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Dance movies

Julia Stiles in Save the Last Dance
  • Posted at 3:02pm
  • 08 August 2008
  • by AndrewCollins-RT
  • 1 comment

Here's a confession: I have no intention of going to see Mamma Mia!, even though it's still packing them in around the country. My deep-seated fear of this feelgood musical can be expressed in a radio ad for the film, in which one satisfied customer outside a cinema exclaims, "I sang and danced all the way through."

Singing along to the hits of Abba is one thing, but dancing? In the aisles? Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer patrons, even appreciative ones, to remain in their seats.

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against dancing in the cinema, as long as it's up on the screen. It's hard to beat the sight of a talented hoofer soft-shoeing or pirouetting across your field of vision. This is why, 50 years after the movie musical's golden age, fancy footwork never loses its appeal.

The MTV-produced Save the Last Dance is a perfect example of the 21st-century dance drama. It's not a musical in which people burst into song, but its plot is rooted in the restorative powers of cutting a rug.

It's pitched very much at a teenage audience, with Julia Stiles as a girl from the right side of the tracks who gives up ballet after her mother dies, but has her passion reawakened by hip hop.

This template was reversed for Step Up, a teen romance in which someone from the wrong side of tracks finds an opportunity for redemption through ballet.

In last year's Stomp the Yard, it's stepping – an energetic mix of dance and gymnastics – that's the catalyst. Make It Happen, released in cinemas last week, sees a small-town girl work her way up from a burlesque club to follow her dream.

I guess none of this is too far away from Fame, which encouraged everybody to think they could sing and dance when I was a teenager. Certainly, auditions for ballet schools crop up regularly in movies. Our own Billy Elliot spent two hours leading up to one.

I suppose we have Saturday Night Fever to blame, or thank, for cinema's resurgence of interest in dance. Released in 1977, it is credited with popularising disco. A year later, its star John Travolta did the same thing for jive in Grease.

For an animated take, there's Mumble, the all-dancing penguin in Happy Feet. He's probably in the aisle at Mamma Mia! as we speak.

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  • Posted on 09 November 2008
  • at 5:28pm
  • by angel

You're missing out by not seeing the movie Mama Mia. I saw it with my mum at the cinema and there was definitely NO dancing and singing in the aisles which, frankly, would have put me off too. Yes, the film is cheesey in the extreme but despite this it is just so much fun - a bit of feel good escapism that is guaranteed to lift your spirits however low you might feel. It's pure entertainment - nothing more, nothing less. Just remember to avoid the showings that are listed as singalongs. :o)

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