GHOSTDANCER
By Sloan Golden & Paul I. Miller
TAGLINE: "Walk the Walk--Dance the Dance"
LOGLINE: A gifted, young Native American dancer with a dream to learn ballet, win a dance competition and a scholarship to a prestigious conservatory is mentored by a broken down, crippled, alcoholic ex-dance master. Together they bring the tragic beauty of the Ghost Dance back to life.
SYNOPSIS: On January 1st 1889 during a solar eclipse, Vovoka, a Native American Holy Man experienced a vision. The Spirit Dance, or Ghost Dance, as it became known would restore the Native Americans to their land, bringing peace and prosperity to the Native peoples. If the people wore the Ghost Dance shirts, it would reunite the living with the spirits of the dead and restore universal peace, love and harmony among all the people of the earth.
Instead, as the dance swept across the Great Plains, it brought only death at the hands of U.S. Army forces who opened fire with carbines and light artillery on the dancers at Wounded Knee Christmas day, 1890 in a tragic massacre of 153 men, women and children.
And now Scotty Chandler, a Native American dancer, trapped between two worlds with a white father and a Native American mother wants to learn to dance ballet, so he can win a dance competition and gain a scholarship to a prestigious ballet conservatory.
He finds a mentor in Redhawk, a Native American ex-ballet dance master who teaches Scotty that first he must find his center, who he really is, before he can achieve his impossible dream, to walk the walk before he can dance the dance.
Redhawk, an old broken down alcoholic who was once one of the finest ballet dancers in the world must also find his center of gravity before he can teach Scotty to take the first step. To accomplish this, Redhawk embarks upon a "vision quest" out west. There he finds his spiritual center and returns to teach his young protege, Scotty about the old ways, the old dance, The Ghost Dance. Redhawk, clean and sober now, along with his beautiful daughter Calusa also a dancer, trains Scotty to become a master of both worlds, the world of ballet and the world of the Ghost Dance so that he can soar like an eagle in both. But he must do one more thing before he is ready... Scotty goes to the museum and steals an original Ghost Dance shirt.
In the spirit of the dance, Scotty makes peace and is re-united with his white father in Boston, enters the competition, and with his re-creation of the inspirational Ghost Dance in the form of ballet, wins first prize, the scholarship to the conservatory. Together he and Redhawk bring the Native American prophet - Vovoka's vision back to life for a modern audience.
TAGLINE: "Walk the Walk--Dance the Dance"
LOGLINE: A gifted, young Native American dancer with a dream to learn ballet, win a dance competition and a scholarship to a prestigious conservatory is mentored by a broken down, crippled, alcoholic ex-dance master. Together they bring the tragic beauty of the Ghost Dance back to life.
SYNOPSIS: On January 1st 1889 during a solar eclipse, Vovoka, a Native American Holy Man experienced a vision. The Spirit Dance, or Ghost Dance, as it became known would restore the Native Americans to their land, bringing peace and prosperity to the Native peoples. If the people wore the Ghost Dance shirts, it would reunite the living with the spirits of the dead and restore universal peace, love and harmony among all the people of the earth.
Instead, as the dance swept across the Great Plains, it brought only death at the hands of U.S. Army forces who opened fire with carbines and light artillery on the dancers at Wounded Knee Christmas day, 1890 in a tragic massacre of 153 men, women and children.
And now Scotty Chandler, a Native American dancer, trapped between two worlds with a white father and a Native American mother wants to learn to dance ballet, so he can win a dance competition and gain a scholarship to a prestigious ballet conservatory.
He finds a mentor in Redhawk, a Native American ex-ballet dance master who teaches Scotty that first he must find his center, who he really is, before he can achieve his impossible dream, to walk the walk before he can dance the dance.
Redhawk, an old broken down alcoholic who was once one of the finest ballet dancers in the world must also find his center of gravity before he can teach Scotty to take the first step. To accomplish this, Redhawk embarks upon a "vision quest" out west. There he finds his spiritual center and returns to teach his young protege, Scotty about the old ways, the old dance, The Ghost Dance. Redhawk, clean and sober now, along with his beautiful daughter Calusa also a dancer, trains Scotty to become a master of both worlds, the world of ballet and the world of the Ghost Dance so that he can soar like an eagle in both. But he must do one more thing before he is ready... Scotty goes to the museum and steals an original Ghost Dance shirt.
In the spirit of the dance, Scotty makes peace and is re-united with his white father in Boston, enters the competition, and with his re-creation of the inspirational Ghost Dance in the form of ballet, wins first prize, the scholarship to the conservatory. Together he and Redhawk bring the Native American prophet - Vovoka's vision back to life for a modern audience.
