The Dream Ballet: Introducing the “Golden Age” Movie Musicals of the 1950s
Poster for the American theatrical run of the 1951 musical film An American in Paris
Have you ever had a dream that made you realize something about your subconscious? Have you ever tried to explain that dream to someone else, searching for some way to represent the experience? What if I told you that many movie musicals of the 1950s actually expressed those dreams through dance?
Today, the 1950s are known as the era of the “Golden Age” movie musicals. Some of the most prominent and iconic Hollywood musicals, including An American in Paris (1951), Singin’ in the Rain (1952), and Oklahoma! (1955), were made in the 1950s. Each of them tells a love story full of trials and tribulations, interspersed with musical numbers and lively, intricate dance scenes. Each of them also includes their own “dream ballet,” a moment of the film in which dance—as opposed to singing or dialogue—is used to continue the plot or provide insight into a character’s mind.
An American in Paris tells the story of a young American veteran and artist named Jerry Mulligan who falls in love with a Parisian woman named Lise Bouvier. The musical’s dream ballet occurs when, much to his surprise and disappointment, Jerry learns that Lise plans to accept a marriage proposal from his friend Henri. The dream ballet occurs in Jerry’s mind as he imagines himself dancing at a flower market with Lise—as he daydreams about the love they shared and how he wishes they could be together.
The dream ballet in Singin’ in the Rain similarly transports you into the mind of the main character, this time a young Hollywood star named Don Lockwood. Don has fallen in love with Kathy Selden, a talented chorus girl, but has trouble expressing in words how he truly feels about her. In the dream ballet, which happens while he pitches his idea for a new musical, he performs a duet that acts as a dramatic, danced rendition of the earlier scene in which he professed his love. It is in that moment, through dance, that Don expresses the full extent of his love fearlessly, fervently, and freely.
Finally, in Oklahoma!, the dream ballet happens as the main character Laurey Williams, who struggles throughout the film to decide whether she has feelings for the charming cowboy Curly McLain or the quiet farmhand Jud Fry, falls asleep. In her dream, she performs a joyous and romantic pas de deux with Curly and finds herself fearfully and frantically running away from Jud. For the first time in the film, and solely because of dance, she has clarity about her feelings of love for Curly.
In each of these movie musicals, the dream ballet allowed the characters to experience and express their overwhelming love with more ease than they could in their waking life: in dreams, they could be with their love, dance with them, spin and swirl and soar high into the air in a luxurious pas de deux. Dance was used as a window into the characters’ minds—a choreographic and cinematic innovation that turned these movie musicals “golden.”