OUR FAVORITE ALL TIME GENDANCE ISSUES AND THE STORIES BEHIND THEM.

The Anniversary song is playing in the background. (La, la, la, la). We’re so happy for what next week will bring. And since we’re evolving, we gathered in the living room, put our rockers in the center, grabbed a box of Kleenex, and got out the photo albums. Here are some of our faves that made us laugh, cry and hurl. (Oh wait, that’s Wayne’s World.) You get our drift... We’re in Hollywood movie mode this week. Sorry.

Coolest Story of all gendance issues:  One day in our first year, I thought. What if we created special issues for holidays! I began researching and I found an article (this is during the Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza season, mind you.) I got inspired by an interview between Carson Daily and Ryan Seacrest about New Years. THAT very day, I banged out this issue that you see behind the link. I was psyched! From then on, we have done many special holiday issues that have been influential to gendance. But the kicker is this: That very night, I went out to a favorite hotspot with a colleague to celebrate my “special holiday issue idea” based on what I read with Ryan Seacrest and Carson Daily. While we sat at the restaurant drinking martinis, (non alcoholic, of course for those of you under 21) I could have sworn a guy that walked by that WAS Carson Daily. Minutes later, he walked by again and I realized it wasn’t him. It was just a regular guy. I said, “Gee, that would have been nuts, right. Imagine I saw him after coming up with the idea!” Not a moment soon after, GUESS WHO WALKS IN! (Out of millions of hot spots in NYC) Ryan Seacrest AND Carson Daily! NO JOKE. Crazy how the universe works my friend. AND THAT... is why we keep dreaming and daring to go beyond.

The Disney issue: Ok, so we wrote this issue before we left for Disney. The content was written and we left a place holder in for a video that we would place there after we captured “something cool and dance-wise” at the park. We left for the airport, the content was uploaded to be put together. While we were at the park, on the 2nd day at Epcot, we ended up randomly sitting right on the water for dinner. (We needed to feed the tired kids.) The fireworks were a perk and we grabbed our flip vid and began shooting. If you watch closely, while we’re shooting, we end up saying, “This is for the gendancers across the world.” At that moment, there was a world that lit up on the water! CRAZY, right. It gets better. After the issue was sent to me for testing, I saw the screen shot and realized our graphics team took the shot of the world lit up and then later realized it matched what I said in the video. Even more, the paragraph above that was written before we left for Disney and it talks about the video being “A Part of Our World.”. And there you have it, the MAGIC of gendance Thursday.

The Happy Birthday issue:  Alike to what you saw today in gendance with our video, we are so happy with our FIRST milestone issue. We really love this Happy Birthday issue and video because our readers wrote in and honed in on their fave articles and we realized, “They like us, they REALLY REALLY like us!” 

The 2nd Birthday issue: Yes, we threw two fave issues for our birthday last year. (We like to party... we’re next geners!) This spooky issue with an epitaph, Cake Boss’s Buddy, The Jabbawockeez, Amber Moelter’s scary CD and of course, Thriller. This was a fun one for us too. We sent it out with a photo of GEO at the top in a costume from his childhood, which was cool.

The Christmas issue: How could you not love the red bouncing ball with the holly gendance Christmas lyrics that we creatively re-wrote? Much love to the students at Elysian Charter School in Hoboken and ICON Dance Complex students who sang along and bobbed their heads to our gendance holiday tune and to Eric Anderson for bringing my version of the red bouncing ball song to life. 

The Art 4 Life issue: Major shout out here to Gregg Russell, who invited us to work with him and Gina Starbuck on this amazing event. We’re always willing to lend a hand for charity. We showed up at the party with our entourage (Michelline Coonrod) and fist pumped for Gregg Russell as he nailed it on stage tapping away, along with so many talented dancers. What a great partay! Gina Starbuck and Gregg Russell, you guys mean the world to us.

The Ailey New Year’s issue: Nuff Said, it’s Ailey. We cry throughout the entire performance during Revelations because we love the art so much. YOU rocka-our souls.

The Dario issue: The story behind this is that we have worked with Lois Greenfield since day one. Her photography has been blessed in EVERY SINGLE of our 100 issues of gendance with a next gen twist. We ALMOST flew to Argentina to see Dario and Lois work on this, but we were too busy writing gendance issues for you! Bummer. Also, you see that holiday offer? One of our featured stars as well as a good friend of ours Edwin Fion of NY Dance Residency, took advantage of it and built these photos. Good for you, love!

The Flip Video issue: We ran around in NYC for the past two years, flipping off with some of today’s hottest dancers and personalities. We especially liked going backstage with Michael Balderrama when he was Usnavi on his first night ever as the lead in In the Heights. The Tap Cruise around Manhattan was another great one. Boy, me, Vic and Dommy laughed so hard on that boat. We even made our OWN version of “I’m on a Boat”. I have the .mov file, but you’ll never see it. Thank goodness.

The Very First issue: This is just a cute way to show how far we’ve come. Oh boy, you see those ads in between the articles. Do you know how many of those we wrote and designed... we were pumpin’ away at it all. I loved that pic of Luis in the Behind the Scenes and did you see the Slow Dancing article. WOW!

The gendance carried a watermelon issue: God Bless Patrick Swayze.

The Michael Jackson Dedication. God Bless Michael Jackson.

Bill Hastings Loves gendance

Bill Hastings stopped by gendance to talk about our 100th issue coming up next week. He's such a fan. Who would have thought?! So, in light of his praise, we interviewed him quickly for his advice, wisdom and words of the wise.


What inspires you most?
A sense of moving through space.


Ah, like Star Trek. Gotcha. Well, in terms of dance, how did YOU learn?
I started at the age of 23 and was fortunate to have Harvey Hysell as my teacher, whose patience was contagious and inspirational.


Who are your mentors?
Bob Fosse


Of course. What's the best advice he's given you?
He taught dancers as actors and it therefore gave us something to think about as we were interpreting the music and movement and it helped to understand the best dancing was motivated by subtext and clear intent.


So you just got back from Norway, huh Bill?
Yep. I rehearsed a professional jazz dance company in 24 numbers for a new show called "Jazz on Jazz" created by Chet Walker.


Whoah, 24 numbers eh?
Yep.


Well, what do you think of our 100 number next week then?
It's wonderful! The next generation is most important. Without them all of our hard work would be in vain. I consider it a privilege to pass down by knowledge to the next gen and think it's wonderful for gendance to be focussing on them and previewing folks like me for advice to pass on.


How do you want to salute our gendancers for the 100th issue? What's your idea of a party?
For the party... dance, dance dance! Every day when I wake up the party begins.


You see. We knew you were a GFF VIP all the time. We're honored that you stopped by, we wish you the best with your endeavors and we can't wait to see you again in the NEW gendance coming soon.


HAPPY (ALMOST) 100 WITH BILL HASTINGS!!!

Herman Chavez Makes BIG Actor Moves in NYC. Follow Him. We Recommend.

Ok that sounded a bit like a yoda sentence, but in all honesty. This guy's got it going on. The moment he knew he hit gold was when he realized he can be self sufficient in his auditions and can compete with the pros on his own, fearlessly. (Good words to live by.) Herman's business is called "The Mental Game of Auditioning". Why? Because it has NOTHING to do with the scene. It's a psychological game that starts in your mind. The body will always follow the mind. Chaos in the mind is cause/effect of being nervous.


He started this biz because he's cried many times like you, in his living room filled with agony and emotional distress of trying to compete at all actor levels. He turned it around when he addressed the focus OFF the scene. Just like boxing baby, 90% is mental, the other 10% is technical.


The workshops are for everyone and many come who are in the range of 20 to 65. It's valuable to your career because you get a clear overview as to what causes you to give a good audition read and it's got real world experience.


In his spare time, he practices and sharpens his skills and of course, catches up on a bit of Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle and Zen, which is good for everyone, not just performers. (We go to sleep sometimes to Deepak.) Does he have an agent you ask? Course. His agent in NY is Brett Adams and in LA is Coast to Coast.


Herman Chavez lives without fear and is inspired by quality and doing a job well done. Herman is a recurring actor on HBO's How To Make It In America.

He told us that what makes him a trendsetter is having a low tolerance for BS and undisciplined people. (Herman, you rock! Speak the truth, brotha!) That certainly qualifies him for trendsetter-ness. Who has time for people walking around with ego's? Not us either.


Influenced by his mom, Bruce Lee (Karate chop!) his casting director and by women. (Yeah! Herman... you see the light.) He wants everyone to follow their heart and we want everyone to follow his career and sign up for his events at The Mental Game, www.thementalgameofauditioning.com.


Rock on Herman.

SYTYCD Pre-Tour Party Pics from Six Flags

Cat Deeley and the STYCYD Tour gang took advantage of the last days of summer by heading out to Six Flags Magic Mountain. You know they're headed out to their tour right? Well, to release the nerves, they partied with famous faces like Daffy and Bugs, rode roller coasters, ate ice-cream, took silly pictures in photo booths and had the time of their life. After all the Tour starts on September 19th in New Orleans. You have to get your kicks before the real work begins. Congrats! We wish we were there to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl with you. (Do they still have that ride? It's our fave!) Don't miss the tour and grab a ticket today.

Featured dancers: from top Allison Holker, Kathryn McCormick, Adechike Torbert, Ashley Galvan, Kent Boyd, Robert Roldan, Season 7 winner Lauren Froderman, Ade Obayomi, Jose Ruiz, Dominc Sandoval, Season 6 winner Russell Ferguson, executive producer Jeff Thacker, Courtney Galliano, Cat Deeley, executive producer Barry Adelman, Billy Bell. 

Season 7 top 3 : Kent Boyd, Lauren Froderman, Robert Roldan

Photo Credit: Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging

The gendance team hits our first Act Outside the Box Event

Me and a voice over artist 

So much love at Act Outside the Box

Jean Marc, Blanca and EB

Cool Dancers from the shin dig

Yes, that's me! Elizabeth Barry. I'm standing with an amazing voice over actor who was proud to say that he's a wanted man for "grandpa voices". Cool huh? well, get used to it because there were tons of cool people just like him. My friends Blanca Vasquez and Jean Marc attended, and as you can see from the above, there were talented dancers and friends having a blast. I definitely recommend joining us at the next event. CHEERS to Lisa Gold!(Photos by Jim Manley)

Steven Tyler-Fashion King

Through the 80's, Steven Tyler stood at the top of his throne of long jackets with penguin tails, boots, rings, long hair and headbands. The male rocker look has been donned by many over the years due to his fashion sense. Dance competitions and conventions have had loaded iPods filled with "Dream On" and "Walk this Way" for ages-so his music and fashion is living among us in the dance world-not to mention the dancers from SYTYCD who choreographed and walked their way to his songs. (And now, there's American Idol and Guitar Hero, so this heroic rockstar is still king.)

And... he is still creating runway magic on the stage. Last weekend's Aerosmith concert at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City was spectacular. Not only did Aerosmith make us do that 'rocker sign' with our fingers and wave them in the air, but we basked in his glorious threads. There were rhinestones on his pants built into his logo (We're sure they were Swarovski) and his sunglasses (aviators, of course) were on and off his head a few times. (And we were so close that when he took them off, he looked at us and winked!) No lie. The paisley jacket (unbuttoned of course, sexy man) was the perfect accent to his 2 hour set of loud tunes that made us jump up and down in the audience.

So in conclusion of today's fashion issue. We had men from around the ballet, contemporary and jazz worlds, but we also can't forget the bad boy side of the men that we love- and Steven Tyler is a perfect example of gendance fashion for the bad boy in all of us. No, we're not Crazy, he's Amazing.