We conclude our 6 part series, The Next Step, with SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)! The surprisingly harsh film that launched a #1 bestselling soundtrack by the Bee Gees and John Travolta to super stardom.

You'll easily be able to summon the sight of Travolta strutting down the street in the opening scene and hear that thumping beat of Stayin' Alive, but did you remember that he's actually a 19 year old kid on an errand to buy paint? In this tale set in the end days of disco, Travolta's Tony Manero learns not to treat women like an accessory, breaks away from his oppressive catholic family and ultimately makes the journey across the Brooklyn Bridge...all through dance!

Justice for Annette!

Guest: Jennifer Goggans from the Merce Cunningham Trust

Emma will also do a quick wrap up our Coming of Age mini series by collating all the overlapping themes, so many are set in New York, so many daddy issues, but only one daisy tattoo!

Links

Vanity Fair article

The Rest Is History Ep on Disco

We’re making our entrance for this one running in with arms in bras bas! Was SAVE THE LAST DANCE (2001) the beginning of the dance movie craze of the noughts? With a bonus film that definitely hits right in the middle of that fad: STEP UP (2006)

It’s interesting revisiting STLD on the other side of the reckonings that happened around BLM. It earnestly explores some serious topics with Julia Stiles’s white ballerina becoming a fish out of water when she moves to a majority black neighbourhood in Chicago. Julia Stiles relied heavily on a body double for her ballet, but this box office hit made her a star. Watch out for Kerry Washington in her first film role.

Sara may have learnt how to find her groove thanks to Derek, BUT WILL SHE GET INTO JULLIARD?!?!

Join us and Jack Webb and Isaac Bowry, virtual guests, but real-life friends!

LINKS

Cheryl Edwards on STLD script

Pierre-Émile on Instgram

5 years after first recorded, we're rereleasing this episode of our first dance flavoured mini series - Ballet for the 21st Century. We've chosen to revisit the last ep in that series, Boys Dance Too, because having just discussed the film Billy Elliot we thought it was worth digging into some themes that came up in more depth.

This episode has been shortened from its original length...

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Why is the bullying of boys who want to take ballet so persistent? Emma Lister seeks to answer this question and why their love of dance is often defended with the usual football comparison/"real men lift women" trope.

In the final episode of of our mini-series, Ballet for the Twenty-first Century, we'll open up topics such as: body image, casting, role models, gendered ballet technique, The Billy Elliot Effect and homophobia.

Special guests: Denzil Bailey, Richard Bermange, James Forbat, Matthew Paluch and Mark Samaras.

REFERENCES:

M. Paluch. (2019). There's an elephant in the room and it's gay.... Dancing Times. October 2019, p29-31. www.dancing-times.co.uk

This mini-series has been made possible by a grant using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.