Major Donnie Dunagan, a retired marine, kept a secret from his fellow comrades for over 25 years. He also managed to keep the same secret from his wife for two years. It wasn't until Dunagan's wife discovered a box of movie memorabilia in their attic that she realized that her husband had kept a part of his past hidden from her. Dunagan voiced the role of Bambi and served as a model for the young deer in the 1942 Disney film. He managed to keep his secret from those closest to him for a very long time. As a young child, Dunagan got into acting almost by accident. Outside of his two-bedroom flat in Memphis, Tenn., a man would dance on the street corner as a means of making money during the Depression. Dunagan was mesmerized by the act and spent much of his time watching dance. His mother took him down one day to see the man, where Dunagan began to perfectly imitiate his moves. …show more content…
Dunagan has fond memories of Walt Disney and enjoyed working with him. Disney chose him because his face as a young boy was similar to the iconic deer. Dunagan remembers filming the movie fondly. He voiced the role and then acted out the deer's movements, turning left or right as needed. In the scene where Bambi is kissed by the young doe, Dunagan was asked to make a disgusted face. He was having so much fun playing the role, however, that he found it difficult to look unhappy. The director then told him to imagine drinking castor oil and that promopted him to make the unhappy face that is well-remembered by fans of the movie. Dunagan fell out of childhood acting after "Bambi," when he was placed in an orphanage. He joined the Marine Corps when he was older, where he served for over 25 years. He served in a variety of billets during his service and later became the youngest drill instructor in the hisotry of the service. He deployed to Vietnam in 1967 as part of the 3rd Battalion, 5th
Katherine Dunham, born on June 22, 1909 was an African American dancer. Her mother Fanny June Dunham died when she became sick and her father Albert Dunham Sr., left to work as a salesman. Dunham and her older brother Albert Jr., were raised by their loving aunt Lulu on the ghetto side of Chicago. At four years old, Dunham would go to the salon, her aunt’s workplace, and would always remember how much her mother loved music. It was not long before that when Katherine noticed how people would look at her aunt because of the color of her skin. It was why Lulu lost her job and had to move in with other relatives as her aunt could not afford their little apartment anymore. They moved several times with Dunham family members, where Katherine discovered
An example was through the performance when he had two people from the audience to join on the stage doing Corroboree dances.
Throughout her college career, Dunham continued to dance in various venues. In 1933, she opened the Negro Dance Group, her first dance...
Alvin was born during the Great Depression to two working class parents in Rogers, Texas. His father abandoned the family when Alvin was a mere six months old, leaving him and his mother with the struggle of fending for themselves. The inability for Alvin’s mother to find work led to their move to California in 1942, where Alvin was introduced by a classmate to the most influential person that would be the foundation for his future successful career in modern dance, Lester Horton (DeFrantz 1). Alvin was captivated by Lester’s work, which focuses on building a strong body, and made the executive decision to start his dance training in 1949 when he was eighteen years old. Because Lester Horton’s dance company embraced diversity, and accepted dancers of all ethnicities and backgrounds, Alvin was given the opportunity to do something great with his
In the late 1980’s Muhammad changed his life around. He and his wife had separated, he converted to Islam, and he joined the U.S. Army (Biography, par 4). He later changed his name to Muhammad (Death, par 2). He was stationed in Washington State. There he married Mildred Green. They ended up having three children. Being in the army was good for Muhammad. He served in Germany and the Middle East and was skilled in marksman (Biography, par 4, 5).
Her lasting career was not given to her easily, therefore, creating an inspiring story full of hardships and success. Ever since she was a little girl, her dream was to become a successful and famous dancer. In New York City, when she was trying to fulfill her dream, she was unable to find a job in the theatre department. Instead of being discouraged, she decided to make something good come from it. She choreographed her own routines, created her own costumes, and organized solo recitals for audiences to enjoy. This event led her to the biggest adventure in her life that would later impact the world. She was invited to return back to London to pursue her education in the performing arts, so that she could further improve her talents that would make up her entire career.
To begin with, Martha’s desperate effort was one of her strong strengths. When Martha began dance, many people murmured that Martha would fail because she was “quite a few years above the average age of all the other girls in the school” (28), “dumpy, [and] unprepossessing” (28). However, she astonished her dance teachers and others “with her determination to learn and her quick mastery of difficult exercises, gestures, and steps” (30). Martha usually spent her time on the studio alone all day and night, seeking for unique, exotic, and alluring movements of her own. Ted Shawn, Mar...
Walt Disney has always been known for his brilliant imagination and his overflowing abundance of his well-known Disney characters, each with their own unique personalities. Growing up the Disney princesses were a huge role model to girls my age. The princesses never really appealed to me as much as Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Ariel was known for her love for adventure, her complete stubbornness and her dedicated love, mainly to her beloved Eric. Those three characteristics are also three that portray myself.
Li’s passion for ballet shows on and off stage through his arabesques, flexibility, fouettés, grande jeté and pirouettes that were nothing less than perfection. I understood that becoming a dancer requires commitment, passion and having a great memory as there’s many moves, routines and ballet terms that you need to learn. When I was performing on stage, I felt free and that I could own the stage as it felt like it was my second home. I also felt complete within myself just as Li felt. To perform on stage, you need to be light and graceful along with connecting to the music using precise steps, poses and formal gestures. The film used dance, music, scenery, and costumes to portray a story characterised by Li’s dance. Classical ballet dancers require the utmost grace and I’ve found that you also need a tremendous level of concentration and memory. This portrays when his choreographer Ben Stevenson asked Li Cunxin to replace the main male role due to an injury on the day of the performance to memorise new dances and perform them in front of an enormous crowd. Many of my performances have been in a group where we all need to be in sync and work together. This film highlighted that in order to become a professional ballet dancer, you have to prepare to work extremely hard no matter how gruelling the schedule is in order to
Dian Fossey was born on january 16,1932 in san francisco, California. When Dian was 6 her parents divorced and her mother remarried the following year. By that time, she had lost all contact with her father and her step-father treated he with little to no respect. Dian attended a school named Lowell High School. Her stepfather had her enroll in a business course at College of Marin. However spending the summer on a ranch in Montana, she remembered the way she loved animals as a kid, and she decided to enroll in a pre-veterinary class in biology at the University of California, Davis.
Donnie Yen is a Chinese martial artist, director, producer, action choreographer and an actor. He was born in Guangzhou, China on July 27, 1963. His mother was a Tai Chi Grand Master and he started learning martial arts from her. He was constantly learning new forms of martial arts and is well versed with Tai chi Chuan, Boxing, Hapkido, Jeet Kune Do, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Wing Chun, Kickboxing, Judo and Wushu. He is credited with winning numerous Wushu World Championships. He has also made a name for himself as an actor and an action choreographer and a few of his popular films are Ip Man, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, The Monkey
Born on December 5th, 1901, Walter Elias Disney, grew up in Chicago, Illinois with his parents and four other brothers and sister. His father, Elias Disney, an Irish-Canadian, whom he inherited his name from, and his mother, Flora Call Disney, who was of German-American descent. They raised him in Chicago until they day they moved to Marceline, Missouri. Walter Disney spent his younger years taking an interest in art classes and writing activities and also the scenery around him. His family farm was placed in the countryside, near the Santa Fe Railroad tracks. Walter enjoyed his time spent outside listening to the trains pass by. It allowed him to imagine new things. He had a large imagination, growing with every activity he performed his talents in. Walter Disney took on his main talent of drawing. He began to doodle and sketch regularly. It became his favorite past time and he began to focus more on his drawings and animations then he did school. Since his drawings were becoming his main priority, Walter Disney began to sell his better d...
Disney has made it his life 's goal to create home entertainment for both young and old. From the creation of Mickey to his work in films, Disney had made it clear that happiness is something that everyone should have. Disney had also know that animations is not just for the imagination of the children. Early movies such as Snow White and Pinocchio have clear messages for the younger views. “In Snow White- the main characters are victims of injustice who are eventually restored to their rightful place. In Pinocchio, the characters Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket and Geppetto are faced with dilemmas, and their own actions result in them becoming victims of ev...
The documentary “Rize” by David LaChapelle, focuses on the lives of Black Americans who live in South Central Los Angeles and the struggles they go through in their daily lives. Moreover the film also introduces two types of dancing groups that they have in the community. These dance groups are meant to keep the youths and children occupied and distracted from all the problems that have been going on in their community, such as the LA riot. The two styles of dancing are Clowning and Krumping. Clowning was created by Tommy the Clown in 1992. Tommy used to be a formal drug dealer, he went from having his life together to losing all his money and house. However, instead of doing nothing productive with his life, he decided to help his community by changing the lives of others through entertainment. In addition, not only did this dancing group help him get to a better place in life but also the group members are like his family. His main goal was to help put similes on people’s faces and help get some of these children and youths away from gangs. On the other hand, Krumping was also generated from Clowning, however Krumpers believe that their form of entertainment is different from clowning. Moreover, these dancing groups main focus is to distract the youths and children in the community by giving them the opportunity to do something they love, which is dancing. Furthermore, passion, spiritual connections and connection to the African culture are conveyed through the film by Clowning and Krumping.
“Walter Elias Disney was born December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois, to Elias and Flora Disney…Walt’s parents …decided to move closer to family on a farm outside of Marceline, Missouri, in 1906…It was here that he began to draw animals and indulge his imagination. Walt’s exposure to rural life influenced him throughout his career.” (Jolley) When reading about Walt’s early history, it’s noticeable that he came from very humble circumstances. The places he lived, and the experiences he had, shaped his life dramatically. He was an imaginative and hardworking person from the start. “ Walt was only nine years old when he had to get up at 3:30 a.m., seven days a week, to fold and deliver papers for two hours before attending…school” (Jolley) By working at such a young age, life lessons of perseverance and dedication was instilled into his values at a very early.