Tag: Dance

Jerome Robbins

PARIS: I’m only saying it won’t be a totally satisfying victory just beating Jerome Robbins and the rest of the losers here. I’d really like to take you down also.
BRAD: Boy, she is really up on her theater references.

Jerome Robbins, born Jerome Rabinowitz (1918-1998), dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his numerous stage productions were West Side Story, Gypsy, and Fiddler on the Roof. Robbins was a five-time Tony Award-winner and a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. He received two Academy Awards, including the 1961 Academy Award for Best Director with Robert Wise for West Side Story, and a special Academy Honorary Award for his choreographic achievements on film.

Chita Rivera

BRAD: Paris, this time on stage has been a very growing experience for me. I’m no longer intimidated by you or people like you.
PARIS: I’m thrilled to hear it, Chita Rivera. Move.

Chita Rivera (born Dolores del Rivero Anderson in 1933), actress, singer and dancer best known for originating roles in Broadway musicals including Anita in West Side Story, Velma Kelly in Chicago, and the title role in Kiss of the Spider Woman. She has won three Tony Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement. She is the first Latina and the first Latino American to receive a Kennedy Center Honor, and is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Dimebag at the Sadie Hawkins Day Dance

LORELAI: Most of us had first boyfriends like Brian Hutchins … Seventh grade, I’m sitting in the library, walks up, asks me to go steady. I say yes. He walks away and I don’t see him again until the tenth grade when he tries to sell me a dimebag at the Sadie Hawkins Day dance. And he was way overcharging for it, too.

In North America, a Sadie Hawkins Day Dance is one held, usually by schools and colleges, where girls invite boys, rather than the usual convention of boys inviting girls to a dance.

It comes from Sadie Hawkins Day in the Li’l Abner comic strip by Al Capp, an unspecified day in November when unmarried women could chase bachelors, and marry the one they caught. First introduced in a strip in 1937, by 1939 there had been Sadie Hawkins events held at over 200 colleges.

A dimebag is a small bag containing $10 worth (usually 1 gram) of marijuana. Lorelai’s forgetful admirer seems to have either charged more than $10 for it, or put very little product in the bag. Although Lorelai didn’t buy the marijuana from Brian, she knew enough about buying drugs to know he was trying to rip her off, suggesting some level of familiarity with the subject.

Broadway Baby

LORELAI: Well, aren’t we just a Broadway baby.

“Broadway Baby”, a song from the musical Follies, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Goldman. First performed in 1971, it takes place in a crumbling Broadway theatre, and follows a reunion of former showgirls who performed in the 1920s and ’30s. It won seven Tony Awards, and “Broadway Baby” has become a popular standard.

“The woman taught me everything”

RORY: The woman taught me everything I’ve already forgotten about dancing, baton twirling and gymnastics.

We learned in “Rory’s Birthday Parties” that Miss Patty is Rory’s former ballet teacher. Apparently she also learned gymnastics and baton twirling from her. Rory is physically awkward and slightly clumsy – I can’t imagine she did well in any of these classes. It’s also amazing she managed to learn ballet and gymnastics, and still be that physically awkward!

Guys and Dolls in Beantown

MISS PATTY: I was a chorus girl in a bus-and-truck tour of Guys and Dolls. Beantown, I love that town. And there I was, me and the girls backstage after the show, and in she comes. And who does [Bette Davis] walk right up to, but little old me. And she sized me up, exhaled some smoke from that regal mouth of hers, and said, “Doll, you don’t got the high notes but you sure got the gams.” I’ll always treasure that moment with Bette and I wanna dedicate this song to her.

Guys and Dolls, a 1950 Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on several short stories of the 1920s and ’30s by Damon Runyon.

The musical received overwhelming critical acclaim, and praise for its faithfulness to Runyon’s stories. It won several Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and had multiple Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Frank Sinatra. In 1998, the original cast was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It is considered one of the most significant musicals of all time.

Beantown, a nickname for Boston.

Lorelai’s Musicals on DVD for Emily

Singin’ in the Rain [pictured]

1952 musical romantic comedy film, directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, and starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds.It offers a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s, about performers caught up in the transition from silent films to “talkies”. The film was only a modest hit when it was first released, but has now reached legendary status, often considered the greatest musical ever made.

Funny Girl

Previously discussed.

Easter Parade

1949 musical film, directed by Charles Walters, with music by Irving Berlin, and starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. The story revolves around a Broadway actor trying to turn an ordinary dancer into a star. A critical and commercial success, Easter Parade was the highest-grossing musical film of 1948, and the second-highest grossing MGM musical of the 1940s.

An American in Paris

1951 musical comedy film, inspired by the 1928 orchestral composition An American in Paris, by George Gershwin. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, it stars Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in her film debut. The film is set in Paris, and is about an American World War II veteran trying to succeed as an artist. The music is by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin. The film was the #8 film of 1951 and won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but its reputation today is of being pleasant and attractive, rather than a really good film.

Urban Cowboy

Previously discussed.

Saturday Night Fever

Previously discussed.

Grease

Previously discussed.

Footloose

Previously discussed.

Flashdance

Previously discussed.

Senior Prom

LANE: Rory! Rory! The numbers are all adding up, the planets are aligning, and I am going to my senior prom!

In American English, a prom is a ball or formal dance held by a school or college, especially at the end of the academic year for final year students – that is, the senior class. It is is considered one of the essential milestones in a young person’s life, given great weight and significance in US culture. Prom is short for promenade, and the word has been in use since since the late 19th century.

Prom Bids

RORY: I don’t think I’ll have the prom bids ready for the supplemental student council meeting this week … They need a little more time to get the details together, so that leaves a little hole in our agenda.

Prom bids are, as far as I can work out, just another name for tickets to the school prom, a formal dance held at the end of the academic year.