DANCE WITH ME

BY ED BRUCE edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

This was one night one show at the South Point Hotel and Casino Theatre south Las Vegas.

Done this before...seen this before here...liked it then...liked it now.

M & M dance team Michael Kessler and Melinda Jackson plus 7 dancers (all good) and three pieces...piano...drums and guitar. www.americandance.biz

First class dance...pairs...speed...vocals...comedy...history...12 minutes late and toned to the white hair audience of which I am one...more no hair in my case. This is written for old people and played.... so so to the the near sell out crowd on Sunday. Great history of work in education...instruction...performing and teaching from this pair

At the very end...in one of the many lifts occured the first mistake I have ever seen this pair make and they perform tremendous lifts...throws...spins and athletic moves as good as any dance team. I have admired the timing, continuity, professionalism and general admiration Michael and Melinda have for each other in their dance shows. They still have it.

Worked into the pairs production are 19 song dance routines listed in their program...a lot of work and production for one show...at times I am thinking this is more for them than for the audience. It remains first class dance witha big history...some, my wife, did not like it...I made up for her I liked it for both of us. I can't help question the ages of this continuing productive pair. The web produces a writer, a boxer, a poker player, a doctor and a cabinet maker but not my Michael Kessler. They have toured the world.....Michael Kessler & Melinda Jackson have produced, directed, written, choreographed and performed internationally from Ballet to Broadway to Las Vegas to theatres and Opera Houses worldwide. They were the starring Song & Dance Team in The Great Radio City Music Hall Spectacular directed by Joe Layton, touring in over 80 US cities and playing an extended run at the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas.

They played the roles of The Blind Countess and the Gigolo in Tommy Tune’s Broadway Show Grand Hotel. They played the roles of Ninotchka and Canfield in Cole Porter’s Silk Stockings. Michael & Melinda produced, directed, choreographed, wrote original music and starred with their company M&M American Dance Theatre, Off Broadway in Manhattan Moves at the American Place Theatre. Their first production, Lost Luggage, premiered in New York City at the Emanuel Y, received a rave review in the New York Times and within ten months was playing to sold out houses and standing ovations throughout Performing Arts Centers and Opera Houses in the US and Europe.

No ages...he is maybe 60 and Melinda all of 50...they are both great and I love them.

Lose a point for every minute late this 89 minute show 12 minutes late...

85 B