(Speaking of which, here's the original, coupled with two favorite parodies of mine):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CutniaAW8XI&feature=fvsr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMjgSkfQPSY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RalDsFionzU&feature=related
Alright, so after that distraction, I looked up the making of that dance scene and realized Bacon had four individual dancers performing specific parts of it for him. I'm not necessarily surprised, as most actors cannot pull of the more complicated dance moves with the short amount of training they get. But it got me curious and I started searching for other "feigned" dance sequences in movies. The famous Jennifer Beals sequence in Flashdance comes to mind, and, even recently, Nathalie Portman's double in Black Swan has been contesting she did more shots in the film than she got credit for.
Which leads me to ask, does it bug you if you know an actor does not do all of his/her dance moves? Conversely, are you more impressed by a dance movie when the actor featured in it does 100% of the moves? Does this create a stronger perception of authenticity, and should it? (After all, just about anything can be accomplished with clever film editing--double or no double). Do you think dance doubles should get more of the spotlight than they do--especially when they're the ones performing these classic dance scenes? Or are they simply delegated to the status of a stunt double behind the scenes--a demanding, yet pretty thankless, job?
That's an interesting point you've brought up Chris about doubles being used in movies. I think they're used more often than just dancing, especially performing dangerous stunts in action movies. Using doubles definitely creates a visual perception of the actor being multi-talented, when in fact a "professional" is dancing. It's great when actors can perform their own dances, but producers have a catch-22: do they choose a professional dancer to star in the role but who isn't famous or do they choose a famous actor to draw attention and make more money but who cannot actively participate in every scene? It seems that they choose option 2 because they want the big name starring in their role.
ReplyDeleteI think dance doubles should get more recognition than they do. Dancing already doesn't receive a lot of attention nationally and people take for granted how difficult it is to dance like that. While some movies like the Step Up series use professional dancers, others, like Footloose and Black Swan, pretend the star can dance as well as the professional. The double should get acknowledgement for his hard work and talent rather than the industry pretending they don't exist.
I actually thought it was funny that you brought up Black Swan, as I know that Natalie Portman was getting a lot of crap for even HAVING a dance double in the first place after all the hype she and Mila Kunis received while the movie was in theaters.
ReplyDeleteI found a great article from a blog I read about the incident - http://jezebel.com/#!5786846/why-we-care-about-whether-or-not-natalie-portman-danced
I do believe that the double should be given more credit (although it was a bit ridiculous to have the controversy conveniently come up as the DVD was being released.) I suppose that's what turned me off from the whole thing.
Either way, I thought that Black Swan was danced beautifully by ALL dancers and that even though Lane did only around a quarter of Portman's shots, she still did extremely well.
I think that's a part of being in the film industry. There's a lot to say about stunt and body doubles that also don't get a lot of recognition for their work, and I would hope that that would change.