Hellzapoppin!
I was greatly affected when we watched the above video, "Hellzapoppin (1941)" in class this week. Although Id consider myself familiar, at least in a visual sense, with a large majority of dance styles, I have never seen anything quite like this!I was completely taken aback by the sheer energy and fearlessness of the dancers as they joyously throw themselves around their partners and the dance space with an almost childlike effortlessness. The raw, unpolished yet highly skillful movements keep the piece lively and the characters likeable, instantly making me dance along in my seat, itching to be able to join in! I have watched the clip many times now and have shown it to many others who are similarly enthralled by its energy and playful appeal, or, as William White calls it ,‘syncopated raw emotion’. (J. Skinner, Globalisation, Seduction, Addiction: the jive story, 3.)
After reading this week in Cressey's "The Taxi-dance Hall..." of the often lifeless, impersonal attitude of many taxi-dancers of 1930s USA, simply acting as dance partners for want of a job/money, I found pleasure in the carefree, excitable partnerships in this video, with this genre of dance clearly rooted in fast paced, almost instinctual and spontaneous exuberance . After what I have learned this week with regards to race politics in the Swing era, Id imagine at the time of this videos original release , audiences would have been interested, considering the dancers are all black, in this new style of music/movement that was slowly becoming popularised, filtering out of lively, crowded parties (attended in the majority by black people) and eventually into mainstream radio and TV. I believe it would have appealed to audiences because of its daring, wild nature, much as it appealed to me this week!
After reading this week in Cressey's "The Taxi-dance Hall..." of the often lifeless, impersonal attitude of many taxi-dancers of 1930s USA, simply acting as dance partners for want of a job/money, I found pleasure in the carefree, excitable partnerships in this video, with this genre of dance clearly rooted in fast paced, almost instinctual and spontaneous exuberance . After what I have learned this week with regards to race politics in the Swing era, Id imagine at the time of this videos original release , audiences would have been interested, considering the dancers are all black, in this new style of music/movement that was slowly becoming popularised, filtering out of lively, crowded parties (attended in the majority by black people) and eventually into mainstream radio and TV. I believe it would have appealed to audiences because of its daring, wild nature, much as it appealed to me this week!
When thinking of racial segregation in dance, with black and white people prohibited from dancing together until the early sixties, I was reminded of cult movie/musical "Hairspray". This clip effectively shows the stereotypical portrayel of both black and white dancing styles in the early sixties. Although twenty years ahead of the swing era shown in "Hellzapoppin", the idea of dance diffusion is brought to the forefront, with many similarities in the use of loose, often wild, movements, carefree childishness and close contact between dance partners.
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