Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

3. Dance in popular culture
Within popular culture, dance is linked closely with making and participating in popular music.
Kate Prince, of Zoo Nation does a lot of pop choreography and says that she started dancing
at six: ‘I was obsessed with Janet Jackson, I copied everything she did.’ This is not unusual.
Many dance trends have been set off by powerful pop choreography – Madonna’s Vogue,
Michael Jackson’s MoonWalk – or through the influence of popular films. Saturday Night
Fever is the most obvious example of this but other films like Dirty Dancing, Step Up, Save
the Last Dance and recently Make it Happen where burlesque and hip hop meet are also
examples of popular films that have had an impact on dance styles and techniques. Similarly
the influence of Fosse on recent Beyoncé choreography points to the porous nature of the
crossover.
The BBC’s use of dance as an ident/ pre-programme leader is also testament to the
perceived broad appeal of dance. This featured many diverse styles including Bollywood,
capoeira, tango and salsa.
A glance at YouTube demonstrates the intensity of this connection where the video Evolution
of Dance 83 has had more than 115 million hits and is argued to be one of the most popular
YouTube videos. The recent T-Mobile adverts show that dance and dancing can capture
popular imagination in a truly significant way with 7 million views on YouTube. 84
The issue is how does this popularity within a social context translate into theatre dance?
There is an aesthetic dimension to this that we will consider in Part Eight but there is also an
issue around audiences for theatre dance performance. Does the popularity of dance attract
audiences to performance? Sadler’s Wells recent presentation of Hofesh Shechter at the
Roundhouse, appears to have done just this according to Luke Jennings in The Observer (8 th
March 2009):
‘Most of the Roundhouse's auditorium is standing-room only. The sight-lines from the circle
are pretty dreadful, with columns in the way, and if you don't make an early break for a
position by the stage, preferably pint in hand, you miss out. Lee Curran's switchback lighting
score goes to hell under these conditions, but in compensation you've got 17 of Europe's best
dancers right on top of you, and a live band thundering Shechter's score overhead like a
shore-break at Waimea Bay. The pieces have no stated subject but their content - flickering
snatches of combat, prayer and ritual set against a howling existential void - bypass the need
for explanation. This, surely, is the future. Dance that travels light, moves fast and knows that
"interesting" is not enough.’
83 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg - viewings as of 9 th March 2009.
84 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM&feature=channel_page
195