Dance, Dance, Dance...Everywhere!
What is Sweeping America is Not a Song, but a Movement!
Oct 6, 2009
The dance films that charged through the theaters in the 1980s would not only reinvigorate the teen film genre for the coming decades, but also embrace the music video style that would synonimize dance with modern expressions of life, love, and sex. In the 1980s this genre included films such as Fame (1980), Flashdance (1983), Footloose (1984), Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985), and Dirty Dancing (1987). And with the recent death of Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze, it is only appropriate to reflect on where dance is in modern consciousness and where it is headed.
A Brief History of Dance
Historically, dance developed in multiple forms, through opera, theatre, and performance and totes around a long history of styles, movements, and connections with social and political histories. Dance, on screen, developed with the transition of vaudeville acts to the screen in musical form. These musicals, notably of the studio-era, used dance in tandem with song, but also on its own as a source of pure uninhibited expression. And most often as an illustration of topics that could not be spoken or discussed, most commonly, sex. So these cinematic dance moments began to function outside of normal or standard ways of viewing dance, like in a theater or other venue. Dance within the entertainment industry developed its own look and style quite separate from Broadway, ballet companies, etc.
However, this separation also allowed cinematic dance to see and express things lost on stage. Not only though the use of the camera, lighting, and staging, but also through a mixing of dance elements. Thus allowing the modern genre of screen dance to embrace all types of ballet, modern, tap, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, and the list continues. The modern world of dance is also thankfully an all-embracing one that fosters a strong competitive yet supportive community. And is this community that has recently become responsible for a rise in the interest in certain types of dance and a greater visibility of dance on screens.
Dance On the Small and Big Screen
For the moment, if musicals are separated from other dance on screen, then these other cinematic dance moments may be unpacked. When these moments are unpacked a common theme is discovered that, of course, also exists within musical numbers that involve dance. That a moment or a piece danced will never be the same even if danced by the same dancers in the same venue. Every minute is unique.This uniqueness of dance not only encourages viewers to tune in and see the live replay, but also reminds audiences to why dance has lasted as an art form for so long.
Reality programming not only attempts to stay in stride with anything consumable by the general public from coast to coast, but also craves to satiates audience's appetites for more of the same 'guilty' pleasures. Whether it is Dancing With the Stars that emphasizes the rise and fall of fame and careers or So You Think You Can Dance?, the American Idol of dance, reality programming actually highlights the breathe and appeal of dance. Also, it has re-emphasized the most important element of dance; that is cannot be recreated or reproduced. Like the theme previously mentioned, reality programming has actually enabled dance to re-invent itself within modern consciousness and translate to audiences outside of dance flicks.
But where is the dance flick headed? Is this reality programming here to stay? Are the careers of their winners better off? Stay tuned...
