December 18, 2007

The Power of Historical Dance Retrospective Videos

Why is the the Evolution of Dance video so popular? Now watched by 68 million YouTube visitors:

You could say that dancer Judson Laipply is funny, which he is. But there is also something inherently comforting in understanding how pieces of our past fit together and influence each other, in this case recent popular dance fads and crazes.

There's a similar famous bit that Robin Williams does in The Birdcage (1996). At the 2:50 minute mark of the following clip, he does his rapid-fire impersonations of the dance styles of famous choreographers. "You do an eclectic celebration of the dance - you do Fosse, Fosse, Fosse. You do Martha Graham, Martha Graham, Martha Graham. You do Twyla, Twyla, Twyla..." and he continues:

And here is a clip from Chita Rivera's Broadway show the Dancer's Life, a retrospective of the jazz legends she's worked with over the years. In this clip, she pays tribute to Jack Cole, Peter Gennaro, Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins. (Here's NPR interview with her about this show).

I think that a good number of people come to all three of the above videos with at least some familiarity with the dance moves and styles, and the names of the choreographers. It might not be a lot of familiarity, but just enough for the viewer experience to be fun and engaging and for each of the videos to provide more historical context than the viewer had before watching them. My point might be a stretch with the Robbin Williams short sequence, but I think it definitely works for the other clips.

I would very much enjoy seeing more of these types of videos. Besides being educational and fun, I think that they are great marketing tools for choreographers, dancers and instructors.

- Choreographers/dancers could create videos showing which choreographers/dance traditions have influenced them.

- Dance instructors could demonstrate different ways of dancing, say, Salsa or Swing and also discuss the different cultural and regional influences.

- Dancers could link to online videos that showcase different styles of dance, create their own videos with additional examples, and integrate the two to provide additional historical context.

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