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Theresa Ruth Howard Dancer/Writer/Teacher Theresa Ruth Howard began her professional dance career with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet Company at the age of twelve. Later she joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Africa. She has worked with choreographer Donald Byrd as a soloist in his staging of New York City Opera's Carmina Burana, his critically acclaimed Harlem Nutcracker, as well as the controversial domestic violence work The Beast. She was invited to be a guest artist with Complexions: A Concept in their 10th anniversary season. In 2004 she became a founding member of Armitage Gone! Dance. As a writer Ms. Howard has contributed to Russell Simmons’ One World magazine (art), and The Source (social politics), as well as Pointe and Dance Magazine. While teaching in Italy for the International Dance Association she was asked to become a contributor for the premiere Italian dance magazine Expressions. Her engaging, no nonsense writing style caught the eye of both the readers of Dance Magazine and its Editor in Chief who not only made her a contributing editor and has collaborated with Ms. Howard in See and Say Web-reviews. Her articles about body image prompted her to develop a workshop for young adult (dancers and non-dancers) My Body My Image that addresses their perceptions both positive and negative about their bodies and endeavoring to bring them closer to a place of Acceptance and Appreciation. She recently launched a blog by the same name to reach a broader audience (mybodymyimage.com) As a teacher Ms. Howard has been an Artist in Residence at Hollins University in and New Haven University in addition to teaching at Sarah Lawrence College, Marymount, Shenandoah, and Radford Universities, and the historical American Dance Festival. As a result of her work at ADF Ms. Howard was invited to Sochi, Russia to adjudicate the arts competition Expectations of Europe and teach master classes, and in Burundi, Africa where she coached and taught the Burundi Dance Company. Currently she on faculty at The Ailey School but also extensively throughout Italy and Canada. Ms. Howard's belief in the development, and nurturing of children lead her to work with at risk youth. At the Jacob Riis Settlement House in Queensbridge New York, she founded S.I.S.T.A (Socially Intelligent Sisters Taking Action) a mentoring program for teen-age girls where she worked to empower them to become the creators of their destinies. In addition she developed a dance program, which lead to an exchange with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Through her teaching and travels Ms. Howard began to observe a universal disenchantment and disconnection in teenagers that disturbed her, thus she set out to address it. Combining her philosophies of life and teaching, with the skills she garnered through outreach programs with diverse communities, she developed the personal development workshop Principles of Engagement: Connecting Youth to the Infinite Possibilities Within which gives teens a set of workable tools to increase their levels of success at tasks, and goals not only in dance, and all aspect of their lives. Theresa Ruth Howard is certainly diverse and multifaceted as an artist, and is moved to both write and create work; however she sees every student she encounters as a work in progress, and the potential to change the world one person at a time. The only was to make this world a better place it to be better people in it!

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Vintage Zooey Deschanel- at 17 she penned this letter to Vogue Magazine- Just another reason to love her!

I adore Zooey Deschanel I think she is authentically herself in her personal style and in the roles she takes on. Well back in 1997 at just 17 years, old fed up with the images in Vogue Magazine she penned this letter imploring them to expand the idea of beauty. How insightful and courageous of her as a young woman who no doubt felt left out an not represented by the images looking back at her. The greatest thing is that they published it! It might be from 1997 but sadly the issue is all to current:

hosted by PerezHilton.com

“Why would you want to limit the spectrum of beauty to an “ideal” when you, as a popular womens magazine, have the opportunity to expand it? I don’t think any woman should have to feel as if she needs to shove herself into an “ideal” to be beautiful. Beauty should be something that is celebrated and something that is enjoyable, not something that people should feel uncomfortable about achieving. Most of the women, and certainly most of the adolescent girls, in the United States do not feel completely secure with themselves, especially with their appearance; is insecurity something you want to advocate? As American women, we don’t need discouragement, but inspiration.”

Where the magazine printed it they however did not take heed!

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Meet The Women Who Tell Us What To Wear- the Editors of Vogue

These are the editors of the various Vogue Magazines all around the world. These are the women who dictate what we as woman should look like, dress like and in a very real sense define beauty and body image they control the terms: classy, stylish, sexy, edgy, funky, quirky, and fierce. It is a bit odd that although we are so heavily influenced by their choices (often subliminally) we don’t have any idea who they are, or what they look like. Anna Wintour (center) is the editor of American Vogue and is arguably the most powerful woman in fashion and has a become a household name (even with people who are not into fashion) with the success of the film The Devil Wears Prada which was loosely based on her, and the documentary film September Issue. So meet the women who tell us what to wear

They are:

Yolanda Sacristan, Spain; Kirstie Clements, Australia; Anaita Adajania, India; Christiane Arp, Germany; Angelica Cheung, China; Franca Sozzani, Italy; Mitsuko Watanabe, Japan; Anna Wintour, America; Emmanuelle Alt, France; Alexandra Shulman, Britain; Victoria Davydova, Russia; Anna Harvey, representing Brazil and Greece; Seda Domanic, Turkey; Myung Hee Lee, Korea; Rosalie Huang, Taiwan; Eva Hughes, Mexico and Latin America; and Paula Mateus, Portugal.

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Victoria Secret Model’s Pre Show Diet consists of Water and well More Water!

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Victorias Secret Angel Diet
(THIS IS A PICTURE OF 4 HUNGRY WOMEN!)

I can’t begin to think how wrong this is, it can’t be good for you.

If you ever wanted to look like a Victoria Secret Model you may think again once you hear how they look so “good” when they hit the runway for the globally televised show donning wings and bras bedazzled with millions of diamonds. It’s a wonder they can stand up under the weight of the their wings! Check this out it’s just insane…

Hosted by Huffington Post

To prepare to wear tiny lingerie on such a major stage, the models must look their best — and veteran Angel Adriana Lima revealed to the Telegraph just how they do it.

First, she starts working out: “Lima, 30, has been working out every day with a personal trainer since August. For the last three weeks, she’s been working out twice a day.”

Then comes the insane diet. Hint: there are very few solids involved:

She sees a nutritionist, who has measured her body’s muscle mass, fat ratio and levels of water retention. He prescribes protein shakes, vitamins and supplements to keep Lima’s energy levels up during this training period. Lima drinks a gallon of water a day. For nine days before the show she will drink only protein shakes – “no solids”. The concoctions include powdered egg.Two days before the show she will abstain from the gallon of water a day, and “just drink normally”. Then, 12 hours before the show she will stop drinking entirely.

 

WTF! So she ends up walking a show dehydrated and starving, whoa that’s hot!

Whether or not you have a nutritionist or not, that is not healthy. I understand that at times in some professions you might have to  to make certain sacrifices in order to fit a certain criteria (as a dancer I well know that) but this is crazy, especially given the fact that she (Adriana Lima) is already so thin! Or does this tell us that she is not as naturally as thin as she appears? Is she living her life in a perpetual state of hunger to maintain her size and thus her contract? And if she is naturally thin then how much thinner does she have to be to wall the runway?

Let me just say this: To all the young girls and women who aspire to be or look like Victoria Secret models—

DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE!

Dieting like this is not healthy for you body and can have adverse effects in the long run, you screw up your metabolism which can cause the yo-yo weight gain and loss that is hard to control, it also can create real, long term health problems, and in extreme cases can do damage to your organs. It’s not worth it. I’ll tell you another secret, CURVES ARE SEXY, they are feminine and beautiful. Breasts and hips and thighs are attributes that set women apart from men in the most delicious ways, and there was a time when the Victoria Secret brand celebrated that!

 

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Cosmo put ADELE (all of her) on the Cover!

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Where the soulful songtress has certainly had her share of covers, most are pure beauty shots of her face, never has a magazine used a photo that included her body.  We all know that Adele is a full figured girl with a beautiful face (and a voice of gold), so she can certainly carry a cover with those liquid eyes and full lips, the camera loves her, and she oozes sex appeal. But her body isn’t what is considered a “cover girl’s” physique.

When Cosmopolitan Magazine used a full body shot of Adele on it’s October 2011 cover it should not have been “news” as their covers are traditionally full body or upper torso, with lots of cleavage. If they had not used her body THAT would have been the makings of a scandal. What might be drawing attention is the fact that we can truly “see” her figure.  Adele generally prefers the 1940’s A line style dresses that sinch the waist and float away form the hips, so we have never really seen her form. The cover shot has the zaftig songstress in a body hugging Dolce & Gabbana dress, I suspect the vision of her actual shape is what is causing the stir. I think it’s fabulous, I hope she likes it and feels like she looks good because I think she looks great!

And Kudos to Cosmo,  it’s good to see that when they asked Adele to grace their cover they also embraced her body and honored it (granted there probably is a bit of photoshopping- as with any photo) but she does look more or less (it looks like a little bit less) like herself.  Where I would have liked them to have left her waist and hips their natural size instead of slimming them (which they also do to a size 2 woman a well which is really an issue) I am pleased that they didn’t make her a floating head. Which would have sent not only the wrong message given their cover track record, but would also be the same message that most of the other covers she has done, “….But you have such a pretty face”

 

Here is Adele at the 2011

They probably took her waist and hips in a bit but not too much (could we really expect them to just leave her body be? seriously, baby steps baby steps)

Here are some previous covers:

 

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Heidi Klum dumped Seal for a MONKEY! The King and Queen of Halloween Reign!!!

Another hit! Klum strikes again!Remember when these photos hit the web last week? well here is what Heidi and her handsome hubby Seal were up to!
Well you have to give it to her, Heidi is one frau who loves her mammals!
You have to enjoy this couple’s sense of play! It is great to see that they don’t take their public images so seriously that they can’t enjoy themselves. I’m sure their kids have a creative, zany ball at all the time!!! I wanna go to their house for a play date!
It would have been funny if she was an Ape with breast implants, or if they made him anatomically correct! too much, yeah when  I got the mental visual I thought so too!
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Hmmmmm Stealing is not cool…Beyonce, pay da people


After “copying” Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s work step for step and frame for frame, Beyonce responded publicly acknowledging she uses other artists’ works as “inspiration” and “borrowing.”

I think that we would all like to believe that Beyonce, herself had no knowledge of the extent that some of her “material” was lifted from other artist but this video is…well…incriminating. She’s basically saying that artist have no idea that she is shaking their hand while someone on her team is stealing their shit! That’s not cool. I have a feeling that if someone stole something of her’s (that she hadn’t already “borrowed” from someone else”) that she would have a legal team on them so quickly it would look like a Superbowl pile-up. What is sad is, artist to artist – the people she is “Borrowing” from are working hard to make a living off of their art. Anne Teresa might not be “Starving” but she works her hustle to not only to make a living but to MAKE HER ART– PAY HER DANCERS, and in this economy it is so difficult for dance companies to book work and stay afloat. I am sure that Beyonce has a budget (for shoes alone) that could rival de Keersmaeker’s any day, why not pay for the use of that information and support another artist, OR maybe HIRE HER TO SET the work and get that information first hand and have a REAL experience with the material and the mind that it came out of instead of a China Town Bootleg version? And going a bit further on that note why is Beyonce paying (probably a handsome) fee to a “creative team” that isn’t really creating but more “Re-Creating”. I must say anyone with a half decent eye can spot quality work, be it live or on YouTube, however (though I hate to say it) they do earn their coins when it comes to the reconstruction, as it was quite flawless. I feel like if it was a Picasso it would take a highly trained specialist with a nondescript accent, mustache and monocle to uncover that the canvas was from 1984.

Personally as a dancer I have seen, and been a part of the struggle that choreographers endure to become, and to survive. When their work is good, even great it’s earning potential is not that large. So I do feel like Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker is due something more than a “thanks for the inspiration” That’s her blood, her sweat, her tears, her soul- it’s her WORK. As an artist (though it would not stand up this way in a court of law) it is about more than intellectual property it’s personal property.

I would also like to believe that Beyonce is not only a better artist than that (she needs to either get a new team or set down some guidelines that require them to come up with an independent original idea) but also that she, as an artist, and a human being has more integrity then this. She has such an opportunity to help other artists grow, or just contribute to them getting higher visibility by calling on them to choreograph a video, or stage part of a show or what ever it is that she’s doing. They could be guided by her team, as working in such arenas and on a large scale might be foreign to some, but it could be good for everyone, especially Beyonce, she would have a first hand experiences with these artist and be able to truly integrate what she learned from them, now that, more or less, is how I was told true artist always steal from the best! As the Mastercard ad would say: “Stealing from an artist- worth a Law suit, working with the artist- Priceless”

I truly hope that she makes this right, to Anne Teresa, and in the future…

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My Hips Don’t Lie

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Here is the proof of why I have my hateful hip muscles that the critic commented on!

I reveal the t’ruth behind a physical mystery that has haunted and taunted me for years. Sometimes what lies beneath is the secret to what the eyes perceive. I love that show Bones- It’s Brenann VS Saroyan- the bones VS the Flesh! Take a look and you’ll understand better!

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Halloween- Is Sexy the new Scary?

What ever happened to the ghouls and goblins, and dismembered body parts that used to be the best part of Halloweens of old? When I was a child I can recall store bought costumes with the badly sewn jumpsuits that tied at the neck, and the oversized masked that always reeked of plastic, and got all sweaty and moist inside after a few minutes. I recall the homemade costumes, the shredded and tattered clothing, the amateurish face painting- often white based (to make you look dead or ghoulish), black eyeliner and shadow to hollow you out and red lipstick and store bought liquid blood to add the gore. The point was to be scary, gross or ironic perhaps even all at once. Sure there were a fair share of Fairy Princesses, and Disney characters hell I was a ballerina for 12 years in a row (I can’t tell if it was just because I so wanted to be a dancer, or if I was just lazy and pulling out last years recital costume was a no-brainer) Yes there were doctors, nurses, firemen, policemen, all sorts of animals, and of course there were always the monsters Dracula and maybe a Frankenstein, monsters were made for Halloween. Perhaps it’s the nostalgia of age but there just seemed to be a bit more creativity involved in Halloween back in the day.

 

The question I posit to you today is: When did Sexy become the new Scary? It seems that every female, young and mature have to be the sexy version of a Halloween character- The Pirate is now a Sexy Pirate, the Vampire a Sexy Vampire, the Corpse is a Sexy Corpse. Fish nets, push up bras, and platform stripper heels are the must haves for playing dress up theses days. It seems that everyone looks more like a stripper at a theme club then a fright night apparition. Gone in is the gore and the irony the actual spirit of the scariest night of the year, everyone is too busy trying to be “hot”. It has become predictable and boring, at least where the women are concerned. Men on the other hand have maintained the right to be gruesome, or silly, and make utter fools of themselves, often times by mocking women as dressing in drag. Drag is a surefire way to be the life of the party. Whether they look horrible as a woman or they look frighteningly good, a straight man in a dress and heels will always be a hit- at least to his friends.

 

Last week I started a poll amongst my older students I wanted to see where their heads were in terms of costume ideas, sure enough when I asked many of them were going to be the “sexy” version of a spy, vampire or something or other. Some seemed stuck at how to “Sex” up their idea. I had to giggle to myself. Then I remembered two students I had a few years ago (then in High School) they as well as their whole families were into Halloween on a grand scale. That year the two friends had plans of being Jack and the Beanstalk- literally the shorter of the two was going to be Jack and the taller, the Beanstalk. Let’s face it there is no way to make a beanstalk sexy.  I thought that was really cool, and they were so excited about it too. It would be great to see that sort of ingenuity continue into college and beyond. One little girl in my class this year (she’s about 9) asked if they could wear costumes in ballet class, she was concerned because she was going to be a woman in a painting, and you see the frame would be a bit cumbersome in dance class. This is what I remember, the costumes that won prizes for being inventive but were impossible to sit or go to the bathroom in with out assistance.

As I surf the web an early costume choice for a number of celebrities has already been that of the Svedka robot, basically a unitard with the robots body superimposed on it (and some platform heels) clever. I am sure there over this weekend there will be a plethora of pictures of female celebrities in short, tight dresses, in fish net hose with their breasts pressed so firmly together that they look like a newborn’s bottom, bearing up against the weight of hair weaves and wigs and teetering on the ubiquitous stripper heels portraying some vixen-ized version of scary characters and all looking like they are trying way too hard. And then there will be Heidi Klum and her husband Seal who seem always to be clever and inventive with their costumes, and enjoy being silly or looking foolish for an evening.

 

 

Personally I will be going as the same thing I have been for years, no not a ballerina, an Angry Black Woman….

Just kidding?

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Nike’s Big Butt Ad A Fake?

When Nike “re-issued” this ad with a racially ambiguous woman lauding her buttocks cyberspace was set aflame. Women were loving it posting it on Facebook and commenting on every and any site that posted the image. The original campaign was launch in 2005 with different graphic (just a booty was shown, there were versions with other body parts as well, shoulders, thighs etc.)

But the question is…is this new ad a fake? According to ad agency Wieden & Kennedy, it is not their work.

Here’s what we learned from adageblogs.com:

Why is Nike repeating a campaign from five years ago, word for word in the text, with only the image changed? Did the work come from longtime agency partner Wieden & Kennedy?

And where are the copy editors? The word “ambassador” is spelled “embassador” in the 2010 print ad.

So we called Wieden, which graciously got back to us in a matter of minutes with, “Uh, it ain’t our work.”

Nike media rep Derek Kent confirmed what we suspected: The ad’s a fake.

read the whole story here

The question is who is behind it, and why? I guess we will just have to wait and see!

here are some of the real ads: