HIGHLIGHTS: Broadway Bares 25

Sunday night the 25th anniversary edition of Broadway Bares played to two sellout audiences at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom. This year's show was titled Top Bottoms Of Burlesque and as you'll see, it was spectacular from the moment the curtain arose to reveal the bouncing bottoms of buff chorus boys. All 25 years of Broadway Bares are available on DVD and they are taking pre-orders for this year's show.

Postmodern Jukebox - Bad Romance

With an adorable tap-dancer. And whistling!

Ballet House: Hercules & Love Affair's New Clip For Do You Feel The Same?

Back April, Hercules & Love Affair teamed up with gay singer/songwriter John Grant, whose 2013 hit Pale Green Ghosts topped my year-end list of favorites, for a song about coming out as HIV-positive. That video featured smoking hot dancers, as does this one. Via press release:

The inspiration for the video came from Hercules & Love Affair’s founder Andy Butler commenting on the close ties between ballet and dance music. “At the meeting with Defected, the eyes lit up, and I got to write an email to Josh Johnson, my friend at the Forsythe Company inviting him to get involved. “I have been a fan of the Forsyth ballet for many years, and was waiting for the moment to collaborate. We then dreamed up the idea of getting in touch with Bernhard Willhelm, a mutual friend and the whole thing was a go.” Bernhard Willhelm is a world renowned fashion designer, known for his love of incorporating absurdity into high end design, who lives and works between Vienna and LA. Starring (amongst others) Josh Johnson – a contemporary dancer and choreographer (for SAD) with the Forsythe Company (formerly the Frankfurt Ballet).

You may also know Hercules & Love Affair from their huge 2008 smash Blind. Great track, lovely vocals, gorgeous dancing.

Alvin Ailey And Stephen Sondheim To Be Among 2014 Medal Of Freedom Honorees

Late dance legend Alvin Ailey and Broadway superstar Stephen Sondheim will be among this year's Presidential Medal Of Freedom honorees.

Among the honorees representing the arts world are Stevie Wonder, Stephen Sondheim, Meryl Streep, actress Marlo Thomas, Tom Brokaw, writer and activist Suzan Harjo, and author Isabel Allende. Streep and Sondheim are particularly timely honorees, considering the film adaptation of Sondheim’s Into the Woods stars Streep and arrives in theaters on Dec. 25. The other honorees include professional golfer Charles Sifford, who helped to desegregate the Professional Golfers’ Association, economist Robert Solow, scientist Mildred Dresselhaus, and Ethel Kennedy. Several political representatives will also be honored: John Dingell, Abner Mikva, and Patsy Takemoto Mink. There will also be five posthumous medals awarded to activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey, and Edward R. Roybal.

Ailey died of AIDS in 1989. Cheney, Goodman, and Schwerner were the three civil rights activists murdered in 1964 by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. The Presidential Medal Of Freedom is the highest honor granted to any American civilian. (Tipped by JMG reader Peter)

RELATED: Among the 2013 Medal Of Freedom posthumous honorees were astronaut Sally Ride and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Both of their medals were presented by President Obama to their surviving partners as an off-screen announcer recounted their contributions to LGBT history.

Kemar Jewel - Voguing Train

I can't get over how clean Philly's subway is.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ed)

How To Promote Modern Dance

Broadway Bares: June 23rd In NYC

The 23rd annual installment of Broadway Bares takes place at Times Square's Roseland Ballroom on June 23rd.  

From sea to shining sea, this year's Broadway Bares will crisscross the country in a racy, raucous road trip, exploring the United States as the 23rd annual edition of the immensely popular modern-day burlesque show delivers Broadway Bares 23: United Strips of America. More than 200 of New York's sexiest and most desirable dancers will discover – and uncover – amber waves and mountain majesties that only Broadway Bares could find. This trip across the fruited plains of America will most certainly be the stuff patriot dreams are made of.

The show benefits Broadway Cares/Equality Fights AIDS and has raised almost $10M to date.  Get tickets here. I recommend the naughtier midnight performance.

Hollywood Dance Tribute

Mildly diverting and (mostly) on the beat.

(Via Towleroad)

The Biology Of Twerking

ASAP Science examines how dancing ability improves your chances of getting some.

Miracle On 42nd Street

(Tipped by...everybody)

A Dance Version Of "It Gets Better"

Michele Bachmann - It Gets Better

I don't...wait...what?

Chaz Bono Cast For DWTS

The world's most famous transman, Chaz Bono, has been cast for the coming season of Dancing With The Stars. Also cast is Queer Eye fashion maven Carson Kressley.

ABC has unveiled the official cast line-up of "Dancing with the Stars" season 13, confirming the participation of some stars who had been mentioned in buzzing reports. They include Cher's son Chaz Bono, "Scream 4" actor David Arquette, former "The Hills" star Kristin Cavallari, George Clooney's ex Elisabetta Canalis and Kim Kardashian's younger brother Rob Kardashian. From the sport world, there are Los Angeles Lakers' forward Ron Artest and female goal keeper Hope Solo. Rounding up the batch of twelve, which was announced during the Monday (August 29) episode of "Bachelor Pad", are HLN host Nancy Grace, "Hairspray" actress Ricki Lake, "All My Children" actor J.R. Martinez, the Wilson Phillips crooner Chynna Phillips, and fashion expert Carson Kressley.

Do The Bubble

(Tipped by JMG reader Ryan)

Broadway Bares XXI

Last night Father Tony and I attended the 21st annual edition of Broadway Bares, the bawdy and deliciously raunchy fundraiser by Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS in which dozens of buff chorus boys and girls writhe and expose it all to the delight of several thousand gay men. See Tony's possibly NSFW slideshow here. Among last night performers were Tony winner and the evening's emcee, Beth Leavel, as well as David Hyde Pierce and Judith Light. It really is one of the most spectacular events on Broadway.

Bill T. Jones For New York Marriage

Lil Buck & Yo-Yo Ma

Hypebeast says:

Often, the most inspiring and beautiful creations come about as the result of a juxtaposition between the classical and the modern, the old and the new. Such is the case in this video, which was filmed by director Spike Jonze, that captures Los Angeles street dancer Lil Buck as he performs an amazing interpretation of “The Dying Swan” from Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with a live musical accompaniment by the award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Pet Shop Boys Score New Ballet

Six-time Grammy winning Pet Shop Boys have scored a film, written a musical, and sold over 100 million records. Now they've written the music to a new ballet.

The 12 Gays Of Christmas

Third year posting this and still totally worth a rerun. The sound has been improved a bit to drown out the screaming audience.

Movin' Like Bernie

Just in time for Halloween is the new dance craze, the Bernie, in which one flops around like the corpse in Weekend At Bernie's. I know people who already dance like this!