Les Claquettes (tap dancing)

April 14, 2021 9:56 AM

Modern urban jazz + tap dance = RB Dance Company (France): Human (Rag’n’Bone Man); Don’t Stop Me Now (Queen); *I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor); *Papaoutai (Stromae). RB Dance Company were *finalists on La France a un Incroyable Talent in 2018 and again in the show’s 2020 *battle of the judges. (Warning, videos with * feature flashing lights/flickering)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl (12 comments total)

Love MeFi. I didn't wake up this morning knowing that I needed to see French people wearing black, tap dancing, and playing drums, but here we are and it's definitely scratching an itch I didn't suspect I had.
posted by otherchaz at 11:53 AM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

I wish the camera would just stay in one place so I could actually watch though! Editor is doing way too much.
posted by bleep at 12:15 PM on April 14, 2021 [4 favorites]

Agreed, bleep. I have been saying it since the eighties. Let the dancers dance. It's not even all from the same dance. Notice how in the first video the people under the tables appear and disappear. *eye roll*
But if I could ignore all that I think I would love this dancing!
posted by bitslayer at 12:48 PM on April 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

Love it, love it, love it, but my inner morbid auteur visualizes a gendarme looking askance at "oui oui Emile was an idiot, his grand jete was choreographed to the left". Dyslexia kills. ;-) ;-)

(sorry, but the dancing on the roof twists my tummy)
posted by sammyo at 1:42 PM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

(only on the roofs in Don’t Stop Me Now)
posted by sammyo at 1:56 PM on April 14, 2021

Oh I think the edits with dancers visible/not under the boxes in alternating takes was artistically intentional.

Totally agree with so much dance film, a single viewpoint long take is not the answer but could be so much better. The Dance in America series on PBS used hockey cameramen.
posted by sammyo at 2:01 PM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

I found a video that seems to have less of that kind of showy editing: Opening night of the 2016 Champs Élysées film festival.

I’m glad people are enjoying them...YouTube served them up as a suggested video for some reason—I’d never heard of them before and I was blown away. I’d love to see them in person someday when it’s possible again!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:17 PM on April 14, 2021

On a somewhat related tap dancing tangent, the feet of the Nicholas Brothers feature in the break of Chic -- My Feet Keep Dancing from 1979.
posted by y2karl at 3:53 PM on April 14, 2021

Oh wow, that Nicholas Brothers clip is a delight!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:57 PM on April 14, 2021

I'm a former tapper and the Nicholas Brothers clip reminds me something Miss Ruth would frequently tell our advanced class. It's not always what you do, but how you do it. You can take something simple and make it mind blowing.

When (I hope and pray) the world opens back up, I want to take a tap class. It's been almost 35 years since I last danced and I want to see what I could do now that I weigh less than I did in high school.
posted by kathrynm at 5:36 PM on April 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

I wholeheartedly vote yes for tap. It wakes up your body in ways that other regimens cannot touch. While you might be good at yoga, or football, or ballet, or weight training, tap takes you back to the roots, and strengthens your entire system, like a tree.
The only tool you need is your body, young or old.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 6:30 PM on April 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

The only tool you need is your body, young or old.

For young...

Nicolas Brothers -- Lucky Number
posted by y2karl at 1:05 PM on April 22, 2021