Film Friday – Nathan Barnatt dances to Pop Culture
This is a truly fantastic video that will really get your kids talking. Nathan Barnatt is an American actor, comedian, dancer, and filmmaker who is known for his amazing dance skills. In this video, the official music video for the mash-up hit “Pop Culture,” Nathan plays a nerdy guy who is inspired by the music he hears. When he hears a beat, his body just starts to move. He is so inspired that he can’t help but dance… no matter where he’s standing or how inconvenient it might be!
I use this particular video to talk about movement and dance and using your whole body. For some grades I make a story out of it and say something like, “You know how music sometimes makes you sway or tap your toe or move to the beat? This man was just a nerdy guy and couldn’t dance… but he wanted to dance. Then one day he was walking along and he heard just the right music and he couldn’t stop from dancing. He couldn’t help it! The music made him dance!”
You could also easily use this video to talk about stop motion and how filmmakers can take a short snippet of video and mesh it together to create a long and exciting work. In fact, there’s a famous video directed by Michel Gondry called “The Hardest Button to Button.” This song by the White Stripes uses this exact video splicing technique and is known world-wide. Here’s a link: “Hardest Button to Button” – White Stripes You could easily base a lesson using these two videos around the old National music standard: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
[su_spacer size=”30″]Most of all, kiddos love the dance moves and they “Ooh and Aah” as he flips, turns, and grooves. I sometimes have to have a small chat about when he dances with the girl or when his shirt comes off for one second (e.g. Is a boy taking his shirt off weird? No. When you’re an adult is it bad to dance boy and girl? No.) I usually cut off the guy at the beginning talking about how the music “sucks” and instead start playing the video when the nerd walks up.What ways would you use this video? What other connections do you see? Leave ideas in the comments and share your thoughts with me with anyone else who is reading!
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