“Inside 'Single Ladies' Choreographer JaQuel Knight's Quest to Copyright His Dances - Billboard” plus 2 more |
- Inside 'Single Ladies' Choreographer JaQuel Knight's Quest to Copyright His Dances - Billboard
- 12 Things That Made Quarantine Better - Rotten Tomatoes
- 10 Times Beyoncé Proved She's A Boss | TheThings - TheThings
| Posted: 04 Nov 2020 12:00 AM PST Today, choreography still feels a bit like the Wild West of copyright. Of the more than 500,000 applications the office receives for millions of works registered each year, says Kasunic, the number for choreographic works is typically less than 20; the office's electronic system doesn't even have a separate label for them, still lumping them in with dramatic works. Several things could account for that. The world of professional dance is a small one built largely on reputation — so, historically, choreographers haven't been tempted to outright copy each other's work, resulting in few occasions (until recently, at least) when the idea of infringement litigation even seemed necessary. Providing the requisite material for an ironclad copyright application can also be costly (one Labanotation score can run just under $5,000). Still, plenty of choreographers have no idea that they can register their work in the first place. "It's like the choreography world is just warming up to this stuff," says Hecht. "As crazy as it sounds, the [1976] Copyright Act laid out this protection, but it's like no one looked at it." Knight was aware of copyright for choreography — he saw it mentioned with the credits in ballet programs and Broadway playbills. But within the commercial sphere, he says, "You only know what you see. And if it hasn't been done, how can you dream of it?" One of the people most stunned by Knight and his team's success registering "Single Ladies" was, in fact, his mentor and co-creator, Frank Gatson Jr., an industry veteran who danced in Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" video. "I was like, 'Really? They did it?' " recalls Gatson, 62. "What JaQuel and I do, it's commercial art. That's why intellectual property is a big deal." For Knight, getting the "Single Ladies" job meant first failing to get another. Gatson was auditioning dancers for Michelle Williams (of Destiny's Child), and Knight — who, in person, has the assured bearing of a performer but a compact build — was considered too short. Still, his freestyle at the audition impressed Gatson. "To this day, he says he came to make sure I noticed him, not to get the job," recalls Gatson. "Today's choreography, it all seems like, 'Do a booty dance, act nasty, walk.' But this young man had something very fresh and new." He later hired Knight to choreograph a different Williams project and saw that he could organize a room full of "professional dancers, who are sometimes prima donnas" and clean up their movement without sacrificing its funk and soul. At that point in time, Gatson also worked closely with Beyoncé on both creative direction and choreography, and once the two began conceiving "Single Ladies," he asked Knight to fly to New York to join the team. Gatson had a choreographic reference in mind, which he had discussed with Beyoncé before Knight got involved: a Fosse routine called "Mexican Breakfast" that featured three women dancing in a line on a bare stage. He also wanted to incorporate J-setting, a movement style Knight knew in which dancers perform in a lead-follow format, similar to marching band majorettes. Beyond those initial points of inspiration, Knight had free rein to workshop any ideas he had, in the studio with Beyoncé. He'd teach her a bit each day, then sit down and talk about how they wanted the dance to make women feel. " 'Single Ladies' for me is like a walk-through of my childhood," says Knight. "Moments where I remind myself of my grandmothers, of talent shows with my cousins, marching band, everything I've done wrapped into one." |
| 12 Things That Made Quarantine Better - Rotten Tomatoes Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:00 AM PDT What a year 2020 has been! After the severity of the COVID-19 coronavirus became evident, countries around the world effectively went into lockdown — some more strictly than others — and most of us quickly had to adjust to the so-called "new normal." As we sat at home, trying to self-soothe by any means available, a handful of heroes — and in some cases, anti-heroes — emerged, helping us to take our minds off of things, bringing us some much-needed positive vibes, and giving us a taste of the entertainment we were asked to live without. Of course, we aren't out of the woods just yet, but after more than half a year spent under stay-at-home orders, here are the 12 (online) conversation-starters, powerful performances, and iconic pop culture moments that ruled Quarantine.  (Photo by Netflix) If there was any doubt that the idea of "water cooler conversation" would still exist in an era of widespread lockdowns, Tiger King removed it almost immediately. Premiering on Netflix on March 20, just as swaths of the U.S. received stay-at-home orders, the docuseries about a larger-than-life animal caretaker and his personal holy war against an industry competitor became the first must-see binge of the quarantine. At the center of it all was Joe Exotic, the proprietor of the G.W. Zoo in Oklahoma, and Carole Baskin, the CEO of Florida's Big Cat Rescue and a self-purported animal rights activist who took issue with Exotic's business practices. But as with any compelling real-life story, Tiger King was full of unbelievable twists and turns, ranging from Exotic's bizarre love life to his run for President of the United States and not one but two murder conspiracies. While much of the country struggled to adapt to "the new normal," Tiger King helped take our minds off the crisis with a bit of deliciously scandalous entertainment.  (Photo by Some Good News) Just as the severity of the pandemic began to dawn on everyone and stay-at-home orders were being issued everywhere, a likable actor-director used his considerable influence to spread some positive vibes. On March 29, when most people were just beginning to settle into their quarantine routines, The Office and Jack Ryan star John Krasinski surprised everyone with the first installment of a newscast/talk show he decided to call Some Good News on YouTube. Running for just eight episodes, SGN featured Krasinski sharing the most uplifting, inspirational, feelgood stories from around the world, talking to celebrities, and usually doing something a little special for lucky fans. This included a Zoom reunion of the Hamilton cast, a virtual prom with performances from Billie Eilish, the Jonas brothers, and Chance the Rapper, and a high school graduation celebration with keynote speakers like Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Jon Stewart. Now, Krasinski did catch some flak for eventually selling the show to CBS, but it took a lot of work to put the show on, and it's understandable that he would want to go back to making kickass movies and TV shows. In the meantime, the eight episodes of SGN that we did get helped us all to remember how much good is still in the world, even if everything is a little off balance right now, and for that much-needed dose of optimism, we salute Mr. Krasinski.  (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images) For a long time, Schitt's Creek was that underground comedy you recommended to everyone as "the best show ever" if you were a fan. Most of the time, the people you recommended it to would come back to you and say, "It totally is!" The series, originally broadcast on Canada's CBC and the cable channel Pop TV, gained even more exposure when its first three seasons were made available to stream on Netflix, and by the time it began airing its sixth and final season earlier this year, it was a bona fide cult sensation. As it happened, the show's series finale premiered smack dab in the middle of quarantine, on April 7, and despite its fervent fanbase, it seemed destined to go down as one of the all-time underappreciated sitcoms. Then came the Emmys in September. As if to say, "Yes, Schitt's Creek fans, you were always right!," the series made history by sweeping all seven of the comedy categories, including the four for acting — Lead Actor for Eugene Levy, Lead Actress for Catherine O'Hara, Supporting Actor for Dan Levy, and Supporting Actress for Annie Murphy. If you've never watched the show, all six seasons are now on Netflix, so get cracking. You've probably got the time.  (Photo by ©ESPN/Netflix) One of the things many of us missed the most, at least in the early days of the lockdown, was live sports. After all of the major leagues shut down operations, folks even resorted to watching reruns of old broadcasts or, after the country had cleared some hurdles, baseball in Japan. In the midst of all this, ESPN saw an opportunity to give fans an addictive dose of sports nostalgia in the form of The Last Dance, an extensive look at the career of Michael Jordan and specifically the 1997-1998 season of the NBA's Chicago Bulls, which would go on to win their second "three-peat" of championships in eight years. Originally planned for release in June, the 10-part docuseries was fast-tracked to premiere almost two months earlier on April 19, and it became an instant hit, thanks to its compelling narrative, never-before-seen footage, and surprisingly candid new interviews with Jordan himself. It brought millions of fans — and meme-makers — together in a shared piece of sports history and gave us a bit of real-life drama and pulse-pounding action to look forward to every week.  (Photo by HBO) Jonathan Majors' breakout role came in 2019's indie darling The Last Black Man in San Francisco, a small, powerful drama that went criminally underseen. Luckily for Majors, he had a few more things on his docket that were set to premiere this year — he just didn't know at the time that they would be released in the middle of a pandemic. The first was Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods, a harrowing adventure-drama in which Majors played the pivotal role of David, the son of Delroy Lindo's central character Paul. Majors held his own against Lindo and a cast of heavyweights that included Clarke Peters and Isiah Whitlock Jr., and the film remains high on the list of Oscar hopefuls. Then, in August, the highly anticipated HBO series Lovecraft Country premiered, placing Majors at the center of an inventive horror series with a sociopolitical edge — or is it the other way around — and earning the up-and-coming actor all kinds of praise from critics. To top off the summer, he also landed himself a gig in the MCU, signing on to play the villain in the next Ant-Man and the Wasp movie. Lin-Manuel Miranda and HamiltonLin-Manuel Miranda's Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning hip-hop musical about the life of one of America's founding fathers has been the must-see Broadway hit for several years now, and scoring a ticket to the show has become something of a status marker. Even if you lived in New York or one of the cities on its tour schedule, there was only a slim chance you'd be able to see the show, either because tickets were scarce or because they were maddeningly expensive. Then Disney decided to share the magic of Hamilton with the world, planning a theatrical release of a filmed version of the musical in 2021. Of course, the pandemic changed all of that, and much to the joy of everyone confined to their sofas, Disney chose to move the release up more than a year and plop Hamilton directly on Disney+ for no extra charge. Finally, those of us who had only heard our more fortunate friends gloat about seeing the production were able to watch Hamilton for ourselves and see if it lived up to the hype. Disney+ saw a massive increase in downloads the weekend it was released, and fans of live theater got a little taste of it at home — a win-win all around.  (Photo by Disney+) Look, Beyoncé is Beyoncé, and it's virtually guaranteed that anything she does is going to be interesting, to say the least. Of course, it helps when the thing she does happens to be incredible, and that's exactly what she gave us in Black Is King. Like 2016's Lemonade, Black Is King is a musical film, a series of stunning visuals and choreography set to the music of an accompanying album — in this case, the album was The Lion King: The Gift, a compilation featuring several artists produced and curated by Beyoncé as a companion to the Disney film. Critics and audiences alike swooned over Black Is King, struck by the imagery and the music, and dubbed it yet another masterpiece from Queen Bey. Not only did she provide a big-budget surrogate concert experience for fans to enjoy in their living rooms, she also managed to convey a vivid message of Black empowerment during a time when the world needed it the most. Zendaya (Photo by HBO) Quarantine provided the perfect time for people to catch up on shows they had heard about from their friends, or had been putting off watching until they "had more time," and with the Fall TV season fast approaching, one of those shows was HBO's Euphoria. The series stars Zendaya as a high school student who struggles with mental illness and drug addiction, and it earned both glowing reviews from critics and widespread audience approval. Zendaya wasn't kicking back during lockdown: In June, she actually shot a film – in compliance with strict COVID-19 safety protocols – for two weeks, written and directed by Euphoria creator Sam Levison and co-starring John David Washington. Malcom & Marie was the first post-pandemic film to complete production and by all accounts it's very good. (At least, good enough to Netflix to fork out $30 million for it.) Then, in September, during a unique presentation of this year's Emmy awards, Zendaya made history when she became the youngest person ever to win the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series, proving that she's versatile enough to deliver powerful performances in stark dramas and have fun in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Drive-In Theaters (Photo by Bloomberg/Getty Images) Put your hand up if you went to the drive-in theater for the first time in, like, forever this year? You weren't alone. From mid-March, America's 305 drive-in theaters saw business tick up in some cases by 90-plus percent as movie lovers sought out big screen thrills while socially distancing in the safety of their cars. The drive-in became such a 2020 phenom that pop-up drive-ins began to emerge, many in stadiums and carparks; several distributors held ritzy movie premieres in drive-ins, too, including for Antebellum. While the '50s faves mainly played golden oldies, some new flicks benefited from their newfound popularity, in particular indie horror breakouts like Relic and The Wretched, which topped the box office a record five weeks in a row off the back of drive-in buzz, a record it shares with Black Panther and Titanic. Sitcom and Movie Reunions (Photo by Community YouTube) If you never heard of Zoom before, say, March of this year, you definitely heard the remote meeting software mentioned everywhere once the stay-at-home orders were in place. And while most of us have our share of embarrassing Zoom stories to share, one of the great things we got out of it was a surge of interest in cast reunions for some of our most beloved movies and TV shows. There were literally dozens of them, whether they came in the form of Josh Gad hosting chats with the casts of Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, and The Lord of the Rings or Instagram meet-ups between the casts of Scandal and Twin Peaks or full-on table reads by the stars of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Orphan Black, and Community. Some shows, like NBC's 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation, even brought their casts back to film brand new quarantine-themed episodes. With so much of Hollywood production stalled at the moment, a lot of entertainment has focused on the hits of the past, and we got to bathe in a whole lot of nostalgia. Streaming Services (Photo by HBO Max) This one is admittedly pretty obvious, but as most of us were stuck at home, we spent a lot more time watching TV than we normally would, and yes, that allowed us to catch up on some of the stuff we'd been putting off watching. Lucky for us, though, all of the existing streaming services and a couple of new ones did their damnedest to keep us entertained with lots of new content. HBO Max officially launched in May, offering a giant library of content from the premium cable network and its parent studio, Warner Bros., plus new titles like the Seth Rogen film An American Pickle, the Ridley Scott sci-fi series Raised By Wolves, and the true-crime docuseries I'll Be Gone in the Dark. Hulu gave us new series like Solar Opposites and High Fidelity, as well as the Certified Fresh, quarantine-appropriate comedy Palm Springs. Disney+ sent Onward to streaming early and took a chance on making Mulan a premium VOD purchase, but it also gave us Beyonce's Black Is King and Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton. Then, of course, there's streaming giant Netflix, which basically piled on series after series, from guilty-pleasure reality shows (Tiger King, Love Is Blind, Selling Sunset, Emily In Paris) to high-concept fantasy shows (Cursed, Warrior Nun, the second season of The Umbrella Academy). And this doesn't even include all the stuff we got from Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and Peacock, among others. Suffice it to say, if you were bored with TV these past six months, you just weren't looking very hard for the good stuff.  (Photo by AMC Networks) While we're spreading the love around the various streamers, we did want to give a shoutout to one in particular which seemed to really come into its own over the year: the horror- and genre-focused Shudder, which is owned by AMC Networks. Launched in 2015, the service has been rolling out a steady supply of Shudder Originals for years, but delivered some of its best and scariest yet during the pandemic, which was good news for horror fans who'd been through their Netflix/Hulu/Prime/Max supplies and were looking for new places to get their fill of guts and ghouls. This year, Shudder gave us Mexican socio-political thriller La Llorona, indigenous-focused zombie flick Blood Quantum, creepy anthology The Mortuary Collection, and Host, shot during the pandemic and focusing on a group of friends holding a seance over Zoom. The latter is the best-reviewed horror movie of 2020. The service also began expanding its library, where you'll find the likes of the original Halloween, Re-Animator, and The Changeling, and entered the southern hemisphere, launching in Australia and New Zealand in August. |
| 10 Times Beyoncé Proved She's A Boss | TheThings - TheThings Posted: 05 Nov 2020 09:30 AM PST Visionary. Dedicated. Fearless. Risk-taking. Natural born leader. These are the qualities of a true boss. These are also some common adjectives that fans tend to associate with Beyoncé, in all of her queenly glory.
We all love to call and appoint Beyoncé as the queen of the entertainment industry because, let's face it, she is - otherwise, why else would she have a Bey Hive to rule over for so long - but above all else, Bey might be even bigger and more powerful than just a queen. She is a boss, and she has used every inch of her Ivy Park approved heels to assert her footprint into the industry as such, in multiple ways over the years. advertising 10 Recording/Filming A Secret Album Any musician will attest to how difficult it is to record a song, record an album, or even film a music video. It is a long, strenuous process that is hard to hide. Unless you're Beyoncé, who somehow managed to hide an entire album and music video from the public. Which, sure, hiding an album is a little bit easier since recording sessions are kept between a tight-knit group of musicians, producers, and a few managers and agents here and there. Only Bey could spend a whole year filming out in public on her self-titled album - and a couple of other projects that followed - and not a soul knew about it. 9 Shutting The World Down With Her Album Speaking of that self-titled project, this was the album that started a whole wave of artists dropping "secret albums" without notice and without any prior promotion to speak of. The day was December 13th, 2013 at midnight and the moment fans noticed it on all music platforms, the world went bananas. She became the leading trending topic for that day.
Let's face it, a lot of people can drop a secret album - even today - and it would stay a secret because no one's trying to hear it. When Queen Bey dropped a secret album, the whole world stopped just for her. advertising 8 The Super Bowl Halftime Show Speaking of shutting the world down, let's talk about that iconic Super Bowl Halftime Show. She had some impressive supporting players by her side in the form of Coldplay and Bruno Mars, but staying true to her queen nickname, she commanded the room - well, open door area - with her presence. Most importantly, she instantly became the talk of the town not only with her performance but with an apparent homage to the Black Lives Matter movement. This divided viewers, but once again, she became the biggest trending topic on the planet. 7 When Her Hair Got Caught In A Fan No one can ever deny how much hard work, dedication, and most importantly determination that the "Halo" singer puts into every single one of her performances whenever she finds herself on a stage. A prime example came a few years ago when her hair got caught in a stage fan while she was singing. Despite the dangerous predicament, she didn't panic. Instead, she simply ignored it. She never skipped a beat or missed a tune, and right up until a crew member pried her free with a pair of scissors, her high notes were flawless. advertising 6 "I Gotta Go Home" Beyoncé gave a surprising, in-depth glimpse into her life behind the scenes with the Netflix documentary, Homecoming, that allowed us a peek behind the curtain into her backstage conversations, dance rehearsals, and in general, her personal life while also serving as a concert film. One moment which went viral from the show saw Bey command the room by putting a halt to a long day's of work by saying, "I gotta go home to my fifty-eleven children" (she joked, referencing her songs "Black Parade" and "Yoncé"). 5 The Ivy Park Experiment Most of us will agree that 2020 has been something of a dumpster fire year, but originally, Beyoncé kicked off the year in style by launching her Adidas x Ivy Park clothing line. But she went about promoting it in a unique way. She gave a free set of Ivy Park trademarked clothes to a lucky list of celebrities, who then showed off their new swag on social media. Enough celebs did this that we were all ready to buy our own Ivy Park sets. And that, ladies and gentlemen (and non-binaries), is what we call "good marketing." advertising 4 Politely Turning Down Chris Martin Chris Martin is the lead singer and co-founder of the band Coldplay. Long before he performed with the Queen at the Super Bowl Halftime Show that we mentioned earlier, he offered Bey to perform a song he wrote, but as he explained to Rolling Stone (h/t Vanity Fair), she turned down his song "in the sweetest possible way. She told me, 'I really like you - but this is awful.'" A boss's job is often to turn down the projects that don't work on paper, but to do so with a smile and in a kind way ... that takes a special set of skills that not even Liam Neeson has. 3 Petty Feud With Target Even bosses are prone to getting a little petty here and again. Beyoncé's pettiness stems from a feud with Target that lasted for several years. It all started because when that aforementioned self-titled album of hers first dropped, Target refused to stock it because of its sudden release at midnight. Target eventually issued an apology, but it was too late. Bey openly supported Walmart out of vain, both on a business level and personal level, once going toy shopping there with Blue Ivy. From a boss's perspective, this was a big power move. Bey and Target eventually squashed the beef and now, once again, Beyoncé embraces the establishment as her favorite go-to retailer. advertising 2 Investing In Uber Before Anyone Else Did you know that Uber was in existence as far back as 2009? Yeah, not a lot of people do. What is known now as one of the most used vehicle cab apps on the planet was barely a blip on anyone's radar a decade ago. But the Lemonade musician was wise enough to take a risk on investing in the brand back when it merely had potential.
Back in 2013, Beyoncé performed for Uber and, originally, according to Inside Edition, was supposed to be paid in $6 million. Instead, she decided that she wanted to be paid in stocks. She received a small percentage of Uber stocks and today, those same stocks are worth $300 million. 1 Starring In The Lion King This may not sound like as big a deal on the surface, but trust us, it is a whole lot bigger than you may think. When Beyoncé was cast in The Lion King as Simba's love interest, Nala, she instantly became the film's star despite the part itself is a supporting role. As such, this offered plenty of spinoff material. Namely, a soundtrack that basically serves as a new solo Beyoncé album and was even treated as such, earning the songstress a Golden Globe nod for Best Original Song and three additional Grammy nominations for the soundtrack. And don't get us started on how much she made from the movie.
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