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intervening decades. Unable to find the older styles performed in any of the modern venues, Dehn enlisted a group of talented dancers from the Savoy
Ballroom to give demonstrations in a studio setting and fill in the gaps. The same format was also used to showcase the modern styles of dance of the 1930s and 1940s. The result is a clean, clear presentation of five decades worth of innovation in social dance that abstracts out everything but the movement of the dancers. Due to the technical limitations of film at the time, a separate soundtrack was added after recording the visuals; It features music of the same style as what was performed to by the dancers, but not necessarily the same songs.
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nothing was going to be given to them, that they weren't going to be treated in the same way. Bebop is turning their back on white influence, breaking up couple dancing, breaking up all the movements. It represented the broken up, disoriented, lost world in which they could only rely upon themselves.
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The Savoy dances, the main thing of the dance of that time, of the 1930s, was hope. They felt triumphant, they felt recognized. They felt that they could, through dance, through music, earn a position of equality ... Bebop was just the opposite. They found throughout during their work experience that
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There are three parts to the publicly available version of the film, with a handful of chapters each. The original editing is preserved: Each chapter is prefaced with a short narration by Dehn to establish the setting and the performers while a list of the dances and styles to be shown is displayed.
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Dehn's familiarity with the Savoy
Ballroom gave her the perfect setting to observe and record social dancing in its natural environment. Correspondingly, Part 2 consists of footage of the general public enjoying themselves on the dance floor. By a coincidence that could only have been deliberate,
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When Dehn first began her undertaking in the early 1930s, she faced a dilemma. To properly frame the current state of
African-American social dance, she needed to record examples of styles from as early as the 1900s. As is true today, social dance progresses quickly and much had changed in the
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throughout most of the 20th century. In its original form it consists of nearly six hours of rare archival footage shot over the course of thirty years. Since 1987 this complete version has only been available for viewing at a select few institutions (the
Library for the Performing Arts at
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Later, when questioned about the then-recent development of breaking (which she also documented), Dehn expressed her view that the style and its wild, athletic movements are a response to the pain and discomfort of growing up in the modern world.
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perform in Paris. She was thrilled with the vitality of the style: "Before, European couple dancing was very formal—too pleasing and too relaxed. But life was not like that. We needed something to energize us, to give us abandon. The
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gave us the spice of rhythm and syncopation." She began to incorporate it in her work and even put on a jazz concert in Vienna in 1925. In 1930, seeking the homeland of jazz, Dehn immigrated to the United States.
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of the era) are in the crowd. Included is a dazzling recording of an aerial Lindy contest in which one of the two dancers is always in the air, with the role frequently switching between the man and woman.
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When the Savoy
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in
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blues styles. Chapter 3 departs from the studio briefly to home in on practice sessions inside the Savoy:
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Dehn grew up in Russia and was trained as a ballet and modern dancer in the style of
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Dehn captured performances by some of the most brilliant dancers of the age.
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The Spirit Moves: A History of Black Social Dance on Film, 1900–1986
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Shortly after arriving in New York City, Dehn stumbled upon the
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Ghertler, Louise (Director) Katz, Pamela (Director) (1987).
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Part 1: Jazz dance from the turn of the century to 1950
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472:In a Jazz Way: A Portrait of Mura Dehn
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101:Running time
78:Release date
451:14 February
421:14 February
399:14 February
340:James Berry
150:Smithsonian
105:119 minutes
49:Produced by
39:Directed by
531:Jazz films
516:1987 films
510:Categories
379:References
290:Trunky Doo
282:Rent Party
262:Charleston
183:Motivation
176:Charleston
161:Background
368:Lindy Hop
324:Palladium
294:Big Apple
286:Gutbucket
156:Mura Dehn
134:Mura Dehn
63:Mura Dehn
59:Edited by
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43:Mura Dehn
33:DVD cover
362:See also
352:Al Minns
258:Cakewalk
239:Contents
118:Language
266:Susie Q
254:Ragtime
199:Summary
121:English
110:Country
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296:, and
274:Shimmy
213:Themes
193:Harlem
373:Bebop
278:Blues
453:2011
423:2011
401:2011
89:1987
85:1987
191:in
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