Thai students covering the Wonder Girls dance for the song Nobody. Apparently, this song was popular in Korea when my friend visited. You can see the five of them are having a lot of fun with this:
It’s hard to imagine this dance happening in my school, we had embedded Western definitions of masculinity within ourselves. I wish we could have pulled off something so gender-bending and fun. That’d be a keeper for the photo album.
Wait. I went to an all-girls school. Never mind then. Didn’t have boys, much less those inclined to perform dances originally choreographed for female Korean pop stars.
Still, now that I’m past my eagerness to be a Thai gender bender performer in my days of youth, I’ll no longer wish my 16-year-old (debating, choral speaking, tennis racquet swinging) girl self this dance.
R&B music usually falls outside my radar. Still, I am a bit familiar with “Single Ladies”, a video by Beyonce. Or rather, its effect of making certain famous lads don leotards and high heels to gyrate for the camera.
The first, and quite infamous, video that I discovered belongs to SNL, where you have Beyonce leading some lads as her back-up dancers to “Single Ladies”. Look at Justin Timberlake go!
And now, perhaps with slightly less grace, but a generous amount of enthusiasm, elbow angles, and flippy hair….Joe Jonas of Jonas Brothers takes on the role of dancer for Single Ladies.
If this is his first time dancing in high heels, he’s not doing too badly — considering some people can’t even balance enough to walk for the first two minutes. Still needs to work on it though .
Yknow, I’d never heard of the Jonas Brothers before this, so it was certainly an interesting introduction.
I sometimes find videos of crossdressing for comedies to be executed in very bad taste, but I reckon the two videos have a certain balance to them beyond the semi-tottering on high heels
Celebrities aren’t the only one getting down to Single Ladies on Youtube. You do get other varieties like Tyrone Jone’s:
To end the videos of lads dancing, I think you can’t go wrong with Paul Rudd. He was in the SNL skit above (as the host), and he’ll be in the bromance “I Love You, Man”, coming to theatres soon. No, he’s not dancing to Single Ladies, nor is he getting intimate with another man (sorry)…but look how zippy he gets on the dancefloor:
Enjoy trawling the internets, I’ll get back to you all next week. I’m off camping at The Grampians for the weekend (my bff mistook my meaning when I said “I like campy men”), so ta!
Let me know what you thought of the videos, I’ve put links under each of them in case you have trouble loading all of them in this page.
This is footage of rehearsals from American Vampire by the Wicked Boy Ballet Co, choreographed by Trevor Little, performed by Trevor Little and David Dubois. Apparently, it’s not just about vampires, it’s about the shape of the American soul.
Both dancers are in beautiful form, ravishing each other through dramatic choreography. The interaction between them, viewed as a romantic relationship, looks like one wraught with grief and pathos, the struggle for dominance - actually, I kid. Watching guys suck at each other’s necks, the only thing that makes me call it possiblylatent homosexuality is that they’re vampires – these might not be gay vampires, they could just be doing it for the narrative! I’m tempted to make Anne Rice / yaoi manga comparisons.
Anyway, that’s not what matters – the dancing is gorgeous. I’ve love to see it.
More about the dance company here:
The Wicked Boy Ballet Co. is a contemporary men’s dance/theatre group based in Boston, MA. It’s mission is to explore story telling techniques through dance from a modern perspective, and to develop the internet as a unique artistic medium for the performing arts.
WHO ARE WE?
Well…WE’RE WICKED
As in: wicked bad…or…wicked cool…or…”the wintah in Bahston is wicked bittah”…or…”I can kick my foahead wicked hahd!!!”
WE’RE BOYS.
‘Nuff said. We’re not opposed to girls. We like girls…well…some of us, at least. They’re useful. Sometimes.
WE LIVE IN BOSTON.
So, you know…we eat at Dunkin’ Donuts a lot, and like, we hate giving directions… and we’ll tailgate your ass like a mo-fo.
WE’RE REALLY REALLY SEXY.
Trust us. Studies have conclusively shown that the Wicked Boys are, in fact, one of the leading causes of puberty in America today. No one wants to talk about it, but it’s true.
.
