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FILM REVIEW: ‘Alive and Kicking,’ the real happiness of swing dancing

No red carpet. No press. No jealousy. Just plain massive delight in someone else’s achievement. Just plain human warmth.

There’s a scene in Alive and Kicking, Susan Glatzer’s extraordinary new film documentary about the joys of swing dancing, in which a dancer named Stephen is congratulated for winning a big contest. Crowds of well-wishers surround him. First a few, then more, then more, then there are so many that Glatzer’s camera has to rush and blur to encompass them all, creating a bubbling sea of good will and gladness. No red carpet. No press. No jealousy. Just plain massive delight in someone else’s achievement. Just plain human warmth.

Theatrical one-sheet for ALIVE AND KICKING, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Theatrical one-sheet for ALIVE AND KICKING, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

That sea of comradery is the medium in which this wonderful film plays out. It is about a bunch of people, Stephen among them, who belong to a swing dance community that has grown exponentially in the last twenty years, bringing that elusive commodity – real happiness – to people all around the world. Talent is not a requisite. Just verve.

Swing dancing or lindy hop, as it is often called, is not what Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers used to do. It is the revival of a dance craze that started in Harlem in the 30s at the height of the Depression and spread to the white kids, blown into their hearts by the trumpet of Louis Armstrong, the clarinet of Benny Goodman and the magic vibes of Duke Ellington. In the “race movies” that first presented African American black entertainers to a wider world, Frankie Manning tossed Norma Miller high, low and over in amazing aerial stunts. In Germany, swing palaces provided an emotional outlet for kids trapped in a society falling in love with tyranny. The USO clubs thundered with the noise of couples dancing to “it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” Lindy hop was “the great escape” of the Second World War.

A scene from ALIVE AND KICKING, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
A scene from ALIVE AND KICKING, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Glatzer’s film gives us no disembodied voiceover to tell the story. Instead she lets real people on camera tell the story in their own words. Stephen and his partner Chanzie are not a romantic couple, but they seem born to dance together. By day, he works for an emergency service construction company, splashing through leaking sewage, chasing rats and snakes. She scoops ice cream. When they get off work, they travel all over, competing with their friends in dance gatherings. We meet the amazing Swedish Decavita sisters, Emelie and Rebecka. They’re not really sisters. They’re just friends who adopted each other. To see them tossing each other around is a lesson in pure joy. Evita Arce is the centerpiece of the film – disciplined, self-examined, filled with enthusiasm. She saw some people doing lindy hop when she was a freshman in college and said to herself, “I have to do that!” So she went out and made the dream come true. We meet these folks when they win, when they lose, when they are in love, when they get sick…they anchor the film and lead us into the musical obsession that fuels their lives. They introduce us to the international yet intimate community that swing dancing has created.

A scene from ALIVE AND KICKING, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
A scene from ALIVE AND KICKING, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Just as lindy hop itself unleashes a vast variety of moves, Alive and Kicking never stops changing its steps. The editing is like Gene Krupa’s drums, syncopated and powerful, then suddenly relaxing so a story can be told, then flying us away to Sweden or South Korea or the 1930s. The scoring – which could have settled for swing music from start to finish — is particularly brilliant in its variety and subtlety and its sympathy with the characters. For example, look at Augie. He was a poster child for PTSD after his second tour in Iraq. Unable to relate to people. Unable to stop mourning for the guys who didn’t come home. Depressed beyond amelioration. Heading for suicide.

Then he started dancing.

A scene from ALIVE AND KICKING, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
A scene from ALIVE AND KICKING, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

We see him in the glow of a reddish filter, laughing in the arms of his favorite partner, a woman named Mo. The camera shows us that they are dancing fast. But the music is slow and sweet.

The music of recovery.

It is one of the most memorable scenes in an unforgettable film.

Susan Glatzer, the writer/producer/director of Alive and Kicking, has been swing dancing for 18 years. As an executive at Paramount Pictures and October Films, she has worked on films like Traffic, Napoleon Dynamite and Breaking the Waves among many others. The directors she has worked with include Robert Altman, Diane Keaton, David Lynch and Mike Leigh.

Susan is the daughter of Barbara Greenbaum, Lenox resident and the film’s presenting producer.

Susan Glatzer, writer/produce/director of Alive and Kicking.
Susan Glatzer, writer/producer/director of Alive and Kicking.

Alive and Kicking has opened to rave reviews all over the country and in Europe as well. It will be shown at The Little Cinema of the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield on June 2, 3, 4 and 5. Ms. Glatzer will be doing a Q and A following the movie on Friday June 2 and Saturday June 3.  Barbara Greenbaum will be doing the Q and A at the matinee and evening screenings on Monday, June 4.

 

 

 

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