Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Monday, May 27, 2019
Sunday, May 26, 2019
The Recent Five Best Miscellaneous Videos
After my first 49 "Miscellaneous Videos", I selected the five best, second five best and third five best. Since then, I have done 60 more "Miscellaneous Videos", and so now I have selected the best of the latter videos.
To see all the "Miscellaneous Videos", click on the label (tag) in the right margin.
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To see all the "Miscellaneous Videos", click on the label (tag) in the right margin.
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Saturday, May 25, 2019
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
The Dancing Male in a Teenage Female Fantasy
The book The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture, published in 2013, edited by Yannis Tzioumakis and Siân Lincoln, is a collection of scholarly essays about the movie.
I already have published 15 blog articles about the book and its articles:
This review will complete my reviews of all the book's articles.
===========
The book identifies Rodosthenous as follows:
Rodosthenous writes only about the stage play and mentions several moments that are not in the movie. Of course, his discussion of the stage play applies largely to the movie too. In my review here, I will sometimes call Dirty Dancing a "work" in order to encompass both the stage play and the movie.
Rodosthenous's article develops the concept that women enjoy watching the work because they perceive Johnny Castle to be extraordinarily beautiful and sexy when he dances. Watching him evokes memories of their own sexual desires and experiences. The article's first paragraph concludes:
In dance history, the beautiful dancers normally have been the female dancers. When male dancers are present too, they mostly frame the beautiful female dancers.
======
Rodosthenous classifies the work into a genre that he calls the dansical. Furthermore, he classifies it into a sub-genre that he calls the jukebox dansical. In my own words, this sub-genre encompasses works in which the characters dance to nostalgic popular songs. I like that classification, and I wonder what other works might fit into that sub-genre.
======
Rodosthenous points out that musicals -- here he does not specify dansicals -- often include dream scenes in which the sleeping character dreams of dancing. Rodosthenous does not name any examples, but I myself thought of Fiddler on the Roof and Carousel and Oklahoma.
The article's discussion of dancing dream scenes is gratuitous, because there is no such scene in Dirty Dancing. The movie (and the stage play?) does, however, a dream that Johnny describes to Baby.
Some future re-telling of the Dirty Dancing story could use this conversation to introduce a dream scene featuring a dance.
======
Rodosthenous discusses subconscious bisexual arousal in the scene where Penny guides Baby's dancing.
After all, isn't Johnny bi-sexual? Sure he is!
One reality, however, is that watching two men dance together is more disturbing than arousing -- even for a female audience. Men are much more hostile, aggressive and violent than women. Johnny is civil only toward Baby's father Jake, an "alpha male". Johnny is hostile, aggressive and sometimes violent toward all the other male characters.
In my article about the song "Hungry Eyes", I discussed the concepts of the male gaze and the female gaze in movies. Movies dwell commonly on the male gaze; the camera and the male characters admire female beauty. Dirty Dancing is a less common movie that dwells more on the female gaze; the camera and the female characters admire male beauty.
In this particular Dirty Dancing scene, however, Baby and Penny gaze at each other, and Johnny gazes at Baby and Penny, but neither Baby nor Penny gaze at Johnny. This scene is all about gazing -- about "Hungry Eyes" -- but there is no female gazing at all.
=====
Dirty Dancing features couples dancing, which contrasts the male and the female. The male is larger and stronger, and he leads. The female audience enjoys watching the male partner fluctuate between dominance and cooperation in relation to his female partner.
The tension between female's compliant role and her cooperative role in relation to the male is sexually arousing for her, subconsciously and sometimes even consciously. This relationship is symbolized in the couple's dance. (Again, these two paragraphs are my own words.)
=====
Rodosthenous discusses differences between the work's ballroom dancing and "dirty dancing".
=====
I did not find Rodosthenous's article on the Internet. As far as I know, the article is available to read only in the book.
This review completes my reviews of all the articles in the book.
 |
| The cover of the book "The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture" |
Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular CultureNow I will review another of the book's articles -- "Dirty Dancing and Its Stage Jukebox Dansical Adaptation: The Dancing Male in a Teenage Female Fantasy of Desire and Sensuality", written by George Rodosthenous.
Is Dirty Dancing a Musical?
Straightness and Dirtiness in Dirty Dancing
Generic Hybridity in Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing as a Teenage Rite-of-Passage Film
Dirty Dancing as Reagan-era Cinema and "Reaganite Entertainment"
Anachronistic Music in Dirty Dancing
Dressing and Undressing in Dirty Dancing: Consumption, Gender, and Visual Culture in the 1980s
Dirty Dancing: Feminism, Postfeminism and Neo-Feminism
"(I've Had) The Time of My Life": Romantic Nostalgia and the Early 1960s
"There Are a Lot of Things About Me That Aren't What You Thought": The Politics of Dirty Dancing
"It's a Feeling; A Heartbeat": Nostalgia, Music, and Affect in Dirty Dancing
White Enough
Vestron Video and Dirty Dancing
From Screen to Stage: Dirty Dancing Live
This review will complete my reviews of all the book's articles.
===========
 |
| George Rodostenous |
George Rodosthenous is a lecturer in music theater at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries of the University of Leeds. He is the artistic director of the theater company Altitude North and also works as a freelance composer for the theater.======
His research interests are the body in performance, directing, refining improvisational techniques and compositional practices for performance, devising pieces with live musical soundscapes as interdisciplinary process, the rector as coach, updating Greek tragedy, and the British musical.
He is currently working on the book Theatre as Voyeurism: the Pleasure(s) of Watching.
Rodosthenous writes only about the stage play and mentions several moments that are not in the movie. Of course, his discussion of the stage play applies largely to the movie too. In my review here, I will sometimes call Dirty Dancing a "work" in order to encompass both the stage play and the movie.
Rodosthenous's article develops the concept that women enjoy watching the work because they perceive Johnny Castle to be extraordinarily beautiful and sexy when he dances. Watching him evokes memories of their own sexual desires and experiences. The article's first paragraph concludes:
Dirty Dancing empowered women and allowed them to go on journeys of self-discovery maturity, and liberation. According to [film essayist] Lyn Gardner, the film “gave a generation of young women permission to get in touch with their own bodies and sexual desire.”Of course, Patrick Swayze and the stage-play actors are extraordinarily beautiful and sexy men even when they are just moving normally. However, the work arouses the female audience further when and because he dances.
In dance history, the beautiful dancers normally have been the female dancers. When male dancers are present too, they mostly frame the beautiful female dancers.
[Dance essayist Christine] Mennesson writes that “during the nineteenth century, professional artistic dancing was prohibited for men, who were relegated to the rank of porteur (a man who lifts and carries the ballerina) to glorify female dancers.” .... Since the dance masters designed and invented the dance technique, female ballerinas were still controlled by the masters. The latter used women to show the craft and attract an audience. The women were their muses and were also used as “bodies on display” ....Watching Johnny dance -- and dancing with him -- awakens Baby sexually.
Since the 1990s, we have seen [a] shift in perceptions, engagements, and expectations from the male dancer .... the male ballet dancer has been re-invented in the theatre canon. .... These works erotised and homo-erotised the male body, giving it a new political status.
Strong muscular dancers with their strong physical presence are compared and equated to athletes, and this is now generally regarded is a more acceptable behavior and casting decision. The male lead in Dirty Dancing has recontextualized the male dancer and has provided new role model for younger generations ....
This presents an important shift in public perceptions regarding male dancers; even as recently as the 1980s, the male dancer was not entirely taken seriously as a respectable occupation for men. ....
In Dirty Dancing ... the lead young girl finds dancing to be something noble, attractive, and glamorous, while she instantly admires the male dancing body.
======
Rodosthenous classifies the work into a genre that he calls the dansical. Furthermore, he classifies it into a sub-genre that he calls the jukebox dansical. In my own words, this sub-genre encompasses works in which the characters dance to nostalgic popular songs. I like that classification, and I wonder what other works might fit into that sub-genre.
======
Rodosthenous points out that musicals -- here he does not specify dansicals -- often include dream scenes in which the sleeping character dreams of dancing. Rodosthenous does not name any examples, but I myself thought of Fiddler on the Roof and Carousel and Oklahoma.
The article's discussion of dancing dream scenes is gratuitous, because there is no such scene in Dirty Dancing. The movie (and the stage play?) does, however, a dream that Johnny describes to Baby.
 |
| Johnny telling Baby about his dream |
======
Rodosthenous discusses subconscious bisexual arousal in the scene where Penny guides Baby's dancing.
 |
| Johnny watching Penny and Baby dance together |
The scene is constructed gently to serve its romantic narrative, and unlike in most ménages a trois, the first meeting of the three is not painful but has a welcoming feel to it. The female instructor ensures ... that the technical aspect of the choreography is transferred from body to body, while the male instructor stresses the importance of focusing the energy on the dancing partner’s eyes.Since, according to Rodosthenous, the work celebrates women's admiration of beautiful men dancing, it's remarkable that the work's only single-sex dance is this dance of two women. Wouldn't the female audience enjoy watching Johnny dance with another man?
The three undulating bodies are moving in harmony to the music, and this unifying proximity and physicality allow the audience’s imagination to be “aroused.” ... For the heterosexual male audience, this love triangle could perhaps be an erotic fantasy come true.
For the heterosexual female audience, the triangle might work on the level of another kind of fantasy, the fantasy that the freedom of dancing provides and its romantic associations: inviting a new, young “uninitiated” understudy to join the ritual of performance. This rite of passage, this unavoidable reality, is sensualized and glamorized here. Dancing becomes a catalyst for Baby’s repressed emotions and the facilitator for her liberation.
After all, isn't Johnny bi-sexual? Sure he is!
One reality, however, is that watching two men dance together is more disturbing than arousing -- even for a female audience. Men are much more hostile, aggressive and violent than women. Johnny is civil only toward Baby's father Jake, an "alpha male". Johnny is hostile, aggressive and sometimes violent toward all the other male characters.
In my article about the song "Hungry Eyes", I discussed the concepts of the male gaze and the female gaze in movies. Movies dwell commonly on the male gaze; the camera and the male characters admire female beauty. Dirty Dancing is a less common movie that dwells more on the female gaze; the camera and the female characters admire male beauty.
In this particular Dirty Dancing scene, however, Baby and Penny gaze at each other, and Johnny gazes at Baby and Penny, but neither Baby nor Penny gaze at Johnny. This scene is all about gazing -- about "Hungry Eyes" -- but there is no female gazing at all.
=====
Dirty Dancing features couples dancing, which contrasts the male and the female. The male is larger and stronger, and he leads. The female audience enjoys watching the male partner fluctuate between dominance and cooperation in relation to his female partner.
Duets signify social relations. The actual practice of partnering and lifting is one which requires a high degree of skill and co-operation between the male and the female dancer ... Some signify hierarchies of dominance and subordination, others suggest more egalitarian relations. … The male dancer’s active roles can compensate for, or repress, the way in which he is the erotic object of either a spectator’s or another dancer’s gaze.In my own words, the dancing in the work largely symbolizes the social relationship between Johnny and Baby. He is the masterful male teacher, and she is his compliant female student. She does not resent that relationship at all, and she even enjoys it. However, she wants the relationship to develop into a more cooperative relationship in which she is essentially equal and sometimes even leads.
It would be useful to discuss the stage semiotics at work both in the film and the stage version to portray Johnny’s dominance and representation of masculinity. Johnny’s vest allows for the muscled arms ... to be constantly on display. The arms demonstrate strength and masculine energy ....
The dangerous intimacy of the duet, instead of creating discomfort in the “aroused” audience, creates a kind of liberation, a romantic apotheosis of repressed feeling. When Johnny says, “Again, concentrate,” the audience, together with the overwhelmed Baby, are placed back into the dance studio and reminded of the work that needs to be done.
[Essayist] Mary Louise Adams claims that dancing for men is an “arena of physical exertion and toughness. Male dancers, it seems, need to advertise their bodily hardness.” The protagonist’s six-pack functions as a living proof of the fact that he is, indeed, an athletic dancer — a constant reminder that dancing is like sport.
And in this kind of discipline, practice makes perfect. The consequent rehearsals change locations (moving to an outside space and leading to the well-known lake scene) and involve increasingly fewer pieces of clothing, making each touch on the bare flesh possible to misinterpret as a sensual touch. ... The dance rehearsal/lesson is now being transformed into erotic foreplay.
The tension between female's compliant role and her cooperative role in relation to the male is sexually arousing for her, subconsciously and sometimes even consciously. This relationship is symbolized in the couple's dance. (Again, these two paragraphs are my own words.)
=====
Rodosthenous discusses differences between the work's ballroom dancing and "dirty dancing".
Throughout Dirty Dancing, two kinds of dancing are juxtaposed: on the one hand, there is traditional ballroom dancing, which is a rather conventional form with very smiley male partners, camp choreography, and effeminate moves, and which sometimes verges on a mannered, grotesque feel. Ballroom dancing allows heterosexual men to lead with effeminate moves and alternate between masculine and feminine states of physicality. During the ballroom sequences, the men are mostly porteurs for the women. .... The men seem to be indifferent and cold, while their dancing feels like a pre-learned sequence, nearly robotic and soulless. ....Rodosthenous obviously likes to write about dance performance, and his article includes other such passages.
In the staff quarters, however, the dancing to the mambo music is rough, dynamic, and the men are using their hips in an aggressive, predatory manner. There are no smiles here; it feels more professional, serious — an exhibition of strength and accuracy. It is an opportunity for the virile young men to prove that they are bursting with (sexual) energy. ....
There is no ambiguity in the dancing in the staff quarters. The moves are explicit, suggestive, and violent. The choreography allows for plenty of gyrations amongst the male and female dancers. The act of dancing, the close proximity of the bodies and the libidinous rhythms are the main drivers here. The hands of the men touch every part of their female partners’ bodies; there are no forbidden areas. ....
Dance is treated like a sex simulation. The male dancer finally fulfills his purpose in the teenage fantasy dansical. He becomes Baby’s romantic partner. The removal of their clothes, the touch, and the whole erotic ritual are not dissimilar from softcore porn renditions of similar narratives. ....
=====
I did not find Rodosthenous's article on the Internet. As far as I know, the article is available to read only in the book.
This review completes my reviews of all the articles in the book.
Monday, May 20, 2019
The July 1986 Script vs. The Movie -- The Songs (1)
I know of two Dirty Dancing scripts -- the September 1985 script and the July 1986 script. I have not seen the first script. The reasons for rewriting the first script included the following:
Part of the solution was to place five new songs -- written in 1986 -- into the movie. The second script mentions (below at Scene 145) that five new songs were being written in July 1986.
I assume that those songs replaced five period songs -- songs from the late 1950s and early 1960s -- the rights of which were too expensive for the producers to buy. Since I do have not seen the first script, I do not know for sure which period songs were replaced by the new songs.
However, I speculate that Eleanor Bergstein restored at least some of those five songs in the stage musical, which was produced in about 2003-2004. I will discuss this speculation in a future article.
In a previous article, Which Lionel Richie Song Was Replaced?, I argued that one of the new songs was Richie's song "Dancing on the Ceiling", but it was replaced, after filming began, by Franke Previte's new song "Time of My Life".
======
The second script specified the song "You Don't Own Me", sung by Leslie Gore. However, the movie's rendition is sung by The Blow Monkeys. This change must have saved the producers a lot of money.
After filming began, the producers decided to buy the rights to "Love Is Strange". In order to afford to buy those expensive rights, the producers (I think) decided to replace Lesley Gore's expensive rendition of "You Don't Own Me" with The Blow Monkeys' much cheaper rendition.
Below I compare the songs in the July 1986 script with the songs in the final movie.
======
Scene 2 -- The Houseman family's car driving to Kellerman's
The script -- "Original song"
The movie -- "Be My Baby", sung by The Ronettes
======
Scene 4 -- The Houseman family's car driving into mountains
(Remark: This script scene is not in the movie)
The script -- "Not Too Young to Get Married", sung by The Dixie Cups
The movie -- "Big Girls Don't Cry", sung by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
======
Scene 10 -- Dance lessons in the gazebo
The script -- "New substitute for La Bamba-like merengue"
The movie -- "Merengue", performed by Erich Bulling and Michael Lloyd
======
Scene 16 -- Guests dancing in the ballroom
The script -- "Band version of new song like 'I Love When Your Eyes Close, Whenever I Kiss You'"
The movie -- "Trot the Fox", performed by Michael Lloyd
======
Scene 16 -- Johnny and Penny dance
The script -- "original tango"
The movie -- "Johnny's Tango", performed by Erich Bulling, John D'Andrea and Michael Lloyd
======
Scene 23 -- Dance party in staff quarters
The script -- "Do You Love Me?", sung by The Contours
The movie -- "Do You Love Me?", sung by The Contours
======
Scene 23 -- Johnny and Penny dance
The script -- "Wild Thing", sung by The Troggs
The movie -- "Love Man", sung by Otis Redding
======
Scene 35 -- Baby brings money to Penny in staff quarters
The script -- "Duke of Earl", sung by Gene Chandler
The movie -- "Stay", sung by Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs
======
Scene 36 -- Johnny begins to teach Baby how to dance
The script -- "A Latin dance number ... a ballad"
The movie -- "Wipe Out", sung by The Surfaris
======
Scene 39 -- Dance lessons continue
The script -- The above Latin dance number again?
The movie -- "Hungry Eyes", sung by Eric Carmen
======
Scene 45 -- Johnny driving Baby out to the countryside
The script -- "Tell Him", sung by The Exciters -- or a new song
The movie -- "This Overload", sung by Alfie Zappacosta
======
Scene 49 -- Johnny and Baby dance on a log
The script -- "He's So Fine", sung by The Chiffons
The movie -- "Hey, Baby", sung by Bruce Channel
======
Scene 51 -- Johnny and Baby practice in a lake
The script -- "new song -- love ballad"
The movie -- "Time of My Life", instrumental
======
Scenes 54 and 58 -- Johnny and Baby dance at other hotels
The script -- The above Latin dance number again?
The movie -- De Todo un Poco", performed by Lou Perez
=====
Scene 59 -- Johnny drives Baby back to Kellerman's
The script -- No music
The movie -- "Some Kind of Wonderful", sung by The Drifters
======
Scene 76 -- Baby enters Johnny's cabin
The script -- "Original song"
The movie -- "These Arms of Mine", sung by Otis Redding
======
Scene 77 -- Baby and Johnny dance in his cabin
The script -- "Cry to Me", sung by Solomon Burke
The movie -- "Cry to Me", sung by Solomon Burke
======
Scene 81 -- Baby and Johnny in his bed again
The script -- "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?", sung by The Shirelles
The movie -- "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?", sung by The Shirelles
======
Scene 93 -- Johnny and Baby dancing in a studio
The script -- "a cha cha"
The movie -- "Love Is Strange", sung by Mickie and Sylvia
======
Scene 94 -- Johnny and Baby walking outside, discussing Neil and her father
The script -- "You Don't Own Me", sung by Lesley Gore
The movie -- No music
(In the movie, the song "You Don't Own Me", sung by The Blow Monkeys (not by Lesley Gore), is played while Johnny is beating up Robbie. Beating scenes, without music, are elsewhere in the script. Johnny beats up Robbie in Scene 73 and beats up Ricco in Scene 92B.
=====
Scene 98 -- Preparing for the talent show
The script -- "Don't Fence Me In", sung by Moe Pressman
The movie -- "Hula Hana", sung by Lisa Houseman
=====
Scene 101 -- Baby and Johnny talking after sex
The script -- No music
The movie -- "In the Still of the Night", sung by the Five Satins
=====
Scene 102 -- Lisa finds Robbie in bed with Vivian
The script -- No music
The movie -- "Yes", sung by Merry Clayton
=====
Scenes 103-110 -- Baby and Johnny enjoy more sex
The script -- "New song ... rhythm of "Twist and Shout"
The movie -- This sequence is not in the movie
=====
Scene 125 -- Johnny parts from Baby
The script -- No music
The movie -- "She's Like the Wind", sung by Patrick Swayze
=====
Scene 145 -- Johnny and Baby dance for the talent-show audience
The script -- "'Dirty Dancing', the fifth of the original tracks we are writing for the movie"
The movie -- "The Time of My Life", sung by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
======
This is the first in a series of articles that compare the July 1986 script to the final movie.
1) Patrick Swayze was allowed to change the script. One of his changes (there were many) was that Johnny Castle beat up Robbie Gould, and that beating is in the second script. Changes were made also by other people at the producer and director levels.My previous article, Business Decisions About the Movie's Music, indicates that the producers dealt with many difficulties in acquiring and paying for song rights.
2) The producers could not afford to buy all the music rights that would be necessary in the first script. For example, the first script must have named the songs "La Bamba" and "Twist and Shout". The second script, however, indicated new (or cheaper) songs that would be merely similar to "La Bamba" and "Twist and Shout".
Part of the solution was to place five new songs -- written in 1986 -- into the movie. The second script mentions (below at Scene 145) that five new songs were being written in July 1986.
I assume that those songs replaced five period songs -- songs from the late 1950s and early 1960s -- the rights of which were too expensive for the producers to buy. Since I do have not seen the first script, I do not know for sure which period songs were replaced by the new songs.
However, I speculate that Eleanor Bergstein restored at least some of those five songs in the stage musical, which was produced in about 2003-2004. I will discuss this speculation in a future article.
In a previous article, Which Lionel Richie Song Was Replaced?, I argued that one of the new songs was Richie's song "Dancing on the Ceiling", but it was replaced, after filming began, by Franke Previte's new song "Time of My Life".
======
The second script specified the song "You Don't Own Me", sung by Leslie Gore. However, the movie's rendition is sung by The Blow Monkeys. This change must have saved the producers a lot of money.
After filming began, the producers decided to buy the rights to "Love Is Strange". In order to afford to buy those expensive rights, the producers (I think) decided to replace Lesley Gore's expensive rendition of "You Don't Own Me" with The Blow Monkeys' much cheaper rendition.
Below I compare the songs in the July 1986 script with the songs in the final movie.
======
Scene 2 -- The Houseman family's car driving to Kellerman's
The script -- "Original song"
The movie -- "Be My Baby", sung by The Ronettes
======
Scene 4 -- The Houseman family's car driving into mountains
(Remark: This script scene is not in the movie)
The script -- "Not Too Young to Get Married", sung by The Dixie Cups
The movie -- "Big Girls Don't Cry", sung by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
======
Scene 10 -- Dance lessons in the gazebo
The script -- "New substitute for La Bamba-like merengue"
The movie -- "Merengue", performed by Erich Bulling and Michael Lloyd
======
Scene 16 -- Guests dancing in the ballroom
The script -- "Band version of new song like 'I Love When Your Eyes Close, Whenever I Kiss You'"
The movie -- "Trot the Fox", performed by Michael Lloyd
======
Scene 16 -- Johnny and Penny dance
The script -- "original tango"
The movie -- "Johnny's Tango", performed by Erich Bulling, John D'Andrea and Michael Lloyd
======
Scene 23 -- Dance party in staff quarters
The script -- "Do You Love Me?", sung by The Contours
The movie -- "Do You Love Me?", sung by The Contours
Scene 23 -- Johnny and Penny dance
The script -- "Wild Thing", sung by The Troggs
The movie -- "Love Man", sung by Otis Redding
======
Scene 35 -- Baby brings money to Penny in staff quarters
The script -- "Duke of Earl", sung by Gene Chandler
The movie -- "Stay", sung by Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs
======
Scene 36 -- Johnny begins to teach Baby how to dance
The script -- "A Latin dance number ... a ballad"
The movie -- "Wipe Out", sung by The Surfaris
======
Scene 39 -- Dance lessons continue
The script -- The above Latin dance number again?
The movie -- "Hungry Eyes", sung by Eric Carmen
======
Scene 45 -- Johnny driving Baby out to the countryside
The script -- "Tell Him", sung by The Exciters -- or a new song
The movie -- "This Overload", sung by Alfie Zappacosta
======
Scene 49 -- Johnny and Baby dance on a log
The script -- "He's So Fine", sung by The Chiffons
The movie -- "Hey, Baby", sung by Bruce Channel
======
Scene 51 -- Johnny and Baby practice in a lake
The script -- "new song -- love ballad"
The movie -- "Time of My Life", instrumental
======
Scenes 54 and 58 -- Johnny and Baby dance at other hotels
The script -- The above Latin dance number again?
The movie -- De Todo un Poco", performed by Lou Perez
=====
Scene 59 -- Johnny drives Baby back to Kellerman's
The script -- No music
The movie -- "Some Kind of Wonderful", sung by The Drifters
======
Scene 76 -- Baby enters Johnny's cabin
The script -- "Original song"
The movie -- "These Arms of Mine", sung by Otis Redding
======
Scene 77 -- Baby and Johnny dance in his cabin
The script -- "Cry to Me", sung by Solomon Burke
The movie -- "Cry to Me", sung by Solomon Burke
Scene 81 -- Baby and Johnny in his bed again
The script -- "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?", sung by The Shirelles
The movie -- "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?", sung by The Shirelles
======
Scene 93 -- Johnny and Baby dancing in a studio
The script -- "a cha cha"
The movie -- "Love Is Strange", sung by Mickie and Sylvia
======
Scene 94 -- Johnny and Baby walking outside, discussing Neil and her father
The script -- "You Don't Own Me", sung by Lesley Gore
The movie -- No music
(In the movie, the song "You Don't Own Me", sung by The Blow Monkeys (not by Lesley Gore), is played while Johnny is beating up Robbie. Beating scenes, without music, are elsewhere in the script. Johnny beats up Robbie in Scene 73 and beats up Ricco in Scene 92B.
=====
Scene 98 -- Preparing for the talent show
The script -- "Don't Fence Me In", sung by Moe Pressman
The movie -- "Hula Hana", sung by Lisa Houseman
=====
Scene 101 -- Baby and Johnny talking after sex
The script -- No music
The movie -- "In the Still of the Night", sung by the Five Satins
=====
Scene 102 -- Lisa finds Robbie in bed with Vivian
The script -- No music
The movie -- "Yes", sung by Merry Clayton
=====
Scenes 103-110 -- Baby and Johnny enjoy more sex
The script -- "New song ... rhythm of "Twist and Shout"
The movie -- This sequence is not in the movie
=====
Scene 125 -- Johnny parts from Baby
The script -- No music
The movie -- "She's Like the Wind", sung by Patrick Swayze
=====
Scene 145 -- Johnny and Baby dance for the talent-show audience
The script -- "'Dirty Dancing', the fifth of the original tracks we are writing for the movie"
The movie -- "The Time of My Life", sung by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
======
This is the first in a series of articles that compare the July 1986 script to the final movie.
Sunday, May 19, 2019
"More Than a Woman" as a Wedding Dance
I recently fast-forwarded through the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever. The movie's climax is the characters Tony Manero (the actor John Tavolta) and Stephanie Mangano (the actress Karen Lynn Gorney) winning a dance contest with their performance to Bee Gees' song "More Than a Woman".
Because countless wedding couples have danced to the Dirty Dancing song "Time of My Life", I wondered whether many couples have danced to the Saturday Night Fever Song song "More Than a Woman". I did find a few.
I estimate that, in wedding dances, the ratio of "Time of My Life" to "More Than a Woman" dances is at least 10,000 to 1.
The movie Saturday Night Fever enjoyed a ten-year head-start on Dirty Dancing, but its dance is not as triumphant. The character Tony Manero voluntarily forfeits the first-place prize to the second-place couple. Also, the "More Than a Woman" dance does not end with the female dancer climaxing up into the male character's strong arms. Rather, the "More Than a Woman" couple fizzles into just a good-enough embrace and kiss.
The female characters in both movies wear ultra-feminine pink chiffon dresses and strappy shoes. I wonder if the Dirty Dancing costume designers copied that girly look from Saturday Night Fever.
======
Everyone must recognize also that the BeeGees' falsetto singing is kind of gay. Most brides do not want to feature that vibe at their weddings.
Here is the kind-of-gay Glee rendition of "More Than a Woman".
Because countless wedding couples have danced to the Dirty Dancing song "Time of My Life", I wondered whether many couples have danced to the Saturday Night Fever Song song "More Than a Woman". I did find a few.
I estimate that, in wedding dances, the ratio of "Time of My Life" to "More Than a Woman" dances is at least 10,000 to 1.
The movie Saturday Night Fever enjoyed a ten-year head-start on Dirty Dancing, but its dance is not as triumphant. The character Tony Manero voluntarily forfeits the first-place prize to the second-place couple. Also, the "More Than a Woman" dance does not end with the female dancer climaxing up into the male character's strong arms. Rather, the "More Than a Woman" couple fizzles into just a good-enough embrace and kiss.
The female characters in both movies wear ultra-feminine pink chiffon dresses and strappy shoes. I wonder if the Dirty Dancing costume designers copied that girly look from Saturday Night Fever.
 |
| Was this ultra-feminine, pink, chiffon dress a model.... |
 |
| for the Dirty Dancing dress? |
======
Everyone must recognize also that the BeeGees' falsetto singing is kind of gay. Most brides do not want to feature that vibe at their weddings.
Here is the kind-of-gay Glee rendition of "More Than a Woman".
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Monday, May 13, 2019
The 1967 Movie "In the Heat of the Night"
An illegal abortion is a key element in the 1967 movie In the Heat of the Night. A rich man is robbed -- but accidentally killed -- in order to obtain the money to pay for the abortion.
Stop reading this article now if you do not want to know the movie's ending.
The movie was released in 1967 and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor. The movie was nominated for two other Academy Awards, including Best Director. The movie won also the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture.
I watched the movie for yesterday. I had watched it and 1967 (I was about 15 years old), but did not remember the story.
Now in 2019, I do not consider the movie to be great. The movie has aged poorly. Now the movie is a period piece. It is too slow, and it caricatures racial relations. Also, I found the detective's solving of the homicide to be implausible. I do think that the cinematography and Sidney Potier's acting still are great.
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Here in this article, however, I am addressing only the movie's treatment of the abortion issue in the mid-1960s. The movie is based on a novel that was published in 1965, and the story seems to take place at that time.
Although the rich man was killed because money was needed to pay for an illegal abortion, the morality of abortion is not an issue in the story. Illegal abortion is portrayed as common among low-class people, who had trouble keeping unwanted pregnancies secret and paying for illegal abortions. The abortionists too are depicted as low-class people.
The movie's pregnant woman is a 16-year-old stupid slut. She gets pregnant from a short-order cook, who convinces her to blame her pregnancy on a low-ranking police officer. (I think that the officer had sex with her too, but that is not clear.) In the following scene, the young woman's older brother brings her to the police chief.
You can see in the above scene that the young woman is quite stupid. Earlier in the movie, the audience saw that she stands naked and drinks beer in her kitchen with the window shades open so that the police officer can watch her naked, drunk body from his police car. She is commonly known by many people in this small town in Mississippi to be a slut.
The short-order cook who got her pregnant is stupid too. In order to get the abortion money, he robbed the rich man and accidentally killed him. Then the cook implicated the low-ranking police officer in the crime. That police officer too is stupid. The cook and police officer appear in the following scene.
The police chief is not as stupid as the cook or as the low-ranking police officer, but the chief too is stupid. Basically, all the Caucasians in this small town in Mississippi are stupid -- in contrast to the brilliant Negro homicide detective from Philadelphia who has become involved in this situation and who heroically solves the crime.
(Sidney Poitier played the Negro detective superbly and deserved to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. That award was won instead by Rod Steiger, who played the Caucasian police chief. )
The Philadelphia detective learns that all the illegal abortions in this small town are done by a Negro woman who manages a shop. The detective figures -- in my opinion, his reasoning is implausible -- that the rich man was robbed to pay for an illegal abortion, so the detective goes to the shop to question the Negro woman.
While the detective is there, the pregnant slut and the short-order cook show up for the abortion, and so the detective concludes that the rich man was killed by the cook -- not by the low-ranking police officer.
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Of course, movie audiences in 1967 knew that not only low-class people were involved in illegal abortions. Middle-class and even upper-class people were involved sometimes too. In this particular movie, though, it's all low-class and sordid.
I don't think that the movie would cause anti-abortion citizens to change their opinions toward the legalization of abortion. Rather, the movie causes citizens to just shrug their shoulders in contempt toward the stupidity of all the residents -- especially the Caucasian residents -- of small towns in Mississippi and other Southern states.
In contrast to that stupid slut in In the Heat of the Night, the character Penny Johnson in Dirty Dancing is admirable and deserves sympathy and help.
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The following video summarizes the story well.
Below is the first part of a documentary about the making of the movie.
The documentary's second part is there.
Stop reading this article now if you do not want to know the movie's ending.
The movie was released in 1967 and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor. The movie was nominated for two other Academy Awards, including Best Director. The movie won also the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture.
I watched the movie for yesterday. I had watched it and 1967 (I was about 15 years old), but did not remember the story.
Now in 2019, I do not consider the movie to be great. The movie has aged poorly. Now the movie is a period piece. It is too slow, and it caricatures racial relations. Also, I found the detective's solving of the homicide to be implausible. I do think that the cinematography and Sidney Potier's acting still are great.
======
Here in this article, however, I am addressing only the movie's treatment of the abortion issue in the mid-1960s. The movie is based on a novel that was published in 1965, and the story seems to take place at that time.
Although the rich man was killed because money was needed to pay for an illegal abortion, the morality of abortion is not an issue in the story. Illegal abortion is portrayed as common among low-class people, who had trouble keeping unwanted pregnancies secret and paying for illegal abortions. The abortionists too are depicted as low-class people.
The movie's pregnant woman is a 16-year-old stupid slut. She gets pregnant from a short-order cook, who convinces her to blame her pregnancy on a low-ranking police officer. (I think that the officer had sex with her too, but that is not clear.) In the following scene, the young woman's older brother brings her to the police chief.
You can see in the above scene that the young woman is quite stupid. Earlier in the movie, the audience saw that she stands naked and drinks beer in her kitchen with the window shades open so that the police officer can watch her naked, drunk body from his police car. She is commonly known by many people in this small town in Mississippi to be a slut.
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| The stupid slut standing naked where a police officer can watch her from outside |
The police chief is not as stupid as the cook or as the low-ranking police officer, but the chief too is stupid. Basically, all the Caucasians in this small town in Mississippi are stupid -- in contrast to the brilliant Negro homicide detective from Philadelphia who has become involved in this situation and who heroically solves the crime.
(Sidney Poitier played the Negro detective superbly and deserved to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. That award was won instead by Rod Steiger, who played the Caucasian police chief. )
The Philadelphia detective learns that all the illegal abortions in this small town are done by a Negro woman who manages a shop. The detective figures -- in my opinion, his reasoning is implausible -- that the rich man was robbed to pay for an illegal abortion, so the detective goes to the shop to question the Negro woman.
While the detective is there, the pregnant slut and the short-order cook show up for the abortion, and so the detective concludes that the rich man was killed by the cook -- not by the low-ranking police officer.
=======
Of course, movie audiences in 1967 knew that not only low-class people were involved in illegal abortions. Middle-class and even upper-class people were involved sometimes too. In this particular movie, though, it's all low-class and sordid.
I don't think that the movie would cause anti-abortion citizens to change their opinions toward the legalization of abortion. Rather, the movie causes citizens to just shrug their shoulders in contempt toward the stupidity of all the residents -- especially the Caucasian residents -- of small towns in Mississippi and other Southern states.
In contrast to that stupid slut in In the Heat of the Night, the character Penny Johnson in Dirty Dancing is admirable and deserves sympathy and help.
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| Penny assuring Baby that she does not "sleep around" |
The following video summarizes the story well.
Below is the first part of a documentary about the making of the movie.
The documentary's second part is there.
Sunday, May 12, 2019
The Second Five Best Dances in Mini-Dresses
The five best dances were on my previous post.
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To watch the following video, click on the image and then click on the link Watch this video on YouTube.
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To watch all the mini-dress videos, click on the Mini-Dress label in the right margin.
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To watch the following video, click on the image and then click on the link Watch this video on YouTube.
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To watch all the mini-dress videos, click on the Mini-Dress label in the right margin.
The Five Best Dances in Mini-Dresses
To watch the following video, click on the image and then click on the link Watch this video on YouTube.
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To see all the mini-dress dances, click on the Mini-Dress label in the right margin.
From Screen to Stage -- "Dirty Dancing" Live
The book The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture, published in 2013, edited by Yannis Tzioumakis and Siân Lincoln, is a collection of scholarly essays about the movie.
I already have published 14 blog articles about the book and its articles:
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The book identifies Millie Taylor as follows:
Taylor's article generally discusses the difference between watching a musical movie and watching a musical stage play. Suppose you have watched the movie Dirty Dancing and then the stage play Dirty Dancing. How are those two experiences different?
Watching a stage play does provide some new, better enjoyment.
The audience of a stage play interacts more with the actors, who are physically present in the theater. At some moments, the actors might enter the audience's space or might beckon the audience to participate by, for example, applauding, singing or dancing.
A stage play involves risks. Characters might flub their lines or fall or make other mistakes. When Baby leaps up onto Johnny's arms, the leap might fail. Watching a risky activity causes an exciting tension in the audience.
If audience members have seen the movie, then they will wonder how the stage play will differ and will wonder how some scenes are presented on the stage. For example, how will Johnny and Baby dance on a log over a river.
The actors are different. The stage play does not star Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze -- but rather stars different unfamiliar actors.
Taylor's article dwells on such considerations.
* She does not express much interest in the experiences of making and watching movies.
* Rather, she is fascinated by the experiences of making and watching stage plays, especially musicals.
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Taylor's article treats the movie's story and the play's story as being almost identical. She mentions a few differences -- for example, the stage play's inclusion of Civil Rights aspects -- but does not go into details.
In my blog, however, I have published a series of articles pointing out story differences.
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Taylor does discuss the stage play's treatment of music stagecraft:
Perhaps Taylor -- or some other expert in stage plays -- could make a video essay comparing corresponding moments in the movie and in the stage play. In other words, the movie's cinematography could be compared with the play's stagecraft.
At the present time, however, relatively few video clips of the stage play are available for such comparisons.
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Much of Taylor's article is theoretical. I myself enjoy and learn from reading such discussions, but such reading must be intelligent, slow and attentive. For example, here is a series of three paragraphs:
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Here is the article's conclusion:
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Here is a video of Taylor lecturing about musical theater (beginning at about 3:30 in the video)
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| The cover of the book "The Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular Culture" |
Time of Our Lives: Dirty Dancing and Popular CultureNow I will review another of the book's articles -- "From Screen to Stage: Dirty Dancing Live", written by Millie Taylor.
Is Dirty Dancing a Musical?
Straightness and Dirtiness in Dirty Dancing
Generic Hybridity in Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing as a Teenage Rite-of-Passage Film
Dirty Dancing as Reagan-era Cinema and "Reaganite Entertainment"
Anachronistic Music in Dirty Dancing
Dressing and Undressing in Dirty Dancing: Consumption, Gender, and Visual Culture in the 1980s
Dirty Dancing: Feminism, Postfeminism and Neo-Feminism
"(I've Had) The Time of My Life": Romantic Nostalgia and the Early 1960s
"There Are a Lot of Things About Me That Aren't What You Thought": The Politics of Dirty Dancing
"It's a Feeling; A Heartbeat": Nostalgia, Music, and Affect in Dirty Dancing
White Enough
Vestron Video and Dirty Dancing
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| Millie Taylor |
Millie Taylor is a professor in musical theatre at the University of Winchester. Her research interests are popular musical theatre, British pantomime, contemporary music theatre and voice. Recent publications include British Pantomime Performance (Intellect, 2007) and Musical Theatre, Realism and Entertainment (Ashgate Press, 2012) in the series Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera. She recently guest edited a special issue of the journal Studies in Musical Theatre (Vol. 6/1, 2012) on "Voice and Excess" and is currently working on a text book on musical theatre and co-editing a collection titled Rethinking Musical Theatre: Song and Dance.======
Taylor's article generally discusses the difference between watching a musical movie and watching a musical stage play. Suppose you have watched the movie Dirty Dancing and then the stage play Dirty Dancing. How are those two experiences different?
Watching a stage play does provide some new, better enjoyment.
The audience of a stage play interacts more with the actors, who are physically present in the theater. At some moments, the actors might enter the audience's space or might beckon the audience to participate by, for example, applauding, singing or dancing.
A stage play involves risks. Characters might flub their lines or fall or make other mistakes. When Baby leaps up onto Johnny's arms, the leap might fail. Watching a risky activity causes an exciting tension in the audience.
If audience members have seen the movie, then they will wonder how the stage play will differ and will wonder how some scenes are presented on the stage. For example, how will Johnny and Baby dance on a log over a river.
The actors are different. The stage play does not star Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze -- but rather stars different unfamiliar actors.
Taylor's article dwells on such considerations.
* She does not express much interest in the experiences of making and watching movies.
* Rather, she is fascinated by the experiences of making and watching stage plays, especially musicals.
=======
Taylor's article treats the movie's story and the play's story as being almost identical. She mentions a few differences -- for example, the stage play's inclusion of Civil Rights aspects -- but does not go into details.
In my blog, however, I have published a series of articles pointing out story differences.
My Review of the Stage Musical -- GeneralTaylor's article does not tell anything about the decisions to develop the stage play, beyond mentioning that Eleanor Bergstein adapted her screenplay for the stage.
My Review of the Stage Musical -- Race
My Review of the Stage Musical -- Romance
My Review of the Stage Musical -- Comparison of Songs
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Taylor does discuss the stage play's treatment of music stagecraft:
One of the few differences from the film is that many of the songs are sung live. Also, the audience is addressed directly by singers and by Kellerman’s entertainment manager, who encourages them to join in ...I liked that discussion and would like to see much more of it. A written essay is not the optimal means, however, for such comparisons.
The set incorporates a revolving platform so that the many short scenes of the film can transform fluidly into each other. The design incorporates screens so that filmed backdrops can recreate the filmic imagery and (perhaps) reference the medium of the original. Film is used to create atmospheric background, to re-create outdoor scenes (the lake and the wheat field), and in dance scenes to increase the action and energy by doubling the number of dancers through projections immediately behind the dancers.
In direction and design, in the costumes, the body language, the physicality, and the use of key scenes, this show is designed to be a reminder of the film. Scenes and sets such as dancing on the log, Baby dancing up the steps, the famous lift being practiced in the lake (created using lighting and a projection onto a gauze front-cloth through which the actors are lit), the huts, and the ballroom are all re-created to evoke a memory of the film.
Perhaps Taylor -- or some other expert in stage plays -- could make a video essay comparing corresponding moments in the movie and in the stage play. In other words, the movie's cinematography could be compared with the play's stagecraft.
At the present time, however, relatively few video clips of the stage play are available for such comparisons.
======
Much of Taylor's article is theoretical. I myself enjoy and learn from reading such discussions, but such reading must be intelligent, slow and attentive. For example, here is a series of three paragraphs:
A cognitive approach suggests that, when presented with a network of spaces or images, the audience processes the images, maintaining a blend so that interpretation and response are playful and continually in flux. Amy Cook refers to Gilles Fauconnier to suggest that “while any particular blend might vary from individual to individual, the network of spaces prompted in a given situation is more powerful as a process in flux, a series of variables, than simply a final blend.” This might be interpreted in relation to Dirty Dancing to suggest that in the course of the performance the blend of images from film and live performance will continually alter the potential meanings of previously presented images. At the same time, the individual will continue to respond to the full range of images and materials, performances and atmospheres, blending them according to personal choice within context. Memories of naive teenage foolishness and infatuation are incorporated, for example, in the watermelon moment. Furthermore, what blending theory suggests is that extraordinarily complex information is assimilated using more of the brain but no more time. It is possible that some people might find that the more textured performance, that consciously taps into layers of memory and experience, that activates more parts of the brain and increases the intensity of the brain activity could also produce a greater sense of pleasure.The entire article is not like that, but much of it is. After all, it's a scholarly article, written mostly for other scholars. (This is true also of other articles in the book.)
Long before the recent discoveries in neuroscience, Roland Barthes theorized in relation to language that “the logic regulating a text is not comprehensive … but metonymic; the activity of associations, contiguities. carryings-over coincides with a liberation of symbolic energy.” The text is plural, not simply in that it has several meanings, but in that it is irreducible, an explosion or dissemination. He suggests that “the plural of the Text depends … not on the ambiguity of its contents but on what might be called the stereographic plurality of its weave of signifiers.” This plurality is “woven entirely with citations, references, echoes, cultural languages … which cut across it through and through in a vast stereophony,” He suggests that such a. text is playful, and that the reader plays twice over in reproducing it both as an inner mimesis and in the musical sense of playing. Such a text, he argues, is “bound to jouissance, that is to a pleasure without separation.... [T]he text is that space where no language has a hold over any other, where language circulates.”
Barthes’ theorizing refers only to language and not to performance; nevertheless, it is possible that he and others have predicted in theory processes that have now been observed in scientific experiments. The idea of a circularity of language can be read alongside the idea of a playful performance text whose images and meanings actively recall earlier performances. This process suggests that the way meanings are interpreted in a performance can be plural and simultaneous rather than individual and separate, and that the process of recognizing and assimilating this plurality can be pleasurable and playful.
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Here is the article's conclusion:
What this chapter argues is that there are ways in which the live experience of Dirty Dancing is an ontologically different experience from watching the film. There are many similarities with the communal experience and emotional connection achieved when watching the film, but there are also differences resulting from the involvement with and danger of live action and the spiraling of energy between audience and performers. The stage show of Dirty Dancing functions on many levels, levels that audiences read and blend as they choose.I did not find Taylor's article on the Internet. As far as I know, it is available to read only in the book.
The stereophony or multiplicity of the associations created both within and without the text allows the audience to be entertained. The cliché of musical theater making audiences laugh and cry in a cathartic excess is enacted here through an excessive, dynamic range. Moreover, the audiovisual combination produces synchrony in interpretation that allows audiences to experience the pleasure of bonding even as individual interpretation offers different blends of the plural, libidinal, and dynamic text. This combination of stereographic plurality; libidinal excess, and dynamic range might begin to account for the ability of the stage show to continue to attract audiences.
Understanding of cognitive processes begins to account for experiences that have been theorized in the past. The minor neuron system s activated so that audiences do not simply watch the performance, but sing, dance, and re-enact the experience, empathetically connecting to the emotions of the performer/characters in a contagious spiral of response. This, of course, also depends on the skill of the performers and the quality of the performance.
However, through conceptual lending the experience of watching a stage show made famous on film and deliberately revisited onstage is one in which the viewer is conflating both the present experience and the past memory to create new composite that is neither one nor the other, but both, stimulating imagination, memory; witnessing, and presence in an intense and heady mix of the personal and communal. The stage show is a deliberate evocation of the film, but the experience is much, much more.
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Here is a video of Taylor lecturing about musical theater (beginning at about 3:30 in the video)