‘Get up and vote!’ Engaged dancers urge pals to use their power

Dance · Ideas & Opinion

It’s high energy and upbeat; it’s scrupulously non-partisan, and it creates a positive model for civic involvement. It’s the brainchild and passion project of dance-community stalwart, the agent and co-founder of MSA Agency in Hollywood, Julie McDonald. Along with a partner, Pamela Cooper, and a technology maven, Emmy Frevele, “Dance for the Vote” just went live. It’s viral, it’s sizzling, and it’s on a mission. It’s all about, get off your phone, young people, and be sure to vote this November 5.

The short film, directed and choreographed by celebrated artist Cultura, has that message in mind. Staged to a custom song, “Get Up (Dance 4 Democracy Theme Song),” written, produced, and performed by former Nickelodeon star-turned-composer Jaheem King Toombs, the film merges movement with a powerful civic message.

How did this tour de force come about? We chatted with McDonald, as she drove to her Hollywood offices. “I’m really passionate about this election and trying to do anything I can,” she explained.

“We created a similar video for the midterms, in 2018, and I decided to do something for this election. We think it turned out great. It’s an original song by Jaheem, who is a wonderful writer, and it’s inspiring people.”

With Pamela Cooper, a New York-based talent agent, the two women co-financed the venture. No “grant,” no “crowdsourcing.” Just the old-fashioned way: Pull out that checkbook and start scribbling.

The video’s choreographer is hard to miss as she dances out front in her bleach-blonde gamine haircut paired with an array of impressive tattoos.

Miami-born and Los Angeles-raised, Cultura is known for her work with top artists like Maluma, Daddy Yankee, and Becky G. Her Cuban heritage and street dance styles are on view in this film.

“I adore this choreographer, she lives in Miami,” said McDonald, a veteran talent spotter. “She is a wonderful choreographer and really something as a dancer. I called her with this project and she just said, ‘yes.'”

“She’s so androgynous, she has such a facial presence. At the end, that is her voice giving the bilingual “Don’t let your voice go unheard. Utiliza tu voz y vota.”

“We just posted it last night and already have 5,000 views,” said McDonald. “I hope it encourages young people to vote.


Dance for the Vote | Dance for Democracy.org

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Storming the Sixties: From Teen Dance Shows to Shindig!

Dance · Ideas & Opinion
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NBC Hullabaloo Dancers on The Motown State Fair Tour with Canadian singer Tony Roman, ca. 1965. Photograph by James J. Kriegsmann. Courtesy of Karen W. Hubbard.

Ed. note: artsmeme is delighted to share with readers the third of three excerpts from author Julie Malnig’s Dancing Black, Dancing White: Rock ‘n’ Roll, Race, and Youth Culture of the 1950s and 1960s (Oxford University Press, May 2023) explores the highly popular phenomenon of televised teen dance programs, incubators of new styles of social and popular dance that both reflected and shaped social and political issues of the day.

The book from which we excerpt below recently received Honorable Mention from the De La Torre Bueno Awards Committee of the Dance Studies Association.

Many observers as well as historians felt that Shindig!, Hullabaloo, and other shows of its kind that featured Black musicians, singers, and performers were breaking down racial barriers and were a sign of the times. Popular performance writer Norma Coates, writing about Shindig!, in “Excitement Is Made, Nor Born: Jack Good, Television, and Rock and Roll,” Journal of Popular Music Studies, notes that “Good’s [the producer’s] emphasis on the overall look of the sound, and the sound of the look, mitigated all other potential hierarchies, especially those constructed by race, gender, and region.”

Producer/director Steve Binder’s comment that Shindig! was an “entourage or family” (of dancers and singers moving to continuous, non-stop music) might explain how the show tried to foster a sense of interracial community and camaraderie. These kinds of statements were also made about the teen dance shows of the 1950s where Black performers and entertainers were regularly featured, so this fact alone hardly meant that the shows were integrated. The difference was that Black performers, white musicians, and Black and white dancers, were now actually shown sharing the same physical space, where bodies might touch and brush up against one another. The fact that the shows were aired on primetime was significant as it meant that many more white audience members were witness to these interactions. But it was the changing political climate and expanding civil rights actions across the country that eased some of the former intransigence and racism of television network executives and producers to enable this to occur at all.

Teenage dancers on the set of Teenage Frolics (Raleigh, NC), ca. 1960
Courtesy of Yvonne Lewis Holley.


Julie Malnig is Professor of Dance and Theater Studies at The Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. Her prior works include the edited collection Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader (University of Illinois Press, 2009) Dancing Till Dawn: A Century of Exhibition Ballroom Dance (NYU Press, 1995).

Purchase link here: Dancing Black, Dancing White: Rock ‘n’ Roll, Race, and Youth Culture of the 1950s and 1960s.

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Box of sixty bon-bons: The American French Film Festival (TAFFF) starts Oct 29

Film
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Music · Reviews · Theater
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To Pyotr, with love: A conversation with Tchaikovsky biographer Simon Morrison

Music
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