My Dance Place - Dancer Universe Blog:

Smooth Walrus

This is quite possibly the awesomest video I've seen on the internet in a long time. Check out this dancing walrus, who turns in a perfectly-timed routine to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal."

Robot Dancer

A ballerina from the English National Ballet poses gracefully next to a...robot snake? That's right. A two-meter tall snake-bot was on display at the Streetwise Robots event on May 6 at the London Science Museum's Dana Center. The work of Merlin Robotics, Nottingham Trent University, and the Edinburgh College of Art, the slithery mechanical snake mimics the dexterous movements of a ballerina, sliding up her arm as she performs a por de bras.

Pretty soon, we may see dancing robots onstage alongside prima ballerinas! An exciting development, if you ask me.

Against All Odds

Dance is competitive, we all know that. Anyone who wants to become a professional has to have a thick skin to survive all the corrections given by teachers and choreographers. But what do you do if you are told time and time again that you'll never live your dream? What if your problem is not your attitude, your work ethic or your training, but is instead the one thing you can't change - your body? Read on to hear how one professional tap dancer - Laura Chiuve - overcame both the odds and the limitations of her own anatomy to succeed not only in tap, but in other forms of dance as well.

This Day in Tap History - Fred Astaire

On May 10, 1899, Mrs. Austerlitz gave birth to a little baby named Fred in Omaha, Nebraska. Seven years and one name change later, little Fred Austerlitz hit the stage as Fred Astaire, partnering his older sister Adele in a popular brother-sister act that would endure until Adele's marriage in 1932. Although modern audiences know Fred Astaire for his on-screen partnering of Ginger Rogers, he was equally (and in some cases even more) suited to dance with hats, canes, coat racks, firecrackers, sports equipment and animated mice.

Here's Fred in one of my favorite numbers, though some of you may like the clip after the jump more.

Audition Notice: PARSONS DANCE SEEKS MALE DANCER

The company seeks a male dancer with strong contemporary dance technique, partnering skill and a passion for dance. Candidates should be willing to push their minds and bodies to their absolute potential and beyond. Parsons Dance tours extensively nationally and internationally and dancers receive year-round medical and dental benefits.

More info after the jump!

Rough Terrain

When a human makes contact with rough terrain, it is truly life changing for both the terrain and the explorer.

This excavator takes a deep breath. The terrain does too. They begin to breathe in tandem-rhythmically indistinguishable from one another. He is an explorer looking to carve out his way across this land one millimeter at a time; not with tools, but with with his own bare hands, his elbows, his forearms, his feet, his shoulders and his brain.

He starts with an increase in temperature. The land becomes more supple as the environment climbs a few degrees toward that of an equatorial forest's climate and less toward the chill of the tundra.

Check out tap choreographer Mark Yonally

I recently had the honor of interviewing Mark Yonally, one of the tap world's most innovative and accomplished choreographers. His vision of tap is utterly unique and becoming more and more popular every year. As Artistic Director and principle choreographer of Chicago Tap Theatre, he's taking artistic risks that no one else is, all while bringing in new audience members by the truckloads. It's quite a story.