www.ExpressGayNews.com • June 17, 2002 Q1 CYMK CoverCover StoryStory Even though her astonishing voice makes it seem predestined, stardom has been a long time coming for Anastacia. The Chicago-born diva went through many start-and-stop career moments before her chops were recognized. She traipsed along the edge of the music world as a backup dancer and upscale hair salon receptionist for years with her biggest talent going unrecognized, mostly because nobody could quite figure out what to do with her. She was ready to give up until an appearance on the now-defunct MTV talent show The Cut gave her the chance to shine. Although she didn’t win top prize on the show, the budding vocalist did scoop up a record deal and recognition from the likes of pop superstar Michael Jackson and megaproducer David Foster. Now, she has finally earned her stripes after years of honing her sound and gaining a massive European follow- ing. Her debut album, Not That Kind, (See ANASTACIA on page Q9) Q2 www.ExpressGayNews.com • June 17, 2002 CYMK InIn ReviewReview The first clue that Nixon’s Nixon is not fact that the Kennedys were assassinated or The funniest scenes are when Nixon that they are watching the real thing. His supposed to be historically accurate is that else they would be stuck with the whole goads Kissinger into playacting conversations performance is so dead on that it makes you there are 68 stars on the American flag that Vietnam mess and toy with the idea of starting with Brezhnev and Mao Tse Tung. Watching wonder if Kissinger had given up politics for rises from behind the set. World War III in order to distract people from John Felix, who plays Kissinger, taking on theater—admittedly not a big jump. The play, which is the latest production that little Watergate and impeachment Mao’s persona and language is hysterical. Peter Haig does an equally good job as at the GableStage Theatre, takes place the night headache. Nixon’s Nixon paints a picture of two men Nixon, though he has a much tougher task on before President Richard M. who are just that—men. his hands. Nixon’s own mannerisms have Nixon’s resignation. As The play provides an already become such a staple of American legend has it, the soon-to- opportunity to look parody that Haig must walk a very fine line be-ex-pres met with his beyond the history to see between portrayal and imitation. He rarely secretary of state, Henry that it all boils down to falters, though Nixon does come off as kind of Kissinger, in the Lincoln problems anyone can have, nutty, maybe even nutty enough to add another Room of the White House. trying to hold onto a job 18 states when nobody was looking. No one knows what and trying to leave one Nixon’s Nixon runs through July 7 at the the two men talked about, gracefully. GableStage Theatre, 1200 Anastasia Avenue, but playwright Russell Lees While an author’s at the Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables. For wrote Nixon’s Nixon to give note in the program tells the information and tickets, call 305.445.1119. his version. audience that it’s not And what a version it important that the actors is. Kissinger is portrayed look like Nixon and Former Nixon as a man desperate to keep Kissinger, and that too Council John Dean his job, and Nixon is great a resemblance would Talks about 30th portrayed as a man who’s border on parody, John Anniversary of just plain desperate, and a Felix nails Kissinger. Watergate little nuts too. Make-up helps Felix look Together, they worry like Kissinger, but it’s his See Page 28 of This about how history will mannerisms, posture and Week’s ‘Express’ remember them, lament the Peter Haig, Nixon, and John Felix, Kissinger accent that make one feel www.ExpressGayNews.com • June 17, 2002 Q3 CYMK The Art of the Dance Florida Dance Festival Gives Miami Whirl By Mary Damiano Dance—what magical images the word conjures up. Dance is a rite of passage. A little girl standing on her father’s shoes as he whirls her around a dance floor. The sock hop in the junior high gym with the battle lines drawn, the girls on one side and the boys on the other. The prom. A couple’s first dance after being betrothed. Dance is romantic. It’s two lovers claiming the first song they danced to as their song, as a way to capture and relive that moment. It’s asking a stranger to dance in order to hold that special someone against you, so you can feel their heat and their hearts and discover them within the intimacy of an embrace. Dance is sexy. How does the old joke go? Why don’t Baptists have sex standing up? Because people will think they’re dancing. Mating Dance. Dance with the devil. The horizontal bop. Go-go girls and go-go boys and strippers who bump and gyrate their way into our minds and loins. Dance is ingrained in our celluloid psyches. How many of us fell in love with the dance at the movies, or watching old black and white films on TV? Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers—he was great, but remember: She did everything he did, but backwards and in heels. John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever or Grease or Urban Cowboy, Pulp Fiction, even—every time the man danced onscreen, he started a nationwide trend and kick-started a different genre of music. Has anyone ever been out in the rain and not had a Gene Kelly moment that made us want to splash in puddles and spin around a lamp post? Dance is movement, poetry in motion. It’s ballet dancers who train and train to be able to support their bodies on the edges of their toes. It’s contorting a body into pretzeled positions and leaps that turn a human being into a human projectile. It’s a dedication to art, a devotion to grace, a creation of beauty. Dance is life. Whatever kind of dance you love or crave, you’re sure to find it at the Florida Dance Festival, which runs through June 29 at different venues in Miami. Ballet, modern dance, traditional folk dancing from various countries—all of these facets of dance are represented. So do yourself a favor. Go to a performance. Watch dancers do what they do best. Get swept away. Experience the glory of dance. Seán Curran—From Boston to Broadway “I went into it with Dancer/Choreographer Brings His Troupe to Miami Beach all these high-faluting By Mary Damiano interracial couples, “homo, hetero and about a turn of the 20th century Irish ideas about Broadway Seán Curran describes his dance lesbian,” each with a baby. The piece, which Christmas party. One of the producers told and when it came right company as accessibility with an edge. “I deals with the issue of gay parents, has given Curran that he wanted The Dead to feature down to it, what got want to make poetry,” says the 40-year-old Curran some of his most satisfying moments. historically accurate Irish dance but with dancer/choreographer, “but I also want to A few months ago, while performing in Curran’s eccentric twist. onstage were the dances dazzle and entertain.” Portland, Oregon, Curran invited the Steve “I went into it with all these highfaluting that my aunts taught The Seán Curran Company will perform Lofton/Roger Croteau family, who were ideas about Broadway, and when it came right Friday, June 21, at the Colony Theatre on featured in the Primetime Thursday special down to it, what got onstage were the dances me at Christmas parties Lincoln Road as part of the Florida Dance on gay adoption, to attend a performance of that my aunts taught me at Christmas parties and weddings.” Festival. the piece. He was able to meet the family, and weddings,” he says. —Seán Curran Audiences who catch the performance who later sent Curran a family photo. It is Next year, Curran begins rehearsals with will be treated to the full range of Curran’s posted on his fridge along with other photos the same team who did The Dead, this time a diverse repertoire, from the melancholy of of gay parents and their children, who have musical based on Marcel Proust’s Sonata and From the Ether, With Instinct to written letters to Curran after seeing the piece. Remembrance of Things Past. But right now, the flashiness of Abstract Concrete, Metal “Basically, the letters say thank you for Curran is looking forward to the Florida Garden. Curran likes to keep things fresh; putting us onstage,” he says. Dance Festival and presenting the audience the first two works have never been Curran is also a teacher, traveling to with new dance pieces. “I think I’m in the performed on the road. different universities to give dance classes theater because no two performances or Curran became interested in dance early. in technique and body percussion, and to audiences are ever alike,” he says. “As He grew up in Boston, the son of parents create a dance piece for a large cast in a short frustrating as that can be, it’s also very who were both from Ireland. His parents were amount of time. Curran’s company has also exciting.” determined to instill in him and his sisters a been in residence at NYU for the past three Curran lets his dance pieces evolve to sense of cultural identity, so the Curran summers.