Posts Tagged ‘Busby Berkeley’
Something for the mid-winter blues
I’m tired. It’s the end of January and everything seems too much right now. After three weeks of the Dance On Camera Festival, Kinetic Cinema, APAP, grant deadlines looming, school starting, work going overtime, relentless presidential campaigns, and a never-ending war I’m just tired…
So, here is something that gave me a lift at 10:42pm on a Thursday night. Time to get up out of your chair, push it aside, and give in to an inscrutably optimistic force of nature…
Dancing 4 fun + fitness with Paul Eugene
Alright, now that you’re warmed up, here is the final scene of one of my favorite dance movies of all time “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” (Warning: Age-specific content. People in their late twenties or early thirties may be the only ones to appreciate this.) This one goes out to my girl Nadine, who has been devoted to Sarah Jessica Parker since day one…
Ahhh, the smile is coming back to my face. Life isn’t sooo bad…
One more to send me off to bed. From my favorite master of cinematic fantasy, Busby Berkeley, here are three incredible clips from his 1934 classic, “Dames”. (For dance film geeks out there, see also Michel Gondry’s music video of the Chemical Brothers “Let Forever Be”, he obviously studied this film closely!)
I feel better now, I hope you do too 
Philippine Prisoners Resurrect Busby Berkeley
As a videodance artist, I have to comment on the viral video sensation of the Philippine Prison dances that have rocked Youtube as of late. These massive stagings, in which up to 1600 prisoners dance to pop hits in perfect unison, are as awesome and powerful as they are campy and scary. Byron Garcia, a security consultant for the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre started the dance fitness program as a way to improve inmates’ behaviour and increase their participation in exercises. However the inspiration to start filming the routines came when Mr. Garcia saw prisoners exercising in the prison courtyard and noticed patterns and waves in their movement which piqued his inner Busby Berkeley. The result was a string of videos and a gigantic Youtube hit with “Thriller” performed by 1500 prisoners and featuring inmates Crisanto Nierre as “Michael Jackson,” and Wenjiel Resane as his “girlfriend”. “Thriller” has been viewed over 6 million times now on Youtube. The popularity of the videos have become a huge source of pride for the inmates, and now the CPDRC is becoming a veritable production house of grand spectacle dance films, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the heyday of American movie musicals in the 30’s and 40’s.
“Thriller” (original upload)
