Episode 1
Dancing to the Max
Dancing has always been big in my Cameroonian family. Some of my earliest memories are dancing with my father and sisters at crowded African parties. In fact according to my mother one of my first phrases was “Daddy dance me.” For my husband, Enrique, dancing is as natural as walking. Growing up in Muna Mexico (outside Merida) quinceaneras, bodas, and festivals always provided him and the village, full of other talented dancers, the opportunity to demonstrate their skills.
However, while I enjoyed dancing I’m not a naturally good dancer. My bestie Deanna says it best “Eve when you dance you’re always looking for the beat when but never quite able to find it. That may be true but it sure doesn’t stop me from trying. My daughter, Ela, has the same resolve. She loves dancing just as much but I’m afraid she takes after me when it comes to moving her body to a rhythmic beat. As I prepared lunch today I heard Ela in the dining room say “Hey google, play pop music.” I peeked my head around the corner to see her convulse her hips, twirl (barely missing a collision with her toy kitchen), thrust her head back, and then land into—painful-looking--splits. I’m not sure what surprised me more: the fact that she didn’t injure herself or that Google actually recognized her request for once. Either way, at least she had fun.
Since I cannot dance perhaps I should settle for watching others instead. Luckily for me, and my family, I became an observer of the pastime when watching this week’s homework Dancing to the Max. In Dashiell Driscoll’s second podcast he gave a perfect summary of the episode before discussing it with Mark-Paul Gosselaar and guest Elizabeth Berkley. Since Driscoll’s summary is hard to beat I’ll just refer to it as an episode about a dance competition, one which Zack boasts he’ll win when in fact he doesn’t know how to dance at all. Besides Gosselaar’s shocking admission that he is not actually a natural dancer there was another surprising revelation— this “first episode” was not actually the pilot episode nor did it air on Saturday morning like other episodes. This episode actually aired on Sunday night, beating out Family Ties, not by my family however, because as a little kid I was in love with Michael J. Fox. Let me not digress. Because Dancing to the Max wasn’t the actual pilot episode, the viewer isn’t formally introduced to the characters. Instead viewers watch as each character’s dispositions and their story is organically presented, a strategy that works well.
According to Gosselaar a writer might think he or she has to put all “this exposition in and all the character descriptions and you don’t.” He added, “You watch the episode--you know exactly who Zack is, you know exactly who Kelly is, Slater, Screech and Jessie…” I appreciate that statement because there is a temptation for writers to overwhelm their readers or audience with unnecessary information, whereas diving into the story and offering just the absolute facts about the character (such as Jessie’s insecurity concerning her height in this episode or Zach’s blatant boasting that he’ll win) is really all the audience needs.
When discussing memories of filming Driscoll asked Gosselaar “Do you remember what they told you when they said …dance bad?” Gosselaar’s response was “Probably just be yourself. Just dance.” He acknowledged that he was incredibly uncomfortable dancing in front of the camera. “I’m not a great dancer.” This was a statement with which the Los Angeles Times would have agreed. The Times called Gosselaar’s dancing “very bad” in a review. Gosselaar continued, “In life I need to get L-L-LIT to be able to dance or at least be able to think that I’m dancing well.” Driscoll noted the “pained look” on the young Gosselaar’s face when he was dancing (one that I believe slips the audience’s attention, unless you’ve watched it a dozen times like Driscoll or a critic from the Times). Gosselaar added that painful look was real and that comments like the Times only merited the reason he didn’t go back and watch episodes. He wasn’t confident in his abilities and didn’t want to relive his insecurities by watching the series before. He was well aware of the fact that he wasn’t a good dancer. “I did tap lessons when I was much younger because my mother forced me … I didn’t like to perform in front of people, especially in something I wasn’t good at.” His admission made my mind drift back to a daily complaint from my three boys and how it’s unfair that I “force” them to play violin and speak Spanish at home. While it’s possible that they’ll still complain as adults that I forced music and language upon them, I’m willing to risk it. I’m convinced that activities like music and dance are great disciplines and ultimately give kids a valuable benefit. Gosselaar may not have learned to dance through it but perhaps learning to do something difficult led to a different benefit and who knows if Gosselaar hadn’t been “forced” to participate in tap dancing perhaps he would have been much worse at dancing.
When Zack learns to dance, it is Jessie who teaches him. As a viewer I was impressed at her confidence and skill. That was explained by Driscoll’s revelation that Elizabeth Berkley was a trained dancer, which as Gosselaar recalled made him even more uncomfortable at the time. Yet while Jessie’s problem is not ability she has her own insecurity about height. As the podcast continued, Gosselaar pointed out that writers sometimes write for the actor/actress and asked Berkley if she had ever had issues with her height in real life. But while she did have some perfectionist tendencies like Jessie, and has had girls admit to similar insecurities as the character, Elizabeth said as a model the height was a benefit. Gosselaar also asked Elizabeth if she found Kelly’s and Lisa’s comments inappropriate. In the locker room scene they laugh: “You’re a bright, sensitive, popular girl. Everyone looks up to you.” And “Stand tall, be proud, and practice your slam dunk.” While Berkley didn’t exactly answer the question, to me the fact that Jessie laughs at all the comments gives the viewer a conflicting message. While Jessie vocalizes her insecurities apparently they aren’t so bad that she can’t laugh about them.
Driscoll points out another “realism stretch” where Kasey Kasem picks up a banner from Mr. Belding instead of sending someone else to fetch it, but then of course we wouldn’t have seen the interaction between Kasem and Belding and as Gosselaar points out, the fact that Denis Haskins at age thirty-eight was a very good actor.
As the podcast finished the listeners were assigned homework. This week is to watch The Lisa Card. Driscoll also asked viewers to like and subscribe but I’m taking baby steps. As bad as a dancer as I am, I’m even worse when it comes to technology. It is a miracle I’m typing this on a computer and not a type writer. My boys joke that I chiseled my first draft of Just Josephine onto a stone slab….I may have if it hadn’t been for all their assistance when I had trouble with my laptop. So needless to say if and when I figure out how to subscribe to a podcast that may be the day Ela and I learn to dance without falling down into accidental splits.