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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2001)
march 16.2001 • •T'fA blame Billy Elliot. Watching this marvelous film gave me happy feet, an irresistible urge to leap out of my seat and sing, “Gotta dance!” It doesn’t take much, really. The summer I was 14 I saw the movie Fame and the musical A Chorus Line for the first of three times each, and I decided it was my destiny to wear leg warmers and hang out in New York City. In retrospect, I think my dream was less about ambition and more about fashion. Beginning that fall, I took the bus from New Jersey into M anhattan every Saturday to take classes in acting, singing and, yes, dance. Oh, to dance! To leap, to twirl and to get to stare at myself in the mirror for a full hour! As I stood at the barre I was pleased to see I could move my arms with all the grace of the dying swan in Swan Lake; from the waist down, how ever, I was a dead duck. Like Billy Elliot, I kept my dancing life a secret for a year until one day in the 10th grade when Lisa Richie, my biology partner, went rifling through my book bag looking for a pen cil and discovered my ballet slippers. She was enormously popular; one word from her and my precarious hold on high school coolness could be completely undone. I responded in the time-honored tradition of all high school homosexuals: “You wanna copy my homework?” Lisa Richie might have been enormously popular, but she was also enormously dumb, and we came to an immedi ate understanding. My dancing ability reached its zenith during a summer stock production of A Chorus Line when I was 19. My performance got mixed reviews: I thought I was terrific, and everyone else thought 1 stank. I hung up my dancing shoes. Why gay m en don’t dance THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARC by M arc Acito AUDITION CALL because I always look like I’m having a seizure compared to the way most of you guys dance. No, my friends, gay men do not dance; we might kick our legs up in the air, but never on the dance floor. Dancing is leaping and cavorting with Gene / M A R C A c i t o believes he is Ricky Martin in a parallel universe. He can be reached at M arcAcito@home. com. p h is .sp e d a ! g u e sts 3 1 € ( / tO T S O se x te t- March A NEW youth music production company has formed in Portland! Concerts, recording and guest appearances for this select high profile group will be an exciting requirement of the chosen individuals. Girl/Boy Band, R&B, Hip-hop are just a few of the styles of music performed by this high-energy group of young people. The finest of Portland s performing arts community will lend their talents to premier the BEST of our city s Gay, Lesbian, Bi, and Trans youth. Auditioning Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Trans-gendered vocalists, I instrumentalists and/or dancers; 15 — 23 years of age. Rainbow ' Youth Performing Arts Company is open to all youth with an H intentional emphasis on youth of color. Kelly-like abandon. Dancing is pirou- etting like Giselle. Dancing is doing the splits like a Vegas showgirl. You can’t do any of that in a gay club as crowded as a Tokyo subway. I know, I’ve tried. I nearly knocked some poor guy’s tooth out once. But what about those delightful gay couples who country-western and swing dance, you ask? Y’know, I admire these guys enormously, but personally I long for a partner who looks more like Ginger Rogers. Genetical ly, I mean. W hen I dance cheek to cheek with someone, I don’t want to go home with razor bum. Sorry, fellas. But as I sat watching Billy Elliot leap through the streets I knew I must find an outlet for the music in my soul. I decided th at at 35 years old, I best sign up for som ething that required a lower cen ter of gravity, so I went to a modern dance class, complete with live drummers in the corner. I leapt about barefoot, bucking my hips, shaking my head and in general looking like I was walking across hot coals. I was enraptured. Until the next day. The only problem, of course, with fulfilling a Gene Kelly fanta sy is that they don’t show the part where they pack him in ice afterward. Maybe guys in gay bars have the right idea, after all. And that, my friends, is The Gospel According to Marc. | H pink martini The Rainbow Youth Performing Arts Company (RYPAC) ( V4W Dancing queens But like the song says, I’ve got the music in me, and 1 need an outlet. Considering there are so many places for gay guys to dance, you’d think I’d have no problem. Wrong. I find it strange that dancing is so close ly associated with being gay when, despite the fact that millions of gay men go out dancing every weekend, we don’t actual ly dance. We stand around and pose to the music with that same pissed-off expres sion that runway models get after years of malnutrition. Those people bobbing around in the water at the end of Titan ic looked happier. Now I realize, of course, it’s impossi ble to smile when you’re trying to suck in your gut. If all the gay men on the dance floor exhaled at once we’d all die of carbon dioxide poisoning. W hen 1 ask guys why the dance floor in a gay club always looks like Night of the Living Dead, they invariably reply, “Oh, when I dance I’m in another world.” I see. That would be the Balance a Teacup on Your Head World, “ *4 3 29 & 30 8]>m Aladdin T heater uutt.pinkmartini.com Tickets S 15 in advance at all Ticketmaster outlet« & the Aladdin Box Office or online at »MU.ticketmaMer.com ¡Charge bv phone 503.224.4400 Subject to service charge IS I 7 day of show All ages welcome 6 - 1 0 Vocalists1 / 3 - 5 Instrumentalists! 4 - 5 Dancers!* Auditions will be held at: MCC Portland 2400 NE Broadway, Portland Oregon 97232 Time: 2:00 pm - 7:00 pm Please prepare: Date: Wed nesday, Ma rch 21,2001 1 Ballad 2 m in u tes in length Friday, March 23,2001 1 U p te m p o piece 2 m inutes in length Wednesday, March 28,2001 Headshot o r recent photograph o f yourself ( if available) & Friday, March 30,2001 •Stipends available fo r principle perform ers (Stipends non-negotiable) ♦•Video A u ditio n tapes will be accepted on a case-by-case basis b u t RYPAC w ill reserve the right to m e e t the individual in person fo r call-backs. Please contact our office at 503-281-8868 to reserve your time slot or for more information! Rainbow Youth Performing Arts Company is a program of the M etropolitan Com m unity Church of Portland, the leading LG8Tchurch in the Pacific Northw est. Support for this project comes from many community advocates and from a grant from the Commission on Children, Families and Community of Multnomah County Come alive to the power o f your erotic energy. Open your body, mind and spirit to a world o f ecstasy. Discover deeper levels of communication with yourself and others. Honor yourself with the gift of touch. Bodq Electric School May 19th & 20th, Portland Call (503) 790-2141
