How to do the thiller dance
ThrillerNYC
ThrillerNYC2022 Village Halloween Parade
We are thrilled to invite new dancers (virgins) and old dancers (vets) back to the graveyard this year!
We will resume indoor rehearsals to teach you the dance and bring all zombies together in Central Park for one final outdoor rehearsal. We can't wait to taste...ahem...see you soon.
'Cause this is Thriller
Since 2004, we have celebrated our combined love of gore and Michael Jackson by performing the infamous Thriller dance in the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. We are between 17 and a million years old, and our dance experience ranges from novice to professional. We eat brains, grrrrrrrrrowl and bite, but most importantly, we boogie.
This Halloween, leave your mundane human life behind and transform into a rotting, dancing cadaver. After studio rehearsals, outdoor practices in Central Park, and zombie makeup lessons, you'll be hungering for brains in no time.
Learn The Dance
After several restless months clamoring in our coffins, we are pretty stiff. Time to practice the choreography so we don't fall apart out there.
Zombie Bouncers
Have you been decaying too long and don't think you can hobble fast enough for the dance? We have a limited number of zombie bouncer positions available.
Our living spectators often get so excited by our group that they want to join in. We don't want them distracting our zombies with their delicious brains, so it will be up to you to keep them at bay. If you are interested in becoming a zombie bouncer, contact [email protected].
With the ThrillerNYC group, we made it our mission to keep Michael and one of his greatest accomplishments alive.
Makeda DavisHis legend will always live on as the best entertainer to grace this planet.
Schedule
-
Sunday, October 23
–Indoor Rehearsal
Ballroom Hub
410-412 8th Ave, NYCMasks encouraged
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Sunday, October 30
–Outdoor Rehearsal
Naumburg Bandshell
Central Park, NYC -
Halloween Parade
Meeting point and details TBD
Registration
Happy Halloween! Here's your step-by-step guide to the 'Thriller' dance
It’s officially Mischief Night, and you know that means: pranks galore, costume-prep, spooky movie marathons, and my personal favorite pre-Halloween tradition—the Thriller dance!
If you’re like me (and everyone but Michael Jackson) trying to learn the Thriller dance was tough.
While there’s nothing quite like mimicking the video, sometimes it helps to have a few written directions. Ready to get your zombie on? Here’s a step-by-step guide to the Thriller dance–or at least, the important parts.
Pre-Dance: Spooky Lurking
If you’re dancing along to the video, you’re going to have some time to kill. While Vincent Price is saying, “darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. . .” this is your cue to walk around hauntingly. Once Michael changes into the walking dead and the beat picks up, begin the dance.
Step 1: Werewolf Marching
-To achieve Michael’s signature walk, start out with short abrupt steps forward, and use your right shoulder to ‘scratch an itch’ in your right ear on the beat. Do this four times (8 counts).
-Then, make your steps forward wider, and sink into them on the beats, bouncing your booty in the process. You should have your arms stiffly outstretched in front of you at low diagonals, as if trying to ward off encroaching evils.
Repeat four times (another 8 counts).
-Then make your steps forward more like a shuffle: slide the feet forward a bit, push the arms up and out into a small arch, while tossing the head back. Hands should be overly werewolfish, at this point. Do this twice on both sides (8 counts).
If you’re feeling confident, you can now add the following walk sequence:
-Quickly shuffle to the right twice, shuffle backwards to the left once, pop your hip to the right, grab your belt buckle, and do three pelvic thrusts.
If you aren’t ready for this move, go straight from you Zombie Walk into a stationary version of Michael’s famed pelvic thrust. (8 counts).
Step 2: Thriller Slide
-The base of the Thriller dance starts with a big clap in the air, with the right hip popped. As you bring the arms down, let the right leg slide down into a Spiderman-like stance. Transition through a deep squat, then use your force to push yourself back up to standing, and into another clap in the air.
Bring the arms down, shrug the shoulders, and look quickly to the right. Repeat on the left side. (This should take about 8 counts for each side, but keep the beat of the music).
Step 3: Evil Scurry
-You’re then going to gleefully shuffle off to find your next meal, as you have now fully transitioned from werewolf-ish creature to flesh-craving zombie. For the technical folks, the steps should go left, right, left-left-left, right, left, right-right-right. Hands are, of course, out in front of you like the undead. (Do this 8 counts and come to a stop).
Step 4: Zombie Shuffle (Chorus! Hang with me folks, because it’s about to get serious.)
The ‘zombie shuffle’ is the root of the thriller dance. Learn this sequence, and you’ll be dancing to “‘Cause this is THRILLLLLLLERRRRR!” all night long.
-Turn to the right and, with your zombie hands up, rock back and forth to the right for 4 counts, then switch sides and do it to the left for 1 count.
Step back on the right foot, and lean and shake to the right. Drag the left foot to the right foot, reach the right arm out (presumably to grab a human snack), then do the move back on the left side.
-Then, turn to the side, raise the arms up in iconic Thriller creature fashion and walk 3 counts in one direction. Then quickly alternate your zombie hands to the opposite side and back again, then change directions and repeat the move. (This should take 10 counts, so try to make it as fluid as possible).
-From here, plant your feet, swing the arms up above and around you in a big, sweeping motion, then mummy shake down to a flat back, then up again (feet don’t move).
Step 5: Monster Crawl
From here, crouch down to a squat, plant the hands on the knees, and pivot in a circle around the right foot, allowing the left foot to drag behind for 7 counts. On the 8th count, look back over your shoulder. Then, staying in a low squat, Monster Crawl forward with the hands on the knees for 8 counts.
After this, walk forward like the undead for 16 counts, then repeat the Thriller slide, the Zombie Shuffle, and the Monster Crawl a bunch of times like you know what you’re doing! Congrats, girl! You’re like, basically MJ’s backup dancer. . .
Happy Halloween!
(Images via gifsoup, youtube)
Thriller - frwiki.wiki
For articles of the same name, see Thriller.
Thriller is the music video for the song Thriller by Michael Jackson, taken from the album of the same name. Directed by John Landis, written by Landis and Jackson. It first aired on December 2, 1983.
Over an unusual period of 14 minutes, the clip was filmed on 35 mm at the Palace Theater in downtown Los Angeles at the intersection of Union Pacific Avenue and South Street Calzona in East Los Angeles and in the Angeleno Heights area at 1345 Carroll Avenue. He helped make Thriller on the best-selling album in history.
He is credited with turning the video clip into a visual art form in its own right. Thanks to his success, and that of the clips for Billie Jean and Beat It released a few months ago, Michael Jackson will become the first African-American artist to be aired as much on MTV, which will promote the largest distribution of black artists to the channel. thereafter.
Library of Congress described Thriller as the "most famous music video of all time" and it has been named the greatest music video of all time by various publications and reader polls. In 2009, it became the first music video to be inducted into the National Film Registry due to its "significant cultural, historical, or aesthetic value". Its success also solidified Michael Jackson in his status as a pop culture icon.
Michael Jackson contacted John Landis after watching his film Werewolf of London (1981). The duo wanted to create a short film with a much larger budget than music videos of the time.
Jackson's record company, Epic Records, did not put too much money into the project, not finding it necessary to spend more money when the Thriller album was already selling very well. The documentary The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller was filmed and then distributed on VHS in order to cover the costs of the project. It was also a success as the VHS became the top selling music video upon release.
CV
- 1 Summary
- 2 Financing
- 3 Production
- 3.1 Choreography
- 3.2 Distribution
- 4 elements of horror
- 5 Exit
- 5.1 Warning message
- 6 reviews
- 7 Offspring
- 7.1 Miscellaneous
- 8 disputes
- 9 Differences
- 9.1 Grammy
- 9.2 MTV Video Music Awards
- 10 See also
- 11 Sources
- 12 External links
Synopsis
At the beginning of the clip there is no instrumental accompaniment, no sung lyrics: the background sound consists mainly of songs of frogs and nocturnal insects.
The light is scattered, the light is foggy.
It is now night. In the 1950s, a young man played by Michael Jackson, of the same name, was riding in a car with a young girl in the woods when it suddenly broke down. Moments later, the couple are walking, strolling casually, enjoying a mild evening. Sharing love with each other, they embrace each other. Michael gives his partner a ring, which he puts on her finger.
While the young man is confessing to his friend that he is "different" and that he wants to say more, he starts muffled and distant music, more and more distressing (crescendo from low to high). We can see the moon behind the clouds. Like a theater curtain, the clouds disappear. The veil is lifted over the mystery.
When Michael gets up after a collapse for no apparent reason, he turns into a monster with yellow eyes and sharp yellowish teeth. A young woman screams, her eyes bulging, she is paralyzed with fear. As she screams, Michael's physical transformation continues: his ears become longer, pointed, and protruding; fingers lengthen and acquire sharp claws; the animal's whiskers protrude from the young man's cheek.
Shaggy and abundant hair appeared. Coming out of lethargy, the young girl begins to run through the forest. Michael, turned into a lycanthrope, roars like a lion. A chase begins between him and a young girl.
A lycanthrope howling at the moon is looking for its prey. He chases her until he is in front of her, he pushes her aside, and lying on the ground, the frightened girl watches the beast come towards her, ripping out claws and teeth, savoring her victory.
Although the murder of a young girl seems obvious, we do not visit it: we find a cinema hall filled with spectators watching a horror movie (back in the 80s). Thus, the first minutes of the clip were just a misusance, a kind of movie inside the clip. When the camera is turned towards the audience, we no longer see the film on the screen, but we can still hear the sound effects, in particular screams and ragged sounds, which suggest that the scene is very violent. This idea is supported by the indignant reactions of the audience, who are mostly frightened or outraged.
Only Michael Jackson present in the room seems to be amused by the movie he is watching and enjoying the popcorn, merrily, while the young girl who accompanies him shakes his hand in horror. The girl wants to leave, but as he protests that he likes this film, the young girl, annoyed, gets up from her seat and leaves the cinema. The young man decides to follow her.
The melody of the song starts in the following sequence. This is the entrance to the cinema, on which is written the name of the main actor of the film and the name of the film of the same name with the title of the song: "Vincent Price" and "Thriller". Michael joins his girlfriend and starts a conversation with her. They walk together in diffused foggy lighting. Michael starts to sing.
Cinema "Le Palace" in the video for thriller .
The couple walks to the edge of the cemetery without realizing it. Corpses emerge from graves or crypts without the knowledge of the couple, who walk down the street along the surrounding wall without seeing them.
When the living dead emerge from their graves, the voice of Vincent Price is heard, and only the melody accompanies them on their journey through the cemetery to join the living.
Michael Jackson, dressed as a zombie, appears in the video for Thriller .
The music suddenly stops as the zombies approach the reckless two. The couple is surrounded. Under the frightened gaze of the young lady, her companion turns into undead upon contact with creatures. Then Michael begins to dance for a long time on a deserted road, his choreography completely coincides with the choreography of the creatures in the cemetery. The girl goes to this choreography without thinking about running away. Coming out of her trance, the young woman runs towards the house, which seems abandoned. Her pursuers, including Michael, follow her, the closed door of the house being attacked by the fists of the demonic beings.
Inside, the young lady is trapped as the creatures smash through windows, floors and doors to reach the drab, shabby and dusty room in which she hid.
Without ceasing to scream, she closes her eyes and is horrified. She curled up on the couch in the room. The creatures and Michael approach her, menacing, numerous and relentless. When the newly created zombie grabs her hand, she screams in horror with her eyes closed, then as soon as she opens them again, she is amazed to find that the young man is without a trace of his new state: he smiles, communicates, he talks to her with humor.
The room they are in is not at all like the one where the young lady arrived: there are frames on the walls, a green plant, a lit lamp, a sofa covered with a beautiful blanket, curtains on the windows. .
The young girl gets up and he hugs her. Is this the end of a simple nightmare? Unfortunately, against all odds, in the last image, Michael then turns to the camera with yellow eyes and devilish laughter is heard. So was it a monster?
Financing
Michael Jackson's Thriller album was released in 1982 and topped the Billboard 200 for several consecutive months.
In mid-1983, sales began to decline. Jackson, who has been "obsessed" with the sales numbers, convinces his record company executives, Walter Yetnikoff and Larry Stessel, to help him come up with a plan to boost the album's sales. Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, offered to make a third music video, titled Thriller . He recalls telling Jackson, "It's simple, all you have to do is dance and sing and scare."
In early August, after seeing his horror film The Werewolf of London , Jackson contacted director John Landis. At the time, sales managers weren't making music videos, but Landis was intrigued. He and Jackson developed the short film on 35mm film with a feature film production budget of $900,000, much more (about ten times as much) than any clip in existence. According to Landis, when he called Yetnikoff to offer him the film, Yetnikoff cursed so hard that he had to take the phone out of his ear. Jackson's record company, Epic, was not interested in making another video for Thriller , believing the album had reached its peak.
In the end, Yetnikoff agreed that the company would contribute only $100,000 to .
To help fund production, Landis producer George Folsey Jr. offered to make a documentary ( The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller ) which, combined with the video of Thriller , would produce an hour-long film that could be sold on television. Initially, TV channels refused to finance the project, sharing the opinion that “ Thriller" - "last year's news". MTV, having had success with Jackson's music videos for Billie Jean and Beat It , had a policy of not funding the music videos themselves, instead expecting record companies to pay for them. However, after rival channel Showtime agreed to pay half of the budget, MTV agreed to pay the remainder, justifying the expense by funding the film rather than the music video.
MTV paid 250,000 9$0133 for exclusive broadcast rights to a documentary directed by Jerry Kramer.
Showtime paid $300,000 90,133 90,014 for the paid cable television rights. Michael Jackson covered the additional costs that he was reimbursed. Vestron Music Video offered to mass-distribute these productions on VHS and Betamax. This was an innovative concept, as most videos of the time were only sold in rental stores, not in traditional stores. Thus, Westron paid an additional 500,000 9$0133 for the sale of a videotape. At the time of 's release, "Michael Jackson's Thriller" became the best-selling music video (9.5 million copies) and contributed to the popularity of VHS.
Production
Jackson wanted to make a video of him transforming into a four-legged beast similar to the transformation scene in London's Werewolf . This idea was replaced by becoming a bipedal beast, as it was easier for him to move around. Landis felt that Jackson should become "scary and intimidating, but not ugly". He suggested that Jackson was supposed to become a werewolf in the setting of 1950s inspired by the 1957 film I Was a Teenage Werewolf .
The Palace Theater is shown in the music video.
Jackson created the zombie dance with choreographer Michael Peters, who directed the music video for Beat It . Jackson said his first task was to create a zombie dance that was not meant to be comedic. He and Peters imagined how the zombies would move by grimacing in the mirror and using jazz movements.
Landis' wife Deborah Nadoolman, who designed costumes for films including In Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), designed the costumes, including Jackson's red jacket. In particular, she chose the color red to contrast with the nighttime setting and the gloomy atmosphere of the clip.
Thriller is the first clip in which Michael interacts with a woman. Jennifer Beals refused to play the role of a friend. According to John Landis, Ola Ray, former 's playmate was chosen because she was "mad about Michael" and had a big smile. Landis encouraged Jackson and Ray to improvise during their scenes, and also encouraged Jackson to please his female fans by acting "sexy" and showing off his virility.
According to Ray, the chemistry between the two was real, and they shared "intimate moments" during filming.
Jackson's transformative makeup was designed by artist Rick Baker, who worked on London Werewolf . The director of photography was Robert Painter, who had worked with Landis on "Armchair for Two" .
Thriller was filmed at the Palace Theater in downtown Los Angeles, the zombie dance scene at the junction of Union Pacific Avenue and South Calzona Street in East Los Angeles, and the last home scene in Angeleno Heights at 1345 Carroll Avenue. All main photographs were taken in mid-October 1983.
Entertainment figures including Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson and Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis visited the site. Also in attendance were Jackson's parents, Joseph and Katherine Jackson.
Choreography
- Michael Peters
Distribution
- Michael Jackson: himself
- Ola Ray: Michael 's girlfriend
- Vincent Price: voice-over
- Miko Brando (son of Marlon Brando): spectator in cinema
horror elements
A clip from Thriller draws its references from the horror film genre.
Metamorphosis into werewolf inspired by London werewolf (1981). It has been interpreted by critics as a manifestation of male sexuality, portrayed as naturally bestial, predatory, and aggressive.
The second makeup turns Michael Jackson into a zombie, followed by a dance sequence. Jackson's makeup creates a ghostly pallor on his skin and emphasizes the outline of his skull, which is an allusion to the mask of The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
The zombie invasion sequence was inspired by Night of the Living Dead (1968). Peter Dendle wrote that the video captures the protagonists' feelings of claustrophobia and helplessness, which are essential in horror and zombie films.
Exit
On November 14, 1983, Thriller was presented to a private audience at the Crest Theater in Los Angeles. Celebrities in attendance include Diana Ross, Warren Beatty, Prince and Eddie Murphy. The audience gave the film a standing ovation.
At Murphy's urging, the film was replayed.
The video debuted on MTV on December 2, 1983. MTV recorded an audience ten times larger than usual when Thriller aired. Showtime aired this video six times in February. Within a few months, the cassette sold a million copies, making it the best-selling video at the time. In order for the clip to win an Oscar, which required theatrical screenings, Landis arranged for the latter to be screened before the screening of Fantasy (1940) at the Los Angeles Theatre, but Thriller in was ultimately not nominated.
The video boosted sales of Thriller , making it the best - selling album of all time . In the words of John Landis, "It was a surprise to everyone except Michael."
Warning
Two weeks before the premiere, Michael Jackson called his assistant John Branca and ordered him to destroy the negative of Thriller . Jackson, a Jehovah's Witness, was told by church leaders that the video encouraged demonology and that he would be excommunicated.
The production team agreed to protect the negatives and locked them in Branca's office. Michael Jackson and John Branca also placed a warning at the beginning of the clip indicating that it does not promote the occult in any way.
Testimonials
Attendees at Thrill The World 2008 in Austin, Texas.
Video Clip Thriller cemented MTV's status as a major cultural force, helped remove racial barriers for black artists, revolutionized music video production, and popularized the rental and sale of videocassettes. Music video director Brian Grant called Thriller a watershed in the music video world that has become "a real industry". Former MTV executive Nina Blackwood said: “After Thriller , we saw the videos become more complex - with more storylines and much more complex choreography. When you watch the first videos, they were awfully bad.”
Vinny Marino of ABC News called the video "the best video ever".
Gil Kaufman of MTV called the video "iconic" and called it one of Jackson's "most enduring legacies". Kaufman also noted that Thriller was "a mini-movie that revolutionized music videos" and "sealed Jackson's status as one of the most ambitious and innovative pop stars of all time."
Offspring
Rethinking the way music videos are made, Thriller is still considered the best music video of all time today, by both critics and music television networks. Therefore, he served as an inspiration for other works (non-exhaustive list):
- At the end of Rap-Tout des Inconnus (1991), the three men who are following the hearse turn around: they are actually the three vampires from the video, who then have intimidating eyes and an evil laugh, a hint at the end of the song. clip of Michael Jackson turning around.
- A sarcastic laugh was supported by Wagon Christ on their track The Funnies on the album Sorry I Make You Lush (2004).
- At the end of episode "The Hand on the Chair" (c) ("The Hand Rocking the Wheelchair", voiceover) , Brian kills one of Stewie's then he returns home. with another Stewie, the latter turns around and reproduces the same face as Michael Jackson at the end of the clip.
- At the end of the video " Sexy and I Know It" (2011) LMFAO one of the dancers plays Michael Jackson at the end of the video.
- Clip from Bad by David Guetta & Showtek ft. Vassie (2014) is a cartoon in which we see zombies performing the moves from the choreography of Thriller .
- In X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), most of which takes place in 1983, the mutant Diablo wears a red leather jacket similar to that of Michael Jackson.
Miscellaneous
- In 2009, Jackson sold the rights to the Thriller music video to the Nederlander Organization to host the musical at the Broadway Theatre.
- Jackson's red leather jacket has become iconic. In 2011, it was sold at auction for $1.8 million.
- YouTube video shows 12,937 dancers (a record) performing the choreography for a clip in Mexico City. Another popular video (14 million views in 2010) shows more than 1,500 prisoners performing the choreography.
- Thriller has become closely associated with Halloween. In 2016, Barack and Michelle Obama danced to the song with schoolchildren at the Halloween party at the White House.
- In 2017, the video will be broadcast in 3D at 74- m Venice Film Festival along with the documentary The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller .
It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles before being remastered in IMAX 3D and released on a limited basis before Movie "The Prophecy of Hours in North America", which premiered. Week of release in 2018. The process of restoring the original negatives was overseen by John Landis.
Disputes
Jackson sued Landis over a royalty dispute in 2009. Landis claimed Jackson owed him four years of royalties.
Ola Ray also complained about the same problem less than two months before Michael Jackson died on June 25th.
Awards
In 1984 at the MTV Video Music Awards « Thriller won the MTV Video Music Award - Viewer's Choice , Best Overall Performance and Best Choreography for Michael Peters. It was also nominated for Best Concept Video, Best Male Video and Video of the Year.
Thriller was ranked # 1 in MTV's 100 Greatest Music Videos of All Time in 1999.
Also awarded #1 by Vh2 and time by magazine in 2001, a poll of over 1000 users conducted by Myspace in 2010 was voted the most influential music video.
In 2009, Thriller was the first music video selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. The Library described it as "the most famous music video of all time". National Film Preservation Council coordinator Steve Legett said the video had been featured in the National Film Registry for years and that Michael Jackson's death that year hastened its selection.
Grammy Award
| Year | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Best Video Album | Winner |
| 1985 | Best Video | Winner |
MTV Video Music Awards
| Year | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Best Overall Video Performance | Winner |
| 1984 | Best Choreography (Michael Peters) | Winner |
| 1984 | Viewers' Choice ( MTV Video Music Awards - Viewer's Choice ) | Winner |
| 1984 | Best Video Concept | Appointed |
| 1984 | Best Male Video | Appointed |
| 1984 | Video of the year | Appointed |
| 1999 | Top 100 Music Videos of All Time | Winner |
see also
- Dendl, Peter (2001), Thriller, Zombie Film Encyclopedia, McFarland & Company, ISBN Dendl, Peter (2001), Thriller,
- Mercer, Cobena (1991), "Monster Metaphors: Notes on a Michael Jackson Thriller", in Gledhill, Christine (ed.
), Stardom: Industry of Desire, Psychology Press, ISBN Mercer, Cobena (1991), "Monster Metaphors: Notes on a Michael Jackson Thriller", in Gledhill, Christine (ed.), - Mercer, Cobena (2005), "Monster Metaphors: Notes on a Michael Jackson Thriller", in Frith, Simon; Goodwin, Andrew; Grossberg, Larence (eds.), Sound and Vision: The Music Video Reader, Routledge, ISBN Mercer, Cobena (2005), "Monster Metaphors: Notes on a Michael Jackson Thriller", in Frith, Simon; Goodwin, Andrew; Grossberg, Larens (ed.),
Recommendations
American Film Legacy 2009-2010: A Viewer's Guide to 50 Iconic Films Added to the National Film Registry in 2009-10 , Bloomsbury Publishing , , 175 pp. (ISBN 978-1-4411-9328-5, read online)
) 
8 Million ", Rolling Stone, (as of October 9, 2019) 
com (accessed 17 December 2018) 
com, Viacom (accessed January 22, 2010) External links
- [video] Thriller on YouTube
- Audiovisual Resources :
- Allocine
- Cinematheque Québec
- Movie Database
- (en) Allmovie
- (en) Internet Movie Database
- (de) OFDb
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| Director | Shkok (1973) · Kentukki-fucked film (1977) · American College (1978) · Blues Blues (1980) 9046 (1981) · Trade places (1983) Three friends! (1986) Cheeseburger Movie Sandwich (1986) Trip to America (1988) Bag of Mess (19468) Innocent blood (1992) · Police from Beverly Hills 3 (1994) (1998) Burke & Hare (2010) |
| Screenwriter | Cluedo (1985) |
| Director | Hint (1985) (TV, 1995) · Scary Little Mancovy Christmas (TV, 1996) · Dear, I reduced children (TV series 1997-1999) · lost world (TV 1998) The Lost World (TV series 1999-2002) |
| Related Articles | Thriller (clip) See you next Wednesday Max Landis |
Why is everyone crazy about Dirty Dancing?
Today, on the birthday of Patrick Swayze, we explain how and why Emile Ardolino's full-length debut won hundreds of thousands of viewers' hearts.
Outstanding Choreography
American director Emile Ardolino, for whom Dirty Dancing was his first directorial work, is himself a professional choreographer. In the early 80s, Ardolino received his first and only Oscar for the documentary "He taught me to feel the dance", which in many ways became his pass to the "big" cinema. In many modern dance films, rhythmic movements to music tend to act as an ideal backdrop for the main plot. In Ardolino's picture, the opposite is true - it is the dance that is at the forefront of the story of the characters of Jennifer Gray and Patrick Swayze. This bold and risky step, oddly enough, was fully justified - the passionate mambo of Johnny and Penny at the very beginning of the film, the exhausting backstage rehearsals of Baby and Johnny before the concert and the enchanting performance at the end were too good to hide them in the shadow of love vicissitudes.
Ardolino, in fact, took the art of choreography in mainstream cinema to a whole new level, making the whole world come together in a dizzying dance.
Patrick Swayze as Johnny Castle on a frame from the film Dirty Dancing
It is noteworthy that Kenny Ortega, a student of Gene Kelly himself, a great dancer and creator of the brilliant Hollywood musicals Singing in the Rain, Halloween, Dolly!" and others.
Powerful on-screen chemistry
It's no secret that the relationship between lead actors Jennifer Gray and Patrick Swayze during filming was, to put it mildly, very strained. Swayze, as a great perfectionist and a true fan of his profession, was used to working hard and demanded the same from his partner in the film. It is worth noting that by the beginning of work on Dirty Dancing, both actors had a great dancing background, but Swayze considered it insufficient for the film.
Jennifer Gray as Frances Houseman in a still from Dirty Dancing
The actual dance rehearsals were far more exhausting and far less romantic than the final shot showed.
Gray, who at that time was still a very young star, did not share Swayze's dedication and periodically set her boundaries, which naturally led to constant conflicts. Fortunately, the tense relationship between Patrick and Jennifer in the end only played into the hands of Andolino - sparks flew between them.
A Living Story
One of the reasons Dirty Dancing's plot resonated so strongly with viewers is that the film is based on real-life events taken from the life of screenwriter Eleanor Bergsteen. It was her who was called Baby in childhood, it was she who, at the age of 17, went to the CatsKills summer boarding school, where she participated in competitions in the so-called "dirty dancing". And if the character of Baby was written off from the screenwriter herself, then the dance teacher Michael Terrace, who worked at CatsKills in the mid-80s, became the prototype of Johnny. History is silent about what the relationship between Bergsteen and Terrace really was, but it is possible that dancing here, to some extent, could arouse feelings.
Nevertheless, the fact remains: the stories truly "lived" by the author always turn out to be better than fiction. This is a contribution that is difficult to evaluate consciously, but which works very well on the subconscious of the viewer.
Jennifer Gray as Frances Houseman in Dirty Dancing
Advanced social contexts
Dirty Dancing was indeed a completely unique film for its time. Ardolino's work not only brought choreography to a new level of mainstream, but also promoted a really important social issue that remains relevant in our time. Dirty Dancing was lucky to come out at a time when cinema was becoming truly free. Thanks to the second wave of feminism and the active struggle of women for civil rights, the images of the main characters on the screen began to be seriously rethought. The character of Jennifer Gray is one of the first big results of the cultural reflection that began. Unlike many heroines of those times, Baby did not have a conventionally attractive appearance or emphasized sex appeal.
