PIANO ROCKS THE HOUSE ON TV AND ‘NET YET AGAIN

Posted on Jul 8, 2011 in News & Events, Piano Blog | 0 comments

We really don’t know what we’re going to do now that “The Voice” has finished for the season until starting back up again with its second season in winter. Piano was front and center yet again during the awesome finale show where the duets between the four finalists and their coaches actually stole the show.

But, wait! Never fear…Just when we thought the 15 minutes of fame for the piano in arts-related reality show-land were coming to end, the piano showed up more creatively than ever on “So You Think You Can Dance” on last week’s show.

Let’s start with last week’s “The Voice” finale. Always one to make a statement, Beverly McClellan chose to feature the piano during her original song performance because as she said, it was the first instrument she learned to play so it has a special place for her.We actually thought the original song written for her, “Love Sick”, was not one of the strongest in the bunch, but she did with it what she could, using the beautiful glossy black Roland baby grand as more of a memorable prop than as a musical instrument. She sat down very briefly and played one little phrase, but with characteristic Beverly aplomb, after standing in front of the piano for quite a while she eventually got up on top of it lying down full length. Her mentor, Christina Aguilera, loved it, especially noting the original twist her use of the piano gave to her performance. You can catch Beverly’s performance here, or on YouTube.

Finalist front-runner Dia Frampton also returned back to the Roland baby grand this week to accompany her original song, “Inventing Shadows”. In a much more fashion-forward full-length red dress, Dia also made due with a song that didn’t seem to showcase her talent to the extent of the other songs she’s chosen for herself. But it was another great advertisement for piano, especially with many multi-angle camera zooms swooping around the Roland name on the piano repeatedly. You can also see Dia’s performance here,  or on YouTube.

Another world away on “So You Think You Can Dance”, the piano surprised us by showing up in yellow upright form as the major centerpiece for a contemporary dance choreographed by Dee Casbary for popular duo, Sa

sha Mallory and Alexander Fost.Dancing with props is always hard, but it was incredible to see how extensively the piano was incorporated into the routine, and not just for a moment or in one-dimensional ways. The dancers danced on the piano bench, on the keys, across the top and – yes

– even climbed inside it! The performance was a little literal in its approach, not leaving much to the audience’s imagination; choreographer, Dee Casbary, explained that the keys of the piano were meant to represent the keys to Alexander’s character’s heart. But it was cool to see what the piano cou

ld do as the “third dancer” in the piece. You can see Sasha and Alexander’s

performance online.  Choose the episode that aired on June 29.