FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                     May 13, 2008

Baltimore, MD - Monsters of HipHop, the worldâ€^TMs leading hip hop dance convention, today announced that DanceJam, the social network for all things dance, will be the title sponsor for the 2008-2009 Monsters of HipHop Tour.  

DanceJam is quickly becoming the world's favorite venue to watch and rate dance videos.  With its innovative social community features, the site offers dancers and enthusiasts the ability to create unique profiles, upload dance videos and rate performances.  Videos of individual performances and dance crews can be easily uploaded from online destinations such as YouTube.com.  DanceJam catalogues dances and popular street moves, and includes video instruction for a variety of dance genres.

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.

Last weekend, I had the honor of judging the USASF Worlds dance team competition held at Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida. The top teams from across the country and around the globe competed in divisions of pom, jazz and hip hop for the chance to be considered the best of the best. Dancers attended from 30 countries, including China, Germany, Chile, Mexico, Italy, Japan and the Ukraine.

This is the third in a series about tap amplification issues.  We've covered microphone selections in general, as well as mic selections for solo tapping in a jazz club.  Now we're going to get the insights of Ira Bernstein - an extraordinarily versatile percussive dancer and repository of a wealth of information on sound amplification for dance - regarding tapping in a concert dance environment.

Although Paula Abdul has reinvented herself as a judge on American Idol, it appears she years to return to her dancing roots. The former choreographer is reportedly eager to join next season's cast of "Dancing With the Stars."

Last month, the show's host, Tom Bergeron, accidentally revealed Abdul's desire to join the show. And now, she's admitting to OK! Magazine, "I'm just hypothetically thinking about it." Abdul elaborates, "It's all Tom's fault! I'm a huge fan [of the show]. It would be a phenomenal experience for me to be a student and to learn a form of dance that I've never been introduced to."

I had the pleasure of going to the sold out Youth America Grand Prix Gala this past Monday. The first act contained all the winners from the competition. The second act featured prominent ballet and contemporary companies performing. Blah blah blah-- the typical peeps were there and I could go into a review of each piece and the performers. I am totally not going to because there was only one dancer that owned the night. Ivan Vasiliev of the Bolshoi Ballet is my new idol. Jordin Sparks and Kelly Clarkson can step aside. The female dancer, Natalia Osipova, was good but she was clearly dancing in his shadow. I have included a video of their performance of "Flames of Paris." This video is not from the gala but it is the piece they both performed. "Flames of Paris" is part of a four-piece Russian ballet with choreography by Vasily Vainonen. The program listed that Petipa was the choreographer. (Petipa is not the choreographer. Tisk tisk YAGP). After the jump you will find the amazing video of Ivan.

In a continuation from my previous blog "Survival Guide for......" (http://blog.danceruniverse.com/blog/story/2008/3/4/194256/7780) I am going to talk about more ways to promote yourself.

The evolution of technology has opened the possibilities of advertising for dance studios, dancers and choreographers. Years ago everything was on VHS tapes. We had to find that dumb wire and hook two VCR's together to kinda patch together clips of work onto one tape. The process was dangerous because you never knew if you had hooked the VCR's correctly. There was always the possibility of erasing your master tape. Some people actually paid editing professionals to create their reels.Advanced programs for your computer make editing a reel onto DVD seem like a piece of cake. (MMMM  white chocolate raspberry cheesecake)

What's a reel? What should a reel contain? How much is too much?