Dance bring people together

I am a huge geek when it comes to dancing and musicals. If it's out i've probably seen it or at least heard the music and seen it. Dancing movies are my guilty pleasue, so i have no problem sharing this video and having people laugh at my ridiculousness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA3_8AomNQ4

This is the video of Glee's Thriller mash-up. Althought we've talked about Thriller on the blog. This dance is about more than just the dancing and singing. A mini synopsis of the episode is that the glee club and the football team were forced to join together to create a halftime show for the championship game because the football team has been torturing everyone on the glee club for being girls, or gay, or sissies because they like to sing. This forces the coach make them work together so they can join together.

The video shows how people can work together through dance and other means of artistic expression to create a common ground, which they were able to do.

Also, I think the choreography is amazing.

Mambo in the Movies

I'm excited to see that this week's reading is so popular. I, too, have been inspired to write a blog about it. While reading the first few pages of Professor Hutchinson's work, all I could think about was a scene from the movie Dirty Dancing. It kept playing over and over through my mind as I was reading, so finally, I had enough and decided to write about it.
Dirty Dancing is, by far, my favorite dance movie (and one of my favorite movies in general). I love the dance routines in the movie and many of them have a Mambo/Pachanga/Salsa influence, so I decided to relate it to the article.
One scene in particular is, in my opinion, similar to "Mambo on 2." The scene in Dirty Dancing is referred to as "Johnny's Mambo" (appropriate, isn't it?) and can be found here (with an advertisement to start it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkqA_jj4Flk

Dirty Dancing is set in 1963, which was the turning point of the 1st generation to 2nd generation of Mambo dancers. It was also roughly ten years after the Mambo became a dance craze in New York City. It was definitely a popular dance in the time period that Dirty Dancing takes place in.
The footwork of the routine isn't entirely accurate compared to On 2 Mambo, but Mambo dancers synchronized their dance to the music that they danced to, which is shown in the movie. Also, there were "flashy" moves that made Johnny and Penny stand out. There were some moments with large arm movements, faster turns and dramatic poses which is also similar to New York Mambo. As an added fun fact, the location that Dirty Dancing is set in is in the Catskills, which just so happens to be where Joe Piro took some of his Mambo dancers to perform, as we learned in the reading.

Overall, it seems there are quite a few similarities between Dirty Dancing and actual Mambo dancing. I think it's a good representation of Mambo. What do you guys think? In your opinion, do you think Dirty Dancing is similar to or different from the reading?

Palladium Mambo Legends Dancing!

Everyone should take a look at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMeFLXoJvLA . I did a little research on the Palladium dancer's that Professor Hutchinson discusses in this week's reading, Mambo on 2. Palladium mambo dance was the first generation of mambo dance that started in NYC! Look at these Palladium legends reuniting and dancing the mambo.

What I took from the reading was that, during a very segregated time of the 50s and 60s, Palladium was the grounds for a lot of interracial socializing. The mambo dance brought together Puerto Ricans, Blacks and Jews to dance under one roof. People were allowed to interchange their ideas and work and dance together. How awesome!

See you in class!

Salsa and Pachanga

After doing the reading for this week, I looked up some Salsa dances and came across this video. It's interesting because if you watch the male's legs, they look they are the personality of the dance. Usually people are enthralled with the movement in the feet, but in this case, his whole body takes the character and personality of the style. Also, it's interesting how the focus is on the male, when the female normally is the focus of ballroom structured dances. What does this say about gender roles in this performance of Salsa and Pachanga and about the gender constructs in this dance as a whole? All in all, a good performance and definitely worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmOYzNxIU6g

Youtube Dance Lessons

Quite often in class, we all mention how easy it is to look up dance routines on Youtube and learn steps, moves and routines from there. Essentially, I've come to think of it as Youtube dance lessons. It's free, it's easy and you don't get laughed or yelled at for messing up a move. It's perfect. It makes me wonder why people are still adamant about not dancing.
Anyways, the popularity of Youtube and learning choreographies from there got me wondering what dance routines have become the most popular for people to learn. I found a website that lists what they claim to be the "Top Five Most Iconic Music Video Dance Routines." While it's not official or anything, looking at the majority of the list made me laugh because I am guilty of either participating in some of these routines, or at least trying to learn them. Here's the link:

http://musicouch.com/musicouching/top-five-most-iconic-music-video-dance-routines/

I think most of us have danced to the YMCA and the Macarena at some point or another. Also, a friend of mine and I tried to learn the routine that is #1 on this list, but we gave up after about 10 minutes. Here's a good video of people who had plenty of time to get the routine down though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mv9Hv9MeXQ
Enjoy!

Dancing for a cause

Some universities use dance for a good cause and Penn State is one of the most well-known and successful every year. Penn State's Thon has become the thing to look forward to every year. It is a 48 hour dance marathon to raise money for kids with cancer One of my best friends is a senior a PSU and this is all she talks about as she is SO involved. This year her and a friend were raising money to be put in a raffle to be chosen to dance for 48 hours straight. There are SO many people that want to dance to that they have to raise at least $2,600 to be entered in the raffle and each $500 after that they get an extra ticket. My friend raised over $15,000 and still doesn't know if she will actually get to dance during the event. Program's like this that involve dance really show how much dance is integrated into our culture. To learn more about Thon here is a link http://www.thon.org/

Jerkin'

After watching Rize and learning about Krumping, I was reminded of a dance movement in LA that I heard about this summer called Jerkin'. I don't know if anyone else has heard about it or if we are going to talk about it in class sometime, but I thought I would pass along a really interesting article and documentary from LA Weekly. When reading about Jerkin' I drew a lot of parallels to other dances we've learned about. Specifically, like the b boy article, Jerkin' is just as much about looking sharp as it is about dancing well. Jerkin' dancers have a specific dress, from the skinny jeans and sneaks to the crisp neon t-shirts. Also, the Jerkin' movement has grown out of LA high schools, predominantly kids under 18. This just shows another example of how dance creates structure for kids living in hostile environments. Check out the article and video and maybe we can talk about it in class one day!

Article: http://www.laweekly.com/2009-08-06/music/we-8217-re-jerkin-8217/
Video: http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2009/08/jerkin_video_new_boys_intervie.php