Footloose Dancing with Clown Face

The art of dance. Oh how I wish I stayed in that tap class I was in when I was five. But unfortunately like all skills I tried to learn throughout my life, I quit. Maybe if I had stuck with it, I would be a dance star right now. Such a shame.

Okay, I probably wouldn’t be a star but I could have at least been able to recreate some of my favorite dance scenes from the three best dance movies to ever exist. That’s right folks, I’m talking about those three 80’s classics; Footloose, Dirty Dancing and Flashdance. These three movies immersed me into a world of dance and I have never left. I still love watching dance movies, even the ones where the actors really can’t act but that’s okay because they were hired for their dance skills.

(I feel like I’m saying dance way too much but there aren’t a lot of synonyms for the word. I even looked it up in the thesaurus and all the alternatives were names of actual types of dancing.)

First let’s talk about Footloose, the 80’s version not that blasphemy of a remake. The lovable and adorable young Kevin Bacon comes to a prude town where dance is forbidden. So he spreads a dancing fever of rebellion amongst the teen population and they fight for their right to party. (That’s right, I went there.) John Lithgow is the evil father and pastor who bans dancing but soon sees the error of his ways, because dance is magical. In the end they’re all happy and have one crazy night of letting it all out on the dance floor.

It’s such a great movie. Talking about it right now, makes me want to watch it. Footloose will always be up there with the movies I love so dear. The song is even classic and those close to me know that I will bust out my Molly Ringwald moves (think dance scene from Breakfast Club) anytime it comes on. This movie taught me that sometimes you have to fight for something if you really love it.

Now let’s talk about Dirty Dancing. As a kid I believed that boys/men were “yucky,” well that’s with the exception of Jon Bon Jovi. Then I saw Dirty Dancing and quickly fell into crush phase for Patrick Swayze. He was a man with amazing dance skills, shining beauty and manly protecting ways. Thinking back maybe Dirty Dancing was a little too much heat for a young kid but I really didn’t invest too much attention into the raunchy moves, abortion scandal and slight intimate scenes. I was a kid and didn’t understand what any of that meant. No, I lived for that final dance scene. That ending was AMAZING and still is. From the classic “baby in the corner” line to that beautiful lift. I seriously love that movie so much and I’ve probably watched it more times than I can count. So much so that I told my husband that when I die, I want to be cremated. I want my family and friends to go up to Lake Lure (where the movie was filmed and it’s like an hour from where we live now) and spread my ashes into the lake while blasting the song “The Time of My Life.” I’m hundred percent serious about this, those are my final wishes. Dirty Dancing taught me that you never let others tell you who to love and with lots of practice you too can be a great dancer.

Last of all is Flashdance, which my mother tells me I called it, “Clown Face.”  Why did I call it “Clown Face?” Well at one point in the movie Jennifer Beals’ character does one of her theatrical exotic dances with some kind of crazy kabuki looking make up on. That’s what I took away from that movie when I was in my youth. Not that the girl in the movie was an exotic dancer, but that she wore creepy make up at some point. In all seriousness, the movie taught me that sometimes you have to work hard for your dreams. The main character, Alex, just wants to go to ballet school. In order to do so, she has to work as a welder by day and an exotic dancer by night. In the end she made it in for an audition and did a routine that best represented her. She worked hard for what she wanted and never let herself change just to achieve her dream.

I would like to add here that I did go back and watch the trailers for each one of these movies. Let me just say I wouldn’t watch any of them for the first time, in the present, just based on those trailers. They were all hilariously awful, true to 80’s form.

These three movies will always have a place in my heart. I will probably re-watch them periodically throughout my life till the day I die. Dance is beautiful and I will forever be jealous of those who can dance. It inspires heroes, lovers, and dreamers.

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Blog Tea

A high school friend of mine told me about a tea shop near her, in New York, that sells tea online. So I ordered little samples of various teas and plan to write a post about it  later on. However I felt it was fitting for me to try one of those samples as I wrote this, since it’s a bubbly post about dancing and this tea has some bubbly soaked in. That’s right I’m talking about champagne.

White Raspberry Spritzer

There was a tiny hint of champagne but all I really could taste was the raspberries, which is fine by me. I really enjoyed it!

This tea is from The Whistling Kettle. Check them out! So far every sample I’ve tried has been good and again I plan to review them all more in-depth in the future.

Got a topic or tea suggestions? Email me at tvandteablog@gmail.com