The other day, I was surfing through YouTube videos and I
came across a contemporary dance routine from a show called So You Think You
Can Dance. The song they choreographed the routine to was called “Gravity” by
Sara Bareilles. This has always been one of my favorite songs, also by one of
my favorite artists. The first few lyrics are: “Something
always brings me back to you, it never takes too long.” Whenever I
listened to this song, I always interpreted it as a love song, talking about
how love can act like a gravitational pull.
But seeing this particular dance routine really threw me.
The story behind the dance was not at all a love story; it seemed to be the
exact opposite. It seemed to be about an emotionally damaged girl being tortured
by some sort of evil. The dance was beautiful, but I didn’t really understand
it.
Before every dance routine on the show, there is a video the
choreographer talking about the meaning behind the routine—this is also the
part I usually fast forward through. I went back and listened to the
explanation, and I learned that the choreographer had taken an entirely
different interpretation of the song. Instead of love being the gravitational
pull, it was an addiction. Which, in hindsight, is pretty genius if you ask me.
For anyone who's curious, this is the link to a video of the dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hND4LGKmqCA
Wow, this seriously moved me. Being a dancer, I really appreciate artistic pieces such as this one. I love the way that she shows emotion in how she dances. I also think its really cool how seeing this song in a different light changed things for you, because I do agree that sometimes after coming back to a song you can understand it differently. Nigel also made a comment about that in his blog.
ReplyDeleteRight from your title, I was very curious. This video shows a perfect example of what different interpretation really means. I also think that aside from dancing, songs can have so many other meanings than just one. After listening and reading the lyrics more than once, I can figure out the different messages within the song. You can really appreciate the small parts that comes in something big.
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