with every brush of his fingers
against hers, she sensed every emotion,
every glance caressing her like a lover,
his gaze holding more than just her form.
he held her heart.
And every time he let go,
she felt the chasm grow,
only to knit itself back
the moment he drew her
in his arms again.
The above line is a quote from Baz Luhrman’s 1992 movie, Strictly Ballroom, and it’s one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s also the first thing I thought of when I read the Daily Prompt this morning, and no matter how hard I tried to talk about my fearless fantasy, this was the only thing that would come out of me.
Anyway, back to the movie. I love Fran (Tara Morice), the way she blossoms from the ugly duckling to the swan and as much as I loved Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio), it’s Fran who shows true courage for she never wavers from what she wants – at least what her heart wants – while Scott was all over the place.
To me, the red dress that Fran wears (which is absolutely gorgeous) at the competition represents not just her own courage, but Scott’s, for it’s through her courage that he finally begins to live the life he wants, which begins by dancing the way he wants to dance.
I don’t even care that my post doesn’t really talk about my fearless fantasy, but let’s say that if I had one, the red dress would probably be part of it – and the paso doble.
This one just makes me smile each time! Love how it has, among many of my favorite movies, Strictly Ballroom‘s amazing final dance scene!
In my earliest memories of dancing, I’m under my auntie Nancy’s dining room table, (which had been pushed off to the side of the room), watching my mom, dad, aunties, and uncles all dancing on the hardwood floor to a never-ending stack of 45 records, dropping one after the other. I remember foot-high stacks of 45s all around the record player. The song that I remember playing most? Twistin’ the Night Away by Sam Cooke. Every time I hear that song, I remember auntie’s spontaneous dance parties. What are your earliest and fondest memories of dance?
Photographers, artists, poets: show us MOVEMENT.
I don’t remember my parents ever dancing. My mother was, and is still, too formal and too self-conscious for that. I do remember, however, my aunts.
My grandparents used to have this huge stereo that occupied half of one wall by the front door, and my aunts would play their records, and sometimes they’d dance. My first memory, and maybe my fondest, would be my two aunts teaching my cousins and I how to dance the hustle. The song? The Hustle, by Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony, of course.
I don’t think I ever got proficient dancing the hustle, what with all the twisted arms and the dizzying turns – not to mention the fancy footwork they tried to show me. But what I do remember is the laughter. We laughed at our mistakes, our silly attempts to look cool in our bell bottoms and starched collars, and we really tried to dance as well as we could, reducing ourselves to tears with our attempts.
There were other songs that my aunts played, like Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind and Fire as well as ABC by the Jackson 5, but The Hustle is my favorite of them all.
And oh, now that I mentioned ABC by the Jackson 5, here they are WITH Carol Burnett, one of my favorite entertainers of all time.
They don’t make them like they used to anymore…
Morrighan's Muse 