Hey Ya’ll. (I just got back from the south so pardon my language)

Heres a quick time lapse that I made with visual artist and collaborator Daniel Diaz-Tai using ink and water plus a digital camera.We are starting a new collabo together for a concert dance piece. The challenge for me is to use the movement of the Inks as a guide to movement vocabulary. As you watch this clip think about all of the numerous possibilities. With that said…. Not sucking would be the hugest concern for me because it would be too easy to go off the deep end on a project like this. Currently we are in the first phase of the project and I’m work shopping material with a couple dancers as a sort of “Blue Print” because this project will have me using the largest cast that i have ever worked with before. Im looking forward to rising up to the occasion and soooo stoked on this!

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It’s that time of year here in Savannah, when new and prospective students are looking for a dance program. Most of the time I post about what my students do, mainly because they are amazing to me and I love sharing that side of my job with all of you, but today I felt I needed to share the other side with you.

It is not easy to run a small studio in a small town. It is of course, like every aspect of the dance world, highly competitive, and I LOVE that part. We are all so competitive aren’t we? I have always loved being pushed to be the best I can be, to find out if I still have what it takes, so to speak! My first teacher however, brought me up to give respect to my peers, that unless you are the dance critic of a big newspaper, stick to the good old- “if you don’t have anything nice to say-don’t say anything at all”. So I learned those lessons very early, it wasn’t always easy though, I might have slipped up a couple of times-dancers are very passionate people!

Since it is registration time-I thought I would give you a short list of things I have heard said about me, always about this time of year (which are not true of course) :

Did you know she curses at her students?

She is a really a Jazz teacher (well, I am a great Jazz teacher-but this was meant to be an insult)

If you want your child to have good manners, don’t bring her there

Her students are only good because she is really mean and drives them into the ground

They don’t do REAL ballet there

I am sure there are dance teachers all over who have had similar and even worse said about them-I even heard that some rival studios will even call your students on the phone to say these things!

I find it incredibly funny when I hear this kind of talk, I guess because I am happy! I love what I do, and I love that I get to do it the way I want to. So I will head into this season, with my little group of dancers who all have such big hearts and I tip my hat to those studio owners who are really good at what they do!

We are all in this together, my students might meet your students at a summer program, or dance together in a company one day! And best of all they will all grow up and hopefully continue to love to dance, go to the ballet, see a Broadway show and have great memories of their first teachers, who taught them so many important things, just like mine did!

It certainly has been a hot summer! While I have been busy spending time with my family, many of my students have been working hard and getting creative. Some at summer intensives and some right here at home.
Caitlin Dutton graduated from SUNY Purchase, came home for a few weeks and launched the Coastal Dance Collective, utilizing local artists, musicians and dancers, visiting different areas of downtown with some site-specific fun. What a cool surprise for Savannah! Right now Caitlin is setting her sights on California-I am so proud of Caitlin, who was one of my first students in Savannah, so much MORE lies ahead for her!

Coming up in my next post-on the set of a Gospel music video, with singer Porschia, myself and Isabel Macgill!

Hey Wingers!!

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to post in such a long time. With a tv show, there are a lot of things we’re not allowed to do, and any sort of interactions on the internet are one of them! But now that I’m off the show, I can somewhat resume to a normal daily life.

Just thought I would update you all on what has happened since I last posted! SO - I auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance again (season 7) and after a long and grueling process, I made it to the top 10! (Top 11 this year). I had such an amazing journey on the show and I learned SO much and I am so grateful for everything. I spent 5 weeks on the show, and during that 5 weeks I had the most life changing experience. I know it sounds crazy that something can really drastically change your life in 5 weeks, but this definitely does! With the crazy schedule, how much we learn and the amazing people that you get to work with AND live with, it just completely betters you as a person.

I’ll update everyone later on my specific experience through the whole process but I just wanted to check in first and let everyone know how I am doing. On my 5th week, I suffered an injury the night before show day during a rehearsal of my Bollywood piece on stage. I completely snapped my right Achilles tendon in half, and that has forced me to withdraw from the competition.

I’m just waiting here in LA for my surgery tomorrow morning (Tuesday, July 13th) and hoping that it all goes well so I can start my long journey to recovery!

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout my journey and that I am so grateful for even being here in the first place.

If you’d like to follow me closely I will be keeping my facebook page and my twitter page constantly updated. You can follow me on twitter here:

http://www.twitter.com/alexdwong

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/alexwongdance

Here is the Sonya Tayeh contemporary piece that I danced with Allison Holker:

And here is the Tabitha & Napoleon Hip Hop piece that I danced with Twitch! :

Enjoy!

All of my good friends know that I have a great LOVE for chocolate, specifically Godiva chocolate! While in college, I started what became a weekly ritual called “Godiva Friday”. During my sophomore year, I often found myself overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to accomplish each week. Balancing rehearsals, auditions and homework along with daily academic and technique classes became very challenging. I have a great ability to multi-task, however, I often found that at the end of the week, I wasn’t taking enough time for myself to ‘be’ and ‘enjoy’ being me.

As a student in the Ailey School/Fordham University, BFA program, I bounced back and forth between the two campuses numerous times throughout the day. The Ailey building was where all of the dance classes and rehearsals were held, while the academic classes were held five blocks up the street at Fordham University. Between the two schools are the Shops at Columbus Circle, where I often went to window-shop in between classes. Conveniently, a Godiva chocolate boutique is located within the shopping center. Somehow, I found myself in the chocolate lovers paradise every Friday, at about the same time each week.

Just prior to my final class or rehearsal of the week, I would stop by the store and purchase a few of my favorite truffles, to enjoy on the subway ride home. My classmates quickly began to notice my habit and eventually the term “Godiva Friday” was coined. I used “Godiva Friday” as a little weekly incentive. With the chocolate, I would celebrate getting through the week. It was the one thing that I did for myself, no matter what, every Friday, just to take some time to sit back and reflect on the fact that I have survived another week, was accomplishing my dream of living in New York City and working hard at becoming a strong professional. Despite everything that happened that past week, including something someone may have said that wasn’t very nice, an audition that I didn’t do well at or received a less than favorable grade on a paper, I continued to take the time to distress and come back to reality that everything is going to be ok and that I survived the week. I used this time to reflect on the week’s challenges and accomplishments and recharge for the week to come.

Years later, even-though I’m on tour, I continue to partake in “Godiva Friday” every week. Monday is our day off at Wicked and our Friday is the equivalent to a ‘normal’ person’s (one who has weekends off) Wednesday “Hump-day”. While on tour with Wicked, we perform eight shows a week and Friday is our midweek hump. Come Friday night we will have completed half of our week’s performances. Never the less, some way, some how, I find some Godiva chocolate and I take that time to prepare and motivate myself for the remainder of the weeks performances.

It’s amazing what a simple piece of succulent chocolate can do for our spirits! When was the last time you had a little Godiva in your life? Go get some and celebrate whom you are and all you’ve done this week! You deserve it!

Happy “Godiva Friday”!

a pic from a piece that i rehearsed at DNA before it went onstage

Dancers, lovers of dance and the Arts in general! The downtown New York based dance Studio Dance New Amsterdam is in threat of being possibly evicted. This would affect a lot of the dance world because DNA is such a huge supporter of dancers, choreographers and companies by providing wonderful classes, rehearsal space, residencies and performance oppertunities. Personally i always enjoy working at the DNA studios because there is such a wonderful air about the space and the studios are all beautiful. Please take the time to help out by signing this online petition to keep DNA alive and kicking. click on link.

hope all  is well.

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During Sunday’s matinee performance, I celebrated my 200^th performance in the 1^st National Touring Company of Wicked!

My 200th Anniversary Cake! (Red Velvet...my favorite!)

“What if you gave someone a gift, and they neglected to thank you for it - would you be likely to give them another? Life is the same way. In order to attract more of the blessings that life has to offer, you must truly appreciate what you already have.”

-Ralph Marston

People often wonder why I keep count of how many performances of Wicked I’ve completed. The reason why I count is because performing in Wicked was a dream of mine that I never in a million years actually knew if it was going to come true or what that experience would be like. When I was in college, auditioning for Wicked so many times a year, I constantly prayed that I would have the opportunity to even just perform in the show once and even that would be enough memories to last me a lifetime. So when I go into work, some times having to deal with various challenges and obstacles, I continue to count my blessings and each performance that I’ve been given to perform in the show of my dreams. Doing this helps keep me grounded and thankful for each day, each performance, each person I experience in the land of Oz. I realize that the universe didn’t have to give me this opportunity at all… but it has.  I’ve been very blessed to have been able to perform the show many times and have a wide range of memories and challenges that I’ve been able to experience. I am, and shall continue to be, forever greatful for this opportunity to be able to share my passion and this amazing story of Oz with audiences across the country.

So, in true Broadway fashion, I celebrated with a cake! I treated myself to a yummy cake and lit candles after the performance to sit back and bask in having completed 200 performances!

McQueen as the Ribbon Dancer in the Emerald City

Camille Workman in Jeremy McQueen's "Concerto Nuovo"

My choreographic work “Concerto Nuovo”, which premiered  in May 2009, will be featured in the annual Dance Gallery Festival in New York City (Presented by Von Ussar danceworks). This year’s performances will take place on October 15th and 16th, 2010 at the Ailey Citigroup Theater in midtown New York City. Inspired by George Balanchine’s “Concerto Barocco” (1941),”Concerto Nuovo” is danced by nine accomplished female performers to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, B.W.V 1043. The nine minuet piece was orginally commissioned by the world-renowned, LaMama Experimental Theater Club for the 2009 LaMama Moves Festival.

To view a sample of the ballet, click on the YouTube link below!

Concerto Nuovo

For more information about the festival, log onto www.dancegalleryfestival.com