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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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Snooki Dropped a Few!

You know you hate to admit it but you watch the Jersey Shore too! Well the Guidolishous show’s standout Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi has shed some major poundage! Looks like she’s been hitting the gym and not the nightclub, or maybe she switched her drink to Bethenny Frankel’s Skinny Girl Margarita! I don’t know but what ever she’s been doing she looks great. At 4’9 her petite frame can’t handle the slightest bit of overage. Also she tends to carry her weight in her middle which is extremely unhealthy for women, and at such a young age it really can’t be good. I hope that she keeps it up, and off for her health and her image. Hopefully she did it thoughtfully and safely. From what I hear about the rules that Florence set down in order for Jersey Shore to shoot there it will be like prohibition all over again, she might even loss more!

Here is Snooki when she came stumbling into our homes via VH1

and here she is now! not bad huh! she’s like a mini guidette juice head!

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Vicky Secret’s Miraculous Bra: does it work? Take a look…


Now I am not one for “putting it all out there” Perhaps because I have such precious little to present, but if you told me that I could increase my bust 2 cups sizes for less than $10,000 I might give you a minute of my time. That’s what is supposed to be so miraculous about Victoria Secret’s Miraculous bra. Now I would have to think (as I have not seen nor touched it) that is a whole lotta push and padding, which is not really my style, ( I don’t like the idea of foamy breast) and I would always live in fear that upon taking it off one could risk being sued for false advertising, however it could be a nice change of pace. You know there are some tops and dresses that look better with a bit of bust, and options are nice ti have, or not to have that is the question, and this could be the answer.

Well “Good Morning America” contributor Becky Worley put Victoria Secret’s new Miraculous bra to the test check out the video to see how it fared. (She also tests out some other products, the whole segment is great but she starts it with the Bra so it’s up front! no pun intended)



there are some reviews on this site if you’re interested

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Boost Your Child’s Body Image


Via: Kaboose.com
By: Leigh Felesky

“I hate my hips.” “My arms are too skinny.” “If only I was thinner.” These are the kind of comments that some parents may hear as their children reach the pre-teen years – or even earlier. Those kinds of comments are not surprising, considering that adults themselves frequently talk negatively about their bodies, saying how they “feel fat” or “need to lose weight.” Plus, with most fashion models being thinner than 98% of American women, many critics agree the media bombards children with unrealistic body images.

According to National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), having a negative body image can lead to everything from not wanting to go swimming (for fear of wearing a bathing suit,) to eating disorders, depression, low self esteem and obsession with weight loss. And these issues affect a large number of children. In recent studies, forty-two percent of elementary school students between the first and third grades said they want to be thinner and eighty percent of 10-year-old children said they’re afraid of being fat.

Parents can make a difference. Here are seven things you can do to help encourage a positive body image.

Identify your own biases. Understanding your own attitude about body shape and weight will help you to foster a positive environment. “Practice taking people in general and women in particular seriously for what they say, feel and do, not for how slender or ‘well put together’ they appear,” advise researchers Michael Levine, Ph.D. and Linda Smolak, Ph.D. Former president of the National Eating Disorders Association, Doug Bunnel, Ph.D., agrees that being aware is important. One exercise he suggests: after you’re done reading this article, for the next twelve hours pay attention to how often you’re judging someone based on his or her appearance and weight. “If you’re doing it regularly, you probably feel others are doing it to you, and it perpetuates the cycle,” he notes.
get the rest of the tips here

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Here we go again… Rumors that Kimora Lee is Anorexic

Ok how hold on a sec, can’t a woman simply slim down without someone accusing her of being anorexic or sticking her fingers down her throat or being a crack addict? Where Kimora looks slimmer, she does not look dangerously thin, nor has her weight loss been extreme – like that of one Leann Rimes. However she might have brought this upon her self if the off handed comment about “not eating” (in the article she says she was misquoted) but let’s not jump to conclusions here. This is a woman who likes her food, and has never, even after being a model and bearing children and gaining weight been outwardly preoccupied with being her teen age weight (neither has her BFF “kiss my fat ass” Trya Banks”

I think we have to be more responsible with our words where it comes to issues like this (and others) the media likes to take any little thing and make it a story, and it is a bit unfair especially when it is not true or you have no proof. Now if she starts looking like a giant lollipop in the next couple of months, then we need to have a chat, but until then, let the lady enjoy her “returning” form!!!

Stylist.com reports:
She may be the CEO of fabulosity, but Kimora Lee Simmons says the spotlight takes a backseat these days to more important roles as mother, role model and wife.

StyleList had a girl talk with the 35-year-old diva, who has a fiery response to the rumors swirling around the Internet in recent days, which accuse Simmons of anorexic behavior.

The star says it’s the parent in her that was most offended by the comments, though she personally finds it’s often a no-win situation with the media.

“Six months ago, I was a size 10, and on CNN — CNN for God’s sake — all the news was about how they have to spend millions of dollars retouching ads to make me look thinner. And now this other story [on our sister site PopEater] is throwing sensational salt on me, saying that I’m anorexic!” says Simmons.

[We reached out to PopEater’s Rob Shuter and he declined to comment.]

“That story quotes me as saying ‘I don’t eat.’ Well, I had said, ‘I don’t eat bags of Doritos and cheeseburgers like I used to,’ but the writer ended the quote at, ‘I don’t eat.’ That’s irresponsible reporting. It really upset me because it’s not at all my message, and I want people to know that. I’m first and foremost a mother and a wife, and I’m raising three kids, and I want them to grow up to have a healthy sense of self,” Simmons tells StyleList.

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Success is the best REVENGE! Kirstie Alley rocks DWTS!

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Well, It was just a few weeks again that Dancing with the Stars’ Kirstie Alley was the BUTT of many a fat joke including the one from comedian George Lopez on his late night talk show Lopez Tonight. see clip. She has had a very public battle with her with her weight for years so I doubt that it pierced a fresh wound, but I have to say that the weeks in the dance studio are not only melting the pounds away, Alley is also getting her groove on! Check out this clip that has her rocking out, and looking fabulous doing it. I think it’s wonderful. Not only does it prove that though you might not become a professional dancer in a year a la Black Swan’s Natalie Portman (yes that was an intended dig) you can learn how to dance and that is a fun, relatively painless way to shed unwanted pounds and get your heart healthy! She looks great, she’s moving and that’s the point.

This can be a direct advertisement for our First Lady’s initiative “Let’s Move” the fight to end childhood obesity. Who can’t put on a tune and dance around the house for a song or 3!! hey you can put Beyonce’s remix to Single Ladies on!

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Swangate is turning into a true Three Act!!! (with no intermission)


I know how to end it. We should just do a dance off. I know Natalie is pregnant and her center of gravity has changed but any ballet dancer can turn with her stomach empty, it’s a true diva who can turn with her belly full!! I think both chicks should throw the boots on and twirl it out on the Marley. Ok ok if you want to be fair then we can wait for Nat to pop and give her a good 6 months to train and then we can have the dance off. Frankly I think that she got pregnant to avoid a Gwyneth Paltrow sort of situation, if she had been able the Academy might have asked her to recreate her Black Swan performance at the Oscars and then what would have happened (no time for head replacement there). right now it’s all talk on both sides- I want to see it get down and dirty in the studio Nat can bring Kunis and Millepied, and Sarah Lane can bring Center Stage body double Aesha Ash (she doubled for Zoe Saldana) she can spread the chocolate, and for their male we can give them either Ethan Stifle or Mikhail Baryshnikov , he’s an ol’ G movie dancer. I love it. Leave a comment as a poll to see if we can set it up!

Huffpost:The ‘Black Swan’ ballet battle rages on.

Sarah Lane, American Ballet Theatre star and dance double to Natalie Portman in “Black Swan,” has again gone public with her accusations that she did most of the dancing for the part that won Portman an Oscar.

Lane alleges that, after she spoke to Glamour Magazine about her part in the movie, she got a phone call from one of the film’s producers ordering that she stay quiet.

“He asked if I would please not do any more interviews until after the Oscars because it was bad for Natalie’s image,” Lane told ABC News’ “20/20.” “They were trying to create this image, this facade, really, that Natalie had done something extraordinary. Something that is pretty much impossible… to become a professional ballerina in a year and half. Even with as hard as she worked, it takes so much more. It takes twenty-two years, it takes thirty years to become a ballerina.”

It’s a gag order that, Lane says, degrades the hard work of lifelong dancers.

“There’s so much emotionally that goes into motivating yourself and being able to physically push yourself to reach a certain level, that you have to reach to be a professional ballerina with one of the biggest ballet companies in the world and to sustain that standard over a whole career,” Lane told the news show. “I’ve been doing this for 22 years, and to say that someone trained for a year and a half and did what I did is degrading not only to me but to the entire ballet world.”

Later there was the truly galling part:

Millepied, whose comments to the Los Angeles Times helped touch off the entire issue, estimated that, overall, 85% of the dancing that made the final cut was Portman’s.

“It was so believable, it was fantastic, that beautiful movement quality,” he told the paper. “There are articles now talking about her dance double that are making it sound like [Sarah Lane, her body double] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettés, and one diagonal [phrase] in the studio. Honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie.”

here’s the full report

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Whoopi’s Plea to Designer Karl Lagerfeld

Whoopi takes it to designer Karl Lagerfeld for saying that skinny models are in. What the women say on the topic is true and relevant.
Real women not only ROCK but we are the people buying the clothes. It’s just not smart to insult your customers. What Sherri Shepard says about the fact that if he doesn’t like fat women on the couch with the potato chips then he isn’t making clothing for her is right. I have always been of the mind that we should not support designers, or any thing that does not inherently support us- what do you think?

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Victoria’s Secret model Candice Swanepoel -Skinny as a pole

You Remember this alarming pic of the three Victoria Secret Models. Well Candice Swanpoels emaciated frame (literally just a frame) was disturbing to a lot of people. Well she has spoken out about her weight and her dramatic weight loss here is a pic of her earlier this year where she was noticeably heavier.

Hear what she has to say about her shrinking size, I have to say that if what she say is true she should retire now or else she will vanish into thin air !!!
PEOPLE MAGAZINE REPORTS:

Victoria’s Secret model Candice Swanepoel has made headlines after appearing alarmingly thin during a recent photo shoot.

The entertainment website Hollywood Life called her “scarily, skeletally, stick-thin,” adding, “That’s not how the human body is meant to look.”

Swanepoel revealed her skinny frame while modeling the lingerie line’s new swimwear at Los Angeles’ Mondrian Hotel. With stick-thin legs and a hollowed stomach, the once-curvy model stood out among her fellow Victoria’s Secret angels.

Swanepoel, a 22-year-old South African, looked significantly skinnier than in photos just two months ago, when she was the face of the company’s Valentine’s Day campaign. Her most recent modeling card from the agency IMG says she wears a size-8 dress, but she appears much smaller than that.
“Actually, this year my problem has been more putting the weight on and getting muscle on because it’s been really busy,” she said. “I’ve been traveling around like crazy. I get skinnier if I’m very busy. I’ve been eating steak and everything, so I’m actually looking forward to eating some lighter food after this.” Swanepoel also reflects what appears to be a shift by the fashion line away from its traditionally curvy models, like Tyra Banks, Claudia Schiffer, Gisele Bundchen and Heidi Klum, toward super-slim girls like Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio.

hummmm….
read full article

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Black Swan Body double Sarah Lane on 20/20

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So if you missed it Sarah Lane and Fire Starter Wendy Perron (Dance Magazine, Editor in Chief) were on 20/20 last night talking about SwanGate. By now you all know that I am Team Sarah, and that’s not because I’m not Team Natalie but mainly because the truth is the T’ruth and I don’t like liars, or even fudgers for that matter. I also agree with Sarah on the idea that saying that Natalie or any one can become proficient in Ballet in a year is degrades to the art form and all the dancers who dedicate their lives to its mastery. To think that a year of training (at the age of 29 -30) even if you danced in the Catskills when you were 12 can result in doing a menage of perfectly executed Piqué and Fouetté turns it like saying that you believe that Cathy Dollaganger from V.C. Andrews novel Flowers in the Attic home schooled her dance training in an Attic with such accuracy that she became a Prima Ballerina! (oh I loved those books) It doesn’t happen.

What is a larger irritant (and was not discussed in the interview but I wish it had been) was Portman’s baby daddy’s role in the cover up. Benjamin Millepied knows damned well that that woman did not do that dancing, and he is perpetuating the fallacy to the detriment to his own art form (ok that was a bit dramatic, i think the art from will survive this but I needed to make a point)

The larger question is why lie? Now this is what makes my teeth itch- it’s greed. It’s not enough that the film is a commercial success and artistically heralded, it’s not enough that it received 5 Oscar nominations and Portman walked off with one of them (some think that had voters known that she had a body double the outcome might have been different I personally don’t think so) But for some reason they have to “Wag the Dog” and try to sell the big story. It is insulting to the public’s intelligence and it’s also insulting to everyone’s work on the film. You all did a good job- you made a great film, it was enough, you don’t have to through the ballerina under the bus! I bet if they had just let it side it would have blown over, but never under estimate a ballerina scorned! You piss a tutued broad off and she will come after you remember her history, she’s a chick who will go crazy and die and haunt your ass from the grave with a whole bunch of pissed off hungry friends. She may be tiny and frail looking but she will take you down- dancing on your grave!!! Aronofsky, Millepied, Portman watch your backs troubles coming down the Lane!

I kid. Hopefully we can squash this for good!
watch the clip!