Tag: Dance

Other Vocabulary Terms in This Episode

Soft Shoe

Lorelai says she could disrupt the town meeting further by doing a soft shoe.

Soft shoe dancing is a type of tap dancing performed in soft-soled shoes in a relaxed, graceful manner. It is particularly associated with vaudeville.

Bongos [pictured]

Rory says she could accompany Lorelai’s soft-shoe dance on the bongos.

Bongos are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of small open bottomed hand drums of different sizes. They are struck with both hands.

Bunions

Lane tells Jess that Rory has bunions from all the walking she has to do since he crashed her car.

A bunion, also known as a hallux valgus, is a deformity of the joint connecting the big toe to the foot. The big toe often bends towards the other toes and the joint becomes red and painful. The onset of bunions is typically gradual, and the causes are not clear, but tight shoes, high heel shoes, family history, and rheumatoid arthritis have been proposed as possible risk factors. Walking a lot doesn’t seem to be a problem (and indeed, Rory is quick to say she doesn’t actually have bunions).

“I wanted a ballerina”

LORELAI: So it’s a girl?

SHERRY: Yeah. Christopher would’ve been happy with either, but I really wanted a ballerina.

Apparently Sherry thinks any girl is automatically a “ballerina” – perhaps a reflection on Amy Sherman-Palladino’s upbringing by a ballet teacher. Of course, not every girl wants to be a ballerina, and plenty of boys enjoy ballet.

It’s notable that Lorelai also enrolled Rory in ballet classes when she was a little girl, so her views and Sherry’s are not that different here.

Cardio Salsa, Miami Sound Machine

Salsa [pictured] is an energetic Latin dance, associated with the music genre of the same name, which was first popularised in the United States in the 1960s in New York City. Salsa is an amalgamation of Cuban dances, such as mambo, pachanga and rumba, as well as American dances such as swing and tap. It was primarily developed by Puerto Ricans and Cubans living in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Cardio salsa is a high-impact fitness routine that uses salsa dancing to keep the heart rate elevated at the same level it would be during jogging.

Miami Sound Machine, previously discussed.

It is never said where Lorelai got the cardio salsa tape that she shows Rory, but it’s interesting that Rory bought Michel a cardio salsa tape for Christmas in 2000 (Season 1). Has he re-gifted it to Lorelai? Rory never says that she recognises it, but she certainly doesn’t seem impressed.

Quilting Convention, Cartwheels

LORELAI: Well, the quilting convention is sitting down to tea.

MICHEL: Uh, I’m doing internal cartwheels.

Quilting is the process of sewing different pieces of fabric together to form a multilayered quilt, which may be simple in design or a complex piece of art. There are numerous quilting societies in the US, and the inn is currently hosting a quilting convention.

Cartwheels [pictured] are an acrobatic maneuver commonly performed in gymnastics, as well as cheerleading and certain types of dance, including classical Indian dance. It is performed by bringing the hands to the floor one at a time while the body inverts. The legs travel over the body trunk while one or both hands are on the floor, and then the feet return to the floor one at a time, ending with the athlete standing upright. The phrase “performing cartwheels” is sometimes used metaphorically to mean that someone is exuberantly happy and excited. Compare when Lorelai said she was mentally doing a Jig.

Robert Reed

RORY: I feel dizzy.

LORELAI: Are you sure that’s not just the sight of Robert Reed in the tight clown pants?

Robert Reed, born John Robert Rietz Jr (1932-1992), actor best known for playing father Mike Brady in The Brady Bunch, and its various specials and spin-offs. From the very beginning, Reed was unhappy with his role as Mike Brady, feeling that the show was far too silly for a serious classically-trained Shakespearean actor such as himself. Although he got on very well with the rest of the cast and behaved professionally at all times, he often argued with the creator and producer over the scripts (he was allowed to direct a few episodes to appease him). Despite this, he appeared in all the specials and spin-offs, and actually really loved doing The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, as it gave him the opportunity to sing, dance, and have fun.

Note that the comment about his “tight clown pants” is yet another reference to clowns and circuses on Gilmore Girls.

Degas

SOOKIE: I’m an artist. You don’t dictate to an artist, you don’t tell him what to do. I mean, no ever walked up to Degas and said, “Hey, pal, easy with the dancers, enough already. Draw a nice fruit bowl once in awhile, will ya?”.

Edgar Degas, born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas (1834-1917), French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. He is especially known for his connection with dance – more than half his works depict dancers. One of his most famous works is The Dance Class, 1873-1876 [pictured].

Note that this is yet another reference to ballet in Gilmore Girls.

Jig

RORY: So, Grandma, Grandpa is traveling again, huh? … Business must be good … That’s great. Isn’t that great, Mom?

LORELAI: A jig is forthcoming.

A lively folk dance associated with Irish and Scottish music and dance, first popular in 16th century Ireland and Britain, quickly adopted in Continental Europe.

“To do a jig”, means that the person is very happy – joyful enough to perform this bouncy dance.

Richard still needs to travel since starting his own insurance company, which is seeming less and less plausible. I’m starting to wonder if the travel thing was a complete scam right from the beginning.

School Pageant

RORY: I had a school thing once, and I wasn’t sure if Mom would want to go so I didn’t invite her. It was my kindergarten “Salute to Vegetables” pageant and I was broccoli and I did a tap dance with a guy that was playing beets and the entire number I was just thinking, “Mom’s not here” and it was my fault that she wasn’t there and, well, it was kind of a life lesson for me.

We already know that Rory studied ballet with Miss Patty when she was a little girl, but apparently she did tap dancing even in kindergarten! I’m guessing Miss Patty also taught tap to the kindergarten class. In A Year in the Life, Rory takes up tap dancing again as a way to relieve stress.

Rory’s little anecdote about the school pageant is actually one of the more plausible things we hear about her childhood. Most things make her seem either too old for her age or too young, but it’s perfectly believable that the thoughtful young child of a single, working mother who’s a maid at an inn would be hesitant at asking her mother to come to a school pageant.

Little Rory would know how hard Lorelai works and that there’s no other parent to fall back on if she’s unavailable. I can imagine her feeling that a school pageant isn’t important enough to pull Lorelai out of work for, yet missing her horribly when the moment arrives, and seeing all the other mothers there.

The fact that she blamed herself entirely for the situation shows that even as a young child, she was already placing herself as the responsible person in the relationship with her mother, and taking on the parental role.