Happy Valentine’s Day 2012!

Whether you’re in love or love being single, this Valentine’s Day we are going begin our celebration through the passion, romance, and beauty of dancing…

Music and dancing are wonderful mediums for expressing various types of (romantic) love.  Sometimes that love is timid and shy.  Sometimes it is passionate and impatient.  Sometimes love is as familiar as coming home or enjoying an old friend.  And at other times, love is sad and painful.  For Valentine’s Day I have chosen 14 dances which transcend the steps (whether by the genius of choreographers or dancers) to empathize with our notions of love.

Fred Astaire – Romancing Women with Genteel Dancing

There is no dancer as smooth, elegant, romantic and gentlemanly as Fred Astaire.  He dances his way into every one of his partners hearts (on screen) and does so with a sweet confidence that evoke true intimacy and love.  In Fred’s arms, Ginger Rogers’s stunning acting ability makes us all believe that dancing with Fred is the most romantic and pleasurable experience in the world.  In their final movie together, The Barkleys of Broadway, the love between two artists closing a long and beautiful chapter is palpable.  But Fred will continue on and show that you can virtuously romance women with dancing at any age in Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn.

  • Fred & Ginger – Cheek to Cheek

  • Fred & Ginger – Night & Day

  • Fred & Ginger – Can’t Take That Away From Me

  • Fred & Audrey – He Loves and She Loves

Gene Kelly – The Love of a Graceful & Powerful Dancer

Where Fred is soft, sweet and virtuous, Gene Kelly’s dancing is the embodiment of a powerful, graceful and sometimes sensual love.   Gene is able to make each dance, with each partner, a different experience in love.

  • Gene & Debbie – You Were Meant For Me

  • Gene & Rita – Long Ago and Far Away

  • Gene- Singing in the Rain

*I wanted to show you the Fountain Scene from An American in Paris with Gene and Leslie Caron, but it cannot be embedded. Please feel free to view it on YouTube here.

So You Think You Can Dance – Short Love Affairs with Dancers, Choreographers and Music

For 8 Seasons, SYTYCD has been serving up short and magnificent dance performances.  The meld between choreographers and young talented dancers honing their craft has churned out one emotionally touching performance after another.  These are some of the best dealing with romantic love in its various stages…new love, passion, and eternal  romance.

  • Allison & Ivan – Annie Lennox ‘Why’

  • Heidi & Travis – Celine Dion ‘Calling You’

  • Sasha & Kent – Me’Shell ‘Fool of Me’

  • Melanie & Marko – Leona Lewis ‘I Got You’

  • Sasha & Twitch – Dorothy Moore ‘Misty Blue’

    •  

    Love and Dancing in Movies

    Then there are those romantic movies which have understood that a good connection on the dance floor makes for sexually charged and romantic fantasies.  In Dance with Me, Vanessa Williams and Chayanne play dancers on either side of artistic motivational drive who are able to find love in the balance between “feeling it” social dancing and technically (though not always emotive) professional dancing…sharing is caring.  And finally, there is nothing more collectively agreed upon as the most romantic dance movie than Dirty Dancing.  To get you a little in the mood…we will close the night out with a sexy bluesy number, “Cry to Me!”

    • Dance With Me – Bolero

    • Dirty Dancing – Cry to Me

    *Bonus For Everyone Celebrating Single Awareness Day

    Get Pumped for a wild night out…”Get Outta Your Mind”