Club CCD: July 2011

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Unfortunate News

Ladies & Gentlemen, I regret that I must be the bearer of not so good news.

I went to the French Festival on the 17th of July only to discover that it had been cancelled due to circumstances beyond any control. I was disappointed, to say the least, but I made the most of my trip to Santa Barbara.

Fortunately, I still had a trick up my sleeve. I was able to buy a Thank-You card and put together a nice little bouquet of roses that I personally delivered to Ellen Schipper, the Ballet Mistress who heads the West Coast Ballet: the company that has done all the can-can performances for the festival.

I happened to meet her at her studio, and let her know that I was a representative of the club and had hoped to get plenty of photographs and ask her about important details such as choreography, costumes, and techniques.

She did happen to remember me from all the previous years that I had been to the festival, and she was kind enough to have photos taken of the two of us to commemorate my gesture of good will. I told her that I still believed that it wasn't the end. Even though the fate of the Santa Barbara festival is still up in the air for next year, I won't let it end this way.

I'm inspired by the "Batman" movie from 1990 when Bruce Wayne raised money to save the sinking Gotham City 200th Birthday Festival. I know that a lack of funds and higher costs contributed to the cancellation this year, and I won't let it continue. I bought a newspaper with an article about the problems with the festivals in Santa Barbara, and I'm convinced that something needs to be done to save the French Festival. When I find the online version of it, I'll provide a link.

In conclusion, I am sorry that I came up empty-handed, but it was way out of my control. However, if you believe that this festival which has a special place in my heart can be saved, then tell me so. I'm not giving up hope.

Tony the Tiger

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Niall Young - Update

I posted a message here on January 13 about the artwork of Niall Young, an UK artist who works in a hyperpointillist style to produce some arresting images, including
some spectacular cancan dancers.

Here is Niall's latest cancan image, which is to be part of a larger work called Tea Time:

http://dancing-for-beginers.blogspot.com/2011/06/tea-time-26.html

I love the jaded expression on the dancer's face as well as everything else about this image. You can watch the creation of this work as Niall does it at his blog:

http://dancing-for-beginers.blogspot.com/

I'll be very interested to see how this ends up. (The ladies in waiting are looking quite nice too.)

You will probably enjoy Niall's other work as well which you can find at his site. You can find direct links to his cancan images at my January 13 posting.

Barbebleu

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Update for the Club!

Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Just dropping by to give you an update. I'm currently on the road, finding inspiration for my personal writing. I'll be in Santa Barbara right on schedule for the French Festival. I remembered that there was a museum devoted to Burlesque located just north of Victorville.

I think I'll be stopping by and seeing what kind of homage they pay to our dance du jour. I don't need to tell you that Burlesque and Can-Can are very intwined in their histories. Maybe the museum has Mr. Price's book, I can hope! Anyway, here's to hoping, and until the Festival, high kicks and royal flashes to all!

Tony

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Excellent

The name says it all - Excellent (as in Excellent Plzeň s.r.o. that
is)

There is a nice and extensively photographed cancan performance captured
on the site of this Czech event coordinator:

http://www.explzen.cz/excellent/index.php?id=pu11

There are only two cancan photos under "FOTOGALERIE"

But, the real trove of photos is on the site of the photographer who
captured the event: Foto Studio Vavruska:

http://www.foto-vavruska.cz/objednavky/index.asp?from=500&path=/uws_imag\
es/prodejni-galerie/ostatni/2011/1114/
(Two pages)

Sadly, they are watermarked.

Don't forget the video either. At the Excellent site look under:

"VIDEOUKÁZKY"

If you want to download it, right click VIDEOUKÁZKY and select "Save
Target As ..."

Barbebleu

Friday, July 1, 2011

Vaduva Vesela (The Merry Widow - Romanian Style)

I thought this was a nicely costumed and danced Merry Widow, although we only get to see a representation of the cancan from this excerpt filmed at the curtain call. Unfortunately, this is all that is available of the cancan from the original video done and posted on You Tube by Vlad Bogdan. You can see the full original video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7nT50RonPM

Links 7-1-11 (Barbebleu)