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Interesting Story about Billboards Ballet I'm currently a Ballet Trainee at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, and as some of you may know the Joffrey did Billboards back in 1993. Well on Wednesdays we have Ballet Rep class, which is when they teach us choreography from original works that Joffrey performed.
Today we learned Baby I'm A Star from the Billboards ballet and it was so awesome to learn. What made the experience even more amazing, was the story my teacher told us about how she actually met Prince the night of the premiere.
Since the ballet's premiere was in Minneapolis, after they were done performing the company took a bus to Paisley Park. When they arrived, they were escorted to a room with a DJ and a dance floor, and a balcony that wrapped around the whole room. She said Prince didn't come see them until about an hour after they arrived. He appeared on the balcony all Prince suited up with a lollipop in his mouth and just watched them all party. He eventually came down and danced with them. She said he was very very small, that everything about him is very petite, except for his hair. When she described his hair it was obvious he was sportin' the Typhoon at the time. It was very cool, she said he didn't talk much but was very intrested in one of the girls in the company, and danced with her quite a bit. He even got a number and called her the next day, but she had a boyfriend and turned him down.
The stories I get from teachers who once worked with Prince or met him are very cool. I once met a teacher at a dance workshop who was in the Betcha By Golly Wow video. Also we just worked with a choreographer from California, whose husband supplied and set up sound equipment and gear for one of his concerts years ago. She met him and was able to get one of the Moon earings he always wears. The details to this story are kinda sketchy but she has pictures with the earing on, so good for her
[Edited 4/11/13 14:41pm]  | |
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Cool story! The Billboards production is one of the few Prince things I never got around to seeing. Didn't they release it on VHS at some point? "That's when stars collide. When there's space for what u want, and ur heart is open wide." | |
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Yes they did, my mom actually got it off ebay a couple months ago and we watched it. It's pretty interesting, very trippy and not what you would expect. | |
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Yes, but I think only in PAL format. I bought mine off of Ebay and the person who sold it to me was nice enough to put it on DVD. I saw it live in Dallas and really enjoyed it but 15 years later when I saw the video I had purchased it just wasn't the same. | |
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I'll have to look around for it. I wish they would've recorded that NPG Ballet thing from 1997-ish that Mayte was involved in. I remember thinking the set list was kind of interesting when I read about it. One of the songs was, "One Of Your Tears," IIRC. "That's when stars collide. When there's space for what u want, and ur heart is open wide." | |
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I didn't want to post in the thread, because it looked like I was following you around!
[Do not link to boot snip -L- "Love Hurts. Your lies, they cut me. Now your words don't mean a thing. I don't give a damn if you ever loved me..." -Cher, "Woman's World" | |
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- luv4u]"Since the ballet's premiere was in Minneapolis"
no it wasnt, it was in iowa city, iowa of all places..............
january 27th, 1993, i was there. Prince wasnt.
from the la times article:
Prince was supposed to attend the Jan. 28 premiere. He reserved five seats and a limousine to bring his party from Cedar Rapids airport to Hancher Auditorium. "Where's Prince?" a woman asked. "He's in Paisley," a Joffrey board member said. "Something happened to his flight." He was actually not in Minnesota at his hit factory, Paisley Park, but in Los Angeles, and the Joffrey heard he wasn't coming when the limo company phoned that he'd canceled the car. But Prince sent flowers, lots of flowers. Huge displays, tied with pink-and-gold paisley ribbons, to Arpino, who conceived of "Billboards," to its four choreographers and, to every one of its 37 dancers, a single rose. [Edited 4/11/13 17:26pm] [Edited 4/11/13 17:34pm] | |
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It's very weird because I read this story as well in my Days Of Wild book, and she did say she got a rose. Regardless if it was on the night of the premiere or not, it's a very cool story | |
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TheKid94 said: friend2001 said: "Since the ballet's premiere was in Minneapolis" no it wasnt, it was in iowa city, iowa of all places.............. january 27th, 1993, i was there. Prince wasnt. from the la times article: Prince was supposed to attend the Jan. 28 premiere. He reserved five seats and a limousine to bring his party from Cedar Rapids airport to Hancher Auditorium. "Where's Prince?" a woman asked. "He's in Paisley," a Joffrey board member said. "Something happened to his flight." He was actually not in Minnesota at his hit factory, Paisley Park, but in Los Angeles, and the Joffrey heard he wasn't coming when the limo company phoned that he'd canceled the car. But Prince sent flowers, lots of flowers. Huge displays, tied with pink-and-gold paisley ribbons, to Arpino, who conceived of "Billboards," to its four choreographers and, to every one of its 37 dancers, a single rose. [Edited 4/11/13 17:26pm] [Edited 4/11/13 17:34pm] It's very weird because I read this story as well in my Days Of Wild book, and she did say she got a rose. Regardless if it was on the night of the premiere or not, it's a very cool story  I was at that party too. Like it was mentioned, Minneapolis wasn't the premiere of the show, though. Those were the days![Edited 4/11/13 19:02pm] TRUE BLUE |
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Not a huge fan of Thunder, but the version on Billboards is gorgeous. Isn't it about time for a Billboards II? "So fierce U look 2night, the brightest star pales 2 Ur sex..." | |
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Oops!! Sorry! "Love Hurts. Your lies, they cut me. Now your words don't mean a thing. I don't give a damn if you ever loved me..." -Cher, "Woman's World" | |
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I went to see that Ballet TWICE I'm the mistake you wanna make | |
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the whole thing was broadcast on danish TV2 back then in the early 90's..
(surely on other tv stations too?).. Prince 4Ever.  | |
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