Bored of the Dance
starring Michael Flatulence
Begorragh Video
The mail-order success of Bored of the Dance is the stuff of tabloid magazine advertising legend. Over 50,000 units sold per month of what was once considered simply not marketable to Americans who, it was thought, had surrendered their cultural heritage in favor of less Eurocentric, more diverse leisure activities like soap opera. The brilliance of Bored of the Dance’s marketing was that it was marketed to people who watched soap operas and didn’t know that PBS showed the program every day for a year straight. Well, it took them a year to view the entire program, because it kept getting in the way of their fund drives. Nevertheless, the entire two and a half hours of Bored of the Dance is fast becoming HUGE.
While some critics have pointed out that choreographic genius behind the program, Michael Flatulence isn’t really from Elbonia, but Chicago, that takes nothing away from the pageantry presented in this spectacle of traditional Elbonian Mud Dancing. Mr. Flatulence’s genius, though, is to have his performers dance and kick mud onto the audience after each performance, thus assuring their participation. All of this is captured on video and will surely get the children interested in the folklore of Elbonia, the only country to lose a war against France. There’s also a beautiful wedding ritual story, beginning with the courtship festival of vole-skinning, the engagement mud eating ceremony and finally the fusion of the mothers-in-law with hot mud. If you haven’t experienced Bored of the Dance, you are missing out on this years most exciting cultural revival.
