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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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Meryl Streep talks Beauty, And Rejection…

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PBS Digital has an awesome series whereby they take clips of old interviews with celebrities and animate them. It’s quite intriguing as the animations are spot on and the clips they use are in and of themselves are humorously revealing about the subject…in the Meryl Streep clip she talks about being on the Blackwell List of worst dressed for years…and what the director of the movie King Kong said when she came in to read for the lead (the Jessica Lange Role).  And an INCREDIBLE story of a old half knitted sweater in a knitting bag….(you have to listen to find out) Enjoy it I did!

 

Dance Studio

Top 5 Dance Compensation Patterns That Cause Injuries

Hosted by the Dance Training Project

Knowledge is power. A cliche saying, but as per it’s cliche nature, it’s because it’s legit.

As dancers we rely primarily on kinesthetic intelligence, and a fundamental pillar of knowledge, for us, is having heightened body awareness. In my humble opinion, one of the most important things you should be aware of to keep your body in business for longer is of what your compensation patterns are. What are your cheats? What are your default settings? It’s knowledge that can help you perform better technically and keep you injury free.

For starters, dance requires you to compensate a lot. To create the beautiful spirals and balances, in awkward positions, with extreme ranges of motion, you need to cheat a bit. It’s impossible to do these extraordinary physical feats AND stay perfectly aligned- neutral, symmetrical, balanced. The illusion of perfect balance and grace demands the creation of muscle imbalances.

Even at the mental level, to accomplish these cheats you have to go to a different place- A mental place that says, “Hey, this position isn’t normal and kind of feels bad, but it looks pretty cool so I’m gonna keep doing it!”. Again, it’s just my humble opinion, but I think this mindset is the PRIMARY compensation pattern leading to injury: The brain compensating for every muscle. Overriding the concept of what is “best”. Is it heightened pain tolerance, or physical fitness?

So while dancers pride themselves for having heightened kinesthetic intelligence, perhaps the prize jewel of said intelligence is the understanding of how to get into a mental state in which the body’s able to completely ignore signals of pain and discomfort in order to optimize acute performance (which becomes a huge issue if you’re into this state so deep you can’t get out). I’ve heard of this referred to as being in a “limbic“, or “sympathetic” state. But that’s a discussion for another blog post (because it’s super interesting).

The purpose of today’s post is to bring your attention to some common compensation patterns many dancers use. There is power in knowing how YOU specifically tend to cheat accomplish challenging dance moves. The secret weapon is that knowing your cheats allows you to reverse them.

But if your compensations are helping you dance, why try to reverse them?

Knowing that dance requires compensation patterns, it is better, safer, and more productive to perform these compensations starting from a more neutral state than from a positions already riddled with muscle imbalances and dysfunction.

This is stuff I wish I knew when I was 12, before the lower back, hip, neck, and hamstring injuries that eventually forced me to slow down.

Reversing postural dysfunction and movement compensation patterns can be as simple as adding a few specific exercises to your dance warm-up/cool-down, and embracing a balanced full-body strength training program.

5 most common  compensation patterns in dancers

Maybe you recognize some in yourself. Or have you tuned them out? We already know the brain can screw stuff up (as mentioned above) but after the brain’s ability to tune out pain, the king of dysfunction is…

 

1. Breath holding

Holding your breath causes the diaphragm to contract, and stay contracted, in an attempt to give you stability. Because your diaphragm isn’t supposed to be used primarily like an “ab”, this can cause any number of other muscles to function poorly, though most commonly it’s the core muscles (abdominals, QL, psoas, glutes and more…).

In dance, if something is hard, you’ll probably hold your breath to make it easier. Breathing is always a good place to start if you’re unsure what your cheats are. We all hold our breath and often the diaphragm is KING of dance injuries.

The picture below is nice because it shows how the diaphragm has fascial connections with the psoas and the abdominal wall (making it very easy to compensate for their functions…)

 

2. Forward head alignment

I am guilty of this right now. Sitting at a computer is the devil.

In a dance setting, dancers who lack core strength to stabilize their bodies will often compensate by holding their head slightly forward causing the muscles of the neck to tighten up and act as a “core”. Much like the diaphragm is not an ab, the neck muscles are not abs and should not be working harder and be getting more toned than your real abs (TVA, obliques, rectus abdominis, etc.).

I have assessed many dancers who cannot activate their TVA without help from either the neck flexors or extensors. You can tell who these people are because their necks look JACKED:

Just check out that sexy hypertrophied sternocleidomastoid. Looks like someone’s core is in her neck…

Forward head posture can also be indicative of glutes that do not activate properly- Using the weight of the head as a counterbalance rather than stabilize with the muscle that actually keeps you from falling on your butt (dem glutes).
3. Excess lordosis and anterior pelvic tilt

Don’t have core  and hip strength but need to lift your leg higher? Don’t have glute strength but need to propel yourself forward? Arching your lower back will help you do those things (the illusion of, anyway). It will also help increase your chances of back pain and hamstring injuries, so I don’t recommend lumbar extension and anterior pelvic tilt as a means to perform athletic movements.

Getting stability from excess lower back extension is another sign that the abdominals, glutes, and other important muscles aren’t activating properly. Also can cause and/or exacerbate compression in the hips, SI joint and spine.

Another thing dancers tend to do is to arch from the lower back rather than the upper back to do back bends.

In the picture below, notice how her lower back is SMUSHING, and upper back stays nearly flat. Looks impressive, but I doubt she can activate her core or glutes, and I’d guess she’s dealing with some mad back, hip, and/or shoulder pain, and some difficulty breathing from her diaphragm.

 

A bendy ball of disaster compared to the backbend below. Check out that sweet upper back and hip extension without excessive lower back compression. I bet she’s breathing, too.

 To continue click here

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JLo Shaking her Ass in the the teaser for her new album just set Women back…

Jennifer Lopez , A.K.A. Album Teaser: Booty

 

Ok lookahere. I am a 43 year old woman who looks damn good head to toe, I may have some  body image issues but I ain’t crazy… what the hell is up with these “powerful, self empowered” established female artist exposing and shaking their asses like newbies and come-ups? Why the hell does Jennifer Lopez– I will speak not of her talent  but I will speak of her popularity and earning power because one is not a fair barometer of the other… Lopez who was making 17.5 million dollars as a judge on American Idol has chosen to show us that she can stop with the puppies in her new video.


It smacks of desperation, it’s that Annie Oakley song “anything you can do I can do better” except it’s “anything you can shake I can shake harder, anything you can show I can show more!” Beyonce did it, therefore now I have to bend over  and pop it, shake it, dip it, and grab my coochie from behind and lift it up… to what sell albums? to get buzz? to sty relevant? I am not sure…The one thing I can be sure of is that it is not for money, she has it, a lot of it they all do. I have a nauseating feeling that it harkens back to why college girls kiss other girls in front of Frat boys at parties… It’s why every actress talented or not feels the need to bend over or spread eagle and strip down for a spot on Maxim’s hot 100…for the approval of men. I know that both men and women buy albums but the hyper sexualized nature of the material is not for us gals…well  not for most of us, many of the women who are actually these artists contemporaries would buy their work because…we like the work not because they are singing strippers with a fierce glam squad. Personally it all turns me off. I watched this appropriately entitled “teaser” and was sickened and saddened and immediately glad that I did not have a teen aged daughter. Concomitantly I felt blessed that I am secure enough in myself and my personal hotness that I did not, and do not feel the need to compete, to drop it like it’s hot to prove that I still got it at 43.

And please don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with a middle aged woman shaking it, popping it dip, trip slipping it, I just believe that there is a  time and a place for that. I am middle aged, I have never been nor felt sexier in my life but everybody doesn’t need to to no, or deserve to know how I work my sexy. Part of that has to do with my confidence and my not just owning but understanding  my womanhood and femininity, its mystic and power, and above all its subtly…subtly is the key..

Dance Studio

Questions To Ask Yourself While in Ballet Class- By Edward Villella

Via:  Dance.Answers.com

 

Edward Villella wrote, “What’s so wonderful about ballet is that it’s mind-driven physicality. It’s almost a Greek ideal of body, mind, and form.” He wrote this because dancers understand that ballet is as mentally strenuous as it is physically strenuous.

Ballet requires the mind to be as sharp or sharper than the body, because must anticipate what is coming next in the music and in the movement. The entire time you are dancing, you are asking yourself questions, listening to the music, feeling the accents and prompting the body for movement.

It is important you are asking yourself the correct questions while in class. You do not want to practice wrong, as famous Jazz dancer Luigi warned against. Practicing incorrectly or sending yourself the incorrect messages will only hurt your dancing and potentially open you up to injuries. What questions should you be asking yourself while you’re at the barre and center?

What Aches Today?

What Aches Today?

Every day, we have a “new body.” What we mean by this is that you may have certain aches or tightness and that differs from day to day. From the very start of ballet class, you want to start your mental assessment of your body. What hurt today? What feels tight today? This knowledge of your body helps protect you throughout class and it always informs you on what to work on. For example, you know if you’re experiencing tightness in the quadriceps, that you may be pulling from the incorrect place. This tells you to focus more on inner thighs as you work.

Do I Feel Warm?

Do I Feel Warm?

As the barre exercise progress, you should begin to feel incrementally warmer with each exercise. Ask yourself if your body is adequately warming up. How your body feels serves as a gauge of how hard you are working. As a reference, you should be sweating by degages and definitely sweating by rond de jambe. Assess where your body feels warm and where it does not, then mentally focus on sending energy and warmth to the corners of your body that may still feel cold. Engage those muscles, sending blood to them, and breathe into tight muscles. Warming your body up properly will help your dancing be better and stronger but it will also prevent injuries. See: Understanding Exercises at the Ballet Barre

QUOTE

Someone once said that dancers work just as hard as policeman, always alert, always tense, but see, policeman don’t have to be beautiful at the same time. -George Balanchine

How is My Alignment?

How is My Alignment?

Check in with your body alignment. Are your shoulders and hips square? Is your pelvis anteriorly tilted? Are you tucking your pelvis too far in? Are your shoulder scrunched up, sending tension into your neck? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, you need to re-adjust. Standing in any of those positions will send tension throughout your body and it will make the movement more difficult. You will feel as if you’re forcing the movement.

Start with the top of your head and mentally check in all the way down to your toes. Make sure you understand what muscles you are engaging. For example, engage your back muscles in order to hold the shoulders still and the arm rounded. Engage your abdominals in order to find your neutral pelvis.

You also want to check your alignment while you are moving. For example, during a plie you want to make sure your knees are over your toes and not leaving forward. When extending the leg back to arabesque, you want to make sure that leg is behind you and not leaning out to the side. You also want to make sure your shoulders remain even. Constantly be aware and asking yourself: Where are my shoulders supposed to be? Where are my hips supposed to be? Where are my knees supposed to be?

Am I Breathing?

Am I Breathing?

When our body is doing difficult work, we tend to want to hold our breath. We wrongfully think that holding our breath will harness the power we need to push a little higher or get us through quicker movement. But this is incorrect thinking.

Breathing helps send oxygen to our muscles, which we need in order to complete such physically demanding work. Learning when to inhale and exhale in ballet will help us harness the energy we need and it will naturally make the movement better. Remind yourself to breathe through each exercise, using the breath as a way to fuel the movement. We are not dancing under water, and we shouldn’t treat our bodies that way. Keep breathing. See: Breathing Exercises for Dancers

Is My Weight Out of My Heels?

Is My Weight Out of My Heels?

While we are standing, it is easiest to shift our weight to our heels because that is our strongest position. It takes less muscles to keep our weight in our heels. But this is incorrect in ballet.

You must keep your weight out of your heels and shift it forward into your toes. This keeps your muscles engaged and it allows you to be prepared for any quick shifts of weight from one foot to another. Ballet teachers call putting the weight in your heels “sitting back.” It looks relaxed, and a teacher can tell your muscles are not engaged. You cannot “sit back” in ballet because your muscles won’t be prepared to do the work asked of them. Shifting your weight forward readies your body, prepares your mind and frees your body up for the quick shifts that happen constantly in ballet.

Am I Rotating From the Hip?

Am I Rotating From the Hip?

Hip rotation is so important in ballet. Think of your hip like a Barbie doll’s hip. Barbie’s hip rotates around in the socket. Your hip has the same power, and you need to understand how to use that power to your advantage. Forcing rotating from the knees will lead to injuries and potential surgery needed on your knee. Do not force your ballet positions of the feet if that is not your natural turn out.

To find your natural turn out, standing in parallel first position. From your hips, start to move your toes outward. Go as far as the toes will go, and when you stop feeling movement in your hips, stop. This is your natural turn out and it is where you should be working. Placing your feet in the position first will force you to rotate from your knees, which is bad. Constantly assess where your turn out is and where it is coming from.

Where is My Head?

Where is My Head?

Using the head and shoulders in ballet is called epaulement. It is what makes dancing beautiful and not simply just technique. It is the cherry on top of the ice cream. It is easy to forget epaulement while dancing because you are so focused on the exercise and executing it correctly. But, technically, the exercise isn’t complete without epaulement. Practicing where your head, shoulders and torso go is important to the wholeness of your dancing.

There are two fundamental positions of epaulement and those are croise (crossed) or efface (shaded). For crossed, the head should be toward the foot in front. For example, if you’re standing in fifth position facing the left corner of the room with the right foot in front, the head should be turned to the right shoulder. For efface, the head leans toward the opposite shoulder of the foot that is extended. For example, if you’re standing in fifth position facing the left corner of the room with the left foot in front (or extended), the head will be turned to the right shoulder.

Ballet takes massive amounts of physical and mental work in order to have everything done correctly, on time and beautifully. The questions mentioned above are a quick way to run down your thought process to make sure everything is in place. If you ask yourself these questions every class, you will see yourself start to understand your body and the movement more and more. With practice, you will become a stronger and more aware dancer.

 

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Women does yoga in a glass box on a truck promote New ‘Glamorous,’ ‘Nontraditional’ Yoga Program

Via yogadork.com

"Told you we were putting @tarastiles in a glass box on wheels." - Via @WHotels Instagram

Heads up New Yorkers, if you blink you could miss Tara Stiles doing yoga in a glass box on wheels. You heard that right. Celeb “rebel yoga” teacher, Tara Stiles, is promoting her new “FIT with Tara Stiles” yoga program at W Hotels by traveling around NYC all day in a “Yoga Truck” where her yoga show is on display for all the lucky city folks to see in a somewhat unfortunate caged-animal scenario. Because a skinny, model-y white woman doing yoga in a box for everyone else to gawk at isn’t a metaphor for anything. Nope. (Sometimes we have to wonder if we’re all on some sort of Yoga Candid Camera.)

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Ok This is how we know that the world is coming to an end as we know it….

Is it not bad enough that Westerns have taken the sacred and once spiritual practice of yoga and commercialized it, created a line of fashion attire around it, or that a pimp-like  Indian man, named Bikram capitalized on Westerns desire to concomitantly seem spiritual while looking “hot” by heating the yoga room, reducing the physical science of the practice to a mere 26 postures (and 2 breathing exercises) while teaching in a Speedo. There is even a yoga competition where avid practitioners and teachers alike put on their skimpiest outfits and perform a 3minute yoga routine in front of an audience for a trophy, bragging rights, and I am certain a fair amount of cash. This had always struck me as rock bottom, that is  before I heard about Tara Stiles’ shenanigans. The very last thing most women in New York City need is to see a skinny white woman in a leotard, with her legs behind her ears riding by as they bob and weave, dodging slow walking, texting, spatially unaware folks, and tourists. Is it not bad enough that we have constant printed reminders of how far we are from the ideal on every billboard and bus that goes by? Do we need a human being in a glass box telling us we need to do better? I just have to say, when you have just dipped out of the office to indulge in a “this never happened cookie” the last thing you need is Tara Stiles in a downward facing dog shaking her head. Instead of saying Namaste, she says “You’regonnastay… FAT!”

I get it we all get it, it’s about marketing and promotion and I am sure that she will not be fighting to hold that tree pose as the truck rolls by, but I DO know that most who see her will hope that one of the wheels hits a pothole!!!

 

Namaste

Dance Studio, Uncategorized

Blacks in Ballet: Delores Brown and Raven Wilkinson

Know your history know yourself!!!

Raven Wilikenson
Raven Wilikenson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delores Brown
Delores Brown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a clip from a documentary that tells the stories of how two Black women entered the world of ballet in the 1950s: Delores Brown, and Raven Wilkinson. Being from Philadelphia I had the pleasure of taking class a few times with Ms. Brown and one of m y first ballet teachers was Marion Cuyjet. In fact Ms. Cuyjet was the person who told my father that I should got to Pennsylvania Ballet School because I could be a ballet dancer, so I have been personally touch by this portion of history.

cuyjet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marion Cuyjet

 

 

When you hear some of then things that Ms. Wilkinson had to endure as a member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo…it is maddening and amazing. To think of the personal strength and determination that it must have taken to go out on that stage every night, or travel through the southern states…They are both aspirational and inspirational…

 

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Comedian Sarah Millican tells Twitter haters how their comments made feel after teh BAFTA Awards

Sarah Millican: Twitter was a pin to my excitable Bafta balloon
Never before has it been so acceptable to publicly judge the appearance of women. Joan Rivers has reestablished her career on the backs of women and tearing them apart over their looks and their fashion choices. She and her daughter Melissa started the public judging of celebrities on the red carpet for E! Entertainment’s Pre Awards shows, in 2003 they moved to TV Guide, and finally in 2010 she returned to E! with the the ever vitriolic Fashion Police. With the advent of Twitter in 2006 the practice of lending your 2 cents became that much easier, quicker and anonymous. Comment are posted in a rapid fire pace and everyone is trying to out do the next, with out thought to what or who they might be commenting on. What’s worse is that is is public, what happens on Twitter goes all over the world, in a click…even to the person you are talking about. That is where it gets truly hateful and hurtful. We can say whatever we want about whomever we want when we are sitting in front of our televisions watching the Oscars, but when we say it publicly we risk hurting someone’s feelings who didn’t ask for our opinion anyway…
This what happened to comedian Sarah Millican, the dress she wore to the BAFTA awards was one of her choosing, one that she liked and felt good in…this is until she saw Twitter blowing up bashing her, where her feelings were hurt she, in true comic thick skinned fashion had her say when she penned a response for Radiotimes.com:

Sarah Millican: Twitter was a pin to my excitable Bafta balloon

“I’m sorry. I thought I had been invited to such an illustrious event because I am good at my job. Putting clothes on is such a small part of my day. They may as well have been criticising me for brushing my teeth differently to them”

Written By
Sarah Millican

I am a comedian. You may or may not find me funny, but the fact remains, that I am a comedian. This feels like a defensive start to a column but you will soon understand why.

Last year, I was nominated for a Bafta. Me. The quiet girl at school. The awkward girl at college. The funny woman at work. A Bafta. And in a genderless category too. Alongside the entertainment greats: Graham Norton, Alan Carr and Ant and Dec. It felt ridiculous but I was thrilled. I’ve been nominated for awards before (even won a couple) and it really is the best. If winning is chips and gravy then being nominated is still chips. Lovely, lovely chips.

On the run up to the ceremony, plans were made. This here smashing magazine asked me to present an award, someone asked if I wanted my hair and make-up done, my fella took the night off to accompany me, my friend asked if she could come shopping with me for my dress.

Yes, yes, all of this, yes. My friend and I danced into John Lewis knowing that a) they have lots of mini shops in there, and b) I can fit it into most of them. Fancy expensive designer shops are out for me as I’m a size 18, sometimes 20, and I therefore do not count as a woman to them.

We knew which one was the right one as soon as I swished back the curtain and both my friend and I oohed. At the till, when asked, I told the lady it was for a wedding as I was too embarrassed to announce I was off to the Baftas.

On the day, my fella and I drove to London, parked, I had my hair and make-up done while he read his book nearby. We got changed into our glad rags in the toilets of the spa. I don’t have any interest in shoes so just popped my comfy black patent leather ones on. He helped me with my new necklace and off we went to the Baftas.

The red carpet is very intimidating, although I garnered a few laughs when I replied to the “Who are you wearing?” question with “John Lewis” and the “Where did you get your dress?” question with “The Trafford Centre”. I had a few awkward photos taken by the wall of paparazzi. Awkward as I’m not a model (I’m a comedian), have never learnt how to pose on a red carpet (I’m a comedian) and I have pretty low self-esteem.

My husband wasn’t asked who he was wearing, which disappointed him. Mainly because he was dying to tell ANYONE he was wearing an Asda tux. Not one of the cheap ones, as he likes to point out, it was £60. The ceremony itself was a wonder. Everywhere I looked were the best in the business. Writers I’d admired, actors I’d cried to, comedians who’d made me laugh so much I got a headache. Amazing people being applauded for being bloody good at their jobs.

I’d heard the phrase “knees knocking” before but didn’t know it was an actual thing until I presented the Radio Times Audience Award. It went OK, I don’t think I messed up and I went back to my seat. After the ceremony, we had a lovely meal (apart from one of the courses that had soil on it, intentionally) with the RT lot and then I bullied Stephen Mangan into introducing me to Matt LeBlanc. Night made, we went to the car to drive home.

In order not to dilly-dally, my husband did the first stint of driving while I got out of my dress at various traffic lights in central London. Driving clothes on, I checked my phone. Loads of friends and family had texted the expected “You were robbed”, which I wasn’t but they’re my friends and family so they’re supposed to think that. Then I went onto Twitter and it was like a pin to my excitable red balloon. Literally thousands of messages from people criticising my appearance. I was fat and ugly as per usual. My dress (the one that caused ooohs in a department store fitting room?) was destroyed by the masses. I looked like a nana, my dress was disgusting, was it made out of curtains, why was I wearing black shoes with it. I cried. I cried in the car.

And that wasn’t the end. The next day, I was in newspapers pilloried for what I was wearing. I was discussed and pulled apart on Lorraine.

I’m sorry. I thought I had been invited to such an illustrious event because I am good at my job. Putting clothes on is such a small part of my day. They may as well have been criticising me for brushing my teeth differently to them.

Yes, there were lovely messages from my fans between the hate but the hate was dominant and made me upset at first and then furious. Why does it matter so much what I was wearing? Why did no one ask my husband where he got his suit from? I felt wonderful in that dress. And surely that’s all that counts. I made a decision the following day that should I ever be invited to attend the Baftas again, I will wear the same dress. To make the point that it doesn’t matter what I wear; that’s not what I’m being judged on. With the added fun of answering the red-carpet question, “Where did you get your dress?” with “Oh, it’s just last year’s, pet”.

And so I was invited back to the Baftas. Nominated again, indeed. But sadly I am working that night. But if you have tickets to see my show in Buxton on 18 May, you may see me making my point anyway.

The Sarah Millican Television Programme – Best of Series 1 & 2 is available to buy on DVD at radiotimes.com/dvdshop

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Artist gives Disney princesses an ethnic makeover

This is a brilliant idea. I have to say that in my generation we didn’t even conceive of the idea that a princess (Disney or other) could be black. We were just glad to be able to have a black Barbie, Christie, who was really white Barbie in brown plastic. Her jet black hair was just s straight and shiny as her fairer counterpart her features just as fine… still the fact that you could play with something in your own image made a difference. I can’t image what it would have meant to me as a little black girl if I could have seen Cinderella or Snow White (despite her name) as Black, or of color.

Now artist T.T Bret and Disney fan of the Tumblr site called Let There be Doodles decided to take creative license with several Disney princess characters and created new portraits that were totally unique because she flipped the skin colors and cultures. The result is something really beautiful and interesting. She said:

I honestly just did this for fun. No political agenda, no ulterior motives, I just love Disney and chose a few of my favorite characters to alter. I feel like there’s beauty in every racial background, and this is honestly nothing more then an exploration of different races from a technical and artistic standpoint.

Check some of them out:

belle ariel aurora cinderella

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To see the rest click here