Step-tap Dance as an Allegory of Historical Memory in Soviet Cinema of the Perestroika Era

Abstract

The article studies the history of tap dance in the context of Soviet cinema and its use as an artistic device for the allegoric interpretation of time in Soviet films of the Perestroika era. The source material for the study is the films "Winter Evening in Gagra" by K. Shakhnazarov (1985) and "The Servant" by V. Abdrashitov (1988). They are the most striking and well-known examples of the use of tap dancing as an important part of the author's imagery for representing the receding times.
To complete the in-depth analysis of the above-mentioned films, the article also conducts a small study of the introduction of tap dancing and its functions in the cinema of an earlier period, when tap dancing was formally banned as a Western dance alien to Soviet culture.
The triumphant arrival of the once-banned tap dance on cinema screens in the post-Stalin cinema contributed to its rediscovery as an artistic device that carries the energy necessary to reflect the spirit of the times in a special dynamic and plastic form.
After all, the pulsating rhythm of this dance was originally related to the imagery associated with a precise tapping to mark time, resembling the sound of a moving train. And the emphasis on the sincere emotional performance of the dance became essential to ensuring the necessary perception by the audience of both the inner state of the performers and the time itself, which the dance expresses. These features of tap dancing were used by film directors in different ways, but the relevance of the dance for perestroika cinema remained a constant, it fitted equally well into the story of the parting ghost of the "thaw" and the working through the trauma of the Stalin era.
In addition to the importance of studying the specifics of tap dancing in these films, it offers new possibilities for understanding the concept of time and taking a new look at familiar stories through the semantics of dance images.