Dancing and Authors

Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2007 by Travis Cody in
22

For those of you here to see another list of authors from my library, scroll on down for Thursday 13.



The Final 4

Judges tonight are Mary Murphy, Nigel Lithgow, and Dan Karaty.

Woooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! We get another season of dancers next year!!!

Everybody dances with everybody tonight in a two hour performance finale.

We begin with a Tyce Diorio Broadway routine for the final four and they are excellent dancing to Liza Minelli singing Mein Herr from Cabaret. Based on what we just saw, any of the four of them could win and we can’t pick a favorite just yet.

Lacey dances her solo in a very odd costume. But regardless of what she’s wearing she is a sexy hot performer. She is a natural on stage.

Sabra and Neil dance hip hop choreographed by Shane Sparks. That really didn’t show off their skills. They had energy, but you could tell that they don’t dance hip hop. The choreography was good, but they weren’t up to it. It was fun, but it’s not a winner of a dance for either of them.

Lacey and Danny dance Viennese Waltz choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereaux. That was really beautiful. That was so well done. Lacey corrected most of her technique issues with her hand extension. The spins and turns were gorgeous and the lines were tremendous. That’s one of my favorite dances of the season.

Neil dances his solo. This young man has grown so much during the course of this program. He’s gone from an after thought for us to a dancer we truly enjoy watching.

Lacey and Sabra dance a Wade Robson piece. Unfortunately it was difficult to understand the dance, although I think they interpreted the choreography as well as they could. We did enjoy the performance. It was art.

Danny dances his solo. I’ve run out of ways to describe how amazing this kid is. Remember the name Danny Tidwell.

Danny and Neil dance contemporary choreographed by Mia Michaels. Outstanding. It was very interesting to see the two of them together, because we’ve always believed that Danny was a professional dancer and Neil was still a few steps behind. But this routine proved that they are both pros and of equal ability. Neil is raw whereas Danny is polished and we think that is the only difference in their dancing.

Sabra dances her solo. She dances with such passion and joy. It blows my mind that she’s only been taking formal training for four years.

Lacey and Neil dance Lindy Hop choreographed by Nick Williams. I was nervous for them the whole dance but they really pulled that off!!!!! That’s not easy to learn in just a couple days if you’ve never done it before. Fantastic energy and amazing performance to do that at the end of the show.

Sabra and Danny dance Cha Cha Cha choreographed by Melanie LaPatin. We were actually disappointed in that dance. They didn’t have the energy or speed it needed. We thought it was awkward in spots and the technique wasn’t good. However, they looked like they enjoyed dancing with each other. That’s a tough dance for them to end on and we hope that voters take the body of work into consideration tonight.

And that’s it – the competition is over. Pam and I are in voter brain lock. We can’t decide. We like them all.



I've got another list for you.

As a reminder, here are the ratings: (NR) Not Recommended, (R) Recommended, (HR) Highly Recommended, (RR) Really Recommended. If I haven't read the book, I won't put a code for the author unless I'm familiar with other work.

Oh, and if you're interested in previous lists, click here.

1. Erich Maria Remarque - A Time to Love and A Time to Die
2. Anne Rice (HR) - Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, Pandora, The Vampire Armand, Blood and Gold, Blood Canticle, Violin, Cry to Heaven, Servant of the Bones, Vittorio the Vampire, The Feast of All Saints, The Mummy, The Witching Hour, Lasher, Taltos
3. H. Jay Riker (R) - Silver Star
4. Jennifer Roberson (R) - The Chronicles of The Cheysuli series
5. Joel Rosenberg (R) - Guardians of the Flame
6. J.K. Rowling (RR) - Harry Potter series
7. Salman Rushdie - Satanic Verses
8. Fred Saberhagen (R) - The Complete Book of Swords, The Lost Swords
9. Melissa Scott - The Kindly Ones
10. Leonard B. Scott (HR) - The Last Mile, Charlie Mike, The Expendables
11. William Shakespeare (RR) - The Complete Works
12. Irwin Shaw (R) - Rich Man Poor Man, The Young Lions
13. Clifford D. Simak - Where the Evil Dwells

22 comments:

  1. wow first. Must be a west coast timing thing.

    Have you read the Shakespeare entire works? I will be so impressed.

    so...do you do this for the other dancing show as well?

  1. I own all those Anne Rice...even Violin which is the ONLY Annie book that I didn't like. In fact I HATE it.

    Now anything with Lestat is the win. And I LOVE that Mayfair series.

  1. Katherine: I barely got that posted and here you are! I have read the entire works, plays and sonnets and all. Yes I do full reviews for Dancing with the Stars too. I can't get enough dancing!

    Starrlight: I didn't really care for Violin either. The Mayfair series rocks! As for Anne's vampires, my favorites are Lestat and Marius.

  1. Anonymous says:

    J agree that they were all SO good tonight. I would be happy with any of them winning. Can't wait to find out.

    Happy TT, too. :)

  1. Tink says:

    I'm with you on Shakespeare and Anne Rice!
    My TT is about BED.

  1. Julie says:

    Good review! I don't care who wins either...they are all wonderful! This is so different from my feelings regarding "the show that won't be mentioned" because on that show I had definite opinions...but here I don't. All the dancers are just a delight and they all make me smile.

  1. Shelby says:

    impressive list!

  1. wow! you read all of shakesphere? i am duly impressed trav!

    smiles, bee

  1. Schmoop says:

    I'm more of a Shel Silverstein kinda guy. Cheers!!

  1. I did not get to see any TV last night, so I thank you fro the recap and will try and remember to watch tonight.

    I do not Anne Rice and Lestat is one cool Mother if you ask me....

  1. Sandee says:

    Yea, finally two that I recognize -- Salman Rushdie - Satanic Verses and William Shakespeare . You are so deep Travis. Have a great TT. :)

  1. Barb says:

    No TT for me, but I like Anne Rice, of course I have all the Potter books, and I think I may have a Shaw book around here somewhere!

    Please drop by and read about My Linky Love Dream. :)

  1. CWM: We couldn't decide who to vote for, so we voted for all of them!

    Tink: I'll cruise by and check it out.

    Julie: Agreed. They are all simply wonderful.

    Shelby: Thanks!

    Bee: Yes Ma'am!

    Matt: To each his own.

    V: The Brat Prince rocks!

    Comedy: Woooooooooooooo!!

    Skittles: I'll be by shortly.

  1. Unknown says:

    Ann Rice wrote a book called "Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt" that was really good. I wrote to her, and she wrote me back! Unfortunately, I lost that e-mail in the great e-mail crash of '07.

  1. BeckEye says:

    I'm predicting that Sabra will win.

    I'm so sad that Pasha got voted off. But Neil is hot, so I'll live.

  1. Unknown says:

    Exactly how many rooms full of books do you have? :-) Watching the finale of "So You Think..." right now!!!!

  1. Travis we are sympatico on the Anne's =)

  1. Psst...Trav....

    I loved your comment and question on my TT so much I made it a post =)

  1. I love Anne Rice... I've read the Vampire series and the Mayfair series several times over. I have the best dreams at night when I'm reading them :)

  1. Dana: The writings of Ms Rice are layered with her struggles to understand her relationship with deity.

    Beck: And she did. She danced with so much joy and I'm sure that was the connection with the audience.

    Steven: Just one roomful. LOL!

    Starrlight: Yup, I believe we are.

    TJ: Oh me too. Her characters stand up off the page.

  1. Meribah says:

    Awwww, likes me some Shakespeare, I do! Studied his works a bit in university. And I saw the movie, Interview With The Vampire. Enjoyed it. :)

  1. Anonymous says:

    ahh i have just about everything ann rice ever wrote.. .almost... not some of her love stories though i didn't get those.