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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNYT: The Dance Delight in 'Barbie' Belongs to the Kens
Just got out of Barbie and really liked it. Super unique in a way I can't put my finger on. I thought the best part of the movie was the choreograph dance scene with all the Kens. It was like a funny mushroom trip in the best way possible! Was curious if anyone else felt the same way, so I did a Google search and found this New York Times article:
By Gia Kourlas
July 28, 2023
The Dance Delight in Barbie Belongs to the Kens
The most majestic dance in Barbie is an emotional release for the Kens, but in subtle ways movement touches, and enhances, everything in the movie.
Theres a gorgeous scene in Barbie that isnt painted the usual pink. It isnt dripping in plastic or sequins. Its a dream ballet, stylish and clean, with steps so sleek it lets bodies Kens, Kens and more Kens sing.
Unofficially known as the Ken dance, its like entering a portal to another world, where moving bodies etch trails of rotating circles and diamonds onto a gleaming surface. It transports you back to the time of Busby Berkeley, when elegant dancers swirled in and out of kaleidoscopic formations.
But the jazzy gist of the Im Just Ken dance isnt just about staggering patterns or nostalgia for old Hollywood. Plopped into Greta Gerwigs Barbie universe, the dance is more than a dance: Its an emotional release. With five leading Kens in front and a sweeping chorus of dancers shuttling behind and around them, the choreography is a passionate expression of selfhood, a tonic that recalls the vitality and athletic grace of Gene Kelly.
Its odd: In the first half of the film, Margot Robbie, as the lead, Stereotypical Barbie, operates from a body that is restrained shes clunky. This makes sense. She lacks joints! But as the film progresses, an everyday movement vocabulary takes over. Barbie glides into a modern, pedestrian body while the men, wooden at first, learn to move expansively. They let go.
The Ken number, created by the films London-based choreographer, Jennifer White, is partly inspired by the Greased Lightnin number from the movie Grease, when John Travolta leads a song-and-dance in a garage that suddenly opens into a bright, glowing soundstage. Greta came with an idea of having the sequence feel like youre whisked into this dance, White said. That you dont even realize that youve kind of transformed into this sort of ballet space.
More: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/28/arts/dance/ken-dance-barbie-movie.html
Lemonwurst
(295 posts)Said to my friends right after the movie that it was my favorite part, and it happened totally out-of-the-blue in the story. All those who worked on this movie clearly put a lot of thought into it.
Also loved how the whole horse misunderstanding was developed (nuff said, dont want to spoil that for anyone who hasnt yet seen it).
Trueblue1968
(17,243 posts)nolabear
(42,001 posts)The black was striking too. And yes, it somehow seemed more real than anything else in Barbie Land. Or wherever they were.
MLAA
(17,350 posts)Alice Kramden
(2,168 posts)Also loved the pink dance party near the beginning