Billy Elliot Transitions

The opening scene where close up is used showing the trembling fingers whilst placing the record onto the player leading into the tilting shot of Billy jumping up and down showing his excitement emphasises Billy’s love for dancing and symbolises the way in which it embodies him. Long shot of Billy making him look much smaller on the screen is used to foreshadow the harm and prejudices Billy might get from the society as he pursues his dancing career. The swinging door at the gym symbolises a barrier as well as an opportunity of his dream. Panning of the camera,close up and the low angle shots passing ballerinas feet before focusing on Billy’s reinforces that he is different as well as emphasising his preparedness to take risks for him to be able to pursue his dream. Shifts on the expressions of Billy and Jackie while they were arguing about ballet as well as the close up shot of Jackie grabbing Billy and holds him against the door highlighted Jackie as both physical and psychological obstacle of Billy’s

In the beginning scene when his father enters the room, the camera continues to focus on Benjamin while his father’s image is blurred sitting in front of Benjamin and blocking most of his face. His mother later enters the room and stands in front of the camera completely obscuring Benjamin. These scenes shows that his parents are constantly getting in Benjamin’s way of his feelings and he cannot see past the image of his parent identity like he is destine to become them. Although he tells his father that he wants to be “different”, Benjamin does not have control of his own life. When Benjamin does not want to come down to see the guests and he “needs to be alone for a while” because he is ‘worried about his future’ his parent does not even care a bit and insist that he goes down stair because they are eager to show him to the guest. As he head toward the steps, there was portrait of a clown at the top of the stairs symbolizing that he is headed to a social circus as if he was in a costume putting on an act like they are show casing him for entertainment and no one takes him seriously.

In the movie Dirty Dancing, the main characters are seventeen-year-old Frances Houseman, also known as ‘Baby,’ and Johnny Castle, who is a supposedly twenty-five-year-old dance instructor (Sylwester, 2008) This movie takes place in the summer of 1963 at Kellerman’s, a vacation resort (Ardolino & Gottileb, 1987). Throughout the beginning of the movie, the budding romance between Baby and Johnny becomes apparent; by the end of the movie, they have confirmed a relationship, but Johnny has been fired and must vacate the resort. Due to the setting of this movie, the gender construction and messages are a little more outward than they may be in a more recent movie.

Their outwardly pristine appearance juxtaposes with the drab, unkempt town with peeling paint and rusty fences, where spousal rape, adultery and paedophilia lie just below the surface. Through this leverage of the ability to transform and astound, Tilly is able to gain ‘information’ to achieve her objective of discovering the truth behind the events of her past. The promise to transform Gertrude into the ‘most striking girl in the room’ and Marigold’s] dress looking ‘better than everyone else’ are the beginnings of the truth being unravelled and ‘rubbish’ revealed.

Marina Keegan’s title “Stability in Motion” is important to the purpose of the story. “Stability in Motion” describes her car. Her car is her “stability”, her “rock”, the thing that keeps her sane. Her car is also the “motion” because she finds her sanity inside of her car while she is driving, or when she is “in motion”. In paragraph 12 she says, “I talked a lot in my car. Thousands of words and songs and swears are absorbed in its fabric,” her car is her safe place that she can turn to whenever she needs time by herself. The purpose of “Stability in Motion” is to show how a relationship with an inanimate object, such as a car, can help a person through each day.

Moments in Billy's life change instantaneously, not giving Billy a clue to where he will end up next. In one moment, he is sitting in his home typing a letter to the local newspaper about his experience with the Tralfamadorians, and in the next he is a lost soldier of World War II running around behind German lines aimlessly without a coat or proper shoes. He then became a child being thrown into a pool by his father and afterwards a forty-one year old man visiting his mother in an old people's home. In the novel, changes in time are made through transitional statements such as, "Billy traveled in time, opened his eyes, found himself staring into the glass eyes of a jade green mechanical owl." p.56 In the movie there is no such thing and different moments in Billy's life happen instantaneously. Because scenes are continuous as times change, the movie better displays the author's attempt to capture in the notion of being "unstuck in time." On the other hand, the novel does help the audience follow these time changes better by setting it up for the next scene, offering a background of Billy's experiences before they begin through these transitional statements.

Scott Hastings is ridiculed and abused for dancing his own steps, and Josie Cormier from Nineteen Minutes believes that if she doesn’t put on a mask everyday to ‘belong’ to a certain group, she too will be bullied and unhappy. Scott and Josie can be contrasted, as Scott wants to belong to the ballroom world, but he wants to be himself and dance his own moves, unlike Scott, Josie tries to ‘belong’ by being untrue to

The movie begins with Tracy, the main character, as a normal teenager whose life seems from the outside “ok”. However, even at this point in the movie, there are hints of Tracy’s inner pain and discomfort or distress with her world. Tracy lives a tough life. Her parents are separated, and do not have a good relationship. Tracy lives with her mom and brother in a suburban low to middle class neighborhood. Her mom, Mel, is a recovered addict, who works as a hair dresser. Her dad, Travis, is a somewhat rich executive, who works all the time and barely

At first, the attention amuses them evident by, “Down to the corner where men can’t take their eyes off of us, we must be Christmas.” However, the stroll quickly turns horrendous when they personally experience the oppression of women on Mango Street, as innocent kids. A local man shouts to them, “Them [the shoes] are dangerous, take them shoes off before I call the cops”. It is significant how a local man regards a trinket that gives the girls confidence as “dangerous”. Later, a drunken neighborhood bum attempts to buy a kiss from them. Terrified that the bum is violent and will attack them, the girls run back home, and hide the shoes in a bag. Later, Lucy’s mother throws them away, and the girls feel relieved.

Billy Elliot explores the concept of identity and how it can shaped and changed through life experiences. It tells the story of an 11-year-old boy named Billy, and his father, Jackie, amidst a mining strike in a town in Northern England during the mid-1980s. Billy creates his personal identity through dance as it is a means of expressing himself. In Billy’s world, strict stereotypes dealing with gender and sexual identity are enforced, which created not only an internal personal battle for Billy, but also an external conflict between him and his family. As a result, he was ashamed of and forced to hide his talent and passion for dance, shown in the quote, “I feel like a right sissy”. The song “Town called Malice” was played in Billy’s main

In Athol Fugard’s play “Master Harold”… and the Boys dance becomes a metaphor for how society can work harmoniously together, yet there are conflicts that prevent it from happening. Specifically, ballroom dance becomes a metaphor to show the conflict between a cooperative society and the disappointment associated with life and our inability to force change. This is expressed by Sam teaching Willie the mastery of dance and also educating Hally on the significance of the championships, and ultimately through the final dance performance.

It contains both him and Ginger dancing as a couple in quick steps as partners. They have smooth transitions that would move back and forth. They constantly switched from walking to dance movements where they would go from simple movements to Astaire going at it with his tap dancing. They would walk a few steps with their arms locked and then immediately they would pull apart. Ginger would lift up her dress a bit and would do a quick tap from left to right to left again in sync with Astaire who did the same step. They end the left and right step with a small kick of the right foot (1:02-1:10). This piece is a perfect example of the mix of ballroom dance and tap dancing that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were so well known for. These dances popularized the use of tap dancing during that time and changed the way dancing was used in films. This dance move was a smooth transition from a part in the movie and was related to the plot. Rather than it being a random burst of dance, it was connected to the

Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry, details the life of an 11-year-old working-class boy who is caught up in the poverty and violence of North-east England during the 1984 miner’s strikes. After a local ballet teacher discovers Billy’s raw talent for dancing, Billy decides he wants to be a ballet dancer. Billy had to overcome many obstacles in order to follow his new found dream. Two of these were family traditions and expectations, and social class. Billy also received help to overcome many obstacles, this help came from Mrs Wilkinson.

“This scene not only expresses Billy’s rage, it visually represents his childhood. Billy is blocked by barriers of gender, class, and

Two factors significantly influenced my career; 1) responding to my wife’s (deceased) diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis, and 2) challenging financial performance of three organizations. Balancing responsibility to family and career were central to my decision making.