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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Lorenzo,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Didn't anyone give this a twirl?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>One or two thoughts to try and get someone else on the
floor, in case anyone feels like dancing in the streets
tomorrow -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Firstly, wouldn't you need to compare the position with
other non-American cinemas?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>For many countries, their tradition of couple dancing a la
Hollywood is the watching of Hollywood films, and you'd need to look at the data
on imports. The absence (if true) of a pre-war tradition in
Japan could be explained in the early thirties by the slowness to install
adequate sound equipment in cinemas and, later on, when the spiritist ideology
got going, by simply being anglo-american. Any home-made film of extrovert
couple-dancing would need similarly-styled occidental music which simply would
not have been available.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>But there certainly developed a strong tradition in Japan
for competitive ballroom dancing, which 'Shall we dansu?' tapped into.
Surely that must have been started by some Hollywood films?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I note your careful delineation of 'couple dancing', but
there was usually a range of numbers in any musical that went from couples to
ensembles in the same movie. And many of these had an orientalising layer,
at least. Of course, it's perfectly possible to self-orientalise
(as some examples in Jasper's copiously resourced new book seem to
demonstrate). At least two of the essays in 'Visions of the East:
Orientalism in Film' address dance - those by Gaylyn Studlar and Adrienne
McLean.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>And there's also Aaron's chapter in his 'Kitano Takeshi'
on <SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; TEXT-DECORATION: none; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-underline: none">Zatōichi<o:p></o:p></SPAN>,
where assorted dance traditions are brought into the cinema. None of them, so
far as I recall, were by couples, although he certainly had his Taisho(?)
villagers stepping out on the boards.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>And, come to think about it, doesn't the no-period
'Sakuran' self-orientalise, particularly during song and dance numbers ?
Given earlier periods' sensitivity to orientalising (not so called) in some
productions of 'Madame Butterfly' etc. and in film exports, I can't imagine
anything in earlier periods being both commercial and acceptable to mainstream
sensibilities, particularly if there were any risk of it being
exported.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Exiting left,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Roger</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ljth2006@gmail.com href="mailto:ljth2006@gmail.com">Lorenzo Javier
Torres Hortelano</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
href="mailto:KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu">KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, October 21, 2008 5:24
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Musical films</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=IT>These days I belong to a PhD dissertation
committee. The dissertation is about couple dancing in the Classical Hollywood
Cinema. One question comes to my mind: What is the reason Japanese cinema
didn’t have a similar tradition?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=IT> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=IT><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d">Lorenzo J.
Torres Hortelano<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d">Profesor
Titular<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d">Universidad
Rey Juan Carlos<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d">Fac. Ciencias
de la Comunicación<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d">Camino del
Molino s/n<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d">28943
Fuenlabrada (Madrid)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d">Despacho
244b<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d">914888445<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=IT><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=IT><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=IT
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=IT
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #1f497d"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
lang=IT><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>