The Desirability of Dancing
By Alison Heilman and Stefanie Milovic
In the Brothers Grimm’s tale “The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes,” or commonly titled “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” 12 girls sneak off every night to dance with their cursed princes. The Grimm’s princesses are willing to go against their father, the king, and allow potential suitors to die trying to discover where the girls dance. When descending to the dance floor, the girls think they hear the princes “shouting for joy” at their approach. The only interaction that the princesses have with the princes are through dancing, yet in the hidden kingdom underground, the princesses are greatly desired because of the dance. While the soldier never dances with his future bride, he never would have met her without the intrigue of her dance. Her dancing every night, even when not performing for him, was desirable.
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is a retelling of Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneueve’s novella, Beauty and the Beast, and serves as Disney’s “…30th full-length animated feature from Walt Disney Pictures.” Disney tells the story of a cursed prince, forced to live his life as a beast, who captures an unwary clockmaker and replaces the clockmaker with his beautiful daughter Belle. Just like all Disney stories, the Beast and Belle overcome their differences, dance, defeat numerous challenges, and fall in love. At the core of the Beast and Belle’s love story is their beautiful ballroom dance scene. It is at this moment that “sparks fly” between the two characters, and the Beast is seen smiling throughout. This dance is the beginning of their love story and represents the first elongated scene of mutual attraction.
Birds-of-Paradise are famous for their intricate mating dances. According to the Birds-of-Paradise Project, the birds have developed this practice of flamboyant dances in part due to the general lack of predators and because “they satisfy some innate preference that females have.” In order to mate, the male birds have to dance for the females. The showier the dance, the more likely that the bird will “get lucky.” Just like in humans, the club scene is popular among young people to dance the night away and find a partner for the evening. Similarly, the mating dances of birds are able to show that dancing is a universal language for finding love, just like the dances within “12 Dancing Princesses” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
