Arts & Entertainment
Dichotomy from page 31
From cha cha and samba to rumba and paso doble, Soviet
emigre (by way of Australia) Sasha Farber heats up the floor.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
F
ans of the Australian version of
Dancing With the Stars recognize
Sasha Farber as the pro who
choreographed, partnered with and later
dated pop star Nikki Webster.
That was in 2005, when Farber was on
break in the middle of a near-decade of
touring in Burn the Floor, the ballroom
dance spectacular that has moved across
stages in more than 30 countries.
Farber, 27, who has appeared with the
fast-stepping production on Broadway
and along London's West End, will
be among the troupe scheduled Feb.
22-March 6 at the Fisher Theatre.
"I like the diversity of the dances in
Burn the Floor all the different styles I
get to do and learn:' says Farber, now dat-
ing Sharna Burgess, who danced in the
production until very recently, when she
decided to move in new directions.
"I pretty much perform in all the Latin
American dances — the cha cha, samba,
rumba and paso doble. I'm known for
my quick feet, which also gets me into
the jive.
"There are a few numbers in which I'm
trying to get the girls. There's one where I
dance with four or five girls. It's a story of
my going out on the town, where I bump
into all of them, and we dance to the song
`Fishiest "
—
Sasha Farber in Burn the Floor
Farber, whose family moved to
Australia from Russia when he was 7,
decided to become a professional dancer
while attending a cousin's wedding,
where he watched a couple performing
different ballroom styles.
"Leading up to my bar mitzvah, I start-
ed taking ballroom dance classes:' recalls
Farber, who attended Moriah College,
an independent Modern Orthodox co-
educational Jewish day school in Queens
Park, Australia, a suburb of Sydney.
"I started competing and won the
Australian Youth Latin Championships
twice and represented Australia at the
World Latin Championships. I was fea-
tured in the closing ceremony at the 2000
Sydney Olympics."
Farber is among 20 championship
dancers in Burn the Floor, which also
features So You Think You Can Dance
alums Anya Garnis, Pasha Kovalev,
Robbie Kmetoni, Janette Manrara and
Karen Hauer. Vonzell Solomon, one of two
vocalists, was the second runner-up in
the fourth season of American Idol. There
also are two onstage percussionists.
The idea for Burn the Floor was con-
ceived in 1997 at Elton John's 50th birth-
day party. After seeing a group of dancers
in a 10-minute program, producer Harley
Medcalf decided to build the show.
"This is a high-adrenalin production
with a lot of energy, control and tech-
nique throughout two hours, and it's
always evolving;' says Farber, who finds it
hard to unwind once he's off the stage.
"With eight performances a week, the
routine can be hard on the body, but that
lets me eat just about everything. I look
for foods that are healthy, fresh and won't
make me feel sick the next day.
"When we were in Cincinnati, I took
the cast to a Jewish deli. We all had mat-
zah ball soup, and it was a great time." I I
Burn the Floor runs Feb. 22-March
6 at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit.
Performances are 8 p.m. Tuesdays-
Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays-
Sundays and 7:30 p.m. Sundays.
$29-$69. (313) 872-1000;
www.BroadwaylnDetroit.com .
"I think that we'll see a trend that
lies in discovering the greater context
in which Jewish culture flourished and
developed from many centuries in the
Islamic lands."
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Cour tesy of t he L ibrary of the Jewis h Theolog ica l Sem inary
Gotta Dance!
Above: Jami's
Yusuf and
Zulaykha in
Judeo-Persian,
1853
Left: Hebrew
Poetic Hymns
to Accompany
Festival
Prayers,
Kurdistan,
1810
"Jews, Judaism and the Arts: Past
and Present" runs 2-5 p.m. Sunday,
March 6, at the Detroit Institute of
Arts. The only charge is the admis-
sion fee for the museum: $8 adults,
$6 seniors, $4 youths 6-17, free for
members and children 5 and young-
er. For reservations, call (248) 258-
0055 or e-mail beroth@jtsa.edu .
4,ews
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
The Oscars, Part I
The Academy Awards will be pre-
sented in a ceremony airing 8 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 27, on ABC.
There are an especially large num-
ber of Jewish nominees this year. Meet
some of them here, and come back
next week for more Oscar coverage.
Karen Goodman, 60, and her
husband, Kirk Simon, also 60, are
nominated for best documentary
short subject for Strangers No More.
The film is about a school in Tel Aviv
that has students from 48 countries;
many of them are refugees from war.
Randy Newman, 67, has been
nominated 20 times for best song
32
February 17 a 2011
or best score, winning once. This
year he is up for best song for We
Belong Together," from Toy Story 3.
He competes with Alan Menken, 61,
nominated 19 times for an Oscar and
winning six times. This year, Menken
is nominated for "If I See the Light,"
from Tangled.
Nominated for best adapted screen-
play are Aaron Sorkin, 49, for The
Social Network; Lee Unkrich, 43, co-
writer for Toy Story
3; Joel Coen, 56, and
Ethan Coen, 53, for
True Grit; and Debra
Granik, 48, co-writer
for Winter's Bone.
Unkrich, the Coen
brothers and Granik
Lee Unkrich
also directed their
respective films.
Up for best origi-
nal screenplay hon-
ors are Mike Leigh,
67, for Another Year;
Stuart Blumberg,
41, and Lisa
Cholodenko, 46, for
Debra Granik
The Kids are Alright;
David Seidler, 73, for
The King's Speech; and Scott Silver,
46, co-writer for The Fighter and a
Boston-area native who began his
film career making a documentary
that included street hustlers.
Leigh and Cholodenko also directed
their respective films.
The best picture Oscar goes to the
film's principal producers. Ten films
are nominated for best picture.
Here are the producers I've been
able to confirm
as Jewish: Mike
Medavoy, 70, for
Black Swan; Todd
Lieberman, 38, for
The Fighter; Jeffrey
Hinte-Levy, 43, for
The Kids are Alright;
and Emile Sherman,
Emile
38, for The King's
Sherman
Speech. Sherman is
an Australian Jew.
Also nominated
are Scott Rudin, 52,
and Joel and Ethan
Coen, for True Grit;
and Scott Rudin,
once again, for The
Scott Rudin
Social Network.