Art Thieves Don't Look Like Brosnan or McQueen

I learned the pleasures of visiting art museums at an early age in Buffalo, where regular visits to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery was common for children. One of the best art experiences I ever had years later was in London, where the prestigious museum I kept going back to (I believe it was the Victoria and Albert) served breakfast in its restaurant. After a scrumptious pastry or two, I would prowl the huge museum at my leisure and see things I had only read about.

Coupled with my love for art museums is my love of heist movies. I've seen many, but one I really enjoyed was the charming movie "The Thomas Crown Affair," a remake of the old Steve McQueen movie but this time starring Pierce Brosnan. Now I've started reading about real thefts, stories in which the thieves are scruffy, weasly, cruel and greedy. I'd like to recommend to my readers "The Gardner Heist" by Ulrich Boser. I've never visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the scene of the largest unsolved art theft in history. The author tells the story of his quest to solve the mystery, a search that took him all over the world. And he is still searching, by the way. See his blog The Open Case at http://theopencase.com/columns.php?page=blog&ctitle=The+Gardner+Heist&blog_id=11.

Two Treats from Michael Flatley

In my blog of June 5, I talked a little about my love of clogging. Having discovered Michael Flatley of Riverdance fame long ago, I wondered about the connection between clogging and Irish Step Dance and tap dancing. And here's the answer. Through a little research, I discovered that "the troubles between the British and the Irish in the mid-18th century, coupled with the great famine, brought a mass exodus of Irish to the shores of America. Many Irish settled in the Appalachians, bringing their music and dance with them. Irish step dancing thus influenced the creation of Appalachian clogging. American tap dancing was also influenced by a combination of African rhythm and Irish percussive foot work." For more on this, go to http://www.ehow.com/about_5453202_history-irish-step-dancing.html.

However, Michael Flatley, having won international acclaim for Step Dancing, exceeded even himself and created his own version, which you can never forget if you've seen him dance. Here's what he says: “What I'm doing there is an accelerated version of Irish traditional dancing." He says more: “At the same time, I have incorporated the upper body movement and all of the arm movements, but it’s not done like ballet. It’s not done like tap and it’s not done like flamenco. It’s something that I had to create from scratch because nothing else would have fit there.” Go to http://worlddance.suite101.com/article.cfm/michael_flatley_biography#ixzz0qITKVQO7

Here are two YouTube excerpts of Flatley's dancing. The first is his "Thunderstorm" from Riverdance. Notice that his arms are freely and naturally moving, as opposed to traditional step dancing. The dancers' percussive steps are perfectly executed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytcZIfvSWW4 And last today, notice how his style has changed in his "Feet of Flames Finale." I like the Spanish influences so much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdD5Te_ZZys&feature=related

Clogging Makes You Smile and Smile

I first found clogging on the Blue Ridge Parkway of Virginia, and I have loved to watch it ever since. A friend and I were driving on the Parkway and he knew of a store close to one of the mileposts. The sights and smells of the store turned out to be fascinating to a newcomer from the cold and ice of Buffalo (that's me), and we had fun browsing for drinks and treats.When we emerged to go back to our car, some energetic people were setting up a portable stage for what turned out to be clogging. The women were dressed in brightly colored blouses and big skirts, the men is neat shirts and trousers, and they all wore tap shoes. There was canned blue grass music, the volume turned up high. It looked like a square dance to me, but the dancers were clogging, that is, performing heavy, stamping steps. The rhythm in this percussive dancing is catching. And I liked the way the dancers and onlookers grinned from ear to ear. You just can't help it, when you're around clogging.

Just a few months ago, I walked downtown to the square, and suddenly heard bluegrass. In front of the bank, cloggers had set up to dance. This time, it was anything goes, and as a CD played, everyone got into the act: an elderly man, a child of about three, two high schoolers, a middle aged man who was really good. They clogged away deliriously, while I stood in the heat and watched and enjoyed and grinned.

To get an idea of what southern clogging looks like in action, go to this link to YouTube. I found it recently. This is real, southern clogging, and this time, there are wonderful, old-time musicians.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs2j8f7H2WY