LET'S FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE
I adore this dance. It is one of the most sophisticated and beautiful I have ever seen in the movies, containing equal parts drama, meaningfulness and musicality, and it bears repeated viewing many times. It is a remarkable choreography, created as a set piece in the 1936 Astaire & Rogers movie Follow the Fleet. The dance is completely different from anything else in the movie and is placed at the very end of it. What is unusual about it is that the dance is all about depression and attempted suicide. Most movies of those days were frivolous in their attempt to distract us from the difficulties of the times. Although Follow the Fleet is that kind of movie, this particular dance is not. The piece also presents the solution to social isolation - to move.
In the film clip of Let's Face the Music and Dance which you can click on below, Astaire loses all his money gambling and endures the painful isolation that comes with being shunned by the upper class. It results in his trying to take his own life. He stops suddenly when Ginger Rogers enters the scene and starts to jump off the bridge. She is desolate also (we don't know why). Astaire rescues her and seduces her into dancing instead. It is inspiringly uplifting.
In the film clip of Let's Face the Music and Dance which you can click on below, Astaire loses all his money gambling and endures the painful isolation that comes with being shunned by the upper class. It results in his trying to take his own life. He stops suddenly when Ginger Rogers enters the scene and starts to jump off the bridge. She is desolate also (we don't know why). Astaire rescues her and seduces her into dancing instead. It is inspiringly uplifting.
This theme is astoundingly realistic for a musical. (Astaire went on to make another movie with a similarly unusual theme. This time with the subject of alcoholism as he and Eleanor Powell joined to make Broadway Melody of 1940, a stunning creation by this incredibly talented man and woman.)
Follow the Fleet was released in 1936, during Hitler's build up to war. World powers knew he would eventually have to be challenged. We unconsciously knew it would ultimately mean war. It was also deep into the Great Depression. We forget what it must have been like to be in the depths of extreme economic depression for 10 years.
Follow the Fleet was released in 1936, during Hitler's build up to war. World powers knew he would eventually have to be challenged. We unconsciously knew it would ultimately mean war. It was also deep into the Great Depression. We forget what it must have been like to be in the depths of extreme economic depression for 10 years.
Click above to watch Let's Face the Music and Dance
The costuming of the female actors is stunning. Hollywood was at its best with superbly tailored fabrics draped splendidly. Ginger Rogers herself is so beautiful, her hair styled classically and her costume illustrating the movement so effectively. The countenance of her face and upper body is delicate and vulnerable, reflective of the mood of the piece. (I think that Rogers was a wonderful but under-appreciated actress who excelled at both physical and emotional expression and it really shows here.) The set is classic and stylish.
This phenomenon of beauty, sophistication, fashion and glamour being bestowed only on those with money is a theme that would read equally disturbingly today. The essential emptiness of the possession of money and worldly goods the loss of which drives these two people into hopelessness could have been taken out of an analysis of American society in 2020. It illustrates the depth of this collaboration and underlines its importance in movie history.
This sophistication of the upper class is so sleekly illustrated in the strutting that the beautiful people do early in the piece as they deliberately (but stylishly) shun Astaire, generating his depression and despair. Their walk is slow, timed to the music. It is an example of something I rarely see in dance in the movies, taking pedestrian movement and making it poignant.
There is also an interesting point about the dance itself. After singing the song to the saddened Rogers, Astaire actually starts the dance with his back to the audience, something rather unusual but which again reflects the sentiments of the drama.
Yet another wonderful aspect of the choreography is that during the climax of the song, the dance steps are simple and stunning instead of showy and dramatic. Close to the grand finale, the 2 dancers pass each other like ships passing in the night, over and over. This simplicity at the most moving part of the music magnifies the meaningfulness of the moment. It is an important lesson to artists that drama is not always the most impactful way to affect an audience. Start at the 7:15 mark in the video to watch this subtle and moving progression.
This phenomenon of beauty, sophistication, fashion and glamour being bestowed only on those with money is a theme that would read equally disturbingly today. The essential emptiness of the possession of money and worldly goods the loss of which drives these two people into hopelessness could have been taken out of an analysis of American society in 2020. It illustrates the depth of this collaboration and underlines its importance in movie history.
This sophistication of the upper class is so sleekly illustrated in the strutting that the beautiful people do early in the piece as they deliberately (but stylishly) shun Astaire, generating his depression and despair. Their walk is slow, timed to the music. It is an example of something I rarely see in dance in the movies, taking pedestrian movement and making it poignant.
There is also an interesting point about the dance itself. After singing the song to the saddened Rogers, Astaire actually starts the dance with his back to the audience, something rather unusual but which again reflects the sentiments of the drama.
Yet another wonderful aspect of the choreography is that during the climax of the song, the dance steps are simple and stunning instead of showy and dramatic. Close to the grand finale, the 2 dancers pass each other like ships passing in the night, over and over. This simplicity at the most moving part of the music magnifies the meaningfulness of the moment. It is an important lesson to artists that drama is not always the most impactful way to affect an audience. Start at the 7:15 mark in the video to watch this subtle and moving progression.
But the best part of all is the message of the lyrics.
There may be trouble ahead.
But while there's music and moonlight and love and romance,
Let's face the music and dance.
Before the fiddlers have fled.
Before they ask us to pay the bill and while we still have the chance,
Let's face the music and dance.
Soon we'll be without the moon, humming a different tune and then.
There may be teardrops to shed.
So while there's moonlight and music and love and romance,
Let's face the music and dance.
These words are sentient, predicting the soon to be crises that would ultimately involve much of the world in terror and death. There were indeed many teardrops to shed as the people of nations faced the music that was to come. Yet this tragedy is made magnificent and transformative by taking it and projecting into it the beauty and artistry of dance.
For us, in 2020, the lessons couldn't be more appropriate. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing isolation on us all. Fear is invasive and overwhelming. Yet we can break out of it by taking human emotion and creating transformational meaning for ourselves through movement and music and expression. We may not be able to dance together right now but we can certainly move and grow. Increased activity subsumes fear, anxiety and depression more effectively than anything else. May you take the fear that we are all experiencing and transform it in your life into sublime beauty.
For us, in 2020, the lessons couldn't be more appropriate. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing isolation on us all. Fear is invasive and overwhelming. Yet we can break out of it by taking human emotion and creating transformational meaning for ourselves through movement and music and expression. We may not be able to dance together right now but we can certainly move and grow. Increased activity subsumes fear, anxiety and depression more effectively than anything else. May you take the fear that we are all experiencing and transform it in your life into sublime beauty.