What's the deal with all these dance-off movies?

[Kingpin]

I'm convinced I'm the only one who who feels this way, but I think all these dance-off movies that have been coming out in the recent years are extremely gay. And I mean gay, as in homosexual. lol. Every time I see a trailer for a new one, some guy's basically like "yo what the fuck is your problem! I'm gonna mess you up.....with these sweet moves!" lol. I mean like what the hell. What happened to the good old days, where if you got beef with someone, you either talk it out, or at the very worst, throw a punch and hope things don't get out of control.

Not that I'm encouraging raw violence, but I mean with these dance movies all I think about is the guys getting dressed up in pink tutus and dancing the Nutcracker ballet. "I JUST DANCED THE ENTIRE NUTCRACKER SUITE IN MY PINK TUTU, MOFO! EAT THAT, SUCKA!" I dunno, just seems very fruity to me, and I'm wondering what I'm missing.

So in your infinite wisdom, grant me the understanding of what the fuck it's all about. lol. :laugh:

[EladRedner]

Lol...good Point Kingpin...and Even Worse Is All These Reality Shows With All These Gay Ass Nikkas Tryin To Act Straight Acting Like They Like And Want To Be With Ugly Ass Tiffany "newyork"... All Those Nikkas Was Gay Except Prob 2....and The Women Love This Shit...look At The Ratings On That Wack Ass Show..and Every Chick I Knew Was Like Yeah Thet Are All Gay ..but Damn Look At Them..and Did U See When ..lol.....the Gays Have Takin Ova...and The World As We Know It Is About To End As Soon As Ganstalicious Is Brought To The Light.

[Big_Ro]

Hell I liked most of them haha me personally I know how to B-Boy, pop & lock, I learned how to krump after seeing Rize, but I am not official I love to dance and I have nothing but respect for those people in those movies hell at least they are getting paid to dance I just do it for a hobby because it helps keep me strong (All that swinging around on your arms aint just for flash haha I got bazooka's) & fit (*cough* 6 pack *cough* *cough*working on 8 pack*cough*)

[MrLegacy]

"I JUST DANCED THE ENTIRE NUTCRACKER SUITE IN MY PINK TUTU, MOFO! EAT THAT, SUCKA!"



LMAOOOOOOO!!!!!


ok let me name these "movies"

You Got Served
How She Move
Step-Up
Step-Up 2????? :no:
Stomp The Yard

I think I miss one more but I don't care you see my point...WHY THE HELL WE NEED ALL THESE DANCE MOVIES???

[mistahrudie]

I blame all the songs with dances to them...producers see that the songs are smash hits so they decide to make a friggen 2 hr music video

[MorpheusX]

LMAOOOOOOO!!!!!


ok let me name these "movies"

You Got Served
How She Move
Step-Up
Step-Up 2????? :no:
Stomp The Yard

I think I miss one more

Honey (with Jessica Alba)
Roll Bounce

Well, it all began with dance performances, ballets and musical plays. The Ziegfeld Follies, etc.

They then wanted to translate that to the big screen, so you saw big budget dance numbers in the 20s and 30s as well as the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, the Gene Kelly dance movies of the 40s and 50s, so forth and so on.

In the 70s, they had Saturday Night Fever and Staying Alive.

In the 80s they had mainstream dance movies like Flashdance, Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Lambada, etc.
And when Hip Hop caught on, they put out Breaking, Breaking 2: Electric Boogalo. Krush Grove, etc.

The trend used to resurface every 2-3 years or so back in the days, but because that kind of entertainment was considered too mindless and more of a guilt pleasure, they only produced limited amounts.

But since the advent of Gangsta Rap, BET, MTV and then Crunk, combined with the effects of the Bush Administration that resulted in the massive cultural dumbing down of the last 2 generations (everything after Generation X), they realized that this current crop of youths and young adults don't respond well to intelligent movies, psychological thrillers, complex character driven stories, etc.

They had short attention spans, little to no fascination for books or highbrow culture and were so numbed with repetitive, over-the-top violence and sexuality in their music and movies that most of them were no longer able to appreciate provocative thought experiments, intellectual concepts and nuanced subtleties.

Believe me, they tried to for a while.

In the 90s, they tried to put out some Black dramas and movies like Soul Food, Love Jones, etc that had Black casts, characters of depth and good stories with just enough urban drama to keep the lesser, hoodish elements engaged, but they met with limited success.

As a result, major studios stopped producing intelligent and respectful movies where Blacks were multidimensional.

Instead, they started churning out comedies with buffoonish, stereotypical characters (everything Martin Lawrence has done, almost everything Eddie Murphy has done in the mid 90s and onwards), etc.

The tried to find middle ground with some movies, appealing to both the hood and the more upscale crowd with movies sporting decent black casts (if terribly typecast) like The Wood, The Best Man, Love and Basketball, Brown Sugar, etc, but most of these were commercial flops or low grossing affairs.

As the years wore on, fewer and fewer quality movies were greenlight for production and more movies like Big Momma's House, Norbit, Barbershop etc, kept getting churned out.

When they realized that the 12-21 demographic was huge and that Blacks in the U.S. are the largest consumers of entertainment- especially movies, Hip Hop clothing and related gear, And that Blacks cyclically come out with new dances and dance crazes, they realized the market was wide open for them to capitalize on an ignorant, dumbed down, superficial, appearance-obsessed, impressionable HUGE demographic.

So they started to put out the dance movies. These are cash cows because they cost very little to make (You got Served only cost 8 million) and don't have to gross very much to make a killer profit, both in theater ticket sales, DVD sales and cable TV broadcast royalties.

You got served made $48,631,561 JUST in movie ticket sales alone.
Who knows how much more they made in DVD sales, etc. That's more than an 800% return on their money.

Not bad for hiring a skeleton crew of writers and production staff, a couple of choreographers and a bunch of dancer extras and filming for a few weeks.

So they realized that these kids are too stupid to watch anything of substance and since they love Hip Hop, Rap, dancing, sex, drugs and violence, all they have to do is create movies that incorporate all those elements in them and set them to a beat.

Taa-daa!! It's like printing their own money.

The storylines are superfluous, so if you're struggling to make sense of them, you can just give that up now.

As for the gay thing, Remember like 99% of professional or aspiring male dancers are gay. The rest are Bi, bi-curious, in denial or just really, really in touch with their feminine side. lol

But these dancing movies have ALWAYS been gay. Same thing with all the dancers in the music videos. You were just too young to know what gay was or realize that all those dancers were flaming homos.

See for yourself

Breakin'

http://youtube.com/watch?v=J60Gz4f3YyE


Janet Jackson - Nasty Boys

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nLLweEwG8Ss



Jermaine Stewart - We don't have to take our clothes off

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ID_N7rv-iN8


Hell, there were even gay rappers

Kwame - The Rhythm

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tKVje3OAQC4

[Kingpin]

LOL Well then I'm convinced that I'm never gonna get it, as you say. Ignorance is bliss, so they say, so I guess I'll just have to continue perceiving that anyone who enjoys this kind of drivel is just living in blissful ignorance. lol :laugh:

I mean I can appreciate the art of choreographing some great dance routines, but it's just like....the LAST thing someone would do when trying to show their tough side...is throw down some dance moves. I would rather see someone throw a punch than do a worm in reaction to being dissed.

And yeah, those videos just reinforced my views. lol. Personally, I think if a guy is going to be dancing in that kind of situation, they should wear a shirt that says "no homo" if they don't want to be presumed as gay. lol. :laugh:

Thanks so much for the thorough response, Morph. And thanks to everone else too. It's good to know I'm not alone. :grin:

[demond611]

why keep it at just movies, i think rappers that create dances for their own songs is gay ( ...soulja boi... ) and any others because i try not to listen to any more rap nowadays cuz its garbage. hell i rock the blueprint and ghostface first album more than i listen to anything else and those albums are about 10 yrs old

[Psycho2380]

That first vid make me fell very uncomfortable:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[strawberry_vixxxen]

hahaha i like all the dance movies... i enjoy watching them, my gurls are in step and they love it... any reviews for step up 2????? im taking my gurls next week...

[strawberry_vixxxen]

LOL Well then I'm convinced that I'm never gonna get it, as you say. Ignorance is bliss, so they say, so I guess I'll just have to continue perceiving that anyone who enjoys this kind of drivel is just living in blissful ignorance. lol :laugh:

I mean I can appreciate the art of choreographing some great dance routines, but it's just like....the LAST thing someone would do when trying to show their tough side...is throw down some dance moves. I would rather see someone throw a punch than do a worm in reaction to being dissed.

And yeah, those videos just reinforced my views. lol. Personally, I think if a guy is going to be dancing in that kind of situation, they should wear a shirt that says "no homo" if they don't want to be presumed as gay. lol. :laugh:

Thanks so much for the thorough response, Morph. And thanks to everone else too. It's good to know I'm not alone. :grin:

i dont think its gay at all. its actually an art form and the choreography is /HARD work....

Its a good outlet for males and females in my opinion!!!

[Kingpin]

i dont think its gay at all. its actually an art form and the choreography is /HARD work....

Its a good outlet for males and females in my opinion!!!Hard work? Of course. Art? I dunno...I'd say it bears the same artistic integrity as a sport. For me (speaking for myself, not stating as a matter of fact), art inspires, invokes deep thought on the various subjects represented through the paintings, sculptures, songs, etc. There are many things I consider art to be, but dancing is not one of them. It is choreographed exercise to me. Not that I don't boogie down once in a while, I would just never call it art, and I don't think the greatest artists of all time such as Botticelli, Da Vinci, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. would either. But I could be wrong and speaking for the dead is always a hypothetical based on interpretation, which in turn is based on a few years of formal study of the fore mentioned historical figures.

However, the point is not that I think dancing is gay, it's that I think the whole dancing-to-show-what-a-badass-you-are is. I'm a lover, not a fighter, but if I were to fight someone and they started trying to "serve" me by doing some breakdancing in front of me, I'd whoop their ass from here to Moosejaw.

I respect people that are into the movies, and in all honesty about 90% of the people I talk to enjoy them, so when I reveal my honest opinion, I usually find I'm disagreed with. But then again, as an artist, my perspectives often vary from the majority.

All that is to say - if you like the movies and so do your girls, great. I'm glad people find enjoyment in them - I just can't conceive how that's possible. But everyone's different, and this is why I posted the question - I wanted to hear other perspectives to try to gain understanding in what the hype is all about, even after I've seen a couple of the movies myself and still don't understand their success. :smile1:

[strawberry_vixxxen]

i respect ur opinion babe :)

step is a big thing now a days in the schools... and i love it.. i love to watch it, i love the performances and i think it keeps kids occupied and off the streets..it gives the kids something to be proud of...

now the fighting bad ass part.. ahhhh.. dont really think its necessary but id rather see people battle it out then with guns... too many people are lost every day..

[Kingpin]

now the fighting bad ass part.. ahhhh.. dont really think its necessary but id rather see people battle it out then with guns... too many people are lost every day..True that, I've been there. I definitely would not rather see a shootout than a dance-off. I'd just rather see them go at it like men, with their fists. Maybe a few piledrivers and powerbombs, too! :laugh:

[strawberry_vixxxen]

True that, I've been there. I definitely would not rather see a shootout than a dance-off. I'd just rather see them go at it like men, with their fists. Maybe a few piledrivers and powerbombs, too! :laugh:

hahah...yea fight wit hands is ok.

[ourinternet]

I'm with you on this one Kingpin. I'd rather be waterboarded, while having bambo shoots hammered into my fingernails, while an uber strong donkey repeatedly kicks me in the nutz than see another one of those movies (only slightly exaggerating). Just can't do it . . . I'd rather see the South Park version and hear Stan say, "You just got served!" and I'd much rather see all that flexibility of the dancers used in a martial arts flick (back flips and 180 splits are alright then-LOL).

I also can't take those blacksploitation movies. They never develop the characters enough for me to care. (Don't get me wrong, I hope these are just the initial steps our filmmakers need to take before making quality films - but damn.)

[MorpheusX]

[font=Garamond][size=3]...but if I were to fight someone and they started trying to "serve" me by doing some breakdancing in front of me, I'd whoop their ass from here to Moosejaw.

That is, unless those dancers know Capoeira (which many, many of them today do as many of their dance moves come directly from Capoeira).

If they decide to go Eddie Gordo from Tekken on you, you're in trouble..

[Big_Ro]

^ Haha Eddie was a bad dude

[MorpheusX]

I know. He was my favorite character.
For a while, I studied Capoeira with a friend of mine. During the spring and the fall we would go to the park around my way and in the grass, practice the basic Capoeira "language".

Capoeira is compared to a language in that as the berimbau (stringed "boing-baum" sounding instrument) and the drums play, and you ginga (basic left to right dance move from which all attacks are launched) around, and feel the rhythm, listening to the "intructions" of the berimbau, your body becomes an extension of the music and all of nature, it seems.

And when you're in that state, each move is like a word, which when stringed together with other moves, forms sentences.

You can be poetic and eloquent, or gruff and abrasive, stacatto or as smooth as Barack Obama on the mic.

It's all about how well you've learned the moves and then, how much you allow yourself to become one with the rhythm and the energy of life.

It's weird, you become so in harmony with the music and the air and the sky and the other player that you can begin to sense his next move before he makes it and react with prescience, dodging or moving with him so that you gracefully move with them, and have them barely miss you without feeling any fear because you know where they are and will be and consider them part of the dance.


It's some really beautiful shit once you've mastered it.

I never got any good because I couldn't dedicate much time to it, but occasionally, for fun, when me and my boy go to clubs, we'll bust out into an impromptu Capoeira jogo (game). Occasionally, other dancers who also practice Capoeira will form a roda (ring, but literally translated "wheel") around us and clap and sing.

It's really, really fun and liberating.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6XNMhC3diFM

[Psycho2380]

I hate dance off movies there really gay But my wife always want to see these stupid ass movieshttp://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh85/WrestlingGifsGuy/dance.gifhttp://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q274/TransAmKP/MainJClaudeMWZ3P.gif

[ApollosWorld]

Lmao!

Btw, Excellent Sig!!!

[Psycho2380]

Thankx

[strawberry_vixxxen]

lol i watched step up 2 today and call me corny but i liked it.. it was a good movie :)

[Kingpin]

lol i watched step up 2 today and call me corny...You're corny :tease: :laugh: Just joshin' ya.

[vikktor]

That is, unless those dancers know Capoeira (which many, many of them today do as many of their dance moves come directly from Capoeira).

If they decide to go Eddie Gordo from Tekken on you, you're in trouble..

I studied and do Capoeria, ... i have a video on my forum of me doing some more of the arial spinning moves. But I love dance and bboying

Dance is very artistic, it takes alot creativity to create some of these move combinations. Some of these dancers do some things i knew the human body can do. I love to see the moves in these dance movies!!!

But then again i also have years of Karate experience (i love martial arts) so my first love is always action movies!!!

[MorpheusX]

I'm jealous, Vik.

I'd LOVE to learn Capoeira from a mestre but I'm afraid I don't have the tiem, plus my body ain't what it used to be. lol

I'm 300 LBS, 6' tall and pretty broad backed, big thighed. I'm built like a football player, so doing floreios (acrobat and aerial moves) is next to impossible for me. A basic cartwheel is about as acrobatic as I can get at my current size - which is why I'm on a diet and exercise program right now with a goal to drop down to about 220 lbs and get ripped.

Then I'll be in a place where I can start to do some of the more basic stuff and work my way up to floreios. :-) http://www.assumption.edu/stulife/stuact/clubs/capclub/images/Movements/queixada_anim.gif http://www.assumption.edu/stulife/stuact/clubs/capclub/images/Movements/mealua.gif

[mrpink]

hey morpheus good luck.i dont know what kind of diet your on,but i swear to jesus you can eat lean meat,vegetable and fruit until your stuffed and still lose weight.stay off of anything with wheat,gluten,pasta, rice,potatoes(except the skin-raw potatoe is actually slightly poisonous and enough of it will make you sick),anything in a box or a can.when you shop dont even go down the isles,stay on the refrigerated perimeter.anything that will rot in a few days is what you want.

all that shit they put in food to keep it from rotting also keeps your body from breaking it down while its trying to digest it.and forget about salt,the human potassium intake should be about 3-4 greater than salt.that weight'll fly off of you

[imbatman]

damn i thought i was the only one who thought that- my ol' lady, her friends and some of my relatives like that bull-ass-shit. i thought the whole world went crazy or something. thnx for restoring my faith in humanity!!!!

[Kingpin]

damn i thought i was the only one who thought that- my ol' lady, her friends and some of my relatives like that bull-ass-shit. i thought the whole world went crazy or something. thnx for restoring my faith in humanity!!!!LOL I love your screenname and avatar. lol. You're certainly welcome, brother. We must unite against the evil that is the dance-off movie genre. I think we're not alone, since this genre seemed to be fairly short-lived...haven't seen any recent releases. Maybe the rant here on BL has something to do with that. :yikes: :hmmm:

[MorpheusX]

You almost forgot the recent "How she move", who's title even comes complete with the broken grammar/Ebonics sentence structure it's target demographic speaks...

<sigh>

[Kingpin]

You almost forgot the recent "How she move", who's title even comes complete with the broken grammar/Ebonics sentence structure it's target demographic speaks...

<sigh>
<sigh><thought="how depressing that they made yet another dance-off movie"></sigh> :cry: