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UNCLE EARL
"Streak o' Lean, Streak o' Fat"
Directed by Tom Krueger
Concept by Tom Krueger & Kristin Andreassen
Produced by Brad Paul
Choreographed by Maureen Berry, Heidi Kulas, Jason Nious & Kristin Andreassen, with additional steps by all the dancers
Edited by Cutter Hodierne & Tom Krueger
Sound Design/Mixing by Tom Paul
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MUSIC CREDITS
Streak o' Lean, Streak o' Fat
Uncle Earl – Waterloo, Tennessee (Rounder Records)
Music traditional, Words by Abigail Washburn & Jon Campbell, arr.
Uncle Earl/© 2005 Smokin' Granny Music, ASCAP
Produced by John Paul Jones & Engineered by Dave Sinko
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CAST
Uncle Earl:
Abigail Washburn - banjo & vocals
KC Groves - bass & mandolin
Kristin Andreassen - guitar
Rayna Gellert - fiddle
featuring
John Paul Jones on piano
Roller-Skater-Waiter:
Nate Cooper
The Braised Meats:
Heidi Kulas - captain
Harrison Barnes
Danielle Buice
Gary Giles
Tyler Mercereau
Cheryl Renfro
The Wasted Fats:
Maureen Berry - captain
Laura Cortese
Nic Gareiss
Emma Leahy-Good
Jason Nious
Matthew Olwell
Also Featuring:
Matthew Gordon as the maître d'
Casey Driessen as the chef
Emilee Warner & Holly Lowman-Baranski as restaurant customers
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MORE ABOUT THE DANCERS
Principal Dancers/Choreographers:
Heidi Kulas (pigtailed captain of The Braised Meats) is
an actress and percussive dancer living in Asheville, NC. She grew up
in Michigan clogging on a team with her mom and grandma, then started
touring with Maryland's Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble as a
teenager. In college she danced with the fourteen-time national
champion Bailey Mountain Cloggers (of North Carolina's Mars Hill
College). Heidi is currently director of the percussive dance company
Sole Impact. Find her here: www.myspace.com/cloggerina.
Maureen Berry (wearing traditional Irish dress and
leading The Wasted Fats) is a New Jersey native who became a champion
Irish dancer at a young age and went on to receive her BFA degree in
Dance Performance from Towson University. After touring with Footworks
Percussive Dance Ensemble for nine years, she now directs her own
Teelin Irish Dance Company. www.teelin.com.
Jason Nious (bare-chested backflips) is a New Mexico
native who toured for five years with the Washington, DC dance ensemble
Step Afrika. He's now settled (for the moment) in Las Vegas where he is
acting, coaching step teams and performing in Stomp Out Loud at Planet
Hollywood Casino. www.myspace.com/jayro.
Nate Cooper (roller skating waiter) grew up performing
with his family's Rhythm in Shoes dance company in Dayton, Ohio. He
lives now in Las Vegas where he performs with Cirque du Soleil.
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Dancers:
Harrison Barnes (back row... Braised Meats) is an
18-year-old student at Coastal Carolina University. He has been
clogging for eighteen years and now performs nightly at the Carolina
Opry in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
www.myspace.com/thebestandcoolestperson .
Danielle Buice (front row at the right hand of Braised
Meats captain Heidi Kulas) is from the small town of Pickens, South
Carolina, and has been dancing/performing since the age of three. She
is currently the Managing Director of the Bailey Mountain Cloggers.
www.myspace.com/dnyell84
Laura Cortese (in the black dress) is a musician who has
developed a fiddle-based, song-driven, groove-grounded genre dubbed
"Drum-and-Chop Indie-Pop." She tours the US, Canada and abroad with her
own band and moonlights on the bass with Uncle Earl. In this video, she
is also the dubbed voice of Heidi (the captain of the Braised Meats).
www.lauracortese.com .
Nic Gareiss (disco pants) dancing is characterized by
his innate musicality and his love of improvisation. He performs with
bands as a "dancing rhythm-section" and has worked with artists such as
Solas, Dervish, Grada, Le Vent du Nord, and the David Munnelly Band.
www.myspace.com/nicgareiss
Emma Leahy-Good (demonic pink barbie suit) spends her
time performing with the Dayton, Ohio percussive dance and music
company Rhythm In Shoes. She dreams of one day being a Rockette.
www.rhythminshoes.org .
Matthew Olwell (twirling the silver fireballs) is a
clogger, step dancer, musician, teacher & vampirate. He started
dancing with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble in the London run of
Riverdance in 1997. He toured with Footworks full-time for nine years
before starting his own Good Foot Dance Company. Matthew likes long
walks on the festival trail and still thinks minidisc recorders are a
pretty neat idea. www.myspace.com/goodfootdance .
Cheryl Renfro (front row at the left hand of Braised
Meats captain Heidi Kulas) is a Grand Champion Soloist performing
nationally and internationally to share her love for dance. She is also
the Co-Director/Choreographer and a dancer with the Lodge Cloggers at
Scenic Wolf Resort in North Carolina.
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THE STORY
Uncle Earl stops for dinner at a roadside Chinese
restaurant. They order up some "hong shao ro" (braised fatty pork, the
famed favorite dish of Mao Tse Tung). The food is delivered by a
bungling waiter on roller skates (Nate Cooper). Before they can sink
their chopsticks into the meal, the place is invaded by a notorious
gang of cloggers called The Braised Meats. The Meats have traveled from
the mountains of eastern North Carolina for a surprise attack on a
newly formed alliance of dancers operating under the name of The Wasted
Fats.
When The Braised Meats captain (Heidi Kulas) brags on
her team's "quadruple double doubles" (a rarely attempted advanced
clogging maneuver), Wasted Fats captain Maureen Berry conures the
special costume transformation that signifies her team is ready for
battle.
The Uncle Earl g'Earls leap for their instruments and
rip into a Georgia fiddle tune. Coincidentally, the g'Earls' friend and
producer of their last album John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin) happens
to be at the piano "noodling" on chopsticks. He joins the the rhythm
section and banjoist Abigail Washburn sings in Chinese about food,
drink and of course, about dancing.
The feet are flying fast until one of The Fats (Jason
Nious) land a ferocious flip, and the Meats are all out of fancy steps.
Infuriated, the Meats' captain throws out the rulebook and uses her
special dance-o-kinetic superpowers to levitate the innocent
skater-waiter onto a table. He struggles to maintain balance,
simultaneously scaring and impressing the crowd with his roller-clog
technique.
Uncle Earl must acts to defend the innocent civilian.
Guitarist Kristin Andreassen, who is herself a veteran of a Kung Fu
clogging gang by the name of Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, takes
the floor to counsel Meats and Fats team leaders. They find a dance
step in common.
And suddenly, Kristin is joined by Rayna, KC &
Abigail; all of Uncle Earl takes the floor in matching magic silver tap
shoes, revealing their clogging moves which they have been practicing
in a secret cave somewhere in the vicinity of Waterloo, Tennessee!
The g'Earls wow both teams with their
triple-axle-wagonwheel technique and successfully unite Meats, Fats and
even the restaurant chef in a dance of joy and mutual appreciation.
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PRODUCTION CREDITS
Art Director: Ruby Guidara, White Elephant Emporium (Watertown, TN)
Wardrobe Stylist: Heather Robinson
Hair & Makeup: Ashley Thompson
Audio Playback & Live Recording: Patrick Granado
Camera Operator/Camera Tech: Tom Zalenski
Gaffer: James King
Key Grip: Tonia Floyd
Production Assistant/Swing Man: Ryan Zacharias
Production Assistant (Nashville & New York): Holly Baranski
Production Assistant (New York): Jennifer Glickman
Sound Editor: Eric Milano
Voice & Dance Dubbing: Laura Cortese, Lisa Shepard, Tom Paul & Kristin Andreassen
Archivist: Ballard C. Boyd
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THANK YOU
Every single person who worked
on this video either volunteered their time or worked for a fraction of
their normal rate out of love for the band and excitement about the
concept. We will be eternally grateful to every member of the cast and
crew.
This video was made with financial support from:
Rounder Records
Tom Krueger
Sharman Smith
Bill Smoot
Paul & Jennifer Llewellyn
Bill & Mary Aldacushion
Ilana Katz Katz
Special thanks also to:
Emilee Warner
Shelby Boyd
Ellen Gilbert & Dance Emporium (Nashville, TN)
Megan Downes
Jim Walsh
Lach & The Sidewalk Cafe (New York, NY)
Brad San Martin
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