I've been watching a lot of movies as of late. And yes, since the beginning of October, they have been almost exclusively Halloween-esque movies (with the one exception of a late night viewing of Sky High because Kirsten was too scared to go to sleep after watching Scream). What I've noticed is that even Halloween movies, with all of their blood, guts, and all around terror, can hardly resist the lure of dance sequences! Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) features Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis using their newly acquired other worldly powers to make an entire family sing and dance to the Banana Boat Song. Leslie Neilson got to show off his (or probably a body double's) dancing ability in both waltzes and tangos in Dracula: Dead and Loving It. We get to see "Madonna" shakin' it with "Dadcula" in Hocus Pocus, Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster acting as a chorus line in Young Frankenstein, and a romantic floating slow dance in Casper the Friendly Ghost. Suspiria (fantastic suspense-thriller from the 80s directed by none other than Dario Argento) is about a ballet academy run by a witch/ghost. From Dusk Till Dawn is rife with vampire strippers, so some slight dancing is involved (or at least some jiggling... or whatever vampire strippers do). Gomez and Morticia Addams almost never stop dancing with each other (especially after Morticia speaks in French; Gomez loves when she speaks in French). And let's be honest, I can't be the only person who mentally superimposes the video from "Thriller" at least once during every zombie movie. Even the makers of Mad Monster Party (also the makers of classics such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town) decided to ignore the naysayers and look past the fact that swing dance translates horribly in stop motion animation movies when they made Dracula and Francesca (Dr. Frankenstein's lady robot assistant) lindy hop (Dracula's stop motion tap-dance translated even worse).  |
| In Mad Monster Party, both Dracula and a zombie came on to Francesca way too strongly for a children's movie, in my opinion |
In spite of how bad Dracula's tap dancing was in Mad Monster Party (Frankenstein's monster wasn't that much better), this was one of many dance numbers I've watched recently that has gotten me all the more excited for next Tuesday. "What's happening next Tuesday?" you're probably asking yourself. Well, I'll tell you! Starting next Tuesday, I will spend 8 weeks learning to shuffle, scuffle, chugg, and slap in an adult beginners tap dance workshop! (Note: it's only one 60-minute class each Tuesday, I won't be doing this for 8 weeks continuously.)
I have always wanted to tap dance. When I was young, I would frequently try to trick my mom into getting me tap shoes whenever we'd be buying dress shoes, but something about them being super loud usually tipped her off (she claimed that tap shoes were inappropriate attire for Easter Sunday mass, but I have my suspicions). I even signed up for a tap class one semester in college, but the mixture of tap shoes not being free and the school's request that all dance students wear nothing but leotards and tights (in a class where you're surrounded by stick-thin girls) was enough to make me drop it. But now, after watching Singing in the Rain, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and that one episode of Psych where Gus is an awesome tap dancer, I finally decided to get on the Google and find me a tap class in town. How fortuitous for me that there was an adult beginners workshop starting up so soon!
Even if it does mean that the next 8 weeks are going to be extremely exhausting and hectic (I also joined a recreational kickball league on Wednesdays that lasts 8 weeks... not to mention the fact that holiday season is upon us), I'm really excited about what's in store!
Have you ever tried tap-dancing? Do you think it's odd that the title of this post references one of the only dance numbers in Thoroughly Modern Millie that didn't involve tap-dancing? What's your favorite Halloween movie?
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