youth in a dance off to raise money (anything for a cause!) This Dance-a-Thon will raise much needed funds for scholarships for our Global Kids Leaders who will attend college this…
Grooving to Sharon Jones and Dap Kings in Times Square last night!
Last night, a bunch of friends and I caught Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at the swank Nokia Theater in Times Square. Sharon and the band played a mix of their last two albums, several awesome new songs that they are still working on, as well as amazing covers of Sam Cooke and Gladys…
Global Art for Social Change: from Banksy to Korean B-boys (video)
For an upcoming Global Kids retreat, I’m helping organize a workshop on “Global Arts for Social Change” with some other trainers. As part of the session, we wanted to show our teens some examples of various forms of art related to activism and civic engagement. So I threw together this compilation reel of different forms…
Auto-tune: Music, manipulation and the authentic experience
There's a really interesting discussion in the comments section of Gizmodo about the use of "Auto-tune" technology to modify and correct the vocals of pop artists on their albums. The most notorious user of Auto-tune is hip-hop artist T-Pain. But according to Time magazine the modern recording industry uses Auto-tune for pretty much every album….
Swipes into chair freeze from breakdance practice today (video)
Here's a little video from my b-boy practice this afternoon showing how my swipes are coming along, as well as a swipe into a chair freeze. After a few months of work, these moves are finally starting to look like… something.
Cali Lindy Hoppers unite for 24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-Thon
I love hearing about lindy hoppers using their skills to help a worthy cause. I got news that a 24 Hour Cancer Dance-a-thon, is happening from March 5-9 in Orange County, California: The Dance-a-thon is a 24 hour swing dance in Orange County, CA. Its mission is to raise funds for cancer research and treatment…
America’s Best Dance Crew: the only TV show that makes me want cable
America's Best Dance Crew (Season 3) – MTV Shows I don't watch network or cable TV. What with Netflix (DVDs and streaming), Hulu, iTunes, YouTube, etc., I don't feel like I am missing out much. That said, I really wish I had cable so I could watch "America's Best Dance Crew" in its full, non.jpgxelated…