Abstract
This article looks at the work of choreographers in British music video from Arlene Phillips (founder of Hot Gossip), to FKA Twigs and Wayne McGregor. The first section presents an overview of the development of genres of dance and choreography in music videos from the late 1970s to the present day, covering genres such as the loosely-choreographed pop act video, to the formal, tightly-choreographed routines of videos drawing on the Hollywood musical tradition, to the street dance video ushered in following Malcolm McLaren’s breakthrough ‘Buffalo Gals’ video (1983). The article argues that British music videos should not be negatively compared to their bigger budget US counterparts but should instead be appreciated on their own merits – and those merits include the greater creative exchange with ballet and contemporary dance, and the use of techniques from experimental film and narrative film; and it argues that these features make dance in British music videos an exciting and critically acclaimed cultural form today. The author draws attention to the importance of ‘social realism’ within British choreographed music videos, and points out that the recent work of Matthew Bourne and FKA Twigs overrides the traditional distinction between ‘dance film’ and commercial music dance film.This article was published open access under a CC BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Highlights
Dance is celebrated as a core constituent of music video and has attracted considerable critical acclaim and media attention over the decades
How does British filmmaking, music and choreography fit into this international matrix? And is there more to choreography in music video than the Hollywood musical? Existing critical work on music video choreography has focused almost exclusively on videos made by American directors with American choreographers for American artists, or on the continuities between music video and the traditions of the Hollywood musicals (e.g. Billman, 2002)
Dance in British music video is currently experiencing a new wave of creativity, evidenced by the international acclaim accredited to current British choreographers in ballet and contemporary dance such as Akram Khan, Wayne McGregor, and Christopher Wheeldon (Anderson, 2008)
Summary
Dance is celebrated as a core constituent of music video and has attracted considerable critical acclaim and media attention over the decades. From Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ (1983) and ‘Beat It’ (1983) to the critically acclaimed trilogy ‘Elastic Heart’ (2014), ‘Chandelier’ (2014), and ‘Big Girls Cry’ (2014) for Sia, the form has captured public attention This current work is reminiscent of the wave of critically acclaimed videos from the ‘golden era’ of music video production from the mid-late 1990s. The analysis that follows draws on individual interviews conducted between October 2015 and April 2016 with choreographers Litza Bixler, Paul Roberts, Natricia Bernard, Aaron Sillis, choreographer/director Holly Blakey, director Dawn Shadforth, and directing duo Dom & Nic.8 It is based on the findings of a research focus group which was held at the British Film Institute in 2015.9 The rationale behind the focus group was that interactive discussion between leading choreographers, commissioners and directors would facilitate memory recall of historical case studies and highlight areas worthy of further research more effectively than the individual interview alone. This article presents a preliminary overview and analysis of both types of video
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