To what degree is the kinetics in musicals stylized? What makes this genre so special? And how, in ...

Characters in a musical express their most intense emotions through song
and dance. A dance number is seldom meant to be taken literally: It's a stylized
convention that we accept as a symbolic expression of certain feelings and ideas. In
Singin' in the Rain, for example, Gene Kelly does an elaborate dance routine in a
downpour. He twirls around lampposts, splashes through puddles like a happy idiot,
and leaps ecstatically through a pelting rainliterally nothing can dampen the
exhilaration of his love. A wide gamut of emotions is expressed in this sequence, with
each kinetic variation symbolizing the character's feelings about his girl. She can
make him feel dreamy, childlike, erotically stimulated, brave and forthright, dopey
and moonstruck, and finally wild with joy. In some kinds of action genres, physical
contests are stylized in a similar manner.