What the Critics Say

“Campy, loud and irrepressible, Dixie FunLee Shulman likes to blurt out awkward truths. In “The Money Show,” the dancers wear T-shirts emblazoned with their day jobs (“dj,” “model”), while a game-show host sells the audience lap dances and massages for cash—yes, actual cash. Shulman’s good-time dances (a blend of disco fingers pointing skyward and early Michael Jackson moves) and her big money tree add a layer of over-the-top hilarity to the grim jokes, the discomfiting money dynamics, and a stone-cold ending.” The New Yorker, 2006

“Dixie Fun Dance Theatre took the term “starving artist” to a new level with The Money Show, at New York’s Dance New Amsterdam last June. Each performer wore the costume of their day job—waitress, model, dance instructor, or massage therapist—while projected behind them were scenes of company members riffling through a studio’s lost-and-found for dance gear and celebrating a friend’s birthday with one icing-free cupcake. Making the show worth the ticket price ($17) was the dancers’ goal—and it came down to a modest one cent per minute per dancer (less than most cell phone plans.)” Dance Magazine, 2006

"Shulman is a warm, engaging performer whose intelligence, candour and wit keeps us switched on throughout." Kelly Apter, The Scotsman, 2004, on The Thinnest Woman Wins

"The reason it succeeds is due mostly to Shulman's unexpected, rare and buoyant optimism; and ultimately, her authenticity." Elizabeth Schwyzer, The List, 2004, on The Thinnest Woman Wins

"At first, baton twirler Dixie FunLee Shulman (Twirl) seems a pudgy, loopy wannabe talking about being a fat girl in majorette competitions, but her awesome twirling skill grabs our attention. By the time the piece ends-silently-Shulman has become a powerful, beautiful woman."
Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Village Voice, 2002, on "Twirl"

"Dixie FunLee Shulman's choreography is fun, indeed."
Lisa Jo Sagolla, Back Stage, 2003, on TTWWTFWW

"Dixie FunLee Shulman's creative wit and talent shine in "The Thinnest Woman with the Fewest Wrinkles Wins", a culturally poignant tour de force about female body issues in the 21st century. Dance, like theater, sometimes uses a combination of confrontation, humor and skill to create a transcendent experience that leaves the audience feeling more human and more connected. Dixie Fun Dance Theatre accomplished this at their Joyce Soho concert while addressing the topic of being a woman in a way that made both men and women see a little further."
Quinn Batson, offoffoff.com, 2003, on The Thinnest Woman with the Fewest Wrinkles Wins

"She dances Rubenesquely...Shulman's bravery and ease with herself and the audience...struck a chord with the packed crowd..."
Merilyn Jackson, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2003, on The Thinnest Woman Wins

"In her autobiographical "Twirl," Dixie FunLee Shulman performed impressive baton-twirling maneuvers while amusingly relating the story of how she was cut from the University of Georgia majorette squad because she was too fat."
Lisa Jo Sagolla, Back Stage, 2002, on "Twirl"

"Dixie FunLee Shulman twirls a mean baton as the finale to her "Twirl." A self-professed one-time fat girl and University of Georgia majorette, Shulman is comfortable enough onstage to back up and start over again when her baton rolls in the wrong direction. Her dazzling routine worries the lighting instruments and wows the crowd."
Chris Dohse, The Dance Insider, 2002, on "Twirl"

(Shulman) "has an incredible way of using humor and clever visuals to make a very serious and important statement, in this case the subject of body image. There are many wonderful and uplifting moments in the show…that stay with you long after the show has ended."
Sherry Lewis, Dance Fitness West, Jan/Feb 1998, on The Thinnest Woman with the Fewest Wrinkles Wins

"Dixie FunLee Shulman has been entertaining Seattle audiences over the past two years with her ability to make one woman's relatively normal life into a damn good story… Shulman's choreography for the large group dance sections was superb. Unison and canon sections through the piece created a marvelous playfulness and warmth and a palpable awareness of group consciousness."
K.T. Cutler, Dance Net, 1988, on http://www.media-verse.com

"Shulman's work is always purposeful while being humorous and entertaining."
Sherry Lewis, Dance Fitness West, Sept/Oct 1999 on Web

"This Seattle transplant from the South has a lot on her mind."
Chris Kaufman, The Seattle Weekly's "Best of Bumbershoot '96", on http://www.media-verse.com

"By the time the lights went down, the crowd was applauding, shouting and whistling-and it was the women who were cheering the loudest."
Geoff Cole, Slugs Magazine, March 1999

The Thinnest Woman with the Fewest Wrinkles Wins appeared on Seattle Weekly's "The Hit List" when it premiered in 1997.
Lodi, McClellan, Seattle Weekly, Nov 12, 1997