Get Down! Dance On Film Since the 1970s

Production still from Grease 1978 | Director: Randal Kleiser | Image courtesy: Paramount Pictures

Production still from Grease 1978 | Director: Randal Kleiser | Image courtesy: Paramount Pictures / View full image

When

9 Nov – 5 Dec 2012

Where

Gallery of Modern Art & Cinema A

About

'Get Down! Dance on Film since the 1970s' celebrates the depiction of dance onscreen. Featuring over 40 films, from lavish musicals to cult classics, 'Get Down!' showcases dance across three strands.

Let's Dance brings together fictional stories where dancing is as an integral component of the narrative and dance routines a vehicle via which the protagonists dream and escape reality. In these films dance is the focal point for a character's transformation — an expression of selfhood which enables them to overcome familial and financial constraints. The narratives of dance films are always aspirational, with the body's physical expression able to neutralise difference and breakdown barriers between cultures and classes. Dance here represents a pure form of communication and transcendence. Dance Cultures features a selection of documentaries about contemporary dance cultures, delving into unique communities where dance styles are integral to identity. Dance Makers profiles key creative figures in the world of dance, including influential choreographers and dancers Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch and Bill T Jones.

QAGOMA acknowledges all the archives, filmmakers and distributors who have generously provided screening materials for this program. Program curated by Rosie Hays, Australian Cinémathèque.

List of Works

  • Let's Dance
  • Cabaret 1972
  • Saturday Night Fever 1977
  • Grease 1978
  • The Wiz 1978
  • All That Jazz 1979
  • Fame 1980
  • Xanadu 1980
  • Flashdance 1983
  • Footloose 1984
  • Breakin' 1984
  • Girls Just Want to Have Fun 1985
  • A Chorus Line 1985
  • White Nights 1985
  • Dirty Dancing 1987
  • Moonwalker 1988
  • Strictly Ballroom 1992
  • Billy Elliot 2000
  • Chicago 2002
  • Honey 2003
  • Take the Lead 2006
  • Step Up 2: The Streets 2008
  • Black Swan 2010
  • StreetDance 2010
  • Dance Cultures
  • Style Wars 1983
  • Paris is Burning 1990
  • Tango 1998
  • Mad Hot Ballroom 2005
  • Rize 2005
  • Planet B-Boy 2007
  • Dance Makers
  • Boy 1995
  • Queens for a Day 1996
  • Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance 2000
  • The Cost of Living 2004
  • Blush 2005
  • Tempus Fugit 2005
  • Life in Movement 2011
  • A Good Man 2011
  • Never Stand Still 2011
  • Choros 2011
  • Pina 2011
  • Grease Sing-A-Long 2011