Dancing in the 80s

Even though there have been many famous American dance movies such as the 1960's hit West Side Story and the massive 1978 phenomenon Grease to name a few have had the part of dancing in the movie itself, not till the 1980s was the actual theme of dancing brought frontier stage and sown to the audience. the 1980's was filled with influential Dance movies, such as Footloose, Flashdance, Dirty Dancing and Fame which featured the aspect of dancing as the most important thing to each of the protagonists lives. Dance during this period is portrayed in all the movies above as a way of expression from their far from perfect life and in most of these movies there are struggling with their own issues and insecurities. These issues represent a generation of the 80s who were dealing with the same themes at the time.

The 1990 Documentary film, Paris is Burning which was filmed during the mid-80s follows Drag nights from the New York’s underclass and is about dancing through the expressing of joy and pride. These people created the type of dancing known as Vogue, made famous by the song Vogue by Madonna. The most important theme in the movie is the desires of being accepted to the rest of America.