White Man Dancing
There’ll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There’ll be phantoms
There’ll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You’ll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin’
~From “The Future” by Leonard Cohen
The concerts of the Leonard Cohen World Tour have featured, as noted in a previous post, Cohen running, skipping, and performing “high kicks.”
As it turns out, he has also taken to illustrating the “white man dancing” lyrics of “The Future,” as demonstrated in the videos below.1
In the first part of the tour, the dance was a measured shuffle, carefully executed.
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada (May 23, 2008)
Sometime during the next two months, the dance became more adventuresome.
Leonard Cohen – The Future – Lisboa (July 19, 2008)
And the cast of dancers expanded.
White Girls Dancing
At some point in the Tour, the second “white man dancin’” became “white girls dancin’.”
Again, at first the choreography was rather prim. Keep your eyes on the Webb Sisters at the far left side of the stage.
Leonard Cohen – The Future – Westerpark (July 12, 2008)
As time passed and the future became more imminent, things started to slide, slide in all directions.
Leonard Cohen – The Future – Rotterdam (Nov 7, 2008)
While less clear than the preceding shot, the final video (in which the camera is actually focused on a giant video screen beside the stage) does include the full sequence of the same moves.
Leonard Cohen – The Future – Rotterdam (November 04, 2008)
A Plea To YouTube Cinematographers
I reviewed batches of videos with the selections posted here representing the best of the lot. The number of times the camera moved away from Cohen or the Webb Sisters at the exact time when they should have been the focus is remarkable – which is why I’m remarking on it.
There is no longer any excuse for not tracking the action when filming “The Future.” Check the lyrics.
At the lines,
There’ll be phantoms
There’ll be fires on the road
focus on Cohen while he sings and dances to the next line,
and the white man dancing.
Then, at the words,
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson
focus on the Web sisters as they do their turn after Cohen sings
and the white man dancin’
Then – and this is the crucial part - alert me2 once you’ve uploaded it on YouTube so I can post a coherent video of the white man and girls dancing.
Update: Good Video Of Cartwheels Found
15 April 2009: A good video of the entire White Girls Dancing, Synchronized Cartwheel Modification, has finally surfaced at Leonard Cohen & The White Girls Dancing In Oakland
- All the videos in this post are set to begin just before the desired sequence. Unfortunately, I do not have a practical means by which to automatically stop the video before the end. The viewer can, of course, simply turn off the player at any point. To see some or all of the video that takes place before the automatic start, drag the indicator (the circular button on the bottom bar) to the left. [↩]
- Email: DrHGuy AT 1heckofaguy.com [↩]
