Customer Reviews

He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin [VHS]

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I first saw this documentary 16 years ago and it remains one of my favorites. I believe it won an Academy Award for documentary short. It's about Jacques D'Amboise, a principle ballet dancer in NYC for 27 years (you can see him in the musicals Carousel and Oklahoma), and how he founded a dance program for children in New York City. As he says in the video, Mr. D'Amboise believes in getting children involved in the arts early on, forever making the arts a part of their lives. Beginning with one school and about 30 children, it has grown into a major project that (at the time of the documentary) involved over 1,000 children from schools all over the city. Including many interviews and comments from the children themselves, this documentary is funny and entertaining and touching. Incidentally, for his many years of work and inspiration, Jacques D'Amboise received one of the Kennedy Center Honors a couple of years ago.

this documentary looks at how an artist uses his talents to inspire a generation of NYC schoolchildren, not just the ones with obvious talent, to believe in themselves. After weeks of rehearsals, the film culminates in "The Big Event," which the year this was filmed featured Kevin Kline as narrator.

This film won the 1984 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. A truly inspiring film !

A total joy. Jacques is an inspiration and the video captures the unbounded enthusiasm he projects. Good for any audience. Children will ask how they can be part of his project; adults will, too.