Customer Reviews

Dancetime! 500 Years of Social Dance Vol II : 20th Century [VHS]

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This video is probably one of the only accounts of the Turn-of-the-Century dances (done in 1998), but you see them performed fairly quickly, and, blended with other steps, you're not quite sure which is exactly which. This would be for historical purposes only, unless you can figure out the traditional dances for yourself. It really is very interesting stuff, and I'm grateful to have it on video, but as the decades draw closer to the present, the dancing is better seen in Saturday Night Fever and MTV.

The order of dances: 1910's - Various Animal Dances, Castle Walk, Apache, Tango

1920's - Black Bottom, Charleston

1930's - Dance marathons, Movie Musical (a la Astaire and Rogers), Big Apple, Jitterbug

1940's - Rumba, Swing

1950's - Rock-n-Roll, Mambo

1960's - Twist, Mashed Potato, Wipe out, Mod (Frug-style), Hippies (free spirits)

1970's - Disco (Saturday Night Fever), YMCA

1980's - Break Dancing (not well done), Punk slam-Dancing, Moonwalk (Better seen by Michael Jackson)

1990's - Vogueing (better seen by Madonna), Hip-hop, Country & Western

This is a group of ballet and show dancers performing their "witty" impression of social dance. I didn't see a single dancer being social with their partner(s). Then again, I could not stand to watch the whole DVD. The production is dated, and those annoying narratives...

We bought this inexpensively, to supplement my daughter's homeschool curriculum in the arts. She enjoyed the video series.