“I’m singing in the rain”, you might have heard this quirky tune from the musical Singing in the Rain, starring Gene Kelly. Gene had a unique dance style, coming from his background in ballet and tap. From performing with his five siblings to starring in classic Hollywood musicals, Gene Kelly’s start on vaudeville propelled him to stardom. Gene Kelly was born August 23, 1912, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Number three of five siblings raised by his Irish mother and father. His mother had a passion for the arts performing with a local stock theater company. She later enrolled her children into the Fairgreaves School of Dance. Before beginning dance at the age of 8, Kelly played many sports like ice hockey. At a later time, this athleticism would distinguish him from other dancers. In the 1920s, Jay, Jim, Gene, Louise, and Fred named themselves The Five Kellys and performed in local vaudeville shows in Pennsylvania. Here Kelly learned the difference between dancing and performing. Although Gene enjoyed dancing, the neighborhood kids bullied him; causing him …show more content…
But dancing got the attention of girls, therefore Gene’s brother Fred taught him to tap. Fred and Gene entered talent shows for money; as well as displaying their skills in vaudeville shows. Later in the early 1930s, Gene enrolled into the University of Pittsburgh to study law. He spent his summers at the YMCA as a stage and dance coach. After graduating college, his mother decided to run a dance school. Gene joined his mother at the Kelly School of Dance, later renamed the Gene Kelly Studios of the Dance, to teach tap and ballet. During this time, he took ballet classes in Chicago and New York, to help him become a better choreographer. Gene found the opportunity to practice choreographing by creating routines for vaudeville acts that passed through Pennsylvania. Sooner or later, New York would welcome Kelly’s work on
At age twelve, he moved to Los Angeles and, on a junior high school class trip to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, fell in love with concert dance. Ailey began his formal dance training inspired by the performances of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company and the classes with Lester Horton that his friend, Carmen de Lavallade, urged him to take. Horton, the founder of the first racially integrated dance company in the US, was a catalyst for Ailey as the young dancer embarked on his professional career. After Horton's death in 1953, Ailey became the director of the Lester Horton Dance Theater and began to choreograph his own works. In New York, Ailey studied with many outstanding dance artists, including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Hanya Holm and Karel Shook, and took acting classes with Stella Adler.
Smoke on the Mountain did an excellent job at utilizing each of the seven components of a play in the production of the show. The first two components are plot and characters. The plot is the actions in a show and the characters are the people who carry out the actions of the plot and they both require the other in order to be developed correctly. When Vera Sanders explains to the congregation why they are all similar to June bugs she is developing her character and in turn, developing the plot. She begins by telling a story when a June bug flew into her lemonade one evening while she was sitting on her porch. She was incredibly upset about this because that June bug contaminated her drink. Her emotions, thoughts, and actions about this ordeal were logical and believable to the audience which allows her character to be developed. She goes on to explain how, like the June bug that flew into her lemonade, we are all inadvertently flying into the drink of sin. This correlation between us and a June bug started out very strange and confusing but through logical steps and details given by Vera, we were able to make the connection and understand her reasoning. Believable actions and stories like this are what build the plot. This is why characters and plot go together. The next component Aristotle listed is the theme; the abstracted subtext (aka the hidden message) in a show. There were two themes in—overcoming tribulations and sin and becoming unified as a community through song. The vast amount of songs that were performed during the show made me believe that unity through song was the central theme. Just like the community in the play, when I was participating in this show, I felt the power of music through and found myself on the e...
Jackie Robinson, born Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. He was the youngest of five children and was raised by his single-handed mother Mallie Robinson in poverty. He went to John Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College, where he excelled in football, basketball, track, and baseball. Jackie Robinson won the regions Most Valuable Player in baseball in 1938. Jackie was inspired by his older brother Matthew Robinson to push for his goals, talents and love for sports.
Not great at sports, Alvin excelled in the less common athletics of gymnastics, especially the floor exercise (36). Being an African-American male, this was hard for Ailey and he struggled fitting in with his peers. Alvin Ailey had little experience with dance or the theater and it wasn’t until he moved to Los Angeles that his eyes were opened to the world of theatrics by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carolos and the performance of Katherine Dunham’s black dance company (DeFrantz 43). Ailey pursued 1940s dancing styles such as tap, but experimented and settled on modern dance when a school friend, Carmen de Lavallade, convinced him to join Lester Horton’s lively theatrical, Hollywood Studio in 1949 (43). As Ailey’s mentor, Horton proved to be a major role model and helped mold Alvin’s technique and
Catherine Little first began her dance training when she was eight years old and studied tap, ballet, and eccentric dancing from an Erie dance studio that is no longer in operation. When Catherine was 14 she began her teacher training in New York City at Ned Wayburn School. By the end of the year Ms. Little began to teach students in the music room of her parent’s home and every summer was spent studying in New York. While attending Lucille Stoddard’s Dance Congress Catherine was chosen from more than 200 students by the famous Bill “Bo Jangles” Robinson to be his protégé. Along with Bo Jangles, Catherine also studied with Ernest Carlos, Jack Manning, Peter Gennaro, Charlie Morrison, Charlie Lowe, Gene Kelly, and Katherine Dunham. While studying in New York Catherine performed at the Palace Theatre and even travelled to Cleveland, Ohio for the premiere of the first talking movie. Because of Catherine’s love for children and recognition that it was good for their development, she began to specialize in teaching pre-schoolers. Later, Catherine decided to take her work with children a s...
Jack “Jackie” Roosevelt Robinson was born January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. There he lived with his family in dire poverty on a sharecropper’s farm. Abandoned by his father, at age one, his mother moved their family to Pasadena, California. There she raised Robinson and his four siblings all by herself. Jack became a star athlete in high school, excelling in football, basketball, track, and his weakest sport, baseball.
Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Georgia. On this day, a legend arrived. Jackie was raised by his mother, and his mother alone. His father left before Jackie was born, and he didn’t remember one thing about him. Jackie had many siblings, brothers and sisters. Jackie had an older brother named Matthew, who was also very athletic. Jackie’s mother tried the best she could to raise these boys right, and teach them that no matter what the whites called them...they were special.
Kelly was born in Richmond, Va. and is a long -time Charlottean who came to the QC during his college years to get a fresh start. He has truly seen the evolution of Charlotte from a medium sized city to what has become quite a thriving metropolis.
The colours used in the artwork are earthy tones with various browns, greens, yellows, blues and some violet. These colours create a sense of harmony on the...
The hit musical "Singin' in the Rain" may possibly be one of if not the greatest musicals of all time. With it's tale of the film world of the mid 1920's and its creative underlining love story between Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), it provokes the interest of someone who would not generally be attracted to a musical. It is a classic masterpiece that set the standards that musical films of today will be judged by. It is a classic performance by the great Gene Kelly and displays outstanding performances by Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. As well as starring in this brilliant movie, Gene Kelly teams up with Stanley Donen to make their mark in film history.
Louis Armstrong’s rendition of the Hot Chocolates “Black and Blue” is efficient in of displaying the unique characteristics of the music that makes jazz such a special genre and sound. The Hot Chocolates first preformed the song at the end of the 1920s, right when the blues started to become more intertwined with jazz music and performers like Mammie Smith started to become relevant. Louis Armstrong also derived a lot of inspiration from blues which is why his version of the song incorporated blues scales. The Hot Chocolates version of the song relies more heavily on the vocals than Armstrong’s version. In the original, you hear Edith Wilson’s voice come in well before the song’s half way point; in Louis version his trumpet takes
The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O'Brien stays at while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influence out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.
In Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King, King intertwines stories to create a satire that pokes fun at Indian culture compared to European culture. The book attempts to also poke fun at Judeo-Cristian beliefs by examining the creation story. King makes fun of the story of Adam and Eve. He pokes fun at western civilization and government. Although the book made me laugh some of the meanings behind kings writing puzzled me and made me question king's motives. The book is truly a puzzle that can be hard to decipher for most. I found the book to be challenging but entertaining and interesting.
"running on its toes like a cat, like a dog up to no good like a
In the novel When Rain Clouds Gather, by Bessie Head, the protagonist, Makhaya, deals with suffering, trauma and eventual healing, particularly when he arrives in Golema Mmidi. At the same time, the novel deals with problems of tribalism, greed and hate in a postcolonial state. Throughout the novel, Makhaya attempts to resolve these struggles and create a new future for himself.