The Changing Face of Dance: Televisual Excursions into the World of the Aesthetic

This paper examines some of the trends in televised forms of dance, looking at the ways in which the art of choreographed movement has been incorporated into commercials and music videos. Both music videos and commercials function as forms of advertising and of entertainment. When they incorporate dance, both genres draw on principles of concert dance and musical theater while relying upon social dance forms as their primary movement vocabulary. These television genres create a new model for dance, a new venue for choreographers, and a forum for innovative collaborations between dance, film, and music. At the same time, music videos and commercials are essential to an understanding of dance's function in popular culture and the construction of both image and brand names for consumer products and pop stars alike. Looking at the work of Paul Hunter, Spike Jonze, and Michel Gondry, I investigate the ways in which advertising captures the cultural currency of art to find new ways of creating mass appeal.