So You Think You Can Dance: Travis Wall's Titanic Routine

I promised in my Travis Wall post I would post this routine when it became available.



What did you think of the routine?

Travis Wall: Choreographer Extraordinaire

I'd like to spout off the merits of Travis Wall, dancer and choreographer.

Travis almost won the title of "America's favorite dancer" on season 2 of So You Think You Can Dance. It wasn't because Benji Schwimmer was a better dancer necessarily that he won instead of Travis. It was only because Benji won more viewers' hearts. Travis is now one of the choreographers on So You Think You Can Dance, and he has proven that not only is he an excellent dancer, but he is also an excellent choreographer. His routines are so heartfelt, filled with emotion, and a joy to watch.

This week's routine by Travis was performed by Audrey and Matt. The routine was based on the scene in Titanic where Jack draws a portrait of Rose. Now, Titanic is not my favorite movie, and when they said that Jack and Rose's story is one of the greatest love stories, I laughed out loud. (I'm sorry if I offend you Rose and Jack lovers out there. I'm just voicing my opinion.) I won't go into the reasons I don't like the film, but I will say that this routine, like most Travis Wall routines, was beautiful. It was set to "Unchained Melody," and the dance centered around a chaise lounge. Audrey's kicks were incredible, and when she ran across the chaise and into Matt's arms at a crescendo in the music, I thought this is choreography perfection. She stumbled a bit when she started the sprint across the chaise, but that landing as Matt caught her made up for it. The ending was a little clunky, but this is only week one of the competition itself. Matt and Audrey will find their groove in the weeks to come, I'm sure. Matt and Audrey are now my favorite dancers. It might be because they were lucky enough the get a Travis Wall routine. *wink*

Unfortunately, I can't find the routine on YouTube. When, and if, it becomes available I will post it. I do, however, have a few photos.



Travis Wall is young, and he has an incredible career ahead of him. In fact, he has started his own dance company, and a new reality TV show, All the Right Moves, will chronicle its beginnings. The show premieres July 31 on the Oxygen cable network. I hope he and his dancers are successful.

As promised, I am including another one of my all time favorite routines from So You think You Can Dance. This routine is from season 2, and features Heidi Groskreutz and, you guessed it, Travis Wall. It is considered by many fans to be the best routine of all time from the show. It was choreographed by Mia Michaels, another choreographer who fills her dances with heart and emotion. It's a beautiful piece. All you have to do is mention "the bench," and SYTYCD fans know exactly which routine you're talking about.

Enjoy!

Titanic: The Miniseries

Julian Fellowes's forte is to explore the world of the classes, specifically in Britain, having written the screenplays for the Oscar winner, Gosford Park, and the acclaimed miniseries, Downton Abbey. And there is no place where the class division was as apparent as on the Titanic. So, for this 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Famous vessel, it is not surprising that Julian Fellowes would take on dramatizing the tragedy.

Unlike James Cameron's megahit, the miniseries follows the lives of many passengers, from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd classes, as well as servants of 1st class passengers, and crew members. Because, after all, this is Julian Fellowes writing the script.

I was disappointed in the miniseries. It was an interesting decision to end each episode with the ship hitting the iceberg. However, I think it made the miniseries feel very disjointed. By the end of the third hour, I wanted to say, just get on with the real drama, which I felt a bit bad about because real people experienced the tragedy, although none of the main characters were based on real people, as far as I know.

Which brings me to another disappointment I had in the show at first. I wished that that the main characters hadn't been fictitious. They could have given the characters names of real people. I thought later, however, those people have descendants or relatives, and it's easier not to worry about getting the ire up of any of them if they didn't like the way they were portrayed, so, it's easier to go fictional. Also, I thought that most of the people who were actually on the ship probably just ate, slept, sat on deck, read books, played cards, etc. and where is the drama in that? The sinking of the ship is the real drama of the whole tragedy.

The whole miniseries couldn't just be after the ship hit the iceberg. We had to care about the characters, which, I'm sorry to say for the most part I didn't. There were so any characters, and I knew from the start, as everyone did, that some would live and some would die so I almost didn't want to get too attached. The conceit of giving us bits of information a little at a time about the characters made their stories so disconnected that I found it hard to get very emotionally involved in their lives and care about them anyway. The only person I had any emotional feelings for was John Batley, who was played so well by Toby Jones. The moment when the lifeboat comes to pick him up and he doesn't want to leave his dead wife was heartbreaking. 

There were real characters from the ship in the miniseries, but their stories weren't central, and I'm not sure that they were totally accurate with all of the people who really were on the ship.

Titanic: Reenactment of the Sailing

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the cruise ship, Balmoral, is recreating the doomed ship’s maiden (and last) voyage. The Balmoral set sail from Southamptom, England, just as the Titanic did, on Sunday April 8, 2012. The ship is carrying 1309 passengers, almost the same number as were on the Titanic. Many of the passengers are relatives of passengers of the Titanic.

The passengers will hold a memorial service at the exact spot the Titanic hit the iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912. Many of the passengers are dressing for the occasion, in attire from 1912.


When the Balmoral left the port of Cobh in Ireland, late Monday, April 9, 2012, it ran into bad weather, and then a passenger developed heart problems and the ship had to turn back to Ireland so an Irish coastguard helicopter could pick up the sick passenger.

The managing director of the travel agency that chartered the voyage could not say if the return to Ireland would cause the ship to miss making it to the exact location of the sinking on time for the memorial service. I hope they don’t sail quicker than they should just to make it there on time. That was one of the mistakes made on the Titanic itself – trying to get to New York ahead of schedule, and going to fast.

Another ship, Journey, left from New York on Tuesday night to sail to the same spot and commemorate the doomed ship’s sinking. It will be interesting to hear how it goes, because two large cruise ships can’t be in the same place at the same time.

What is it about the tragedy of the Titanic that interests people so much? I know that I’m fascinated by the events of that fateful night, but I can’t say exactly why. There isn’t another tragedy that fascinates me the same way. However, it would be so eerie to be at the exact spot where the ship sank, at the exact time 100 years later, in the middle of the night. I’m not one who believes in ghosts per se, but I have a very vivid imagination and I don’t think I would be able to sleep well that night, because there may be some spirits lingering where such tragedy happened.

I am looking forward to Julian Fellowes miniseries, Titanic, which will air on Saturday and Sunday nights. I think it’s the stories of the people who lived and died that night that interest me the most, and I believe this miniseries tells the real story of the real people better than James Cameron’s movie did. To me, James Cameron’s movie was just a love story with the Titanic tragedy as the background. I’m excited to learn more about the real story, and the real people.