Skip navigation

DANCING

The dance and the cinema

From its beginnings cinema has resorted to dance to express feelings, sometimes using professional dancers instead of actors who performed choreographies that lasted throughout history.

In black and white movies tap dance was used a lot, more than any other dance, with dancers like Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire, because it was a very remarkable and entertaining dance.

Cinema also used musicals, as we’ve already seen, to get inspiration from, like in Dirty dancing (1987) or West Side Story (1961).

There were movies that showed the dances that were trendy at that time, like in the movie Saturday Night Fever (1977), where we can see the different movements of disco music or also in Grease (1978).

Sometimes cinema also showed us traditional dances from different cultures, like in the movie Zorba the Greek (1964) where a sirtaki is performed.

Ballet also appeared in many movies. Not only as a dance, but as part of the story, showing how demanding professional dancing is, like in Black Swan (2010).

Shall we try with tap dance?

Tap dance comes from the United States when Afro-Americans were not allowed to use percussion instruments and decided to use their feet.

Do you want to try it?

Let’s go!

We are going to learn some of the easiest steps in this dance, and let’s see if we can do it together to perform a small choreography. Are you ready?

Ball & Heel: first with the right foot, ball and heel and then with the left.

Flap: lift the leg slightly and slide the foot forwards, then place the ball of your foot on the ground.

Flap heel: the same as the flap but a step more made with the heel is added.

Shuffle: slide the foot forwards and then back. 

Paddles: Step with the heel raising the ball, slide the ball back and step with the same part. 

Cramp Roll: step with the ball of the right foot and then with the left, step with the heel right and left. 

Use this video when you need some help!