My Current Desktop

Even heathens must surely appreciate this image for what it is.... awesomeness! And check out the hi-res version. Theres so much detail, you can clearly make out how the male danseurs tuck themselves up in their dance belts.

The image is of Yuan Yuan in the principal role of The Firebird and it's a photograph Erik Tomasson. I found it via google images months back while doing a search for god knows what. Rediscovered it again today. The image was located on Rachel Howards blog (author and dance critic). There are so many wonderful hi-res images there, it's well worth a look. She doesn't update her blog much but there is plenty of past content to keep you reading through :)

A few more fine images by Erik Tomasson found at her blog...

Kimberly Kurz - Diddlyi.com

Not really into the "diddlyi" dancing in general (being Irish means nothing), but I love this pic of German Irish-dancer, Kimberly Kurz, taken on a beach in Dubai. There's actually a lot of nice pics on her diddlyi.com profile page. She certainly manages to get up quite high :)


[Original image page]

Ballet Chancers: Episodes 1- 6

It's taken me a while (too long!) but I've finally uploaded the rest of the episodes of Ballet Chancers.

I've been plagued with problems surrounding these files but I finally got the finger out and packaged them up for people to see. These arent presented as nicely as the first episode as A) I didn't have the time and B) the audio has errors, which I fixed in the first episode by recording the audio track directly off the video on the RTE site, but these videos have since been deleted.

The files are in their raw RealMedia state. You should be able to get these to play on your machine with a little bit of effort. I abhor the use of Real Media, but if all else fails for you, you can get the official player here. Each file is individually wrapped up and compressed in a Zip file which should be natively supported by the operating system on your machine, which is why I didn't confuse the situation further by using rar files etc.

Links in the comments section!

Note: If I get a request from anyone involved in the production of Ballet Chancers to take the links down, I will. The quality of these videos is quite poor and they are only intended to let those who missed the show the first time around get a second chance to watch it.

A Chance for Ballet Chancers

I'm not promising anything, but I may be able to put up all 6 episodes of Ballet Chancers soon.

Flashdance - Love Theme - G.Moroder

I did this years ago, just felt like putting up something a bit gentler. Production is whack but I did transcribe it by memory, which which made me feel kinda happy at the time :) I know the ending is wrong but I didn't want to go back and listen to the original at the time. Done with synth-action keyboard, hence the random key velocities. Go on, give it a listen, it's only a minute and a half long. My version might be crap but the beauty of Moroder's original composition shines through.

Love Theme by Gamma Goblin

[Flashdance: Movie : Album : Dancing]

Michael Jackson: 1958 - 2009

I wasn't going to post anything, since all I could really post is just another youtube video (like every other blog on the planet!) but I figured I should post something about Michael Jackson as he probably was the first dancer I watched as a child after all. The moonwalk at 4:42 in the video NEVER fails to amaze me O.O

[UPDATE 08.07.09] Much like Michael himself, the video is now gone.

Ballet Ireland - Wilde Extravaganza (2008)

Ok so there I was wondering if what I could post and I had this draft saved from a full year ago :) Basically I never got around to adding text to the images and its a pity because there was a few things I really wanted to say about the show.

From what I can remember, the show was great! The interpretation of "The Picture Of Dorian Grey" was excellent and loved by all. "Salome" was greeted with bemusement from the woman beside me. I think she got a bit disturbed by the "cunnilingus with a severed head" part. That woman in question left a lasting impression in my mind as she came out with the most wonderful comment before the show started as she looked through the program: "What? Chinese dancers? I thought this was 'Ballet Ireland!?" Wow, you really impressed everyone with that one, bitch! Oh and they were Japanese, for your information!

The best audience members were behind me though: a middle aged French woman and her much older male Irish companion. The poor old divil was trying his best to impress her heehee. I'm afraid some of finer details escape me now, after so much time having passed but it went along the lines of this "Oh this is wonderful, look at that... look at the feet! Are you enjoying this?" and when whenever he knew piece of music "oh this is beautiful, oh Dvorjak!".

The best, and quite unbelievably, moment came when he tried the "Oh my glasses case has fallen on the floor" routine. I couldnt believe it! Thats what he actually said after I heard the clatter of the case on the floor behind me. When I looked around to see if I could help him find them I noticed his French companion was wearing a short-enough dress, and I just thought to myself "oh you dirty old man" but not in a malicious way :) I'm in no position to comment about him anyway as I myself was getting quite "interested" in Jacqueline Clark's 'snake suit' in the final performance of the night. Ballet Ireland seem to always have a ballerina in catsuit at the end of their shows.

So thats that anyway. Oh I must mention the concept art, drafted by Saskia Mullins. Some sketches for the Salome costume piece were included in the program. Wonderful!