Franchesca Ramsey aka Chescaleigh is delivering in her new parody video.
Ramsey, who we know and love from the viral video “Shit White Girls Say…To Black Girls,” is keeping the laughs coming with her latest meme “The Secret To LONG Natural Hair!” aimed at devotees of the natural hair movement.
I am and have always been a P!nk fan, I love that rock pop sound, she writes songs that have meaning but never takes herself too seriously, she gets who she is and has always stayed true. We saw that over the last years she has become proficient at flying and has used it in her stage act but what I didn’t know was that she has also been boning up on her dancing. Not her pop star hip hop moves as one might suspect (of others- not P!nk she is always contrary) but her actual dance (kinda downtown for you dancers) and partnering skills and the Adagio dance of the Vegas variety (counter balancing partnering ). This video is highly impressive. Now some would be quick to call “Domestic Violence” as it depicts a couple literally fighting (one another) for their relationship. Anyone who knows or sees dance might not jump to that conclusion as dance is the physical manifestation of emotion and these emotions are frustration, anger, pain, sorrow, and a sprinkle of hopelessness and longing. It really is amazing The Golden Boyz and Pink’s trapeze partner Sebastien Stella choreographed the video and Pink’s partner is Colt Prattes. Check it out! love it!
I love her strength and power, she gives as much as she gets, and hold her own, though the video is artistically violent there is an equality- no one is right or wrong, he drops her she throws him, it is a true depiction of what relationships can be like except here instead of the throwing of words it is the hurling of bodies and the odd chair or two! It’s edgy and elegant and a bit thought provoking, I would expect nothing less from P!ink!
Hey Guys, I just wanted to let you know that every Tuesday and Thursday Evening I am teaching an open Adult Ballet Class at the Joffrey Ballet Sshool NYC! The level is what is called Beginner II- So if you have taken ballet, know the basic positions and the foundations steps it is perfect, But in reality if you are experienced but been out of commission for a while, and are just coming back or want to work on basic technique you are welcome. last night we so had a ball!!!
I lovelovelove teaching adults, they are focused they want to be there and they have spent their own money (not their parents!) and they want to get their money’s worth. If you are in the area and have been looking for a friendly no stress no drama so “scene” (dancers you know what I mean”) come and hang out at the barre with me! You know I love a bar!
This week my classes are being featured so it’s a steal @ $12.00 per class (you can’t beat that, it’s cheaper than a glass of wine at a Hotel Bar!) here are the deets
Hope to see you there would love to meet you!
434 Avenue of the Americas #3 New York, NY 10011 (212) 254-8520 Click here for more info Joffrey Ballet School
This is a perfect example why I started this blog and why I think (I know) that this issue is a silent epidemic that affects more people than are willing to talk about it. I have said before that too often we associate the idea of having a body image issue with someone who is not the “Ideal”, either they are heavier than the norm, shorter, nor not conventionally beautiful or acceptably oddly beautiful. However the reality is, that there are just as many people who look like the “Ideal” and are suffering from a negative body image than you would think, possibly more. It almost seems that the closer you are to that unobtainable concept of perfection the more pressure there is to achieve it. If you are no where near the ideal there is a better chance that you might just accept that fact, and learn to to the best you can with what you’ve got and realize that it’s all good. When you live in the edge of that fictional ideal, you feel like you are so close it would be wrong to “give up” the fight and the concept of acceptance almost seems like failure. Perhaps it is this sort thing that took it’s toll on former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger. Recently she has opened up about her battle against anorexia, bulimia, self-harm and body image issues.
“I just hated myself. I hated myself. I really was so disgusted with myself and so embarrassed. I felt so alone. I was in a group, and I never felt so alone in my life. I guess it was like my addiction, right? I never did drugs, but kinda doing things to myself was my addiction. It’s like when I got off stage, I was on this high, and I’d come back to my room and I’d be alone, so I would just do things. My bulimia was my addiction; hurting myself was my addiction. I did it everyday for, like, years. Every time I had a second to be alone, I was doing something to myself. You get, like, blisters on your hands or scars on your hands, and I’d try to hide those. I think the girls could tell.”
And here is the sad part about it. She also talks about the shame and isolation of the disease:
“I’m nervous about it. It’s embarrassing. I never spoke about it. Like I said, I never want to play a victim, and I never wanted my family to hear about things from me because I think it would break their heart, you know.”
It’s time that we realized that this is a human condition, and that a plethora of people feel the same way in their corner of the world, if we all came together not only would we be able to eradicate that stifling isolation, but we could support one another and possibly find a solution…together!!!
Hang in there Nicole, we understand and we have your back!
Now when I first found this I was like “awww” because t’ruth be told she does inspire a lot of full figure women and I felt a bit woeful that she would try to distance herself from that reality. Well you have to watch the interview to see to see that it’s not so deep. Actually I think that mainly it was because the interviewer, Sun-Herald Fashion Editor Kate Waterhouse was so inept. Her, trite and insipid questions were the likes of what we hear all of the time and I am sure that Hendricks was sick of them too. The phasing of the the “full figured” faux pas was clumsy and came out of left field with a curve, I can see how and why she was taken aback. I do think that Hendricks id proud of her body and in inconspicuous benefit of helping women of a certain size feel good about themselves but like all of us, there are days when you just don’t want that to be the focus… Can we move on?
After a viewer (well not even) wrote an email telling WKBT anchor Jennifer Livingston that she was a bad example to little girls because of her weight Livingston took to the airwaves to give him a piece of her mind, and told him that his email amounted to bullying. She so eloquently let HIM HAVE IT! What think is so interesting is the fact that for a long time news anchors and weather girls were supposed to look like sitting Barbie Dolls, pretty women who could read and point at a map, they were not allowed to be flawed or old (or bald) like their male counterparts, they needed to good at their jobs and be attractive. Well times are changing and there is greater diversity in the field which has allowed for different ages (or for female anchors to age) and be racially diverse yay! They can even work through their pregnancies (probably because that counter cuts off the image of their expanding waistlines) oh but wait, they still have to be attractive (I forgot). The diversity that is so wonderful that allows people of color to tell you what’s going on in the world also extends a person’s weight. Personally I like the fact that you can turn on your local news and see a person who looks like you Mom (maybe) or just a real woman addressing you. If this dude took 2 minutes to think about it he would have realized that there is a chubby girl out there who would love to be on television giving the news who upon seeing Jennifer Livingston believes that THAT can be a reality for you. Hey buddy that knife cuts both ways!!! Check out Livingston’s response PRICELESS!
Christina Aguilera has had her ups and downs, and not just with her weight, she went from being a squeaky clean Disney star to a raunchy half dressed writhing soul singer, to mother, divorcee, to tipsy club guest, to the full figured judge on the hit she The Voice. It seems that all is forgivable, all except getting fat. When ever the blue eyed soul singer gets photographed it is her waistline and healthy booty that is the focus. However this does not deter her from wearing form strangling clothes. She is thick and happily unapologetic about it. Recently she gave the skinny on the record industry and how they control female singer’s images (their weight) and how much it is a part of their ability to present what is supposed to be the point—their art.
She told Billboard.
“During the promotion of my album Stripped [in 2002, left], I got tired of being a skinny, white girl, I am Ecuadorian but people felt so safe passing me off as a skinny, blue-eyed white girl.”
Truth be told even though her name is obviously Latin, how many of us thought she was your average corn feed WASP when she first came out? Remember she hit before it was chic to be Latina. We all know that the industry is known for white washing people, it was more shocking to think that this all American girl could sing like a Black woman who grew up in a Baptist church (Because we all know that all Black people learn to sing in the church wink wink)
“I had gained about 15 pounds during promotion and during my Stripped tour [with Justin Timberlake]. “They called this serious emergency meeting about how there was a lot of backlash about my weight. Basically, they told me I would affect a lot of people if I gained weight — the production, musical directors.”
Ok so her weight would affect a lot of people….humm well I can kind of get that because it’s so clear that when Barack Obama’s weight goes up unemployment reflects that!
She says the record company said “people I toured with would also miss out if I gained weight because I would sell no records or tickets for my shows.” She adds. “I was young, so I lost the weight quickly and was toothpick thin during Back to Basics promos and touring.”
It’s sad to think that grown men and women are manipulating young vulnerable girls who want to have music careers. Pimps they are pimps I tell you! The other thing that gets my goat is the fact that they didn’t bring in support for her to get “it under control” but just to tell her that she is fat and she has to to something about it or people will lose their jobs is just ill! It reminds me of the dance world. hummm. And the reality is she was probably just EATING and put on the weight that she had starved to keep off.
“I told them during this Lotus recording [her new album], ‘You are working with a fat girl. Know it now and get over it.’ They need a reminder sometimes that I don’t belong to them. It’s my body,” she says.
“My body can’t put anyone in jeopardy of not making money anymore — my body is just not on the table that way anymore.”
Now this is what I call a REVOLUTION! see… (sorry I know I keep taking digs at Gaga but it’s hard not to– I’ll get over it—soon)
So It is Fashion Week in Milano, and the streets are teeming with the uber-fashionable. Fashionlogie.com (click here to see more images) gives us a taste of what the editors, buyers, and people in the industry are wearing. I decided to post a few pics of some of the models on the street just to give you a taste of what the bodies are looking like this season. Now you have to remember that Vogue Italia Editor in Chief Franca Sozzani has been very out spoken about the websites promoting anorexia and the too thin models that grace the pages of fashion magazines (including her own). But judging from the streets Skeleton frames are still en Vogue… What do you think?
Franca Sozzani Editor in Chief of Vogue Italia
There is always a discussion about “Where are all of the Black Ballet Dancers” well I happy to share this story of a African-German dancer who is currently carving out her path a the National Ballet of Canada. Her pointe shoes touched American soil when she trained and the JKO school in New York City. Keep you eyes peeled for the progress of this long legged beauty:
Hosted by Pointe Magazine
If Adji Cissoko hadn’t failed a simple test at age 6, she might never have become a dancer. In Germany, Cissoko’s homeland, children routinely get a medical examination before entering elementary school. “I had difficulties when the doctor asked me to make a circle while reciting a certain sentence,” she recalls. “He told my mother it would improve my coordination and spatial awareness if I took dance.”
That was 1997. Today, Cissoko, 20, has just completed her first season with the National Ballet of Canada. The company’s artistic director, Karen Kain, has high hopes for her. Cissoko, however, is not your average budding professional, nor has her journey been without a few bumps. At 5’ 9”, she’s tall. A short torso, long limbs and a lean build make her look even taller. As Cissoko acknowledges, learning to control such an expansive body and to move at speed are continuing challenges.
Photo by Nathan Sayers
And there’s more. Cissoko is of African descent, a woman aiming for ballet’s stratosphere in a traditional art form that still struggles to adapt to the realities of a multicultural world. Cissoko’s West African father, a musician, came to Germany as a young man from French-speaking Senegal. Her mother, a nurse, is German and white. Cissoko says her lankiness comes straight from her father’s side. She attributes her leanness as much to genes as to the grueling work. “I eat a lot,” Cissoko says reassuringly in careful, German-accented English. (She also speaks French and Spanish, and understands Senegalese.)
Toronto audiences have had early opportunities to appreciate Cissoko’s somewhat raw but unmistakable talent. Apart from her height and color, Cissoko stands out for the concentrated intensity, energy and sense of purpose she invests in whatever she dances, while still seeming natural and spontaneous. Depending on the choreography, her arms can float delicately or slice through space like a knife. Above all, the sheer pleasure she takes in dancing—much more than a warm smile—is palpable. It’s a joy she clearly strives to share.
As a child, Cissoko began weekly free-form movement classes at the Munich Ballet Academy. Her teachers spotted an unusual talent and she soon moved into formal Vaganova-based ballet training. Year by year, her dance schedule intensified to the point that she had to complete her academic studies in night school.
In 2009 she traveled to Switzerland to compete in the Prix de Lausanne. She did not make the finals, but she had what turned out to be a fateful meeting: Karen Kain (president of the jury that year) was waiting for a train to Geneva when she spotted Cissoko on the platform. “I’d noted Adji’s talent, even if it was clear she hadn’t got used to the length of her legs yet,” says Kain, in her day also considered a tall dancer. “I knew how she must be feeling, so I went up and told her how good I thought she was and not to be discouraged.”
Continue to read at PointeMagazine.com
hosted by Huffington Post
Brazil is gearing up for the “Miss Bum Bum” pageant, a nationwide contest to find the best butt in the country.
The nation’s cutest derriere will be chosen out of 27 competitors, one from each of Brazil’s Federative Units. Online voting will determine 15 finalists, who will travel to São Paolo in November for the “grand finale.”
“[Brazilians] definitely have a thing with butts,” said Brazilian Graciela Murano, writer and editor for Oddee, noting that “bumbum” is the word most commonly used in Brazil to refer to someone’s rear end.
UGH, JUST UGH!.
