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I am Lauren yelling go grant my name is
Christopher grant and we are
professional dancers and choreographers
and we are gonna be discussing the dance
sequence in pulp fiction pulp fiction
was made in 1994 director was Quentin
Tarantino there's a lot at stake man
here they are this gangster and a
gangsters wife on this very odd date so
in this scene we're actually at
Jackrabbit slims which is a 1950 style
restaurant there's a dance contest and
they specifically do the twist
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now the twist was made famous in the 60s
it was a dance craze Chubby Checker made
it famous he was on the Dick Clark's
show and from there it became this big
sensation and then there were a lot of
variations that came out of the twist
that we do see in this scene of course
the twist
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also known as the VAT to see I guess
it's like mimicking his Nass the monkey
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in dance few and dance improv we always
talk about yes and and they're doing a
lot of the yes and because this is
totally improvised so if John starts to
do the Batman then whom is gonna like
yes and it with not only a Batman but
like an open palm sort of like her own
version of this sort of move and that
continues to happen throughout and
oftentimes with with dance we play with
mirroring so that's exactly what they're
doing they're just sort of marrying each
other like when she would put our hands
on her hips and move toward him there's
a moment he's only doing the twist here
but then when they switched back he puts
his hand on his belly and starts to sort
of like mimic this sort of like a pan
placement on the body the tension is
building it we see that even in the
choreography this like pull and push
facial expressions is also choreography
their faces are like death staring each
other down there is no expression it's
very serious but they're doing like
incredibly silly movements I find the
juxtaposition of their seriousness and
the lack of play on their faces versus
the play in their body is really
interesting to watch
so there's definitely influences that we
see in the pulp fiction dance sequence
Tarantino talked a lot about the ban of
outsiders in fact he even called his
production company band apart so he
definitely had a lot of respect for that
film and good arts work they do this
amazing dance sequence in a cafe
it's totally out of context out of
nowhere the three of them just start
this dance and Quentin Tarantino loved
that he loved the odd placement of it
the context of this dance sequence in
Pulp Fiction is really similar like you
have a bunch of criminals doing an oddly
placed answer number
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Quentin wanted to do some of that sort
of cat-like feel like a lion prowling
kind of movement with the fingers and
and the pose I think there's one shot in
that Aristocats film where she does the
little hand on the hip and arm up so
like mimicking that sort of like body
shape in the choreography in fellini's
aid in a half structurally when in
visually you see more of Pulp Fiction in
that shot
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simply because they are literally
there's a moment of a man and a woman
doing a twist facing off facing off
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you can see maybe a hair of similarities
to the bandwagons girl hunt ballet where
Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire are
dancing
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again you have this sort of gangster and
this female character being very deadpan
in the face and very serious that tone
is in this sequence and pull fiction but
then they're doing this the twist and
it's more lighthearted and silly but
they're they're performing it as if
they're in this serious girl hunt ballet
in bandwagon Quentin Tarantino he said
it himself he steals from every film he
watches so he is a true passion for what
he does and I think any great artist
steals but you steal and you make it
your own and make it special to you and
he does this very very well throughout
the scene we can see that luma Thurman's
character is definitely the one in
control as an actor you're you're
deciding how your character walks talks
breeze of course would translate into
choreography and I think the way she
performs the twist is embodying that
character she has these painted red
nails and she's always doing these like
little finger movements and her bob the
cut of her hair she really makes use of
that by like flipping her head a lot and
then she's like doing this I don't even
know what this move is I call it like a
pretend salsa move she explores it in a
different way that John Travolta's
character explores the same move and he
seems like a little timid to like really
really get into it until there's this
really sweet moment where he starts to
do the jerk and you start to see that he
is enjoying this a little bit but he's
still very careful to bring it back to
this sort of like safe space he's just
trying to figure her out and it's trying
to both please her and make sure she has
like an okay night because that's his
boss's wife right the previous guy was
thrown out of a window stakes are high
stakes are for Voltas character it's
almost like they're dancing privately in
their own sort of like livingroom space
even though they're in the dead center
of this restaurant with people watching
them the entire time I think it's just
this like timeout from the intensity but
they're developing a likeness for each
other you're able to tell the story by
adding in a dance sequence to
communicate that so I think this is a
moment of pure body language I mean this
is a motion picture I mean that's what
they call them
there you go there's kind of a story
being told when you think about all the
shots because it starts off the camera
is really far away and you see them take
off their shoes and they make their way
to center stage and then there's a shot
of them full and you see the people
around and they're dancing and then as
it continues to go on I think one of the
last shots of their feet is the panned
out of them doing the twist and then
from then from that point on it's like
waist up shots of them going back and
forth like her moving toward him and
moving toward her and then coming back
to the center because by the time it
that that that fade to black comes up
there like this close in there you know
in the zone of their newly formed
relationship
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