Muses "music", and "musing upon". In current literature, the influential role that the Muse plays has been extended to the political sphere. In "Down to Earth", the Muses, espcially Terpsichore (Rita Hayworth), are offended by a vulgar Broadway musical called "Hot Muses", in which they are portrayed as besotted by two American flyers who crash-land on Parnassus. Terpsichore masquerades as a mortal to get the show "improved". All nine Muses appear in the 1980 film "Xanadu", with actress Olivia Newton-John as Terpsichore. Many of the Greek gods, including five of the Muses (Thalia, Clio, Calliope, Melpomene, and Terpsichore) appear in the
The Dancing Girl of Izu The Dancing Girl of Izu "The Dancing Girl of Izu" or is a 1926 short story by the Japanese writer and Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata. The short story was first translated into English by Edward Seidensticker and published in an abridged form as "The Izu Dancer" in "The Atlantic Monthly" in 1955. A complete English translation of the story appeared in 1998. Kawabata's "The Izu Dancer" represents a lyrical and elegiac memory of early love. The story is well known in Japan, and, today, part of the story's name, "Odoriko" (which means "dancing girl") is used as the name