In my “Pop Psychology” column this week, I discuss the fascinating and somewhat puzzling life of Britney Spears. I claim the music video that best defines her career is “If U Seek Amy,” for describing a woman about whom people obsess and speculate wildly.
But a close second might be “Circus,” for a number of reasons. For one thing, at its most turbulent her career has been quite a show, grabbing all sorts of voyeuristic attention and worthy of funhouse mirror metaphors. There’s also the question of whether Spears has ever been running the circus, as she seems to be in the video – and if not her, then whom?
Mostly, though, it’s because of the movement she does around the 2:05 mark. She twirls and contorts her arms around and through the arms of her back-up dancers, and the only way really to describe it is to say it looks like magic. I have studied that scene more times than I’m willing to admit, and I can’t figure out how she does it. It’s so simple, and yet so mesmerizing. It’s her career, in a single dance move.
Check out the “Circus” video here.