From Ricky to Madonna to… Ricky
M-Tribe reader Dan recently went to see Ricky Martin in Atlanta and dropped us a few lines to share his thought about the different “M-related” things happening on the show.
“I’ve never been to one of Ricky Martin‘s concerts before” – Dan writes. “I loved it. He’s got alot of energy and puts on a great show… but he just doesn’t have that Awe Inspiring Presence that Madonna has.”
“I was very close to the stage at the May 4th concert, as a matter of fact, I was right next to one of his catwalks, in the front row. Just like when I went to see Madonna in Miami. I actually noticed a few similarities between Ricky’s concert and Madonna’s.
His stage was VERY Similar… as a matter of fact, it had a screen that was VERY Similar to the Screen used in the Confessions Tour… Round, and you can see through it when the lights aren’t on… But what REALLY caught my eye was during the opening set.. one of the male dancers looked VERY Familiar… and I realized.. HEY! That’s Jason from the Confessions Tour… Later on, two other faces started to look familiar… I though to my self “I saw her on the Re-Invention Tour” and the other one I wasn’t so convinced, but he still looked familiar.”
“Then Ricky does this set called his “Rock Set” in which he comes out all in black with these heavy sun-glasses on. This is the set where he sings a heavily percussive remix of “Livin La Vida Loca” as well as some other Rock-Inspired mixes of his music… then… at the end of the set, he’s taken off his button up shirt and tie.. leaving him in a black tee, and black pants.. when he comes and sits down on the stairs one one of the catwalks, and sings a ballad… Sound Familiar?
Well, after the show I went and bought a program…. at the hotel I was browsing through and something caught my eye. I know Dancers aren’t forced to only dance for one performer.. but I think what I found was a little bit more than a coincidence…
“These live pictures were taken with my cell phone, so please excuse the quality. You can’t really tell because of the quality, but that’s Jason dancing, Ricky performing one of his ballads behind the video screen, and the round screen itself.”
Dan may have missed a report here on M-Tribe about Jason Young and Mihran Kirakosian being part of Ricky’s “Black and White” tour. But from the tour book a few more interesting tidbits come out, showing how a good part of the creative team behind Madonna’s two most recent tours is involved. One of the other familiar faces Dan spotted is no other than the lovely Reshma Gajjar. The creative concept of the tour is by Dago Gonzalez, who joins Jamie King as artistic director as well.
Among the choreographers you can spot Rich and Tony Talauega, while Jason has also worked on the choregraphies himself. Another familiar face is that of Roy Bennet, responsible for the Lighting and Stage Design.
One interesting thing is actually that things are apparently coming full circle with this brand new Ricky Martin tour sharing creative talents with the Madonna ones. As you may remember, it was the other way round back at the times of the Drowned World Tour, when the Queen of Pop was inspired by Ricky’s Livin La Vida Loca for her 2001 live show.
Special thanks to Dan for this report.