“My Blue
Heaven”
By Joe
Donato, all rights reserved, © 2007
Most people are familiar with this film. It stands out
to them because it is the one film where Steve Martin actually gets away with
playing an Italian Mobster. But how is it a Dance movie? One word: Merengue.
As far as I know, it’s the one comedy with a really
good dance sequence in it, and it just happens to be the Merengue,
the sister Latin party dance to the Salsa. Any movie set in the Carribean is bound to have a section where people are doing
the Merengue somewhere. I do recall Gene Hackman doing a little of it in The Firm, when He and Tom
Cruise first visit the
I’ve heard students belittle the Merengue.
They say it’s boring, that all you do is March back and forth. What they have
yet to discover is that there is a reason the foot positions and timing are so
simple. It is so that your mind can be freed up to be creative and do all kinds
of things with the rest of your body, and that’s what makes this dance come
alive.
Rent the movie, and watch as Rick and Steve and their
female counterparts swing all over the place, and don’t hold anything back. You
should be able to find the scene pretty easily on the DVD scene selection menu.
After you watch it, hit the back button and watch it again, this time, just watch
their feet:
left-right-left-right-left-right-left-right. You can do that,
right? Now work your way up. Check out
their hips! That’s right, you can actually see these
men discovering their hips. And since Merengue is
such a simple rhythm, this is one of the best places to start learning how to
move hips and discovering all those other muscles between your arms and legs.
For more information on how Rick and Steve do that
stuff with their bodies, check out my article “Cuban
Motion Demystified”, and if you know of any other good Merengue
movies, email me.
-Ballroom Joe
learn more
about this film at the internet movie database
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