Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

The Romance of Dance

Pop star Jewel and Access Hollywood host Nancy O'Dell both had to drop out of competition on TV's Dancing with the Stars last week, due to injuries they sustained during training. Bummer for them, but it did make for a very exciting season premiere last Monday, during which two new stars took to the dance floor: Playboy model Holly Madison and reality TV veteran Melissa Rycroft (of recent Bachelor-marriage-proposal-followed-by-rejection-in-front-of-millions-of-viewers fame). As in previous premiere episodes, Dancing with the Stars's three judges were encouraging in their comments to the novice dancers, but spent a lot of time making technical notes about foot placement, rhythm, and so on. Which brings me to my first suggestion:

The 1993 Australian drama Strictly Ballroom is part competition movie, part light romance – at the opening of the story, lifelong dancer and star-to-watch Scott Hastings has just lost his dance partner after spicing up a competition dance with his own, unorthodox steps. Scott's reckless disregard of regulation moves becomes a scandal in the dance community, and there is some doubt as to whether he can secure a new partner in time for the most important competition of the season, the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix. But Scott pairs up with ballroom amateur Fran, whose immigrant mother and grandmother give them a master class in the Paso Doble. Will Fran and Scott's passion for the dance, their commitment to creativity and craft, and their growing affection for one another help them succeed at the Pan-Pacific?

Ballroom dance competitions are complex affairs – of course a couple's dancing skills are under review by the judges, but a whole host of other elements affect their scores – music, costumes, and the dancers' interpretations of the emotion and drama of the dance. Jonathan S. Marion's Ballroom: Culture and Costume in Competitive Dance presents an anthropological analysis of ballroom, examining issues such as the performance of gender roles, trends in costumes for different styles of dance, and the role of dance competitions as festivals for ballroom fans.

Eve Golden's biography Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution, on the other hand, chronicles the history of the rise of public social dancing as a respectable pastime for middle-class people, during the 1910s. During that period, Vernon and Irene Castle were perhaps the most famous and influential dance team in the world – but they were also known for their advocacy for greater rights for animals (due in part to their years on the vaudeville circuit, where many animal performers were treated harshly), and for their incredible personal charisma and style. Irene in particular was a trend setter – she bobbed her hair in 1909, well before the fashion was widespread in the United States. (For those of you who want the basic story quickly – and perhaps with a little Hollywood embellishment – check out the 1939 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.)