Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music containing elements of funk, soul, pop, and salsa that was most popular in the mid to late 1970s, though it has had brief resurgences. Its initial audiences were club-goers from the gay, African American, Italian American,Latino, and psychedelic communities in Philadelphia and then later New York City during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Disco also was a reaction against both the domination of rock music and the stigmatization of dance music by the counterculture during this period. Women embraced disco as well, and the music eventually expanded to several other marginalized communities of the time.

The disco sound has soaring vocals over a steady "four-on-the-floor" beat, an eighth note (quaver) or 16th note (semi-quaver) hi-hat pattern with an open hi-hat on the off-beat, and a prominent, syncopated electric bass line. In most disco tracks, strings, horns, electric pianos, and electric guitars create a lush background sound. Orchestral instruments such as the flute are often used for solo melodies, and lead guitar is less frequently used in disco than in rock. Many disco songs use electronic synthesizers.

Disco Dancer

Disco Dancer is a 1982 Indian Hindi/Bollywood feature film directed by Babbar Subhash, starring Mithun Chakraborty in the lead role and Rajesh Khanna in a special appearance plays the mentor of the lead hero. The film tells the rags-to-riches story of a young street performer. It is especially known for its filmi disco songs composed by Bappi Lahari and dance of Mithun Chakraborthy. Songs including "I am a Disco Dancer" and "Yaad Aa Raha Hai" (picturized on Mithun and sung by Vijay Benedict and Bappi Lahiri) and "Goro Ki Na Kaalo Ki" (picturised on Rajesh Khanna and sung by Suresh Wadkar with Usha Mangeshkar) became very popular.

The film was a worldwide success, with its popularity extending across Southern and Central Asia, Eastern and Western Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, Turkey and Soviet Union. It was one of the most successful Indian films in the Soviet Union, drawing an audience of 40 to 63 million viewers there. Disco Dancer established Mithun as a household name in Southern Asia and the Soviet Union. In China, the soundtrack was a success and received an award.

Italian language

Italian ( italiano  [itaˈljaːno] or lingua italiana [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna]) is a Romance language spoken mainly in Italy, parts of Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City; as a second language in Albania, Malta, Slovenia and Croatia; by minorities in Crimea, Eritrea, France, Libya, Monaco, Montenegro, Romania and Somalia; and by expatriate communities in Europe, in the Americas and in Australia. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardised Italian and other regional languages. It is an official language in the European Union and one of the six official languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe along with English, Spanish, French, Russian and German.

According to the Bologna statistics of the European Union, Italian is spoken as a native language by 65 million people in the EU (13% of the EU population), mainly in Italy, and as a second language by 14 million (3%). Including the Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland and Albania) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world.

Angelina Ballerina

Angelina Ballerina is a cartoon mouse, created by author Katharine Holabird and illustrator Helen Craig, who is featured in a series of children's books. The series is set in Chipping Cheddar, a place similar to 1920s London. The first book in the series was published in 1983, and since then, there have been over twenty books in the series.

In 2001, a British animated TV series of 40 fifteen-minute episodes based on the books was produced by HIT Entertainment in the United Kingdom. The series featured actress Finty Williams as the voice of Angelina, and her mother Judi Dench as Miss Lilly. The series aired on CITV in the United Kingdom and PBS in the United States, where it was presented by Connecticut Public Television; and can currently be seen on Nick Jr. in the United Kingdom and Sprout in the United States.

A computer-animated revival, Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps, premiered on PBS stations in September 2009. It is directed by Davis Doi and animated at SD Entertainment.WNET, after purchasing CPTV's production unit, is the producer of the program. English National Ballet took a live version of Angelina Ballerina called Angelina's Star Performance on tour in autumn 2007.

Mithun Chakraborty

Gourang Chakraborty, better known by his stage name Mithun Chakraborty (Bengali: মিঠুন চক্রবর্তী); informally referred to as Mithun Da, is an Indian film actor, singer, producer, writer, social worker, entrepreneur and a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. He is the recipient of three National Film Awards. He made his acting debut with the art house drama Mrigayaa (1976), for which he won his first National Film Award for Best Actor.

He began his career as a junior actor and went on to establish himself as one of the top lead actors in Bollywood. He is particularly recognized as one of the best "dancing-heroes" in Bollywood with his unique "Disco and Desi" fusion-style dancing that is immensely popular among the masses. Along with legendary actor Raj Kapoor, Chakraborty is hugely popular in Russia for his role as dancer Jimmy in the 1982 Bollywood film Disco Dancer. He later won two more National Film Awards for his performances in Tahader Katha (1992) & Swami Vivekananda (1998). Chakraborty has appeared in more than 350 films including Bengali, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Telugu and Punjabi pictures.