okay I’m back on my tuck everlasting bullshit because. it’s so good it’s just SO good how this show uses dance
like, first of all, it was a really cool choice to make dance as prominent in the show as they did—as pop musicals become more popular, shows have kind of been leaning away from dance as storytelling, but tuck. tuck fully embraced it for all its power
because here’s the thing. dance in this show tied inexorably to life, in a beautiful way that allows dance, such a bright and brilliant art form, to shine not only in supporting the narrative or being a cool spectacle but being a major element of the characterization.
for instance, both mae and angus only really dance once, in my most beautiful day, and specifically as a recreation of the past, before they became immortal. jesse, who is so in denial about the truth of his immortality and determined to continue living, dances a lot in the first act, but as reality hits, dances less and less. miles never dances. the closest he, who is the most alone and hit the hardest by his immortality, ever comes to dancing is the dancers behind him in time, which only further reinforces dance as a living, joyful thing that the tucks are cut off from by the nature of their curse.
but winnie. from beginning to end, winnie dances more than anyone else. she is so full of joy and light and life that it cannot be contained to words or song, and that is what separates her so much from the tucks, why those who do not dance anymore urge her to avoid immortality, to keep dancing. and then, at the end of it all, there’s the story of winnie foster. to completely adobden words for a seven minute ballet sequence telling the full story of her life is an insanely bold choice, but it works perfectly for the show and for winnie. there is no other medium that could convincing tell a full life,the joy and the grief and the love of it, in so little time. and it proves, perfectly, that she made the right choice. a life is the greatest wonder on earth after all.
hdkshsj sorry this got so long and ramble I’m just word vomiting but. the way this show handles immortality and life and dance as a medium is unparalleled
