Manic Pixie Monday: My Favorite Dance Sequences I Have Embarasingly Tried

You didn't need to be my 4th grade Jazz teacher to know that I have absolutely no skills in the high art of dance.  My Puerto Rican rhythm must have been stamped out by my Puritanical Spanish ancestors in the gene pool.  But my immovable hips couldn't stop me from at least trying out some of my favorite dance sequences, even if it was usually in the privacy of my own room.

1. Meet Me in St. Louise - "Bamboo Tree"

I played Judy and my little sister played Margaret O'Brein and we would prance around our living room for hours watching and re-watching  this movie.  Years later I would even use this movie to calm down rowdy boys at a summer camp. Judy works every time.

2.  The Breakfast Club - "We're not Alone"

The way I saw it, The Breakfast Club were teenagers and if I was a teenager, then I would need to learn how to dance like them.  I guess this is the reason I why I was never asked to dance, but also why I had so much fun.

3.  The Little Colonel - "Stairs Dance"

I can never walk up a pair of steps normally ever again.

4.  Smash - "Rumor Has It"

I heard a "Rumor" that people didn't like this show.  I don't get it.  How can someone not be hypnotized by the synchronized  snaps and claps?  My limbs automatically flail whenever this song comes on, which makes driving a bit difficult.

5.  Bring It On - "Intro"

My semester stint as a varsity football cheerleader was probably due to this short clip.  Though I was hardly a better dancer afterwards, at least I've never had to resort to Spirit Fingers.

Wise Women Wednesday: Mary Pickford

"Failure is not the falling down, it's the staying down" - Mary Pickford

Today's wise word comes from the incomparable, Mary Pickford.  Known as the first movie star, America's Sweetheart was actually a Canadian born Gladys Marie Smith who began working the vaudeville circuit at a young age to help with the family's expenses.  After a fateful meeting with the director D. W. Griffith, Mary became world renowned for not only starring in some of the first silent films, but also for playing some of the strongest, most compelling female characters.

Far from just pretty face on screen,  Mary along with her husband Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin founded United Artists which gave producers who joined sole control over their movies instead of the studios.  She was also the first woman to own her own studio (the next woman would be Lucille Ball with Desilu Productions) where she directed and produced movies even after she retired from acting in the 1930s.

American Experience - Mary Pickford


When you have the time, I would highly suggest watching the PBS documentary about Mary Pickford (above).  She's been one of my idols since I was a kid, I even had a poster of her hanging in my room (Dork Alert).  Here is a woman that came from nothing to the very cinematic revolution that would change our culture forever and yet no one knows who she is.  This is one Wise Woman  whose words and impact I wont soon forget.

(God, could I get any cheesier?)