I saw the thread about Sia’s new video for Elastic Heart which of course reminded me of Chandelier from last year, both featuring great dance routines by Maddie Ziegler. But I have to say that even over a year later, I can still watch Arcade Fire’s video for Afterlife on repeat and not tire of it. It’s not a music video per se because it’s a live performance, but you’d be hard pressed to tell either way. A great song by a talented band featuring an enchanting actress (Greta Gerwig) and directed by a creative director (Spike Jonze) makes it all come together, IMO.
So, if we were to have a music video dance-off, which one would you put up as your contender?
To get to the third post and not have a mention of MJ’s Thriller seems remiss.
Utah Saints video for Something Good is excellent and well worth checking out, not just a great routine but a factual account of the origin of The Running Man. Can’t link as on phone, sorry.
Although probably not a great bit of dancing OK Go’s dance on the video for Here I Go Again deserves a mention for having the band dance on treadmills.
Great suggestions, some classics and some unconventional. I wasn’t thinking of Bollywood movie clips when I made this thread but Benny Lava was pretty cool, even without the translated “lyrics”.
I’ve always loved the bad-ass choreography in Janet Jackson’s video for “Rhythm Nation.”
That she did. She choreographed most of the videos from Janet Jackson’s album Control. Her own videos were fun to watch too, my favorite being “Straight Up.”
Okay I have a question about the “Smooth Criminal” dance. I know that they put nails in the floor and the dancer’s shoes have little v’s cut in them to slide onto the nail to facilitate that lean that they do. My question is: how do the dancers not trip or snag on the nails in the floor otherwise?
My understanding is that the lean was performed with cables in the video. On stage however, you’ll see that the lean is performed over to the side of the stage, which is blacked out first (while one guy dances with the old-fashioned bomb). As Michael and his dancers get set up, the lights come on, they do the lean, then dance away from that area.
According to the patent, the bolts rise out of the stage platform, which is then retracted to become flush with the stage floor.
