You’ll believe a man can dance
This weekend I did ALL the laundry AND signed up for festivids (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fan_eunice explains what and why) AND realised that the UK rights for the LXD dancing/superhero/web series had come through and I could download it from iTunes. Yay!
LXD thoughts:
LXD stands for Legion of Extraordianry Dancers. It’s a web series produced or whatever the word would be by Jon M. Chu who directed the latest two, mostly street dance featuring, Step-Up movies. The basic idea is to use dancers to tell an X-Men like superhero story. The first season is a series of 10 7-10minute ‘episodes’ each introducing a character. Kind of like Heroes season one distilled down to its essentials and retaining the Mohinder-like introductory voiceovers (but you can skip those after the first viewing). The dancing is spectacular but that can be a problem. Virtuosity is all very well but it’s like junk food, leaving you craving something more. Something that tells a story or interacts with the music or the space or the other dancers, dance is all about interactions. Some of the ten episodes are more interactive than others:
Webisode 3 Robot Love Story - I’m not a big fan of robotic dancing, but here they avoided the temptations of virtuosity and ruthlessly cut anything that didn’t serve the story. Also mixed it up with other dance styles and added big comic style captions making effective use of the medium’s space. The whole thing maintains a great noir horror atmosphere. You forget that you’re watching any kind of dance showcase and just fall into the story.
Webisode 6 Duet - Like it says on the tin, two dancers following parallel choreography. It’s a very simple idea powerfully done with beautiful and creative use of split screens to highlight the apart but togetherness.
Webisode 8 Elliot’s shoes - Harry Shum Jnr who plays the (until recently) vocally elusive Mike Chang on Glee is one of those dancers who’s not only brilliant himself but makes everyone around him look better. Elliot’s Shoes is also the first LXD episode to bring the funny (it had all been getting a little too manpainy) uses the classic ‘magic shoes’ trope. A mysterious pair of white trainers take on a life of their own when the music starts playing and Elliot starts channelling everyone from Buster Keaton to Fred Astaire (he makes a broom look good). This I could watch a whole spin-off series of.
Webisode 9 Fanboyz - Again with the comedy, very big on the meta as the recruitment process for the LXD is pretty much the same in story and out but a great crew, great energy and the final three really are a threesome not just three dancer who happen to be doing the same steps. Something to watch with a big grin on your face.
fan_eunice explains what and why) AND realised that the UK rights for the LXD dancing/superhero/web series had come through and I could download it from iTunes. Yay!LXD thoughts:
LXD stands for Legion of Extraordianry Dancers. It’s a web series produced or whatever the word would be by Jon M. Chu who directed the latest two, mostly street dance featuring, Step-Up movies. The basic idea is to use dancers to tell an X-Men like superhero story. The first season is a series of 10 7-10minute ‘episodes’ each introducing a character. Kind of like Heroes season one distilled down to its essentials and retaining the Mohinder-like introductory voiceovers (but you can skip those after the first viewing). The dancing is spectacular but that can be a problem. Virtuosity is all very well but it’s like junk food, leaving you craving something more. Something that tells a story or interacts with the music or the space or the other dancers, dance is all about interactions. Some of the ten episodes are more interactive than others:
Webisode 3 Robot Love Story - I’m not a big fan of robotic dancing, but here they avoided the temptations of virtuosity and ruthlessly cut anything that didn’t serve the story. Also mixed it up with other dance styles and added big comic style captions making effective use of the medium’s space. The whole thing maintains a great noir horror atmosphere. You forget that you’re watching any kind of dance showcase and just fall into the story.
Webisode 6 Duet - Like it says on the tin, two dancers following parallel choreography. It’s a very simple idea powerfully done with beautiful and creative use of split screens to highlight the apart but togetherness.
Webisode 8 Elliot’s shoes - Harry Shum Jnr who plays the (until recently) vocally elusive Mike Chang on Glee is one of those dancers who’s not only brilliant himself but makes everyone around him look better. Elliot’s Shoes is also the first LXD episode to bring the funny (it had all been getting a little too manpainy) uses the classic ‘magic shoes’ trope. A mysterious pair of white trainers take on a life of their own when the music starts playing and Elliot starts channelling everyone from Buster Keaton to Fred Astaire (he makes a broom look good). This I could watch a whole spin-off series of.
Webisode 9 Fanboyz - Again with the comedy, very big on the meta as the recruitment process for the LXD is pretty much the same in story and out but a great crew, great energy and the final three really are a threesome not just three dancer who happen to be doing the same steps. Something to watch with a big grin on your face.