The Spirit Moves
| The Sprit Moves | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Mura Dehn |
| Produced by | Mura Dehn |
| Edited by | Mura Dehn |
Release date | 1987 |
Running time | 119 min. |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
The Spirit Moves: A History of Black Social Dance on Film, 1900-1986 is a documentary film by Mura Dehn chronicling the evolution of African American social dance throughout most of the 20th century. In its original form it consists of nearly six hours of rare archival footage shot over the course of thirty years. Since 1987 this complete version has only been available for viewing at a select few institutions (the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York City and the Smithsonian). In 2008 the first three parts of Dehn's work, totaling 2 hours, were remastered and released by Dancetime Publications.
Filmmaker
Mura Dehn was a Russian dancer who at a young age developed a formal background in ballet and modern dance. She didn't expand to Jazz dance until being exposed to it for the first time in Paris at the age of 20. Five years later, she immigrated to New York and stumbled upon the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York City - an influential hotspot of African American social dancing. She was struck by the desire to preserve the dances and styles she witnessed for future generations.
Part 1: Jazz Dance from the Turn of the Century to 1950
When Dehn first began her undertaking in the early 1930's, she faced a dilemma. To properly frame the current state of African American social dance, she needed to record examples of styles from as early as the 1900's. As is true today, social dance progresses quickly and much had changed in the intervening decades. Unable to find the older styles performed in any of the modern venues, Dehn enlisted a group of talented dancers from the Savoy Ballroom to give demonstrations in a studio setting and fill in the gaps. The same format was also used to showcase the modern styles of dance of the 1930's and 1940's. The result is a clean, clear presentation of five decades worth of innovation in social dance that abstracts out everything but the movement of the dancers. Due to the technical limitations of film at the time, a separate soundtrack was added after recording the visuals; It features music of the same style as what was performed to by the dancers, but not necessarily the same songs.
Part 2: Savoy Ballroom of Harlem 1950's
Dehn's familiarity with the Savoy Ballroom gave her the perfect setting to observe and record social dancing in its natural environment. Correspondingly, Part 2 consists of footage of the general public enjoying themselves on the dance floor. By a coincidence that could only have been deliberate, Leon James and Al Minns (two of the best Lindy Hoppers of the era) are in the crowd. Included is a dazzling recording of an aerial Lindy contest in which one of the two dancers is always in the air, with the role frequently switching between the male and female.
Part 3: Postwar Era, 1950s-1980s
When the Savoy Ballroom closed its doors for the last time in 1958, Dehn choose to depart Harlem as she continued her work. As a result, Part 3 was filmed at Public School 28 in Brooklyn and the Palladium in Manhattan. In it Dehn witnesses a complete revolution in Lindy Hop, from it's fall out of popularity in the early 1960's to its revival in the mid 1980's.
See also
References
http://www.savoystyle.com/spirit_moves.html http://jazzmusiccollection.com/759/the-spirit-moves-a-history-of-black-social-dance-on-film-screener/