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View Full Version : Can the UK compete against the US at 'Spotlight'?



Gus
11th-October-2004, 01:10 AM
Just been watching some footage of Nathalie and Yuval ..... AWESOME :worthy: :worthy: ..... then remembered all the talk about Jordan and Taitiana. Not so long ago there was concern that the Auusies were coming over and would dominate the Spotlight/Cabaret section of competition ..... we shouldnt have worried ... from what I've seen the Yanks will blow both of us out of the water. I've not seen anything to touch what these guys do. Am I being pessemistic or are these guys truly streets ahead of anything that us Brits can offer? :sick:

Gary
11th-October-2004, 02:04 AM
The showcases I've seen by Jordan/Tatiana and Kyle/Sarah impressed me significantly more than any of the modern jive showcases I've seen. (But I haven't been around that long, so I've probably missed lots of stuff).

CJ
11th-October-2004, 02:23 AM
Doom and Gloom...

Doooom and Glooooooooooooom...

:sick:

:devil:

bigdjiver
11th-October-2004, 08:58 AM
video clips (http://www.portoswing.com/english/videos.php)

more (http://www.usaswingnet.com/worldswing/video_clips.htm)

& more (http://www.whatislindy.com/videos.html)

Hop, swing and a jump are the formation team run by Nathalie and Yuval. Their Today show video is 33 meg, and includes their "Death dive".

hop swing and a jump (http://www.hopswingjump.com/)

Gus
11th-October-2004, 09:19 AM
:devil:No you daft bugger ...... the idea was for a ground swell of patriotic Brits to come forth, flaming me to heck, singing the praises of all the new British talent coming through .... well at least that was the idea ..... still waiting :sick: :sick:

TheTramp
11th-October-2004, 12:20 PM
Nope. Don't think it can. At the moment at least.

But then, there's a world of difference. Most of the people mentioned above, have been dancing for years when they're 18, and are also professional dancers, rather than people who do a day job, and dance for a couple of hours a few nights a week.

The only person I can think of that currently has that level of dance intensity in his life is Amir - Kate and Nina I believe are also trained dancers, who work in the field of dance, but not in anything like the same way as the US stars. Dan Baines also trained as a dancer, and is now working in Stomp - but when I looked at the website for that, it appeared to be more about percussion than about dancing? Don't know of any other people doing MJ (though, I'm sure there are) with that level of practise, you'd have to look to ballroom or salsa for that I think....

Trampy

Gordon J Pownall
11th-October-2004, 12:27 PM
Am I being pessemistic



or are these guys truly streets ahead of anything that us Brits can offer? :sick:





Yes


and er.....



Yes.......

cerocmetro
11th-October-2004, 12:37 PM
Maybe it's me, I don't get out my little box that often, but what are we comparing here, MJ against what? As far I was aware there isn't MJ in US, so fill me in please :confused:

Adam

Gus
11th-October-2004, 12:50 PM
Maybe it's me, I don't get out my little box that often, but what are we comparing here, MJ against what? As far I was aware there isn't MJ in US, so fill me in please :confused: And the last Cabaret routine that was mainly MJ was? :rolleyes: These guys are all eligible to compete at all the MJ competitions in the UK (I think that the rule about a certain percentage of MJ moves in the performance has been dropped or just ignored these days). Anyway ... how many punters would be able to say what was and wasnt MJ if you put a good WCS or Swing dancer on the floor to a standard MJ track?

David Franklin
11th-October-2004, 12:50 PM
Just been watching some footage of Nathalie and Yuval ..... AWESOME :worthy: :worthy: ..... then remembered all the talk about Jordan and Taitiana. Not so long ago there was concern that the Auusies were coming over and would dominate the Spotlight/Cabaret section of competition ..... we shouldnt have worried ... from what I've seen the Yanks will blow both of us out of the water. I've not seen anything to touch what these guys do. Am I being pessemistic or are these guys truly streets ahead of anything that us Brits can offer? :sick:Well, if you're talking Cabaret, David & Lily came 4th in the US Open a few years ago. And as a nation, we do pretty well in ballroom compared to the US. Of course, most of our top ballroom people started when they were about 6 months old, not totally dissimilar to the top WCS performers...

A slight aside, but one of the things that really stood out in Jordan/Tatiana's :worthy: classes at Rebel Yell was how competition focussed they are. There were lots of references about judging, marking, avoiding things that lose you marks, making things stand out to the judges. I get the impression there's a lot more focus on competing and performing over there.

Dave

Yliander
11th-October-2004, 05:55 PM
video clips (http://www.portoswing.com/english/videos.php)

more (http://www.usaswingnet.com/worldswing/video_clips.htm)

& more (http://www.whatislindy.com/videos.html)

Hop, swing and a jump are the formation team run by Nathalie and Yuval. Their Today show video is 33 meg, and includes their "Death dive".

hop swing and a jump (http://www.hopswingjump.com/)
such lovely lovely dancing - especially the portoswing routine WOW!!! such precision!!!!!

but to be honest as lovely as it is I don't think you can compare it to modern jive - as it is swing not MJ - shows where we can aspire to take MJ to though

Gus
11th-October-2004, 05:58 PM
but to be honest as lovely as it is I don't think you can compare it to modern jive - as it is swing not MJ - shows where we can aspire to take MJ to thoughWHY not?? What part of most cabaret routines is different to what these guys do? As long as we are unable to define waht MJ is, its makes it very difficult to say that WCS/Lindy can't compete against us ... especially as much of the 'advanced' MJ is a fusion with other dance styles be it HipHop, WCS, Salsa or Lindy (IMHO)

cerocmetro
11th-October-2004, 06:03 PM
such lovely lovely dancing - especially the portoswing routine WOW!!! such precision!!!!!

but to be honest as lovely as it is I don't think you can compare it to modern jive - as it is swing not MJ - shows where we can aspire to take MJ to though

I completely agree, Swing is Swing and MJ is MJ, Swing you dance to swing music, MJ you dance to any music, not quite sure what you mean by "shows where we can aspire to take MJ to though"

Yliander
12th-October-2004, 05:25 AM
I completely agree, Swing is Swing and MJ is MJ, Swing you dance to swing music, MJ you dance to any music, not quite sure what you mean by "shows where we can aspire to take MJ to though" I was refereing to the team piece - I don't know about the UK but here in Aus i have never seen or even heard of a MJ team piece that moves around the floor like the portoswing routine and the precision with with they moved in unison not just the moves but moving around the floor - i was truely impressed (and having been a stage mananger for close to 14 years I am a tough audience)

So the skill and precision with which they executed their routine is something MJ teams can aspire to achieve...

Robert Winter
12th-October-2004, 07:51 AM
My knowledge of the US dance scene is limited, but from what I have seen I would say that MJ can't compete, but could if it tried.

In MJ emphasis is placed upon easy to learn, great way to meet people. If you look at some of the great dance troupes from around the world they are never billed as "come and see the worlds great dancers, what they do is easy to learn and a great way to meet people".

Also, these things take time and generate their own momentum. It is often said that one is only as great as ones opponent. If we had dance teams of their ilk at MJ shows then our boys and girls would rise to the challenge.

Gadget
12th-October-2004, 10:11 AM
I was refereing to the team piece - I don't know about the UK but here in Aus i have never seen or even heard of a MJ team piece that moves around the floor like the portoswing routine and the precision with with they moved in unison not just the moves but moving around the floor
I think that some of the cabarets I have seen have been fairly close; especially due to the constraints of traveling distance and time for practice: If they had time to practice together I'm sure that the movements could be more synchronous. They are already using the dance floor, forming shapes and moving in and out of them.
The thing I think that seperates the PortoSwing routine for me (excluding them doing almost every move in perfect time) was that they get to the shapes on the floor by dancing to them - most of the routines I have seen in comparison looked like they were dancing while moving to the shape {subtle, but important distinction I think}

Minnie M
12th-October-2004, 11:39 AM
Maybe it's me, I don't get out my little box that often, but what are we comparing here, MJ against what? As far I was aware there isn't MJ in US, so fill me in please :confused:

Adam

There IS modern jive in the US http://www.modernjiveusa.com/ (http://www.modernjiveusa.com)

They have stopped the classes unfortunately but still have regular monthly freestyles, the only Brits that have tried it out are Seamus Waldron and I think our own Lindy Loo (I have a link on front page to it) - would love to know what they are like and if their style is the same as ours