How to do the dirty bird dance
Jamal Anderson on Atlanta Falcons Dirty Bird Dance – Rolling Stone
For a guy who’s probably taken countless knocks to the head, Jamal Anderson’s memory is nothing short of photographic. Well, at least when it comes to football, specifically the Atlanta Falcons 1998 season. The team finished 14-2 and won the NFC Championship, a run spearheaded by Anderson, who at 410 carries (still good for second all-time) and 1,846 yards had one the single-greatest statistical outputs for a running back in league history.
What Anderson recalls most about the team and his performance doesn’t have to do with the gaudy numbers. OK, sure, he gets extra chatty when he’s reeling off stats about the team’s defensive line aka the “Bomb Squad” leading the league in sacks, Jesse Tuggle earning his nickname as the “Hammer” or the Eugene Robinson and Ray Buchanan-led secondary helping the Falcons dominate in the forced turnover category. Heck, ESPN called dubbed them, “The Best Falcons Team Ever. ”
However, any story from Anderson about the Falcons post-1998 typically starts and ends with his famous end zone dance, the “Dirty Bird.”
“When I got here it was Georgia this, Georgia that,” he says referencing the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team, the unofficial kings of the sport in the state. “I was like how do we turn this into something where everybody’s proud of the Falcons like that?”
Granted the team was 7-9 the season before, and had only two winnings campaigns in the decade leading up the ’98 squad, but Anderson and the boys felt there was something different about this group. “We just had a bunch of dudes who could play and had personality,” he says.
Soon the personality got a name.
It was after a Week 4 thrashing of the Carolina Panthers at home in the Georgia Dome. As the players headed out to their cars, just below a bridge with fans passing by, a man called down to Anderson and a few of his teammates.
“There was a guy at the top, screaming down, ‘That’s them Dirty Birds! That’s them Dirty Birds,” he says of the name’s inception.
“We get back Monday for watching film and everybody was like, ‘Yo, did you hear that guy?!’ It was the first time we had really heard it. We took to it. It was an attitude and in the way he was saying it was like, ‘Yeah, that’s how you play.”
What followed was the dance; an idea Anderson says initially came to him during his college years at the University of Utah. It was there that he and some other players who often wore Ralph Lauren Polo shirts decided to call themselves, the “‘Lo Crew.” As part of the ‘Lo Crew, Anderson would often do a motion spreading both arms out, leading with his elbows and mimicking a bird flapping its wings. His goal was to bring a similar treatment to this Dirty Bird the team created, and he’d do it every time he scored.
The next game, a primetime Sunday Night Football matchup against the New York Giants in Week 6, Anderson didn’t score. A week later, in a win at home against the New Orleans Saints Anderson broke free of a few tackles, busted down the side of the field, a Saints’ safety tried to push him out of bounds and he dove and put the ball on the inside pile-on.
He immediately jumped up, and started flapping his wings, thus the first public instance of the Dirty Bird was born. By Week 11, a winning effort against Steve Young’s San Francisco 49ers, Anderson had perfected the dance.
The fans ate it up. The team had an identity, a badass nickname and dance craze in a city known for creating dance crazes like the “Yeek!” and “Bankhead Bounce.”
The timing couldn’t have been better. The onset of Atlanta’s future hip-hop dominance was taking shape. OutKast had released their classic third album, Aquemini. Super producer Jermaine Dupri, who had dropped his Life in 1472 album that summer, was constant presence around the team. Anderson even recalls booking Ludacris, then a local radio DJ named Chris Lova Lova, for a gig performing at the Madden Bowl. As far as the Falcons were concerned, the nickname and corresponding dance fit in perfectly with Atlanta’s musical zeitgeist.
“It was so Atlanta,” he remembers. “For people who had access to football it just took off.”
In fact the dance’s viral nature had spread to New England in a road matchup with the Patriots at Foxboro Stadium weeks later. Anderson, who grew up a fan of Jim Brown and Marcus Allen, shared their ideology of not celebrating on opposing fields, so he told himself the Dirty Bird was off-limits. The Falcons obliterated the Patriots 41-10, and Anderson even had two touchdowns. However, he left his dancing shoes at home, and it was the opposing crowd’s response to its absence that floored him.
“The crowd in Foxboro was like, ‘Booooo, do the Dirty Bird,'” and I was like, ‘What?!’ Then [tight end] O.J. Santiago scored and he started doing it and he started squawking like a bird and that’s the one that made it everywhere.”
Like the team that bore its name the Dirty Bird dance was a surprise hit. The team’s dream run ended with John Elway winning his second consecutive Super Bowl and riding off into the sunset to retirement.
The Dirty Bird gave way to headlines of Robinson trying to solicit a prostitute who turned out to be undercover cop the night before the game in Miami. Reports that the team morale was down over their concern for the dynamic free safety led some to believe it was the hype and distractions of the Super Bowl weeklong buildup that doomed the Falcons.
“Eugene’s deal was such a weird, isolated deal. We lost to the team,” Anderson says. “What happened with Eugene, did it affect him or cause something to happen with the game? I don’t know. We as a team didn’t do enough. It wasn’t like we could point to Eugene as the sole reason we lost.”
The next year, the Falcons went 5-11. They wouldn’t have another winning season again until 2002, a year after Anderson retired. Anderson remembers his final year in 2001 being Michael Vick’s rookie season. A career-ending MCL injury would see to it that the two never played a full season together, but Anderson says he’ll never forget what he saw as the single-greatest individual talent in NFL history.
“Before Vick, I didn’t seriously think we could have a player who could have a Jordan-esque effect on football,” he says.
Fast-forward through the high and lows of the Vick era, and you arrive at the current Matt Ryan campaign. There are a lot of similarities to Coach Dan Quinn’s bunch and the original Dirty Birds led by Dan Reeves. Neither team was thought to be a Super Bowl contender at the start of the season. The ’98 squad beat mighty Minnesota Vikings Hall of Fame quarterback Randal Cunningham and a young Randy Moss to reach the Super Bowl. The current Falcons made easy work of future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers to land their spot in the Big Game. Anderson’s team went up against arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. Ryan’s team is up against arguably the greatest quarterback of all time.
Anderson says it’s “frustrating” being a Falcons fan after so much promise, disappointment and scandal over the years but he feels as though things have changed for the better.
He sees his ’98 team and the current roster as success stories that could’ve only come from Atlanta. Even in 2017, the Dirty Bird both offers a sense of nostalgia while embracing a future that includes a new stadium, franchise quarterback hitting his stride and a football-loving city finally having a team that wins.
It’s like Anderson has seen it all before, every single detail.
“When all the stuff happened and we started turning the corner, we started rolling and the Dirty Bird took off – it was all meant to be here,” he says of Atlanta. “What happened couldn’t have happened anywhere else.”
Falcons are known for “Dirty Bird” dance, Vick and a title drought — Inside The Hashes
Team History: Falcons are known for “Dirty Bird” dance, Vick and a title droughtThe year 1966 was a great one for sports in Atlanta. The Braves played their first season after moving from Milwaukee and professional football came to the city as well.
Commissioner Pete Rozelle awarded a franchise to Life Insurance Company of Georgia executive Rankin M.
Smith Sr. on June 30, 1965. Smith held a contest to name the team and the name Falcons was on 41 entries. One of the other choices was Thrashers, which was used for Atlanta’s NHL expansion team in 1999-2000.
The team’s first coach was a tougher decision. Candidates included former Oklahoma coach Charles “Bud” Wilkinson and Arkansas coach Frank Broyles from the college ranks. Professional choices included former 49ers coach Howard “Red” Hickey, current Browns coach Paul Brown and Packers great Vince Lombardi. After all of them declined, Smith hired Norb Hecker, the defensive backs coach under Lombardi in Green Bay.
Atlanta had a chance to select players from other teams in the Expansion Draft. Leading rusher Junior Coffey and top receiver Alex Hawkins were chosen among picks. In the NFL Draft, the Falcons selected linebacker Tommy Nobis first overall and also took cornerback Ken Reaves in the fourth round.
The club went 3-11 in 1966, tying a record for most victories by an NFL expansion team.
A disappointing 1-12-1 season followed, and after an 0-3 start in 1968, Hecker was fired. He was replaced by Hall of Fame quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, who was the first coach in Vikings history.
Atlanta steadily improved thanks to the additions of fullbacks James “Cannonball” Butler, Dave Hampton and tight end Jim Mitchell. The Falcons finished 7-6-1 in 1971 for their first winning season and were second in the NFC West the following year.
In 1973, Atlanta went 9-5 and finished a game behind Washington for the Wild Card spot in the NFC. The Falcons won 62-7 over the Saints in their opening game and used a seven-game win streak in the middle of the season to post their best record to date. Nobis and Reaves were joined on defense by Pro Bowl end Claude Humphrey and John Zook.
The Falcons sunk to 3-11 the following year. Van Brocklin was fired mid-season and replaced by defensive coordinator Marion Campbell. The club selected quarterback Steve Bartkowski with the first pick in the 1975 Draft and Hampton ran for 1,002 yards, but Atlanta had back-to-back 4-10 seasons.
Leeman Bennett became a head coach in 1977. He was a receiver coach for a Rams team that went to three NFC Championship Games in four seasons. Although the Falcons went 7-7, the “Grits Blitz” defense gave up only 129 points in 14 games, an average of 9.2 per game, which is still an NFL record.
In 1978, Bartkowski and Mitchell were joined by running back Haskel Stanback and the receiver tandem of Alfred Jenkins and Wallace Francis. The Falcons went 9-7 and made the playoffs for the first time. Philadelphia had a two-score lead in the Wild Card game, but Bartkowski threw fourth-quarter touchdown passes to Mitchell and Francis, and Atlanta came back to win, 14-13. The Falcons had a halftime lead in the Division round, but Scott Laidlaw’s second touchdown run early in the fourth quarter gave the Cowboys a 27-20 victory.
After a 6-10 record the following year, Atlanta set a new franchise-best with a 12-4 mark and won their first division title in 1980. The Falcons were up 24-10 on the Cowboys after three quarters, but Danny White threw three touchdown passes, including two in the fourth, and Dallas once again emerged victorious, this time by a 30-27 score.
Two years later, the Falcons went 5-4 in the strike-shortened season and won another division championship. Bob Glazebrook’s interception return gave the Falcons a 21-13 advantage, but quarterback Tommy Kramer led the Vikings to a 30-24 comeback win.
Despite having a winning record, Bennett was dismissed after the loss. Atlanta endured seven straight losing seasons. Four came with former Redskins offensive coordinator Dan Henning on the bench and Campbell returned for the other three.
Former Falcons defensive coordinator and “Grits Blitz” originator Jerry Glanville took over in 1990, but that was not the only major change with the franchise. Smith, who had owned the club since the beginning, gave control over to his son, Taylor.
On the field, Atlanta went 5-11, but made the playoffs for the first time in nine years after posting a 10-6 record in 1991. Glanville’s “Red Gun” offense led to quarterback Chris Miller and receiver Andre Rison (along with cornerback Deion Sanders) making the Pro Bowl.
After winning a tiebreaker, the Falcons took on the Saints in the Wild Card round.
With the game tied late, Miller found Michael Haynes on a slant and Haynes raced 61 yards for a touchdown. Tim McKyer intercepted New Orleans quarterback Bobby Hebert to preserve the 27-20 victory. Atlanta lost to the Redskins, 24-7, in the Division game.
A pair of 6-10 seasons cost Glanville his job, including 1992, when the team moved into the newly built Georgia Dome. Glanville was replaced by the offensive coordinator and former Falcons quarterback June Jones. Atlanta went to the playoffs in 1995 but fell to former Falcons draft pick Brett Favre and the Packers, 37-20, in the Wild Card round.
Jones lasted just three years and Dan Reeves took over in 1997. Reeves was a running back with the Cowboys, then was an assistant in Dallas. He spent 12 seasons as head coach of the Broncos and then four leading the Giants before coming to Atlanta.
The Falcons went 7-9 in Reeves’ first year, then set their current record for wins with a 14-2 season in 1998.
Quarterback Chris Chandler, running back Jamal Anderson and receivers Terance Mathis and Tony Martin starred on offense and linebacker Jessie Tuggle, cornerback Ray Buchanan and safety Eugene Robinson made the Pro Bowl.
During the season, the “Dirty Bird” became a popular thing in the Georgia Dome. Anderson, the dance’s originator, had plenty of chances to flap his bent arms like wings that season since he ran for 1,846 yards and 14 touchdowns.
After starting 5-2, Atlanta ran off nine straight victories to end the regular season. However, the Vikings took home-field advantage with a 15-1 mark. The Falcons got two Anderson touchdown runs and two Morten Andersen field goals in a 20-18 win over the 49ers to set up a showdown between the league’s two best teams.
Minnesota kept Anderson out of the end zone, but one mistake by the Vikings proved costly. Gary Anderson, who hadn’t missed a kick all season, pushed a 38-yard attempt wide left with 2:07 remaining. The Falcons capitalized, with Chandler finding Mathis on a 16-yard pass with 57 seconds left for his third scoring pass of the game.
Atlanta won, 30-27, on Morten Andersen’s 38-yard field goal in overtime.
The Falcons had to contend with the defending champion Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII. Andersen kicked two field goals, but John Elway had Denver up, 17-6, at the half. Atlanta had four turnovers and two more Broncos scores early in the fourth put the game out of reach. Following an Elway touchdown run, Tim Dwight returned the kickoff 94 yards for a score and Chandler found Mathis with a pass, but the Broncos held on for a 34-19 victory. Elway threw for 336 yards and a touchdown to earn game MVP honors.
Atlanta failed to make the playoffs over the next three seasons, and soon more changes were coming at the top. In February 2002, Taylor Smith sold the team to Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank for $545 million. The Falcons went 9-6-1 and made the playoffs behind quarterback Michael Vick and running back Warrick Dunn. They knocked off the Packers before falling to the Eagles in the Division round.
In 2003, Vick broke his leg and the team fell apart. Reeves was fired with three games left in the season. The next year, the Falcons hired Jim Mora Jr., the former offensive coordinator in San Francisco and the son of a longtime NFL coach.
Mora’s first season with the club was special. Vick was joined in the Pro Bowl by tight end Alge Crumpler, defensive end Patrick Kerney, linebacker Keith Brooking and return man Allen Rossum. The Falcons went 11-5 and won the NFC South, then dominated the Rams, 47-17, before losing to the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, 27-10.
Atlanta missed the playoffs in Mora’s final two years. The 2007 season was a lost campaign. Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison and was suspended indefinitely by the NFL for his involvement in a dogfighting ring in Virginia. Former Louisville coach Bobby Petrino resigned after only 13 games, and Thomas Dimitroff replaced Rich McKay as general manager after the team posted a 4-12 record.
In 2008, the Falcons hired former Jaguars defensive coordinator Mike Smith and drafted Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan in the first round.
Ryan led a formidable offense that included running back Michael Turner and wide receiver Roddy White. Atlanta had winning records in Smith’s first five seasons and made the playoffs four times.
The Falcons had an NFC-best 13-3 record in 2010 but gave up 48 points to the Packers in a Division round loss. Two years later, they matched that mark and tied the Broncos for the best record in the NFL.
Atlanta went up 27-7 against Seattle in the Division game, but the Seahawks stormed back to take a 28-27 lead with 31 seconds remaining. Ryan completed two clutch passes to set up Matt Bryant’s 48-yard field goal with eight seconds left and the Falcons won, 30-28. The drive showed the composure that earned Ryan his “Matty Ice” nickname.
Ryan threw three touchdown passes to give Atlanta a 24-14 halftime lead in the 2012 NFC Championship Game, but Frank Gore ran for 90 yards and two second-half scores as San Francisco came back to win, 28-24.
Two losing years followed and Mike Smith was fired after the 2014 season.
He was replaced by Dan Quinn, the former coordinator of the “Legion of Boom” defense in Seattle. Atlanta’s 50th season ended with an 8-8 mark, but the club ended an 18-year Super Bowl drought in 2016.
The Falcons went 11-5 and won the South for the fourth time. Ryan was the league MVP, receiver Julio Jones and linebacker Vic Beasley joined Ryan as All-Pros, and Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman were a formidable backfield pair. Atlanta knocked off Quinn’s former team the Seahawks in the Division round, and Ryan threw for 392 yards and four touchdowns in a win over the Packers in the NFC Championship Game.
Freeman opened up Super Bowl LI with a score, Robert Alford returned an interception 82 yards for another and Ryan threw two touchdown passes to give the Falcons a 28-3 advantage midway through the third quarter. However, the Patriots chipped away at the lead. Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes and James White scored twice, including a one-yard run with 57 seconds left.
Brady found Danny Amendola with the two-point conversion pass to tie the score.
New England won the overtime coin toss and Brady led his team on a nine-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with White’s one-yard run for his third touchdown of the game. Brady was the MVP after throwing for 466 yards, a record he broke the following year.
Quinn is back for his fifth season in 2019. Coleman went to San Francisco, but Ryan still has plenty of weapons. Freeman takes over as the lead rusher and Jones is part of a trio of solid receivers that also includes Mohamed Sanu and Calvin Ridley. The defense is led by Beasley, linebacker Deion Jones, cornerback Desmond Trufant, and safety Damontae Kazee, who tied for the NFL lead with seven interceptions last year.
-By: Kevin Rakas
Experts spoke about the appropriateness of dancing on September 1 of a teacher from Khabarovsk - Moscow 24, 09/03/2021
September 03, 2021, 18:59
Regions The video of her performance went viral on the Internet and caused a public outcry.
The city's Department of Education considered the number inappropriate and organized an internal audit. The teacher herself said that she did not want to offend anyone, but on the contrary, she tried to please. We are investigating whether her performance can be considered inappropriate for the status.
Photo: Podyom telegram channel
Didn't fit into the format
A video was circulated on social networks showing a performance by a choreography teacher from Khabarovsk, Yulia Marchenko, dedicated to September 1st. On Knowledge Day, at a solemn line in one of the schools, the teacher decided to perform the belly dance "Bird of Happiness" for children in an oriental costume to the song "Wings" by the group "Nautilus Pompilius".
The girl's number, especially her outfit, caused heated debate among the public. As a result, the city's education department decided to look into the issue and began an internal audit against the director and employees. This was stated in the press service of the city administration.
Of course, such a performance by a young teacher-teacher of additional education in dance, which was his personal initiative with the idea of a bird of happiness, is unacceptable and inappropriate at a holiday dedicated to the Day of Knowledge.
Tatyana Matveenkova
Head of the Department of Education of the Administration of Khabarovsk
Tatyana Matveenkova also added that the incident called into question the concept of educational work at the school, and apologized for the decision of the leadership of the educational institution to organize such a performance.
Yulia Marchenko later apologized for her belly dance performance on the line. The video with her appeal was published by the city administration on its page on the VKontakte social network.
"I want to sincerely apologize to the children, parents, grandparents and all those in whom my performance caused some negative emotions, misunderstanding, bewilderment," the teacher said.
With my creative number, depicting a bird of happiness, I did not want to offend anyone and offend your feelings, I wanted to bring you joy. And now I understand that my image turned out to be too scenic and did not fit into the format of the event dedicated to the September 1 holiday.
Yulia Marchenko
additional education teacher from Khabarovsk
At the same time, the girl explained that her outfit, which had the most questions, was actually not so revealing: it was flesh-colored and completely closed. The impression of a naked body was created due to the glare of the sun, Marchenko added.
According to the teacher, she repeatedly performed with this number, including at city events. In the future, the teacher promised to take into account the format of events when preparing stage numbers.
Photo: Khabarovsk TV channel
No reason to worry?
The chairman of the Association of Parents' Committees and Communities, Olga Letkova, in an interview with Moscow 24, said that she did not see anything in the speech of the teacher from Khabarovsk that would deserve blame.
"Of course, the school administration must ensure that children come into contact with moral things, so that the school does not emit anything that could be reprehensible. But the belly dance in the form in which it was performed by the teacher is just a classic. She, I'm sorry, I didn't dance around the pole," the expert said.
I see no reason to worry here. Everything is absolutely within the bounds of decency. If we limit the school to such an extent, the children, on the contrary, will protest, seeing this hypocrisy and puritanism. Morality must be monitored, but here, I believe, it has not suffered at all.
Olga Letkova
Chairman of the Association of Parents' Committees and Communities
In turn, psychologist Andrey Zberovsky is also sure that it is not worth "arranging a psychosis" because of what happened. At the same time, according to the expert, this is not a reason to perform belly dance in all schools in the country.
"Everything should be appropriate. If everything was quite decent there, then I don't see anything disgusting or immoral in belly dancing," said the psychologist.
According to Zberovsky, a teacher should give children a certain example of male and female behavior. "For example, a feminine teacher who can show the beauty and plasticity of dance. This is not a striptease, but the same dance as a waltz, square dance or something else," he added.
No need to poison her, kick her out. It's just a question of the appropriateness of this dance itself on September 1, nothing more. In any school there are amateur performances, holidays, congratulations, teachers put on some numbers, skits, dress up as some characters.
Andrey Zberovsky
psychologist
The psychologist suggested that this situation is unlikely to affect the teacher's reputation and authority in any way, since an opinion is also formed based on a person's professionalism and moral qualities.
Soboleva Ilona
education regions
Keep the rhythm: Remembering films with impressive dances: okkomovies — LiveJournal
Okko will soon premiere Suspiria, a remake of the legendary horror film by Dario Argento. We wrote about it before and warned that, among other things, in this film you will find one of the most impressive dance cinema scenes - the dance of death, as it is.
In anticipation of Luca Gaudagnino's painting, we recall other episodes of dancing and movies about dancing. But! no musicals.
The Black Swan, dir. D. Aronofsky
Classical ballet is, of course, a separate topic for conversation: when you start telling a story about it, the conversation is not limited to dancing. The Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky is also not limited to dancing, formally a psychological thriller about the path to the main role of Swan Lake by one cute ballerina, in fact, a psychothriller about how a person tortures himself at his favorite job.
But actually - a collection of favorite fetishes directed by Darren Aronofoska, where modest and slutty ballerinas meet in the dressing rooms and restrooms of the ballet theater and exchange underwear.
At the same time, Tchaikovsky, of course, there is also a lot here, there is also a central solo part from a classical ballet - however, here it does not so much perform a culminating function, but turns this bright, kitsch, excellent film into a farce: the artist Portman's knees turn out in the opposite direction and wings grow.
But wings are wings, and few thrillers about emotions at work are so captivating.
Watch Black Swan
Dancing as art
Pina: Dance of Passion, dir. W. Wenders
The Oscar-nominated documentary about a German dancer and choreographer, directed by Wim Wenders, began filming when its main character, Pina Bausch, was still alive. The film ended after her death. Moreover, the concept of the picture has changed - Wenders was impressed that Pina's work is alive and her productions continue to be staged, and the parts are performed - and he made a special emphasis on the undying dance.
Bausch has always been close to cinema — her productions were often filmed, or she immediately put on performances with the thought of future filming (for example, The Rite of Spring, ballet film 1978th, or "Contact Zones, Ladies and Gentlemen over 65", based on her performance).
The film "Pina" for director Wenders ranks not only with his documentaries, but also with the film "Lightning Over Water", in which he depicted the death of Nicholas Ray. There is an attempt to capture the arrival of death itself, here is how art continues to live even after the death of its creator.
Watch Pina: Dance of Passion
Dancer, dir. S. di Giusto
Supplemented with fictional beautiful stories (such as the recitation of "Salome" with the head of a rabbit in her hands), the biography of the dancer Loya Fuller is her debut film. But its director was not afraid to make the picture overly emotional, built on contrasts, not shying away from frankly boulevard drama.
As a result, the film about the inventor of modern dance turned out to be bright without measure and sensual, like Fuller herself. By the way, she is played by indie musician Stephanie Sokolinsky, and the role of her romantic interest and colleague Isadora Duncan went to Lily-Rose Depp, for whom this film also became a debut.
Watch "Dancer"
Dancer, dir. S. Kantor
Another documentary, this time about 27-year-old ballet dancer Sergei Polunin.
At first it seems that this is a classic documentary: a chronological sequence of presentation, talking heads, cuts from interviews and speeches. But gradually, learning the details of the history of his path to success and the current view of the world, we understand that in fact this is the story of a road to nowhere. What are the reasons - in a poor Kherson childhood, a broken personality, early glory (at 19years he became the main star of the London Royal Ballet) or that he is an outsider, like Camus, we do not know.
But the young genius, who received a quick recognition, how can he be banally happy?
Watch "Dancer"
Striptease as a drama
Showgirls, dir. P. Verhoeven
A turning point, disastrous, great (yes, there will be a lot of adjectives in this text) film by a great director Paul Verhoeven with a difficult fate. At 19In the 95th they even tried to sell it as trash - unsuccessfully, at that moment no one liked the film. Now it has finally gained cult status.
The main character, former prostitute and stripper Nomi, gets what she thinks is a big chance to take off and joins a dance show troupe. Her new work, like the previous one, exploits sexuality - the show has more to do with striptease than classical dance. But ambitions and battles for superiority are unfolding there seriously.
Nomi sees herself as a talented dancer, but she is rather diligent. And several key dance scenes in her performance fascinate not with skill, but with anguish: when she performs on stage among expensive, bad-tasting scenery or when she performs a private dance in front of the hero of Kyle MacLachlan.
Magic Mike, dir. S. Soderbergh / Magic Mike XXL, dir. G. Jacobs
In the first part of the production drama about strippers, where Steven Soderbergh acted as both director and cameraman, dancing competed with drama, melodrama, languor and doubt for the viewer's attention. The second, where Soderbergh left the director's post and took up only shooting and editing, was apparently filmed only for dancing.
No story here pulls the blanket over itself, these are pure dance performances, united by a common plot, but only for the sake of form. In the first part, there was only dancing on the stage - a military-themed general number, Channing Tatum's solo performance in a basketball cap, Alex Pettyfer's shamefaced debut under ''Like a Virgin'. In the second dance will be mixed with action and the film will turn into a musical. Here it costs nothing for Tatum-Mike, grinding a chair in a furniture workshop, to start dancing when the squeaky track "Pony" from Ginuwine starts playing.
Watch Magic Mike XXL
Dirty Dancing and its Aftermath
Dirty Dancing, dir. E. Ardolino
Of course, where is the beloved melodrama with Patrick Swayze, which was seriously and jokingly quoted by all and sundry, as the simple story itself, as well as the final dance with the same support.
In the script, the standard story based on a girl from a good family and a guy with an obscene lifestyle was eclipsed by rehearsals and dancing. Thanks to this, the film turned out not to be a collection of melodramatic clichés, but focused on everyday work on the way to the goal, even if this work is diluted with a fair amount of romance.
Watch "Dirty Dancing"
My boyfriend is crazy, dir. D. O. Russell
It's basically Dirty Dancing in reverse. In some ways, David O. Russell's romantic comedy garnered a slew of Oscar nominations in 2012 and turned the vanilla story of Baby and Johnny inside out.
Here, an honors student turns into a slightly crazy and very talkative Tiffany, a rowdy playboy dancer, into a loser Pat, a former teacher who spent eight months in a psychiatric hospital for beating his wife's lover. There is also a dance competition. But Pat and Tiffany know very well that they dance badly. They diligently rehearse, of course, they do the same support, but dance for them is not a matter of life, but a means of communication. It’s hard for them to have an ordinary conversation, all conversations turn into hysterics, while in dance there is a chance to understand each other at least a little - finally in silence.
By the way, Lawrence, surprisingly enough, recently played the role of a professional ballerina in the retro spy film Red Sparrow.
Watch My Boyfriend Is a Crazy
Step Up / Various parts and directors
Another film based on Dirty Dancing, another work by top Hollywood dancer Channing Tatum.
But from the five-part franchise, Tatum quickly left. Gradually, a semblance of dramatic intensity also disappeared from the scripts, only beautiful girls and boys remained (curiously, they are different in each new film), who want to win the competition, and therefore dance a lot and provocatively.
The first film was a mixture of all the clichéd plot lines from classic dance melodramas - a rich girl and a poor boy, an excellent student and a bully, general doubts about his ability to improve, and he is very capable - but only until he sees a girl next to him other boys. And, of course, the same support again. Because it works!
Watch Step Up
Episodes and Classics
Napoleon Dynamite, dir. J. Hess
The indie comedy, named after boots, shot in three weeks and almost legendary, ends with a crazy dance scene that perfectly characterizes the film itself and speaks eloquently about the losers and the language of dance.
It's funny that the script didn't even have this scene at first, and Jared Hess added it after learning that the lead actor, John Heder, loves to dance. On the set, Hyder improvised without preparing the number in advance. Moreover, three versions of the dance were filmed, since no one was sure which song they could get the rights to. Hess says Jamiroquai's track "Canned Heat" cost the crew about half of the budget. When the scene was added to the film, the producers insisted that the picture should end with her.
Watch Napoleon Dynamite
Foxtrot, dir. S. Maoz
The Israeli director's anti-war drama is not only titled as a dance, but twice uses dance to control the audience's perception.
First - to bring us down from the heights of emotional intensity. In the first seconds of the film, the parents learn that their son died in the army. The drama heats up, emotions do not weaken for a second, we feel the tragedy in every element of the frame.
But in an instant everything breaks off - from the stuffy room in which we spent half an hour with the heroes, we are suddenly transported to a sunny deserted road. There, a young man in military uniform dances hotly with a rifle to cassette music (look).
The second dance will be different - it will no longer throw the audience's perception, but will continue the melancholy of humility. Foxtrot is a kind of characteristic dance, but its language can express different things.
Watch Foxtrot
The Outsiders, dir. J.-L. Godard
One of the most popular films of the cinema master Godard, which he shot in the 60s, in his first and most audience period. Existential and criminal history a little bit about ménage à trois, a little bit about a robbery. Here is the main thing that Godard loves (well, he loved in the 60s), a gun and a girl, as well as a run around the Louvre and a legendary dance in a cafe. Among others, hello to this dance sends Hal Hartley in "Common People".
Eight and a half, dir. F. Fellini
There are two famous dances in Fellini's great film - the one quoted by Tarantino in Pulp Fiction, and, of course, the final round dance of two hundred actors. It's funny that the famous final scene was not the director's original intention, but was filmed at the request of the producers - something was needed to announce the picture. But Fellini himself was so impressed by the resulting episode that, in his opinion, this parade of shadow-images reflects not only the ideas of "8 and a half", but also his own work.
Watch 8 and a Half
The Seventh Seal, dir. I. Bergman
Dance Macabre, or dance of death, at the end of Bergman's The Seventh Seal is a logical conclusion to the picture, which takes place in the Middle Ages. Bergman's vision fits into the great tradition of depicting death, which, in a wild dance, takes away whoever it wants.
There is an impressive amount of dancing in movies.
