Piggies
This is one of the acts we're performing for the White Album Christmas show, which is so far the most enjoyable and exciting Kazum performance I've had the pleasure of participating in.
This is the first act that Russ has choreographed, and I gotta say that our initial diagnosis of mental & social retardation has been drastically recanted. Dude has got mad skills when it comes to putting together a presentation. Not only is he mountainous in his raw strength and reliability and solidity as a base & spotter... but he dances like a fairy and I mean that in a good way.
Piggies, as any Beatles fan can attest, is a tongue-in-cheek, satirical, yet stately number in which the proud and affluent are mocked by the proud and destitute. Few people can muster as much disgust in others' pride as those who are replete with it themselves. :) When we were first assigned to Piggies, Russ led the complaint-brigade but we all bore arms. Now that he's had his cunning way with it, though... I really like Piggies a lot.
It starts with a grand entrance: the High Bow & Arrow that we plundered shamelessly from Juanita and the Ganjou brothers. I suspect that Uli would be upset at me for posting this (assuming I had more than one reader, at least) but I think that's silly; we took quite a few of our moves from Juanita & her boys (who performed in the 50s, by the way) and it's just plain silly to me to pretend otherwise. Anyway, it really only uses 2 bases and a flyer, though adding a 3rd base provides the illusion of a 4-person stunt. The flyer gets to pose in a really cool & striking pose while the bases walk about with her up there. We use their dismount, as well - a cradle to our left arms, followed by a barrel-roll overhead to a one-arm cradle on the right. We get pretty darn close to their height, too - it's one of our more impressive stunts.
Then we lean Uli out with the guys in a head-on line, and she spins in and I shoot back under Russ' legs just before Uli dives down to follow me in a "into the rabbit hole" kind of move. It took us forever to get that working; I couldn't hit the count just right and Uli was too scared of hitting me to dive on her count. But we've finally got it... if not smoothly, at least presentably. We rabbit-hole again, and then we are supposed to do our next halfway-impressive Juanita trick. We call it the Psycho Banshee move, which isn't particularly descriptive but still oddly apt. She does a flip-dive that ends up becoming a reverse gainer (a front flip that travels backwards). But after a surprisingly non-painful head-thump followed a few days later by a whiplash-style neck injury to Uli, we've replaced the Psycho Banshee with a simple straddle-lift to a high straddle. Ridiculously simple (assuming Uli keeps her hips tight, which she usually does) but remarkably impressive-looking. Many stunts are like that. And then there are ridiculously difficult stunts that are remarkably unimpressive-looking. But I digress.
I cradle the high straddle and Alex & Russ take Uli in a jump-rope hold. Lickety-split she shoots up into a mid-high back-arch (which I totally think we could do extended) where she kicks into a back walkover. I catch that and duck under her into a shoulder sit in a manuver that looks pretty cool but feels dreadfully awkward and clumsy while performing it. Then Uli leans back, usually while insisting that I hold her feet down, which it'd frankly be difficult for me to avoid doing. If we get our timing right she shoots back up as I pop and extend her, throwing her forward into a swan-dive to her stomache in Russ & Alex's arms. It's really fun to throw, and it looks most gorgeous as well.
Then they grab her in a chair-swing type of hold, give 'er one strong forward swing, and then huck her backward toward me as though throwing her into a throne that's 8 feet off the ground. The technical name we invented for this is the High Throne, but we invariably refer to it as the Ass Catch. I suggested Booty Call but Uli shot that down for some strange reason. It's probably the most impressive part of the Piggies routine and we reliably shine at it. But it's secretly dissapointing, because the Ganjou brothers toss Juanita easily 8-10 feet, perhaps 15 feet. It's hard to tell 'cause the camera pans heavily there. We've rarely made it even 5 feet, and Uli's form is nothing like Juanita's... though of course Juanita was pretty much the epitome of a perfect flier as far as physique and form, and the Ganjou brothers were ridiculously talented at what they did as well.
After the Ass Catch I drop down so that Alex can take Uli in an Arabesque (basically a back-arch held by hands in the small of the flyer's back.) It's pretty, but it's beastly difficult to transition correctly for all 3 participants, and we've all contributed difficulties to making it as quick as it needs to be. Then Alex extends the Arabesque up and we are supposed to transition into a High Triangle, which is an L-Base trick that we extended. But it's tough to do and often it collapses, so Russ generally just takes Uli's feet immediately and holds her in a stand.
I bend over toward Alex, who drapes himself over me, buries his nose in my crack, and holds on tightly as I stand back up. This lifts him (nose still firmly encracked) into an upside-down position so that Uli can lean forward into a derivative of another L-Base stunt called the Secretary. I pivot back down in a seesaw motion, turning Alex into a lever to lower Uli to the ground.
Then we're always a little behind so it's spin and crouch across from Russ to double-base Alex, where he leans over and grabs Uli up into a hanging swing while we all lip-synch "Everywhere there's lots of piggies, leading piggy lives. You can see them out to dinner with their piggy wives."
By then we've dismounted and grabbed Uli for my very favorite of all the Ganjou troupe's copied moves: the Juanita Roll. Russ and I lift Uli in a straddle-split, then pop her up & forward so that she rolls forward with her arms reaching down. We grasp her on the way down (missing both of our hands would result in one helluva crash) and swing her around and back up. The fun part is where we release her to fly totally free as we regrip to absorb her rotational momentum, then pop down and way back up & up & up... a cradle of basket-tossesque proportions. Superfun!
Then we reposition to repeat the exact same pose that we started with. Yay, big finish!
The whole routine is stately and serene, with an element of humor that is hopefully being captured. It desperately needs to be fine-tuned and perfected, but frankly we're still just barely even hitting the stunts reliably, so we're about as good as we can be until we've drilled the stuffing out of the number.
This is the first act that Russ has choreographed, and I gotta say that our initial diagnosis of mental & social retardation has been drastically recanted. Dude has got mad skills when it comes to putting together a presentation. Not only is he mountainous in his raw strength and reliability and solidity as a base & spotter... but he dances like a fairy and I mean that in a good way.
Piggies, as any Beatles fan can attest, is a tongue-in-cheek, satirical, yet stately number in which the proud and affluent are mocked by the proud and destitute. Few people can muster as much disgust in others' pride as those who are replete with it themselves. :) When we were first assigned to Piggies, Russ led the complaint-brigade but we all bore arms. Now that he's had his cunning way with it, though... I really like Piggies a lot.
It starts with a grand entrance: the High Bow & Arrow that we plundered shamelessly from Juanita and the Ganjou brothers. I suspect that Uli would be upset at me for posting this (assuming I had more than one reader, at least) but I think that's silly; we took quite a few of our moves from Juanita & her boys (who performed in the 50s, by the way) and it's just plain silly to me to pretend otherwise. Anyway, it really only uses 2 bases and a flyer, though adding a 3rd base provides the illusion of a 4-person stunt. The flyer gets to pose in a really cool & striking pose while the bases walk about with her up there. We use their dismount, as well - a cradle to our left arms, followed by a barrel-roll overhead to a one-arm cradle on the right. We get pretty darn close to their height, too - it's one of our more impressive stunts.
Then we lean Uli out with the guys in a head-on line, and she spins in and I shoot back under Russ' legs just before Uli dives down to follow me in a "into the rabbit hole" kind of move. It took us forever to get that working; I couldn't hit the count just right and Uli was too scared of hitting me to dive on her count. But we've finally got it... if not smoothly, at least presentably. We rabbit-hole again, and then we are supposed to do our next halfway-impressive Juanita trick. We call it the Psycho Banshee move, which isn't particularly descriptive but still oddly apt. She does a flip-dive that ends up becoming a reverse gainer (a front flip that travels backwards). But after a surprisingly non-painful head-thump followed a few days later by a whiplash-style neck injury to Uli, we've replaced the Psycho Banshee with a simple straddle-lift to a high straddle. Ridiculously simple (assuming Uli keeps her hips tight, which she usually does) but remarkably impressive-looking. Many stunts are like that. And then there are ridiculously difficult stunts that are remarkably unimpressive-looking. But I digress.
I cradle the high straddle and Alex & Russ take Uli in a jump-rope hold. Lickety-split she shoots up into a mid-high back-arch (which I totally think we could do extended) where she kicks into a back walkover. I catch that and duck under her into a shoulder sit in a manuver that looks pretty cool but feels dreadfully awkward and clumsy while performing it. Then Uli leans back, usually while insisting that I hold her feet down, which it'd frankly be difficult for me to avoid doing. If we get our timing right she shoots back up as I pop and extend her, throwing her forward into a swan-dive to her stomache in Russ & Alex's arms. It's really fun to throw, and it looks most gorgeous as well.
Then they grab her in a chair-swing type of hold, give 'er one strong forward swing, and then huck her backward toward me as though throwing her into a throne that's 8 feet off the ground. The technical name we invented for this is the High Throne, but we invariably refer to it as the Ass Catch. I suggested Booty Call but Uli shot that down for some strange reason. It's probably the most impressive part of the Piggies routine and we reliably shine at it. But it's secretly dissapointing, because the Ganjou brothers toss Juanita easily 8-10 feet, perhaps 15 feet. It's hard to tell 'cause the camera pans heavily there. We've rarely made it even 5 feet, and Uli's form is nothing like Juanita's... though of course Juanita was pretty much the epitome of a perfect flier as far as physique and form, and the Ganjou brothers were ridiculously talented at what they did as well.
After the Ass Catch I drop down so that Alex can take Uli in an Arabesque (basically a back-arch held by hands in the small of the flyer's back.) It's pretty, but it's beastly difficult to transition correctly for all 3 participants, and we've all contributed difficulties to making it as quick as it needs to be. Then Alex extends the Arabesque up and we are supposed to transition into a High Triangle, which is an L-Base trick that we extended. But it's tough to do and often it collapses, so Russ generally just takes Uli's feet immediately and holds her in a stand.
I bend over toward Alex, who drapes himself over me, buries his nose in my crack, and holds on tightly as I stand back up. This lifts him (nose still firmly encracked) into an upside-down position so that Uli can lean forward into a derivative of another L-Base stunt called the Secretary. I pivot back down in a seesaw motion, turning Alex into a lever to lower Uli to the ground.
Then we're always a little behind so it's spin and crouch across from Russ to double-base Alex, where he leans over and grabs Uli up into a hanging swing while we all lip-synch "Everywhere there's lots of piggies, leading piggy lives. You can see them out to dinner with their piggy wives."
By then we've dismounted and grabbed Uli for my very favorite of all the Ganjou troupe's copied moves: the Juanita Roll. Russ and I lift Uli in a straddle-split, then pop her up & forward so that she rolls forward with her arms reaching down. We grasp her on the way down (missing both of our hands would result in one helluva crash) and swing her around and back up. The fun part is where we release her to fly totally free as we regrip to absorb her rotational momentum, then pop down and way back up & up & up... a cradle of basket-tossesque proportions. Superfun!
Then we reposition to repeat the exact same pose that we started with. Yay, big finish!
The whole routine is stately and serene, with an element of humor that is hopefully being captured. It desperately needs to be fine-tuned and perfected, but frankly we're still just barely even hitting the stunts reliably, so we're about as good as we can be until we've drilled the stuffing out of the number.
posted by Scott | 3:07 PM
2 Comments:
Few people can muster as much disgust in others' pride as those who are replete with it themselves. :)
Well said.
I love this routine and find it pretty easy and actually calming to do before the big Birthday craziness.
Russ is the man. You are as well. So I guess you're both dudes.
P.S.- If you get swampass before the next Piggies, I'll kill you.
I'm totally willing to suffer death in exchange for the privelege of making you not only breathe my buttsweat, but to also hold still and pull off the stunt so that Uli has a nice safe ride down on the human teeter-totter. I might just hold it there for 30 seconds or so before coming down, in fact... you're totally paralyzed in order to keep Uli safe. It's wonderful. I'm gonna eat pinto beans, cabbage and raw hamburger for lunch so that I can hopefully produce flatulence of gas chamber lethality.
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