Word: acrobatic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...calculated peek at American innocence. The proscenium stage is fronted with red drapery suitable for a Louisiana bordello; the title promises and delivers burlesque. But burlesque in the older sense of parody, travesty, impudent fun. There is humid sexuality at the start of the two-hour extravaganza (topless acrobat on a phallic pole, Madonna easing a whip past her crotch, dancers gyrating in auto-massage), but it soon gives way to simpler, sunnier images. For Rain, Madonna dons demure black; the look says, ''Listen to the sad ballad, the sweet harmonies.'' For Express Yourself, she's dolled up in royal...
...trash-choked alleys shaking with the distant drumming and singing of nine women rehearsing for an upcoming show. Dressed in brightly colored saris, they sit cross-legged in a small room thumping on giant hand drums while their lilting voices croon Rajasthani folk songs. Elsewhere, 16-year-old acrobat Maya Pawar practices balancing a bottle on her forehead, while touching her foot to the back of her head. Scars on her stomach mark the time she was run over by a bus as a little girl, while chasing money thrown into the street by an audience member...
...vibrant thanks to lighting techniques, while a more sophisticated sound system belts out "it's a world of hopes; it's a world of tears" in nine languages. The "Asia" component here has been expanded to include Cambodia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and a bigger China, but the Chinese acrobat dolls still spin plates, the Scandinavian dolls are still platinum blond, and the Africa section is still dark and jungly. According to Joe Lanzisero, creative senior vice president of Disney's "Imagineering" division, the ride is as relevant as ever. "This is such a universal theme - seeing the world through...
...encrusted scimitar from a hall in the Topkapi museum. Maximilian Schell leads a troupe of some of the major muggers of international cinema: Mercouri, Akim Tamiroff, Peter Ustinov (who won an Oscar), Titos Vandis and Robert Morley. But the more valuable member is the muscular Gilles Segal, as the acrobat whose job is to be lowered by rope into the hall from a high window, then remove the case, nick the scimitar and replace the case, all without touching the electronically sensitive floor. It's a swell exercise in suspense, and one of Dassin's finest illustrations...
...were a young star today, instead of in the 1960s, she wouldn't have had so much trouble shedding that squeaky-clean, permafresh, NutraSweet public image she got from Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. The paparazzi would have already spotted her at 16 snogging a comely Danish acrobat who appeared with her in a stage production of Aladdin, and that would've been that. Instead, we've had to wait for her to tell us about it herself in a frank and fascinating memoir called Home (Hyperion; 339 pages...