Comparison of dance styles in The Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty / Dirty Dancing

It might seem strange to compare dances in The Sleeping Beauty and Dirty Dancing, however, that is precisely what this paper will attempt to do. The pas de deux dance between Prince Florimund and Aurora in Act III of The Sleeping Beauty and the "I Had the Time of My Life" dance in Dirty Dancing are not unlike in terms of staging and purpose, despite the fact that one is a ballet and one is contemporary dance. Both come at the end of the story (the play and film, respectively) and their purpose is to show the transformation of child to woman and, at the same time, show the burgeoning relationship between her and her lover.

The pas de deux of Act III in The Sleeping Beauty begins with the two lovers center stage as onlookers observe. Likewise, though Patrick Swayze comes down the aisle and plucks Baby from the corner (with the infamous line "Nobody puts Baby in the corner"), the two head to the center stage to do their dance as well. In both dances the dance begins with the man holding the woman as she goes into a deep backward bend. Immediately after that, both dances has the man going around the woman and, with him in the back and her in front, they face the audience, which feels like it is the couple finally presenting themselves to the world as a couple. Both women have one arm in the air as well. Both dances have the couples moving away from each other (more so in The Sleeping Beauty than Dirty Dancing), but then they immediately they come center stage again to dance together. This movement gives us the sense of their story together, how they were apart and then are compelled to be with each other.

Both stories are about lovers who come together and there is some kind of awakening. For Baby in Dirty Dancing, it is an awakening of her spirit and of her femininity, which culminates into the awakening of her womanhood and a loss of innocence, because despite the fact that she is called "Baby" (and ironically so), she is a growing woman and one that is tired of adhering to all of her parent's rules and beliefs about who they think she should be. Patrick Swayze is the bad boy who is the one who awakens something in her. In The Sleeping Beauty, the awakening is quite a bit more literal. Aurora has been asleep for one hundred years and when Florimund goes to her (after falling in love with her vision), he kisses her and awakens her (as well as the whole kingdom) and thus is given her parent's -- the King and Queen blessings -- to marry. Both dances are a celebration of awakenings.

Though Baby's parents -- specifically her father -- are against her having anything to do with Patrick Swayze, her father sees her blossom into a beautiful young woman in this dance and he gives his/her blessings as well. Balanchine and Mason (1975) note that in The Sleeping Beauty the pas de deux "tells the story of a whole life -- the growth and development of a playful and carefree child into a young woman who learns, through tribulations, to know great love." This is exactly what happens for Baby in Dirty Dancing as well. We meet her as a young woman who is a daddy's girl and who goes by the name of Baby -- which is not a coincidence. Goldner (2008) notes that in The Sleeping Beauty the pas de deux shows Aurora's transformation into a complete person, which is what happens for Baby as well. Baby is able to stand in front of her parents and say, "This is who I am, like it or not. And this is who I love." Baby's transformation is complete by the final dance in Dirty Dancing just as is Aurora's. They both have grown from innocence into womanhood and have come to find love through the process of growing.

Both dances also seem to feature the woman as opposed to the man. Though they are paired dances, the woman is the focal point in both dances as she is constantly being supported and lifted. This is not surprising as both stories -- The Sleeping Beauty and Dirty Dancing -- are stories about a woman's transformation from innocent girl to woman. While in Dirty Dancing Baby's transformation is much more explicit in dealing with her womanhood, they both are still stories about women.

While The Sleeping Beauty is much more stylized in terms of its footwork and arm movements in comparison to Dirty Dancing (for example, pointed toes, etc.), there is the same type of partnering in both dances. This is not to say that the Dirty Dancing dance isn't stylized, because it is; it is simply more free-flowing in its movements. In both The Sleeping Beauty and Dirty Dancing, the music in the songs starts out quite mellow and in each song speeds up, picking up momentum in the dancing as well, around one minute into the Dirty Dancing dance and two minutes into The Sleeping Beauty pas de deux.