''He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin' ''is a 1983 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by

Emile Ardolino Emile Ardolino (May 9, 1943 – November 20, 1993) was an American television and film director and producer, best known for his work on the films '' Dirty Dancing'' (1987) and ''Sister Act'' (1992). He has won an Academy Award for Best Document ...

Summary

Jacques d'Amboise, a noted former American ballet star who had dancing roles in such films as ''

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ''Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'' is a 1954 American musical film, directed by Stanley Donen, with music by Gene de Paul, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and choreography by Michael Kidd. The screenplay, by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, and Do ...

'' and '' Carousel'', and who later founded the

National Dance Institute National Dance Institute (NDI) was founded in 1976 by New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d'Amboise. NDI works with mainstream, bilingual, and special education classes. NDI classes are taught by professional artists, who work with 6,50 ...

, a dance school. Kevin Kline and Judy Collins make appearances as themselves. It aired on television on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

anthology series ''

Special Treat ''Special Treat'' (also known as ''NBC Special Treat'') is an American anthology series of television specials on NBC that were geared toward teenagers, similar to ''ABC Afterschool Special''. It debuted in 1975 and ran through the 1985–86 seas ...

''.

Reception

John J. O'Connor of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' stated that the production "captured splendidly the key point of Mr. d'Amboise's efforts: ''Doing your best is what counts.''" In the educational magazine ''Media & Methods'', Marion Bue called ''He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin "engaging" and wrote that the film "captures the intensity of rehearsal and the excitement of performance."

Accolades

''He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin' '' won the 1983

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

. After it was shown on

, ''He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin' '' won the 1984

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program was presented to television programming aimed towards children in any format. Series, specials and non-fiction programming were all eligible for the award. Prior to 1974, both daytime an ...

and a Peabody Award. It is one of the few theatrical films to win both an Oscar and an Emmy. It was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Entertainment Special.Television Academy
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References

External links

''He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

. * * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin , list = {{AcademyAwardBestDocumentaryFeature1981-2000 {{Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Children's Special {{Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program 1983 films American documentary films Documentary films about ballet Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners Peabody Award-winning broadcasts Films directed by Emile Ardolino 1983 documentary films Primetime Emmy Award-winning broadcasts 1980s English-language films 1980s American films