Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance April 7, 2008
This weekend, I made my way through wine country to see Rasta Thomas and his “Bad Boys of Dance” perform in Sonoma County. Admittedly, I came in with a few expectations – stellar reviews by the NY Times in their performance at Jacob’s Pillow last year, as well as having seen Rasta Thomas on TV and video, with his amazing powerhouse style and extensions. I’ve been a fan of his for a while, and was really excited to see him dance. In short, the show was both what I expected as well as including the unexpected.
First off – every single guy on stage was exploding with talent. There is no weak link in the group, and every single one of them is a stellar dancer. From Robbie Nicholson with a wonderful lyrical sensibility (my personal favorite) to Craig Derosa (from “So You Think You Can Dance”) with an infectious sense of fun and a strong fluidity to the simply hot Anthony Colantone, these guys had sex appeal to spare, with an edge and a very masculine power that appealed to everyone. Add in a dollop of humor, in addition to great dancing, and you’ve got a group of crowd pleasers that everyone went crazy for. The best part was, these guys could really really dance. And Rasta Thomas was everything that I thought he’d be; I wished most that I could have seen him dance more.
The program was a mix of dances, mostly powerfully masculine and thrilling, with a good dose of silliness thrown in as well as a few gems. My favorite piece was Braham Logan Crane’s “Ghost of Things to Come”, which quieted down the audience from the craze of the sexy previous pieces of silly teasing guys and gave the dancers a chance to delve into their movements onstage. This was the piece that showcased beautiful dancing the most, lovingly styled and emotionally moving, with Jason Parson’s “Maps” a close second, which showcased the dancers’ introspective side, which was a welcome respite from the craziness, although you could feel the audience getting restless during these quieter moments. Twin brothers Martin and Facundo Lombard broke up the evening with a jaw dropping hip hop and an improv tap piece.
I couldn’t help but to make the connection with this dance company and the reality tv shows that are dotting the cable channels these days. The biggest difference is, these guys can REALLY dance. I still hold to the fact that really good dancing is going to be the best thing that reel in future audiences to buy dance tickets, and if anyone can do it, these guys really can. This company would be great to introduce newcomers to dance (many of the audience seemed to be newcomers to dance, from what I could tell), and I’d much rather watch these guys dance on tv for an hour than most of the tv dance shows – I could especially do without the random alliterating judges.
There’s a lot to be said about dancing for your audience. The audience seemed to be filled with locals who loved the tricks and the stripteasing the most. The audience went crazy for these guys, especially during the silly fun pieces, even bordering on chaos as even during the quiet moments, people kept on whistling and making noise. During the opener Rasta Thomas and Ashley Canterna’s “LOL (Laugh Out Loud)”, when the guys onstage started rolling around on the floor with inflatable dolls in their arms, it crossed a line in my mind that was hard to salvage after that point. As the piece progressed, my seatmate whispered to me, “When in doubt, shake your butt!” to which I replied, “Or imitate women! Or take off your shirt!”
In short, these dancers are amazingly talented dancers with more than enough sexy charisma to be ambassadors to seduce non-dance audiences into theater seats. I still can’t help thinking though, is it too much to want to see Rasta Thomas dance Lubovitch’s Elemental Brubeck or Othello one day? I realize that this is completely my own personal preference. Perhaps someday, although he’s so hard to catch onstage. But he seems to be genuinely happy doing what he loves to do, choosing to dance the dances he loves to dance. And audiences love him! And he was still worth the drive out to Sonoma County to see for the first time, live. That’s more than many dancers can say, not to mention the unreachable dream of many dance companies.
Rasta Thomas presents “The Bad Boys of Dance”
Thanks for the review, Jolene! I liked them too when I saw them at Jacob’s Pillow, though I think it was a slightly different cast back then — that was when Bennyroyce from The Winger was with them. He didn’t dance in CA, right? I thought the same — that they were excellent dancers (especially Rasta), with some great choreography, but some rather silly numbers as well. Yeah, he definitely has a certain crowd in mind, and it works for that crowd.
I do think that things look really different on TV. I realized that when I saw Alvin Ailey dance on DWTS last week. Our program was interrupted by a tornado watch, so I only saw about half of their routine, but I remember thinking, whoa, they look SO much better live. Something about TV just takes away. It makes me think perhaps the dancers we see on TV are a lot better than we think they are.
Tonya, did you see the “LOL” number as well, with the inflatable dolls? If so, what did you think of that number?
Thanks for your nice comments. Benny wasn’t there – I was looking forward to seeing him dance. Apparently there was only one guy there who had danced at Jacob’s Pillow (Robbie) and most of the guys are fairly new.
You’re probably right about the dance on tv, although some of it still, I can’t stomach (that Bravo show that you mention on your blog is definitely one of them). At least if I saw Rasta as a judge or a dancer on a show, I could definitely see as more “legitimate” than the random people I see judging on some of these shows.