Dance Stumbles on Film

Re: “Factory Outlet: Dance as Blue-Collar Solace,” by Lewis Segal, Oct. 15.

Thank you for the words about “Dancer in the Dark”: “Unfortunately, the dance numbers are ruinously edited--reduced to incoherent fragments or movement riffs, as if Selma has been watching MTV instead of vintage movie musicals.”

I have long felt that dance on film does not receive proper, if any, consideration. I always assume the cameraman, director, etc., do not know how to dance and consider it sissy, perhaps.

I notice TV football, for example, manages to film the entire body. Imagine the shrieks if only a hand or face was filmed when a pass was being caught and one could not see the entire body action.

RENITA PRUCHNICKI

Culver City