THE COBBLER RAP

Capezio 125th Anniversary:  The Cobbler Rap
Created by Ann Marie DeAngelo
Music by Marty Beller
Lyrics by Lloyd G. Miller
Performed by Dax Valdes
with
Part One
The Rap:  Alegria, Bounce, Cartier Williams, Kiira Schmidt, Mark Stuart and Jaime Verazin, and Marty Beller on "shoe-last drums"

Part Two:
The Ballerina & The Cobbler: Nicole Graniero*, Craig Salstein*, and Daniel Ulbricht**
(* of American Ballet Theater; ** of New York City Ballet)

"In a salute to the dance cobbler and years of hand-crafting shoes for dancers, I have created a fun piece that served as a thread for Capezio’s 125th Anniversary Celebration."  I started writing the text myself but then brought in the talented Lloyd G. Miller (son of legendary ballerina Cynthia Gregory) to write the lyrics.  The Cobbler Rap was in two parts, and was also a thread for the entire show.  Part One - The Rap. introduces different dance shoes; Part Two: The Ballerina and The Cobbler, a more intimate story about a pointe shoe fantasizing that he meets the ballerina he makes pointe shoes for (a "maker" is responsible for the "box" of the pointe shoe, the most critical part that supports and enables pointe work).  I never had the opportunity to meet my maker, and my livelihood was totally dependent on him!

My challenge in having to work in a fragmented way to put this type of show and piece together was to know I would never see it until the performance - would the concept work?

Watch a video of the piece with photos and lyrics below:

The Cobbler Rap

                                                               

World Cub All Stars

The World Cup All Stars were the introduction to The Cobbler Rap with their amazing flips and tosses - I always love to include these "champs" who with great skill add a lot of spunk!

THE COBBLER RAP

Setting up the "shoe-last" drum set

                                                      

Metal dance shoe-last

Marty Beller

                             

His dance-cobbler drum-set

Composer Marty Beller (drummer/Grammy Award winner with They Might Be Giants) played on a non-traditional drum-set made out of real things that dance-cobblers make dance shoes on. I went out to the Capezio factory one day, and got a great tour from Paul Plesh on how pointe shoes are made. I gathered the items above that Marty then  so creatively played on.

Dax Valdes with Bounce and Marty Beller (center)

Part One:  The Rap 

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes, Shoes....
Its a story ‘bout shoes....on your feet
Its a story ‘bout shoes....and the people you meet
Its a story ‘bout this shoe, that shoe, those shoes and these
Your shoe, my shoe, any shoe you need.....Shoes
And dancing feet                                                   

                                                                    Dax

                                           

Dax Valdes, Bounce, Marty Beller (upstage)

In the days of long ago
When the pointe shoe first was seen
He who made these one-use beauties
Called them his “flying machine”

with Nicole Graniero

with Cartier Williams

The solid tap shoe, wrought   with hammer and nail 
Gives one wings, upon which to sail
A blur of motion, hard and fast
A tap shoe’s gotta be built to last

with Kiira Schmidt

Kiira (Marty upstage)

They might be slip-ons or oxfords
Might be rubber or suede
Watching her use those jazz shoes well
You know they're Capezio made...

with Mark Stuart and Jaime Verazin

In a crowd-o-couples, young ‘n fair
The ballroom shoe slices through the air
To music now tender, now brash, now sweet
This shoe might sweep you off your feet

The hip hop dancer uses just her sneakers
But that don't make her style weaker
With supa-fly kicks strapped to her feet
She's all set to rock to the beat                    

Bounce (Ephrat Aserie)

What, NO Shoes?

Alegria (Craig upstage fixing a pointe shoe)

DAX:
Maker 17 makes 1,000 pointe shoes a year for a girl he’s never met.
She wears pointe shoes by Maker 17, an intimate duet.


Part Two:  The Cobbler and The Ballerina

Dax with Nicole (ballerina) and Craig (dance cobbler)

                                                      The Dance Cobbler begins his fantasy....

Her partner, Daniel takes her away....

  

Nicole and Daniel

  

Daniel & Nicole

Daniel, Nicole on Craig's back...

  

Nicole & Craig

At the end of the rehearsal, the balerina leaves with her partner, the dance-cobbler ends alone on stage, still imagining.


Transition:  The Cobbler Rap "shoe" thread for the evening:


Shoes.....Shoes....Shoes....Shoes....
Mr. Wiggles, an original - innovator of dance and rhyme
Back then his shoes were Ghettomade,
Let’s go back in time....

Mr. Wiggles telling his story, Crazy Legs upstage - Rock Steady Crew original

 

Industrial Rhythm with Rock Steady Crew

 

Cartier Williams

 Click or clank
 Slam or slide
 The tap shoe guarantees
 A wild ride...






Continuing the "shoe thread":


Dax as Zac:
So....tell me something about your shoes...

Front: Jamie/Nicole/Bounce kneeling; Back Cartier/Craig/Kiira

ONE:
A takeoff form "A Chorus Line," but here, dancers talked about their dance shoes - from the different style backgrounds....

Ann Marie in rehearsal wondering if the "shoe" concept would work...
Photographed at New 42nd St. Studios

                                                

YES, IT WORKED!

A Halloween Thriller: Producing Art as Entertainment

Ann Marie DeAngelo & Peter Martins

     People kept asking me this year the question “Why was this the best gala/show ever”?  Then at the dinner, when Peter Martins said....”You do what no one else can do, how do you do it?” - that got me wondering....what exactly it is that I do?!

I think the show stayed true to its self-invented theme, and it had a typical DeAngelo fast-pace flow.  What I do each year in terms of eclectic programing remains the same.  My vision is a mix of styles and genres - in a marriage of the old and the new.  Because of such wide diversity and the best of the best in each form, the show is fresh. My formula takes variety to a new level by strategically arranging each piece and pinning them against each other.  Or, positioning them in an unexpected way, that creates an “element of surprise”.  The element of surprise is key to engaging audiences and to successful theater.  This formula I use whether in one of my own ballets, directing a show by someone else or in these single even evenings.  For gala shows, it starts In the selection process......the pieces are either excerpts from larger works (a Lynne Taylor-Corbett duet from Dracula); commissioned works (Mark Stuart’s to the Ne-Yo song); new innovative work (Noah Racey’s NY Song & Dance), evolutionary work (drumming and break-dance with The Street Beats Group); unexpected classics back-to-back such as National Dance Institute (NDI) in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” following a Bob Fosse number from Pippin with Bebe Neuwirth - “Magic To Do”.  Or placing the self-controlled classic of Giselle before an outrageous Lypsinka.  The novelty of Pucci's “Surfing” number was a non sequitur, after the creepy dramatic impact of Bell Witch.  And, ultimately the synthesis happens in less than 90 min. With 20 years of creating shows (as an artistic director and choreographer), it now takes place in my head (and on 100 drafts on paper).   I believe that 'amalgamation' is the choreographic voice of the future (distinct voices no longer exist).  Individual voices become more distinct when positioned together because the voice of the collective is always stronger.   My internal message stays the same: “it is only through our differences that we discover our sameness”.  

Ultimately, I CARE

Bebe Neuwirth (center)

Review:

A Halloween Thriller
Career Transition For Dancers
October 31, 2011 at City Center in NYC
Directed by Ann Marie DeAngelo

The show began with Bebe Neuwirth singing the lead in “Magic To Do” from Bob Fosse’s Pippin.  A perfect Fosse-esque opener, staged by David Warren Gibson.  This segued into NDI romping to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, choreographed by the Mary Kennedy, who did a fantastic job with 90 kids on and off stage.  

National Dance Institute

Dracula

Then our illustrious host for the evening Chita Rivera, gave out the Career Transition For Dancers annual Awards, before she introduced an excerpt (last duet) from Lynne Taylor-Corbett's Dracula, that was performed by Carolina Ballet. It had just the right bite to it!   

    Chita

By the way, Chita changed from the evening gown she wore in the beginning, to this costume for her last entrance and evenings "thank you's".

What would the evening be like without tap-dancing Skeletons -- who came as an interlude between Dracula and Bell Witch, in order to cover up the fact that the stage hands had to strike the bed used in Dracula!

Tap City Youth Ensemble

    

Bell Witch moments....           

Lynn Cohen

The next number was my Bell Witch that was a 4 1/2 min. theatrical re-creation based on my original one-act Bell Witch ghost story.   Starting with a wandering EYE projected on the upstage Cyc, Actress Lynn Cohen (as the ghost remembering), spewed venom with her words.....”Yes I killed John Bell....he buried me alive.....imagine what it feels like to wake up with dirt in your mouth!”.  Dancers Adam Hundt (as John Bell) being attacked by the ever-attacking Oriada Islami (as the ghost in action), was up for the kill.

Oriada Islami (as the Bell Witch) Adam Hundt as John Bell

The Kill....

Opera Prima

Just got back from Mexico City as a judge for Mexico's first dance reality Tv show, called Opera Prima Movimiento.  What a great experience....more to come!