Anita Dancing 'America'

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 5:39am

...should be as thrilling as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM93lpBCNv4

Updated On: 3/8/09 at 05:39 AM

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 8:40am

This was one of the only parts of this unfortunate new revival that lived up to the standards set for it. Karen Olivo is an amazing Anita.

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 8:43am

FYI there is a great picture of Karen and the Shark Girls during America in the NY Times. It's online, I don't want to get a link because I am otherwise occupied.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 8:43am

Watch the video. Comment on the dancing.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 8:49am

It really is wonderful. Whatever happened to that Yamil Borges?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 8:54am

Yaya is living in Los Angeles, performing and teaching.

The girl with her, on the left, who doesn't dance, is a very young Harolyn Blackwell, who went on to become an opera star, touring with Pavarotti at the end of his career.

The tall Shark girl is Marlene Danielle, who was in the original Broadway cast of Cats--and stayed in the show for 18 years, until it closed.

Debbie got a spontaneous hand every night, during the last unison combination toward the end, because of the sheer thrill she created in the audience.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 8:57am

Now we are talking!
That's Dancin'! and I loved those dresses and the way they move.
I know there are women out there who can work that.
The lines and the togetherness are wonderful.
It almost makes me feel sorry for Olivo who can't hold a candle to Miss Allen, (in the dancing department).

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 9:20am

We are thrilled to thank the attendees and sponsors of The 2007 Benefit for Hope and Healing for making this year’s benefit at Teatro ZinZanni our most successful ever. The evening was such fun — thanks in large part to Broadway’s own Billy Flynn, better known in the Bay Area as the incredibly versatile Huey Lewis. Huey and his co-star Yamil Borges enchanted us, reprising four numbers from the Broadway hit CHICAGO.

Seems she lives in Germany as she takes part in numerous arts related programs and events in Berlin:

THE COLLEGIUM - Forum & Television Program
JULY 20, 2008
9.00-10.00pm:
ARTS CALENDAR I
Yamil Borges
poet, singer, actress


Seminar: A COMPLEXION CHANGE
from left: Jumaa Alexander/musician, Yamil Borges, poet/singer/actress,
Gary Wiggins, project co-ordinator/Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, saxophonist







She released a jazz CD in Germany in 2002:


LINK to CD on AMAZON (Germany): http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00007GQJ4/jazzdimension-21

[CSonBroadway]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 10:01am

I'm pretty sure Charlotte D' Amboise can compete with her in the dancing

Watch This:


Amazing

[Trish2]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 10:02am

Thanks for that link Joey. Now, THAT'S the way America should be performed ! It was also refreshing to actually see "trained bodies" doing the dancing .

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 10:12am

Was this performed for the Tonys? I ask because of:

The tacky lights around the proscenium
The lack of set
The WSS Banner hanging

Any info?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 10:23am

Yes.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 10:59am

Thank you, Mr Brody. That album was 7 years ago, but I didn't know Yaya had recorded one! Someone from the 1980 cast told me she was living in LA now--but maybe the chronologies are confused. (We should also say that she appeared in the awful movie of A Chorus Line.)

CS--I seem to recall that Charlotte also got the spontaneous hand during "America" before the dance was even over.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 11:11am

I think we need to do something that Broadway hasn't had since "The Robber Bridegroom" or "Sunset Boulevard" -- we need to create the production that everyone WANTS to see, and then work out a deal to replace what's on Broadway right now.

This means:
1. Fire Arthur Laurents, but keep the few good directorial decisions he made in the production.
2. Bring in Alan Johnson or another first-string stager to put in Robbins' standard material, and then have the additional task of making Laurents' few remaining directorial decisions fit.
3. Streamline the designs, no inconsistent costumes or hairstyles, and if we want it to seem current, then dress them in current attire (and cut the dated Fifties slang...I think the show can make it without it, and that may be the real problem).
4. For God's sake, lose the Spanish. It's not really adding anything, and while it seems nice on paper, it loses something in execution.
5. Pick the talents that are actually working out of the current cast and drop them into our production, re-casting the rest.
6. Get the positive attention that Laurents' production isn't getting.
7. Talk to Seller and the boys about a potential "replacement", Pimpernel-style.

[jamoca5]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 11:47am

Whoa, that was Debbie Allen? I didn't even know she was ever Anita! And that dancing was amazing =)

~Ash was here

[Marquise]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 12:15pm

Yes, Debbie Allen was a force to be reckoned with. And that wasn't even the whole number as performed on stage. It was cut for the Tony Awards. They did however perform the number in it's entirety on the TODAY show in 1980.

Here it is:


Debbie Allen and The Shark Girls - "America" - TODAY SHOW

[TheCharleston]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 12:24pm

"Karen Olivo is an amazing Anita."

If she could actually DANCE the role, she'd be "amazing"

She's good enough though.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 12:35pm

Yeah, it ain't like that in the current revival, Joey!

And Laurents would have probably changed the Shark girls skirts too if they weren't integral to the choreography.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 12:35pm

"Good enough" was never enough for Mr. Robbins.

[faithzilla]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 12:36pm

Oh my gosh. Debbie Allen is AMAZING.

[Hest882]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 3:11pm

Wow, thanks PalJoey. With her status as one of Hollywood's favorite choreographer, I always forget what a great dancer she can be. Stunning.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/8/09 at 11:56pm

Oooooooooh. "America" in HQ!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26P1B9FTuBk

[B3TA07]

Posted: 3/9/09 at 12:18am

Good thing dancing is subpar to singing and acting in that show.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 3/9/09 at 12:46am

Hey, PJ, question you might know some more about than I do:

How much of "America" was Robbins and how much was Peter Gennaro? I know the latter is credited with nearly all the dances for the Sharks, but how much did they collaborate?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/9/09 at 8:34am

Zero was Robbins and 100% was Peter Gennaro. On the 1980 revival I worked on, Robbins would leave the rehearsal room when America and the Shark mambo were being worked on and Gennaro would take over.

Peter was a sweet man who never said a word against Jerry Robbins, ever. Those who worked for Robbins worshiped him and protected him.

Gennaro's contribution was a big, unspoken secret in the dance world until Chita Rivera talked about it in A Dancer's Life.

I posted about it here in the BLT III thread and other threads. I also posted an excerpt from the contract Robbins made Gennaro sign, granting Robbins complete rights to Gennaro's work "as if I had created the work myself."

Do a search with "gennaro" in the All Fields box and "paljoey" in the Posted By" box and you'll find it.

Updated On: 3/9/09 at 08:34 AM