Cassidy Noblett's Body Talks in New Interview

 

Cassidy dances with Gaga at The Monster Ball.

You ever wonder why one of Lady Gaga’s most popular dancers Cassidy Noblett dances so passionately to the point that you can feel the sweat on his body, the warmth of his skin and his pounding heart that’s almost as loud as the bass of the music? Well, Cassidy explains everything in an interview where he answers my questions and talks about the artistry behind his dancing and the stories he wants to tell with his body. Read up.

1. When did you first start dancing?

My mother is a dance teacher so I actually started dancing in the womb. The day I saw those hospital lights, I knew life was my stage and its journey would be my performance.

2. Who were your dance influences growing up and who influences you to this day?

Growing up, my sister was my biggest influence as well as my mother. My sister was/is a talent to the dance industry and she always explored greatness in how she challenged herself and how she created herself. Jacques d’Amboise was one of my teachers, and he taught me that there is no limit to hard work and motivation. It’s endless and that there is no 100% because that is a personal perspective. It can always be better and can always grow. Janet Jackson, Dana Foglia, Victor Rojas, Amanda Balen, Lady Gaga, Bjork, Dalai Lama, any artist who seeks to discover themselves and express that individuality in their own way

3. What was your first professional job?

Club Dancer in Britney Spears/ Madonna music video, “Me Against the Music”

4. How would you describe your dance style?

I think the best answer is that it’s evolving, ever changing, and a feeling more than a set of words to describe it. It is a life form that isn’t perfect, but it finds breath in its uncertainty. (Big modern influence on it from a technical aspect)

5. I read in an interview you did that you want to bring a classical element to commercial dance, so when you say that, do you mean that you apply a classical technique even to non-classical choreography? If so, how do you apply it?

I want to bring a classical vocabulary that is seasoned with an urban understanding, a fellowship of abstract and city sidewalks together. An appreciation that isn’t tampered with by appearance and money, but by concept, art, individual voice, feeling, controversy, and new perspective. On that note, I completely respect what we have in the industry, I just want to find a new lens to view it through and to open the world’s view on it by taking a different approach.

6. I know that you also choreograph, so what is your creative process for creating choreography?

It changes depending on inspiration and task. And it’s a secret that I’m still developing and creating. Sometimes the beauty in art isn’t necessarily knowing how you get there (because that’s the artist’s own craft and happiness and personal journey) but what feeling it can produce once it’s offered. For me, I just want to keep that to myself. One day I will share I’m sure.

7. I’ve noticed that there’s a strong narrative element to your dancing, so how do you figure out the story that you want to tell?

The story I want to tell is a mixture of what vision the choreographer, creator, artist, director, etc. has and who I want to be to fit into that mold. How do I want to portray myself as this character. How can I be my own voice within someone else’s framework. And it comes with trial and error and also comes with being a character and changing your character as time passes. One’s moods can dictate the persona that comes to life. It varies day to day for me.

8. For inspiration, do you watch the videos of the artists you’re dancing for?

In order to offer my spirit and artistry to the fullest, it’s very important to be educated with all elements of the project you are involved with. The videos are a wonderful place to find inspiration especially when you need to revamp your approach. Because in the video, generally speaking, the vibe, the image, the content of what the song and vision is about is laid out for you through the layers of its footage.

9. What’s the next step in your career? For instance, do you plan to work primarily as a choreographer similar to Laurie Ann Gibson or is there acting in your future?

I would love to be an actor. That is a road that I hope to venture on throughout the rest of my life. It only makes you a better dancer and unlocks a whole new area of art that I know my life is interested in. As far as dancing, I am very happy to be where I am. The future plans will just have to be a surprise ;-)

10. Other than Gaga, do you have any other projects in the works for 2010 and 2011?

No idea yet ;-)

Lovers' Revenge

I want your love and all your lovers' revenge.

Don't forget my lipstick, I left it in your ashtray.

That Bad Girl Power I got, I'll abuse it tonight.

Alan 'Cumshot" Cumming...ahhh

Julianna Margulies really has transformed herself. She goes from working as a homely Chicago nurse who dated George Clooney in the 90s’ to a stylish Chicago lawyer who’s married to Mr. Big (yup, from Sex in the City). As a lawyer, Julianna is the good wife who stands by her cheating politician husband Mr. Big, and she can hardly trust anyone, not even her sneaky kids. God sent down a gift to Julianna’s untrustworthy world and it was the sexy Alan Cumming. Alan left behind his gender-bending days starring on Broadway in Cabaret for a career as Mr. Big’s shrewd, campy campaign manager. With one swoop of Alan’s silky, gray hair and a cumshot smile, I’ve simply died and gone to a better place. Never has Alan been sexier than as an American political campaign manager who somehow turns every scene into a sexual scene.

‘Glee’ Star Has Fantasies on T-Pain Remix

Kevin McHale Fantasizes at the beach.

By Christopher Cole

T-Pain + boy band + Glee = The “Can’t Believe It” Remix : Boy Band Edition.

“Glee’ star Kevin McHale and Perez Hilton-endorsed singer Travis Garland recorded their own version of T-Pain’s hit “Can’t Believe It” back in 2008, and on their version they continued T-Pain’s concept of fantasy. On this remix, Kevin and Travis recount their own visions of how they will win the affections of a female. Wow, it sounds like a fantasy musical scene

The “Can’t Believe It” Remix by Kevin and Travis featuring a no-name singer named RAS functions like a rap cipher where everyone spits some bars and flow to the beat, except these guys sing. The three singers sing to a female, painting scenes of what life would be like for her if she was their girlfriend. RAS offers the least imaginative scenario by trying to bribe the female with fancy things like “I can take you to Nevada/head to toe in Prada.”

The guys from the boy band NLT (at the time of the recording) offer more colorful scenes and show that they are very aware of their teenybopper audience. They don’t try to act older than their age. Kevin, who now plays the wheelchair-bound Artie on the hit TV show “Glee,” offers a fantasy that’s more down-to-earth than RAS’. In fact, Kevin’s fantasy could easily be Artie’s fantasy because both have an underdog perspective. Both are guys are cooler than they look, and they have to work harder to prove themselves. The following lyrics sum this up perfectly: “And I know you want a man that’s over five-seven/but you ain’t never met Kevin.”Travis offers a more self-assured fantasy where he’s a Texas boy looking for a “Spice Girl.” This refers to the best line of the song, in my opinion: “Girl, I’ll be your David Beckham cuz you know that I’m looking for a Spice Girl.”

It’s refreshing that Kevin and Travis keep the song youthful and clean instead of misogynistic and dirty. It was fun revisiting a song that I hadn’t heard in years, and relating it to the present where Kevin McHale is television star. Past + Present = Potential fulfilled.

Click the link to hear the remix: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kevin+mchale+sings&aq=f

Nicole Scherzinger Creates A Rhythm Nation with Her Single ‘Poison’

Listen to "Poison" on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsEThIoyrcI

On her newly premiered single “Poison,” Nicole Scherzinger definitely doesn’t stray far from her old songs with the Pussycat Dolls. Of course Nicole gives the song a spunky “girl power” message, but the track itself is a lot darker than its lyrics.

Producer RedOne (Lady Gaga, Enrique Iglesias) produced “Poison” and his “track” is industrial. It makes me picture the insides of a dark factory and Nicole dressed like Janet Jackson “Rhythm Nation style, in all black clothes with a military state of mind. Now sonically, “Poison” is militant, but lyrically it’s the same femme fatale routine Nicole has always done (“Got venom dripping from my lips/know who you’re ‘bout to kiss/think that you can handle it/boy it’s on”). Although “Poison” doesn’t contain a socially-conscious message like “Rhythm Nation” had, the song’s aggressive production keeps the song alive.

RedOne works his magic again, and should be commended for such a great track, but it’s clear that he saves his best stuff for Lady Gaga. As good as “Poison” is, it’s more along the lines of Enrique Iglesias’ RedOne-produced hit “I Like It," which uses RedOne’s reliable recipe for chart success. “Poison” has all the ingredients of an epic RedOne hit: verses filled with sinister synths, a pregaming b-section that takes shots before the big fist-pumping chorus and hook. And of course Nicole still packs the same huge Taylor Dayne vocals she showcased with the Pussycat Dolls.

I don’t know what the “Poison” music video will look like (hopefully not a video set in a club, ugh!), but I would love to see Nicole pay homage to Janet’s Rhythm Nation days, and add a militant visual to match RedOne’s militant track. If she does this, the femme fatale lyrics will sound ironic. Then again, with lyrics like “that bad girl power I got, I’ll abuse it tonight,” maybe “Poison” is more socially-conscious then I initially thought.

Lady Gaga’s 'Boys' Song Goes Gaga For Halloween and Elvis

Elvis in all his "hairspray and denim" glory in the film Jailhouse Rock.

By Christopher Cole

Lady Gaga sure does have a thing for Americana. In fact, all of her music incorporates American pop culture in some way. So for the very first song she recorded with her musical partner RedOne, “Boys, Boys, Boys,” Gaga treats the macho man as an American icon, but of course Gaga being Gaga, she establishes the status quo and then inverts it.

There’s logic to Gaga’s Monster Ball tour where Gaga follows “Love Game” with “Boys, Boys, Boys,” because the two songs are linked by one thing: glorification of the classic American male by way of cheeky signifiers. Gaga even used some of the trumpets from the “Boys” chorus and mashed them with “LoveGame” when she performed “LoveGame” on Saturday Night Live in 2009.

RedOne’s track is a two-toned rumble of 80’s slasher-film strings, jubilant trumpets and lots of bass. Gaga adds the lyrics and “top line” of the song (the melody driving the lyrics) in the style of AC/DC’s hard rock music. Think of AC/DC’s 1980 hit “Shook Me All Night Long” and you’ll get the picture. Writer Ann Powers explains the rock sentiment of “Boys” in her feature article “Frank Talk with Lady Gaga” on the Los Angeles Times website: “She notes that “Boys, Boys, Boys (…) is a club track that borrows its “gang chorus” from the hard rock of AC/DC . ‘I told him I want to make pop music that my heavy metal friends will listen to,’ she [Gaga] explained (Powers). The “gang chorus” is like a shout-out refrain that has some punk sensibilities underlying it.

It’s in this gang chorus that Gaga pays homage to American male icons like Elvis Priestly. Gaga sings the lyrics in full voice “We like boys in cars/boys, boys, boys/buy us drinks in bars/boys, boys, boy/with hairspray and denim/and boys, boys, boys.” The lyric “hairspray and denim” brings to mind Elvis in the 1957 film Jailhouse Rock, where he wore denim jeans and a hairspray-assisted pompadour hairstyle.

Still, it’s in the way Gaga brings those vivid lyrics to life through visuals that she’s most known for, and that comes when she performs. On her Monster Ball arena tour, Gaga has begun wearing a skeletal glove on hand complete with spindly fingers, looking like something she picked up from the costume shop for Halloween. When I saw the glove, I instantly linked it with the monster concept of The Fame Monster album, although “Boys” is from The Fame album. But the skeleton glove is related to the synthesized strings on “Boys” that play during the verses, and the strings sound like they came from a John Carpenter horror movie from the 80’s. I get the sense that the skeleton glove is related to the usually male villain of those 80’s horror movies, like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, who also qualify as male American icons. The dark, ominous backing track on the verse parts is a stark contrast to the euphoric chorus; the chorus is the light to the verses’ dark.

Lady Gaga performs "Boys" wearing skeleton glove.

Another way Gaga brings the songs to life visually is through the choreography that the renowned Laurie Ann Gibson creates for Gaga. The choreography that Gibson created for “Boys” connects to the main theme of man as icon. So that’s explains all the muscle-flexing. There’s also simulation of driving a car (“we like boys in cars”), guzzling beer (“buy us drinks in bars”), and washing a car (“we hairspray and denim,” which is a signifier of not only Elvis, but the 50’s in general). The gyrating of shirtless bodies and codpieces signify the sexual element of the “Boys” performance. Unsurprisingly, Gaga performs “Boys” with only male dancers, and she doesn’t interact with them at all during the performance. She doesn’t even take one look at them. Gaga does this deliberately for the purpose of letting her male dancers exist as fantasies for the many gay and bisexual men in the audience, so she doesn’t want to interfere with the fantasies of her audience. In relation, when Gaga intros the “Boys” performance with “Sing about your gay pride, you just kicked Prop 8’s ass,” the song’s gay context is clear, and this context links back to the horror strings of the verses and the skeleton glove, which seems to ask the question: what do you consider scary? Many people view homosexuality as scary, and Gaga points to this in a creative way.

Eventually, Lady Gaga leaves the stage halfway into the song, leaving her male dancers to show off their cheeky dance moves; Gaga leaves the stage because she wants the audience to soak in the gayness without compromise, without heterosexual sugarcoating. Gaga is giving her gay and bisexual male fans a moment dedicated to them.

Link to performance of "Boys, Boys, Boys": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnF0QmUHlIk

Works Cited:

Powers, Ann. “Frank Talk With Lady Gaga.” Los Angeles Times. 13 December 2009. Web.

Alun Davies Indexes His Past With Bright Light Bright Light's 'Love Part II' Video

         Bright Light Bright Light searches for self-actualization in his "Love Part II" video.

By Christopher Cole

Alun Davies uses elements from his old work and combines them in the music video for Bright Light Bright Light’s “Love Part II.” Davies uses the broken glass/mirror from a photo shoot with Bright Light Bright Light and the geometric building blocks he used for the “Color Theory” magazine spread, as well as the doubling motif he used for the “The Intimacy of Fashion” magazine spread. Also, Davies uses different forms of light to signify enlightenment, like he did for the “Color Theory” fashion spread, as well as the veiling of the face he used before. He uses the veiling to show that Bright Light Bright Light’s self is not actualized yet, not fully-formed. Davies uses all the elements mentioned to show one man’s journey to self-actualization. The concept of self-actualization finally comes when Bright Light Bright Light is reborn as a liberated person. In the end, it’s a rebirth where the two people behind Bright Light Bright Light combine with him to make one person. The divided personality is now one and he is born again.