Dancing

I came across a video I haven't seen around for ages. It's just called "Dancing", sub-titled, um, "Where the hell is Matt?" You've probably seen it already, as it came out in 2008 and has been viewed on YouTube over 42 million times. It simply features a crazy Australian now living in the USA dancing his little dance right across the world... yes, honestly.

Yet there is something charming, even moving about it. It's a gratuitous (well, not quite as he was backed by a company) few minutes of frivolity that involved thousands of people from right across the globe. It took, I think, 18 months to make. And, of course, it is a dance, and there is something about dance. Existing in all cultures, dance has often figured in our human religious expression from King David dancing before the Lord to the hymn "Lord of the Dance" written by Sydney Carter in 1963, via the older English hymn "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day", dance somehow captures freedom and a whole range of emotions. On one level it's, well, just a dance, but it seems to connect with a lot more... Watch out on the video for the Demilitarised Zone in Korea, Gurgaon in India, and many other scenes.

If you're up for some more dance, here are the immortal Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers  They're dancing to one of my favourite songs, recorded over 50 times, whether in 1930s form, or sung by Bryan Ferry in the 1970s - Jerome Kern's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." By the way, note that this sequence is filmed all in one take, not by endless editing of different takes like in today's movies.  Enjoy.