Mama Said I Was A Dancer before I Could Walk

The eve of another fabulous production by the Danville Children’s Musical Theater sparked a conversation with Some Guy about dance and why it’s so important in my life.  My nieces and nephew and I did a preview of “Never Fully Dressed” from Annie the other night at a family party.  I teach the choreography for these plays and often bring Mimi along to watch.  She stands in the back and copies our moves so she was able to participate in the preview.  After the song Julian excitedly tells his dad, “I want to learn how to do that!” 

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Some Guy has a lot of music experience but NO theatrical experience.  He doesn’t get Musicals.  I don’t get that he doesn’t get it.   The indoctrination process is happening slowly, but just wait til he sees his own kids on stage some day.  He’ll be converted.

In order to adequately explain why I love dance so much I needed to walk him through my personal history with dance: all the weirdness, all the coolness, all the uniqueness that makes dance so great.

Dance is important to me because a simple move or position can communicate something as specific as “I am a Migrant Farm worker” (remember that Ellie?) to the exuberance we all feel when we get the job or leave for a vacation or whatever the emotion might be.  The tool is the body, the medium is the music, the rest is up to the interpretation of the audience.

The following videos encapsulate what Dance is to me:  it’s weird, it’s effortlessly cool, it’s a religious experience.

Jo Baker was in Paris during the Harlem Renaissance.  She rides the line between modern, burlesque and straight up inappropriate.  She’s best known for the Banana Dance.  Skip to 50 seconds.

Isadora Duncan was an early eccentric modern dancer.  She’s thick, short weird ballet dancer who danced with scarves.  And was a complete individual.

Martha Graham Dance Company.  Martha Graham is the mother of modern dance.  Notice how she uses costumes and fabric as extensions of the dancer’s bodies.  Skip to 2:40. 

Following Martha is Twyla Tharp.  This picture sums her style up I think: imperfect angles, bent ankles, elbows, knees, etc.  Her style is also simply weird and great.

 

 

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.  Skip to 55 seconds.  Usually it was Fred and Ginger Rogers, but I don’t think Ginger kept up any where near as well as Cyd Charisse did.  Check out her legs.  They just don’t quit.

Jerome Robbins made the jump from ballet to modern.  Remember the Sharks and the Jets?  That’s Jerome Robbins.  Skip to 45 seconds.

And later on there’s Fosse.  Watch for wrist curls, jazz hands, and sharp angled movements.  Also big on shoulder rolls.

 

My personal favorite of all time modern dance is Alvin Ailey’s Revelations.  Set to Gospel music, this nearly all African American composition communicates faith and the weight of the world on the human spirit.  You have to watch this whole piece.  Note the crouched wings pose, that’s a theme throughout the whole piece.  I love this piece because it tells the story of a woman burdened and how she relies on the other dancer (a minister or the Lord) to both guide and support her.  Sometimes they are in sync, sometimes she can do things on her own, some times he has to be the support.  This is one of my very favorite pieces of art.

MJ.  Smooth Criminal.  One of the first dances I learned when my brothers and sisters would watch Moonwalker ad nauseum.  Iconic.

John Travolta exudes cool.  Any time that man dances he hardly has to even move to sell the feeling of a dance.  I love his understated but full commitment.  He’s a badass.

So You Think You Can Dance Season 4 dance with Mark and Chelsie.  Right dance at the right time for me, has a lot of personal significance.

And one of my favorite ballet dances:  the Waltz of the Snowflakes!  A whole bunch of ballerinas spazzing out with snow falling?  Yes, thank you!