Like Saturday Night Fever, But Real
July 14, 2012 2:19 PM Subscribe
Can anyone guide me to online footage of contemporary or ballet dancers dancing in places other than the stage? I'm looking for excellent professional contemporary dancers cutting loose at the club, or rocking out to like Huey Lewis & The News on headphones or something like that. The moves they do on stage are so incredible---I wonder what it's like in an informal environment.
Pina! is not online as far as I know, but there is a lot of dancing in the streets, woods, cliffs etc. Worth looking for if you are really interested in seeing great dancers dance off stage.
posted by snaparapans at 2:43 PM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by snaparapans at 2:43 PM on July 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
I don't have videos, but I've been clubbing with world-class competition dancers, and I can describe a couple of things that often happen.
- In a regular club, there is something of a do-as-the-Romans-do - bopping and regular club dancing, but it looks... better. Very few people can guess why, it turns heads in a can't-put-your-finger-on-it-but-oooh way. (The X-factor is less the dancing than the innate result of being trained for presentation - movement looks great even though it's simple and mundane)
- In an informal setting of peers rather than a public club is where I've more often seen dancers cut loose and just... play - have fun with it and each other, and that is such an amazing sight that it's a huge part of why I was interested in dance. Even then, it might not be especially athletic - that is second fiddle to the personal interplay between people.
- I have seen dancers open up in public, but it's rare and brief because you often need massive amounts of space (good luck with that in a club), and it draws massive amounts of attention, and it can also be a bit dangerous - both to the dancers and to people nearby. Also because a lot of surfaces (and shoes) make it difficult to impossible to do what they can do.
posted by -harlequin- at 3:07 PM on July 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
- In a regular club, there is something of a do-as-the-Romans-do - bopping and regular club dancing, but it looks... better. Very few people can guess why, it turns heads in a can't-put-your-finger-on-it-but-oooh way. (The X-factor is less the dancing than the innate result of being trained for presentation - movement looks great even though it's simple and mundane)
- In an informal setting of peers rather than a public club is where I've more often seen dancers cut loose and just... play - have fun with it and each other, and that is such an amazing sight that it's a huge part of why I was interested in dance. Even then, it might not be especially athletic - that is second fiddle to the personal interplay between people.
- I have seen dancers open up in public, but it's rare and brief because you often need massive amounts of space (good luck with that in a club), and it draws massive amounts of attention, and it can also be a bit dangerous - both to the dancers and to people nearby. Also because a lot of surfaces (and shoes) make it difficult to impossible to do what they can do.
posted by -harlequin- at 3:07 PM on July 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
This isn't video, but it seems crazy not to share here: the Ballerina Project.
posted by lily_bart at 3:29 PM on July 14, 2012
posted by lily_bart at 3:29 PM on July 14, 2012
A pregnant ballerina dancing on the beach. (Previously, on MetaFilter.)
posted by Soliloquy at 3:33 PM on July 14, 2012
posted by Soliloquy at 3:33 PM on July 14, 2012
Er, perhaps I should have linked to the Ballerina Project facebook page, since that's where most of the photos are...
posted by lily_bart at 3:36 PM on July 14, 2012
posted by lily_bart at 3:36 PM on July 14, 2012
There is a reality show called Breaking Pointe on Hulu these days, about Ballet West, a professional ballet company in Salt Lake City. Almost every episode has a "going out" scene which shows them bopping up and down like harlequin describes. Unfortunately, this scene is also used to show whatever romantic drama the cast is going through, which gets boring fast.
posted by tinymegalo at 3:50 PM on July 14, 2012
posted by tinymegalo at 3:50 PM on July 14, 2012
Second Pina!-- it's an outstanding movie, and I watched as Wim Wenders fan more than a fan of dance-- the dance in this was mesmerizing, and the story of Pina was interesting enough (for someone I'd otherwise never hear of, given my divergent interests). There's a trailer, and there may be clips on line.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:36 PM on July 14, 2012
posted by Sunburnt at 4:36 PM on July 14, 2012
In the DVD of The Company that I have there is a supplement entitled "showing off" (or something very close to that). It is exactly what you want if I understand your question correctly. They are in the practice studio and there isn't anybody in there for an audience but the other dancers and they are doing their most-impressive-to-their-peers moves.
posted by bukvich at 5:22 PM on July 14, 2012
posted by bukvich at 5:22 PM on July 14, 2012
I think the term you're looking for is "site specific dance."
The term is used to describe almost any dance performance not occurring on a concert stage, from Anna Halprin and Trisha Brown’s outdoor experiments in the 1960s and ’70s, to the multidecade, on-site oeuvres of Loewen, Heidi Duckler, Joanna Haigood, Stephan Koplowitz, and Ann Carlson.
posted by kathryn at 5:49 PM on July 14, 2012
The term is used to describe almost any dance performance not occurring on a concert stage, from Anna Halprin and Trisha Brown’s outdoor experiments in the 1960s and ’70s, to the multidecade, on-site oeuvres of Loewen, Heidi Duckler, Joanna Haigood, Stephan Koplowitz, and Ann Carlson.
posted by kathryn at 5:49 PM on July 14, 2012
Ballet dancers Alec Wong and Daniel Baker having fun backstage during intermission
posted by PussKillian at 6:02 PM on July 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by PussKillian at 6:02 PM on July 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
Video for Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros- Man on Fire
(jump ahead to around here to see the ballet dancing in a backlot--their sequence lasts about a minute)
posted by neda at 2:38 PM on July 15, 2012
(jump ahead to around here to see the ballet dancing in a backlot--their sequence lasts about a minute)
posted by neda at 2:38 PM on July 15, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by kdern at 2:28 PM on July 14, 2012 [4 favorites]