Beyond the exhilaration and fascination that comes from watching a musical, I love to watch the dance scenes because they are entertaining and give life to the entire movie. After all, singing and dancing is part of life.
Dancing in films is a form of art that not only adds to the movie plot but also fills the space where dialogue would be insufficient or fails. In other words, they convey a deeper meaning of the plot in addition to character dialogues.
For me, I enjoy dance scenes in musicals for the fun of it. Such scenes inspire excitement and also create hunger for cultural knowledge as each culture has its unique dance routine and steps. This is the reason I particularly enjoyed the dance scenes in the Disney live-action, Aladdin (2019) directed by Guy Ritchie.
When filming dance scenes, the dance techniques, the choreography, the music and the storytelling are very important. They must sync and convey the heart of the movie. Viewers would prefer dance scenes that are captivating, the type they can dance to that would leave them wanting more.
Aladdin live action displayed eastern Asian cultural dance styles that remind me of Bollywood and their stunning dance numbers. I have not watched Indian movies recently but this one certainly brought back memories of the films I watched when I was younger.
I especially loved the scene of Prince Ali (Mena Massoud) attempting to catch Princess Jasmine's (Naomi Scott) attention with his dance moves. With the help of his genie (Will Smith), he goes ahead to successfully dance and impress the Princess. Here's a clip of the scene from YouTube.
This dance scene vividly displayed eastern Asian dance steps and choreography. The colourful costumes of the dancers and the music played were mesmerising and added to the allure.
Another scene I also enjoyed in this live action was the grand entrance of Prince Ali of Ababwa into Agrabah. The hype, the crowd of dancers, the animals and the singing by Will Smith was superb and thrilling. I noticed there was a mix of hip hop in their dance techniques.
I also loved the dance scenes in La La Land (2016) and Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and almost wrote about them but I changed my mind. I chose to write on Aladdin because of the cultural mix in the music and dancing.
What is your favourite movie dance scene?
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Image 1: Imdb edited with Canva App Image 2: Screenshot from movie Image 3: Imdb
