January 29, 2009

Superstars of Dance Music – Episode 4

Written by: John

Finding the Superstars of Dance music took a lot longer than I would have expected it to take. However, I’m finally able to post the music from the final 2 episodes of Superstars of Dance. Here’s the music from episode 4 of Superstars of Dance. You can find all the Superstars of Dance music listed here.

Group-India
(India Dancers)
Bombay Dreams (soundtrack) singing the song “Ganesh” A. R. Rahman - Bombay Dreams - Ganesh

Duet-Australia
(Giselle & Henry)
Sum Svistu singing the song “Lo-Lo Dzama”

Solo-Ireland
(Bernadette Flynn)
Ronan Hardiman singing the song “Celtic Dream” Ronan Hardiman - Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance - Celtic Dream

Solo-S. Africa
(Mamela Nyamza)
Saint-Saens singing the song “Carnival Of The Animals: The Swan” Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchetra, Marian Lapsansky, Ondrej Lenard & Peter Toperczer - Prokofiev: Peter And The Wolf - Saint-Saëns: Carnival Of The Animals - Britten: The Young People's Guide to the Orchestra - Carnival Of The Animals: The Swan

Group-China
(Shaolin Monks)
Shaolin Wheel of Life singing the song “Journey”

Duet-U.S.A.
(Eric & Georgia)
OneRepublic singing the song “Apologize” OneRepublic - Dreaming Out Loud - Apologize

Solo-India
(Mythili Prakash)
Dance of Shiva singing the song “Mythili Prakash” KarmaCosmic - Yoga Salon - Dance of Shiva

Solo-Argentina
(Carolina Cerisola)
Wendy Frasier & Nelson Kole singing the song “She’s Dangerous” Blessed By a Broken Heart - Pedal to the Metal - She's Dangerous

Groovaloos vs. Shaolin Monks
INTRO: “Theme From Enter The Dragon” sung by Lalo Schifrin Incredibly Strange Film Band - Cult Themes from the 70s, Vol. 2 - Enter the Dragon
CHALLENGE: “Know The Ledge” sung by Erik B. & Rakim Eric B. & Rakim - Don't Sweat the Technique - Know the Ledge

Duet-Russia
(Pasha & Aliana)
Bond/ Michel Camilo singing the song “Libertango Bond - Shine - Libertango/Caribe” Michel Camilo - Michel Camilo - Caribe

Group-Ireland
(Lord of the Dancers)
Ronan Hardiman singing the song “Lord of the Dance” Ronan Hardiman - Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance - Lord of the Dance

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January 11, 2009

Full List of Superstars of Dance Contestants

Written by: John

I previously started a list of all the cast of Superstars of Dance. Below you’ll find the complete list of Superstars of Dance dancers.

Argentina
Carolina Cerisola
Miriam Larici
Miriam Larici & Leonardo Barrionuevo
Los Huincas Gauchos

India
Amrapali Ambegaokar
Mythili Prakash
Nishi Munshi & Sangita Sanyal
Team India (name not given)

Australia
Sean Robinson
Reed Luplau
Henry Byalikov & Giselle Peacock
Australian Dance Theatre

South Africa
Sduduzo Ka-Mbili
Mamela Nyanza
Victor Da Silva & Claudia Savvides
Gumboot Dancers

United States
Robert Muraine
Dormesha Sumbry-Edwards
Georgia Ambarian & Eric Luna
The Groovaloos

Ireland
Damien O’Kane
Kelly Hendry
Damien O’Kane & Bernadette Flynn
Irish Stepdancing Team (name not given)

Russia
Julia Bantner
Maria Kochetkova
Anya Garnis & Pasha Kovalev
Cossack Dancers (name not given)

China
Bei Zheng
Yang Yanan
Zhen Zhu Zheng & An Na
Shaolin: Wheel of Life

Also, check out the eclectic mix of music on Superstars of Dance.

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January 4, 2009

Superstars of Dance Premiere Review

Written by: John

Superstar of Dance Dancers
Irish Step Dancers (Ireland Group) – Incredible to watch. Having a bunch of beautiful girls didn’t hurt either. The guy in the front that was kind of running around wasn’t very good, but it was fun to watch.

Robert Muraine (US Solo) – Robert had performed a couple times on So You Think You Can Dance. I still love Robert and he does some incredibly things. I think he had a really poor song choice and the camera angles didn’t do what he did justice. However, I could watch him dance over and over again. Check out some of his better stuff from So You Think You Can Dance.

Carolina Cerisola (Argentina Solo) – I’m sure that Argentina has a better solo dancer than this person. She wasn’t horrible and she got better once the music picked up. However, she definitely wasn’t a superstar. Carolina could have also left the hat out of the routine completely.

Anya Garnis and Pasha Kovalev (Russian Ballroom Duet) – Another set of dancers from So You Think You Can Dance. They should have stuck to their audition for So You Think You Can Dance. This one had way too much foreplay and not enough action. The song was horrible and it wasn’t nearly as good as I’ve seen them do. Whoever choreographed this number was horrible. Pasha and Anya are so much better than this. Russia should be disappointed and should ask Karina Smirnoff to come on the show, but I’m pretty sure Dancing with the Stars won’t be giving her up anytime soon.

Nishi Munshi & Sangita Sanyal (Indian Bollywood Duet) – An interesting Bollywood Duet with 2 very beautiful girls. Something seemed just off. I think maybe the song was too fast and so they didn’t have a chance to complete all the various moves. Of course, maybe I’m just not as familiar with Bollywood and so I needed more time to enjoy the moves.

Sean Robinson (Australian Tap Dancer) – What the heck was he wearing? The problem with tap dancing is that we’ve all seen tap dancing. In fact, most of us have even seen some great tap dancers. Unfortunately, he’s probably not even as good as those other tap dancers we’ve seen.

Bei Zheng (China Ribbon Dance) – Much better than I thought it would be. I guess I was just a little disappointed, because ribbon dancing is much cooler when there’s a whole crowd of people doing a ribbon dance in well synchronized patterns. Bei did represent China well.

Gumboot (South Africa Group Dance) – Definitely not the most impressive dancing I’ve ever seen, but I enjoyed watching it thoroughly and couldn’t stop watching. I think the fact that it was pretty unique made it fun to watch and very entertaining.

Contemporary Dancers (Australia Group Dance) – Some interesting material. I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t get over the knee pads. Why have those annoying looking black knee pads. Just looked odd and annoying. A bunch of really great dancers on the floor. Would have just liked to see a little better choreography.

Damien O’Kane (Ireland Solo) – Pretty good. I much prefer Irish step dance in a large group. Also, I would have preferred seeing a girl do the solo, but that might just be because I’m male. I’m surprised the judges scored him so high. Didn’t deserve that high of a score.

Sduduzo Ka-Mbili (South Africa Solo) – A zulu dance? I like the name of the dance. The guy was very flexible. However, it just felt like an odd mix of cheerleading, contemporary and the lawnmower move some high school students might do. A lot of energy coming out of that man.

Georgia Ambarian & Eric Luna (US Duet) – Some absolutely jaw dropping lifts. I once saw the US Amateur Cabaret Championships and it was one of the most thrilling performances I’d ever seen. This wasn’t quite up to that level, but still should have been scored higher than they were scored. 7, really?

Miriam Larici & Leonardo Barrionuevo (Argentina Duet) – Honestly, is this the best Argentinean Tango they could find? Maybe I’m just used to the US version (if that exists), but I was rather disappointed with what can really be an incredibly sexy and wonderful dance to watch. I will admit that the section at the end where they were doing all sorts of quick kicks was pretty nice, but otherwise it felt really flat.

Julia Bantner (Russia Solo) – Seemed like a very russian style, a russian song and a russian look. I enjoyed her dancing a lot and wish that all of the dances would have been as good as hers. Too bad the judges didn’t like it at all. I’d love to hear why the judges scored what they did.

Amrapali Ambegaokar (India Solo) – Incredibly impressive. Could be my favorite dance of the night. A great display of dance from India and an even better example of the types of dances that should have been brought to the show. The bells around her ankles made the spins even more interesting and fun to watch.

Shaolin Monks (China Group) – A stunning performance and a great way to end the show. Some people might say Kung Fu wasn’t dancing, but it was indeed great dancing. All of it except for the little spear stunt at the end. I enjoyed it thoroughly and they certainly deserved the high score they got. The kids were really fun to watch too.

Check out the final Master Scoreboard for each country (not that they really mean anything):
Argentina 123
Ireland 123
China 117
Australia 114
Russia 114
United States 114
India 113
South Africa 112

Hosts
Michael Flately should stick to dancing and stop the judging. He just added nothing to the show. Susie Castillo was surprisingly good. The biggest problem for her is that there wasn’t any rhyme or reason to when we’d see her and when we wouldn’t. I hated that they didn’t have continuity in that regard.

Judges
Honestly, what’s the point in showing the judges. They pretty much say nothing. If they aren’t saying anything, then showing them revealing the scores is incredibly boring TV.

Also, Did China know how to speak English? maybe that’s why he only ever gave a score of 8. It’s the only score he knew how to say. Sad, because there are so many Chinese that speak English better than most Americans. Ok, so he scored a few other things, but it was just embarrassing.

See you tomorrow night. Let’s hope it’s a little better than tonight. It wasn’t horrible tonight, but I expected more from Nigel.

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