Abstract The paper compares and contrasts two movies "Mad Hot Ballroom" and "Take The Lead", which deal with the ballroom dance school program and its impact on the children. The paper examines the importance that is placed on the voices of the children in both films. The paper relates that both films show how a short dance class can impact children and teenagers. The paper argues, however, that in "Mad Hot Ballroom" the voices of the children are better represented and the experiences and agendas of childhood are more realistically portrayed.
From the Paper "Both films deal with the same topic: introducing ballroom dancing to children and the impact that this exposure has on the childern. However, there are many differences between the two films in how this is done. One of the biggest differences is in the age of the children. While the students of the documentary are 4th and 5th graders and thus 10-12 years of age, those of the "Take the lead" are older teenagers in high school. The children in "Mad hot ballroom" are from different social, economic, religious and cultural groups, while the children in "Take the lead" are "ghetto" children (at least "ghetto" in the Hollywood sense), mostly black, from lower social and economic groups."
Abstract The paper discusses ballet, ballroom dancing, folk dancing, and modern dancing and shows how they are all forms of art. The paper asserts that dance utilizes the human form and this will always place dance at the most creative forms of art.
From the Paper "Dance is perhaps one of the oldest forms of expression known to mankind. Rhythm is a part of life and moving the body in a type of rhythmic motion is a natural and fun response to life itself. Dance is also instinctive, allowing individuals to express themselves connect with one another. In a word, dance is human. There are as many reasons to dance as there are forms of it and they can include happiness, sorrow, thankfulness, celebration, and the simple reason that the act of expression is so easy with dance. Dance styles are diverse and each one can be defined as art because of the human element of expression. In addition, as art, dance forms have a background and a purpose. When we look at certain dance forms such as ballet, ballroom, folk, and modern dance, we are looking at a broad definition of dance but we are also looking at specific styles of art. From the complicated world of ballet and waltzes to the free world of modern dance, we have to admit that we are looking at art expressed in the most vivid of forms - the human form."
Abstract This paper discusses the cakewalk dance, which was the first dance to cross over from black to white culture, and from the stage to ballrooms. The author describes how it began around 1850 among African-American slaves in the southern U.S. as a hybrid form of traditional African movements and dance concepts. It was called the Chalk Line Walk at that time, and evolved over time into an exaggeration of the white, upper class ballroom dance of the time. The author explains how the dance became known as the cakewalk dance, and how it continued to become more sophisticated, until it gained popularity outside the slave and plantation owner circles and was used in shows and vaudeville acts. Although it no longer exists in its original form, the cakewalk's influence can still be seen in the high stepping march used by marching bands across the U.S., and its music was the precursor to what is now known as ragtime.
From the Paper "Through the years and centuries of slavery, the African-Americans adapted to the conditions of slavery imposed on them but did not lose sense of their traditions. Additional arrivals of newly enslaved Africans also aided in keeping these traditions alive. Slaves were sometimes permitted to gather together or visit other plantations, usually to entertain the plantation owners. From these gatherings dances African subcultures and nations blended together as a hybrid form of traditional African movement and dance concepts."
Tags: emotion entertainment mannerism vaudeville troupe, slave trade, jig
From the Paper "This paper will be concerned with the ways that fashion influences dance movement. Emphasis will be placed on the influence of fashion on American ballroom dancing as it developed between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. There is little doubt that fashion has an impact on dance movement. In this regard, the historian Peter Buckman has claimed that "styles in dress and manners have as important an effect on dance as does music" (Buckman, 1978, p. 114). In contemporary ballroom dancing, freedom of movement is considered to be a very important factor. This is because most modern dances require the dancers to move their entire bodies (Allen, 1985, p. 28). However, this freedom of movement was not always as important in ballroom dancing as it is today. In the early part of the nineteenth ..."
Abstract This paper explains that the movie is a refreshing and provocative story of a Japanese man who breaks out of his humdrum existence through the unlikely intervention of ballroom dancing lessons. It discusses how Suo's adept direction makes this film erotically charged and hilariously comic at the same time, as well as full of interesting and believable characters. The cinematography is flawless and engaging, and the viewer is soon immersed in the world of the unlikely hero. Ultimately, the movie's greatest strength is in its ability transform the mundane and comic into the beautiful and sublime.
From the Paper "Shall We Dance" is director Masayuki Suo's largest break into North American cinema. Previously, his works include a "pink" (X-rated) movie called "Daughter in Law", a TV drama, a documentary called "A Taxing Woman", and a major picture called "Manic Zen", followed by a movie depicting a college Sumo wrestler. Though released in English, "Manic Zen" was only seen in movie festivals and not released in the United States. When asked about Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu's influence on "Shall We Dance", Suo replies, " I didn't think very much about Ozu, therefore I don't know how I was influenced...? However, he credits Ozu as a great influence on his first movie, "Daughter-in-Law" (Kaufman)."
Abstract This is a creative writing story about a woman attending her high school reunion. The protagonist of the story was overweight in high school but has shed that extra weight since graduating. In the story she is now at her high school reunion have a very different experience among her classmates than she did in high school.
From the Paper "The Regency Hotel ballroom looked beautiful. The Reunion Committee had done a clever thing. The theme for their class's Senior Prom had been "Under the Sea," although Carole had to take other people's word for it. She hadn't gone to the senior prom. She hadn't gone to much her senior year, or any year in high school. But a picture display told the story by showing pictures from the Prom: the Prom King and Queen (head cheerleader Kimmy and starting quarterback Ken, no surprises there), and the decorations, which at the time had probably looked romantic, but now showed for what they were: fake fish hanging from the ceiling with streamers floating in the air (seaweed? waves? Carole didn't know)."
Abstract Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, was only forty years old when he was assassinated at Harlem's Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. This paper examines who was Malcolm X was and what took him from the ghetto mentality of Harlem to become a small time crook, to prison and then to rehabilitation and the voice of defiance against the white man's injustice.
From the Paper "Malcolm's beginning years planted the seed of what he would become, and the rage he felt. "One of Malcolm's earliest memories was of fire and destruction. He would always remember 'being snatched awake one night with a lot of screaming going on because our house was on fire.' The fire was said to have been started by white supremacists in Omaha." (Diamond, p. 11) Malcolm's father, Earl Little, was a Baptist preacher with radical ideas, who followed the teachings of Marcus Garvey, a famed black nationalist. Whether the neighbors, who neither liked the Little family nor the father's beliefs, were involved in the arson fire is not known, but they were not sorry to see the family move. In fact, the Littles (Earl and Louise) had to move a number of times during Malcolm's early years."
Abstract This paper explains that people think of Woody Allen's roles in his movies as a true extension of himself---a 5'6", 120 pound New York City "nebbish", a Jewish term that is softer than "loser" but refers to someone insignificant. It describes Woody Allen as a cult before his time. The author groups Allen's films into categories such as "City Stories" like "Manhattan" and "Annie Hall", the "Reaching for Effect" films (usually financial disappointments) like "Shadows and Fog" and "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy", the "Satires" like "Bananas"and "What's Up, Tiger Lily", the highly persona films like "Manhattan Murder Mystery" and "Stardust Ballroom" and the truly weird unclassifiable movies like "Purple Rose of Cairo" and especially "Zelig". The paper relates that, throughout his films, Allen's leitmotif are insecurity in the midst of plenty, unhappiness within joy, indecisiveness in a time of clear direction and estrangement without really undoing the knot that bind lovers, husbands and wives, or good friends together.
From the Paper "The more introspective Allen becomes, whether in the few interviews he gives (often to foreign film buffs, rather than American sycophants), the more one sees that he is serious about comedy, and comedic about serious subjects. It seems easy for someone as both clever and creative (again, the two do not always mesh) to laugh at anything funny. But, Allen is one of those who differentiates between something comedic and something comic: the first is like falling on a banana peel, while the truly comic is seeing someone about to step on that peel. So, Allen is not a slapstick-oriented writer or director."
Abstract This paper studies swing dancing, focusing on Frankie Manning, the father of the Lindy Hop. As the paper explains, Manning created some of the Lindy Hop's most famous moves and continues to teach it today, at the ripe old age of 90. The paper demonstrates how Manning is one of the most important swing dancers ever, detailing his influence on the genre. The paper points to Manning's role in the widespread resurgence of swing dance and swing dancing popularity today. The paper also discusses Manning's continued influence through choreographing films, Broadway shows, and television shows.
From the Paper "The jazzy, rhythmic beat of swing music just urged people to dance, and so, a new dance form began, called "swing dance" that went along with the big band beat and rhythm. One of the first popular swing dances was the "Lindy Hop," first danced at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in the early 1930. Legend has it that the dance was named after Charles Lindberg and his famous solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1929. After he successfully landed in Paris, newspapers across the country reported that "Lindy Hops the Atlantic" ("Happy Feet" and Editors). In Harlem at the Savoy, the most popular swing dance was simply called the "hop." However, after Lindberg's success, "a reporter, looking at the crazy antics of the dancers at the Savoy, asked what the name of the dance was. 'It's the Lindy Hop!', came the reply. And thus the first real swing dance was born" ("Happy Feet"). The story is as plausible as any about the dance's origins. This Lindy Hop eventually evolved into a conglomerate of swing dance and jitterbug that is generally known simply as 'swing.'"
