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They say dance like nobody’s watching, but what if the whole world is in fact watching? Is that so bad? Is that a shame? I don’t think so.
I say dance like every human being on this planet catches a glimpse of your act and make it worth it for them (and for you).
Your Guide
Alexandra Romanmi
Learn from the people who do that today, have done it for decades and will continue to do it for much longer than that. Who are those?
There are some dancers who enter your home through a screen and invite you to be their spectator (and why not, their dance partner) crossing the barriers of time and space. We call them movie actors.
In today’s busy world we tend to take things for granted, but if we pause for a second and think, we realize that some pretty amazing things are available at the tip of our fingers now.
How fantastic is it that we can watch Fred Astaire’s mad dance moves as if he’s performing right here, right now?
How crazy is it that we can fall in love with Patrick Swayze time and time again while watching him rehearse his routines in Dirty Dancing?
And how hard is it to try to hold those tears back when Al Pacino is gently killing the dance floor in the Scent of a Woman? There are no mistakes in the Tango, he says…
You probably guessed it. I am a dancer and I love dance movies.
They inspire me, they relax me, they take me on emotional roller coasters, they help me dream bigger and bigger and ultimately they make me jump off the couch and dance in front of the TV.
Dance movies take us to a happier dimension where spontaneous dance sequences in the middle of the street or the cafeteria are perfectly plausible.
Who cares if you are in the office, in a car wash or in a park?
Suddenly, there’s music coming from somewhere and all the people surrounding you will leave whatever they are doing and join you in a crazy choreography.
Wouldn’t real life simply be better if that would randomly happen to us?
I think it would.
But when reality has other plans, watching movies is our best bet to escape it and create our own.
The 1970’s came with their fair share of weird dance trends such as The Robot, The Bump, YMCA Dance, Funky Chicken Dance and of course, Your Guide Alexandra Romanmi The Disco Finger. These will always be remembered and occasionally re-enacted at nostalgic house parties. Apart from these funky flashbacks, as
During the Great Migration, African-Americans flocked to Chicago from the South and brought with them age-old jazz and blues... Your Guide Alexandra Romanmi ...The genre became more and more popular and soon Chicago turned into the home of a legendary jazz scene with names like King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton
The signature dance of the elite social classes, ballroom dance used to belong to the royalty and aristocracy.Your GuideAlexandra RomanmiWith the earliest record of European ballroom dating back from 1588 in Jehan Tabourot’s dance study – Orchesographie, this style traces its roots in the highest strata of society, but it
Seamos realistas y hagamos lo imposible (Let’s be realistic and accomplish the impossible) says the Argentinian-born revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.Your GuideAlexandra RomanmiWhile our dance quests are not nearly as difficult as leading the guerrillas in South America, the journey of becoming a truly great performer does sometimes require believing in the
“Nobody puts baby in the corner!”
Patrick Swayze (or his character from Dirty Dancing, Johnny) knows what he’s talking about.
Whenever you feel like you need someone to take you out from the corner you’ve been hiding in and gently push you into the spotlight of the centre stage, take a few hours, relax and watch a dance movie.
They have a great effect on the low self-esteem moments each dancer encounters in their career and we all recall going through plenty of them.
Trust me, I am a dancer and I know!
I have shared with you the movies that made me feel better and inspired me along the way, now it is your turn!
What are your favourite dance movies and why?
Ballet dancers have Bolshoi theatre, contemporary dancers have Martha Graham Dance Company, Cabaret dancers have Moulin Rouge, Tap dancers have Broadway, but what do Irish dancers have? They have The Lord of the Dance and Michael Flatley. Your GuideAlexandra RomanmiEach and every dancer, regardless of the style they practice, probably aspires
