Dance: The Musical – Act 3: Dancers

The Story

To illustrate what I mean, an apt dancer may be in thorough unison with the others in that particular group, and at the same time reveal a difference in dancing temperament, rhythm or technique; she may phrase, accentuate or actually interpret differently. (Florenz Ziegfeld, producer)

The body cannot lie. You cannot be somebody else onstage, no matter how good of an actor or dancer or singer you are. When you open your arms, move your finger, the audience knows who you are, you know. (Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer)

The dancer’s body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul. (Isadora Duncan, dancer)

I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer’s body, we as audience must see ourselves, not the imitated behavior of everyday actions, not the phenomenon of nature, not exotic creatures from another planet, but something of the miracle that is a human being. (Martha Graham, dancer)

Let’s not call physical comedy falling down and pratfalls. All humor is physical, no matter how you dish it out. It’s timing, like a dancer or an athlete would have. (Chevy Chase, actor/comedian)

I would imagine that if you could understand Morse code, a tap dancer would drive you crazy. (Mitch Hedberg, comedian)

Program (Past Posts)
Act 1: Dance
Act 2: Dancing

Act 3: Dancers
Dance is a rhythmic action to music, but it’s also an event where the action occurs. Then again, from the time we most-likely first danced on someone’s lap, one can dance anywhere – around the house, down the aisles of the grocery store, or wherever one desires.

If dance is an action painting to music, dancer is the artist of motion. Some names are synonymous with dance: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gene Kelly, Martha Graham, Anna Pavlova, Gregory Hines, Rudolf, Nureyev, and Sammy Davis, Jr, to name a few. Interesting, Baryshnikov said, “No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.”

Although Dancers is the title, this act is much more – thus offers a variety of choices of keywords in the song title. After all, there are different dancers and common places to dance

• Songs titles with dancer(s), dances, a specific dancer (as ballerina) or compound words including dance
  • (EX) Dancehall is an acceptable compound word,but happy dance is not acceptable because it is not a compound word.
  • Exception: dancehall, dance hall, dance-hall, dancefloor, dance-floor, and dance floor are acceptable – but this exception is not applicable to other compound words
• Dances refers to the actual word, not a specific type of dance
• New addition: Ballroom will be accepted

Production Note
To prevent browsers crashing from loading too many videos, please 1) include the song title and artist in your text, and 2) paste the URL as part of your last line (not a new line). The latter will provide a link, thus not embed the actual video … but I don’t mind unembedding, so apologies are not necessary.

Special Note: Next week’s Act 4 will be tricky, so plan ahead by visiting the Hear Ye page, then (if needed) ask questions.

Announcement
For opening acts, we at aFa Productions tend to go with classic artists or surprises. This time, even we surprised ourselves with our choice. Then again, this was a chance to demonstrate the exception in the rules. The date was 1984, so some in the audience may recall this group from watching the early days of MTV. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Wang Chung to the stage with Dance Hall Days.