Music Video
The video For "White Houses" shows alternate personalities of Carlton at a piano singing shyly and Carlton dancing in a ballet studio. In the opening verse of the song, while she is seen singing at a piano, her "double" smirks at singing Carlton and starts dancing obviously taking advantage of all the space in the studio in a competitive way. Midway into the song, the dancing Carlton climbs atop the piano while the singing Carlton walks off conservatively while the dancing double takes over the singing. Soon after, singing Carlton regains her confidence and walks back to the piano and sings. Dancing Carlton goes back to dancing competitively but soon runs out of dance moves. The dancing style is considered to be a mix of ballet and lyrical.
Near the end, the "double" tires and collapses to the ground, while Carlton at the piano rises to take a look.
It's been said by Carlton herself that for years in her youth she was a ballerina, and soon tired of the controlled style of dancing required to attend the New York Ballet Academy she attended. She discovered love in playing music, and soon grew to skip practices and rebel against dancing all together, and rather poured herself into her music and carried on from there.
The video is meant to express the battle between her music and her own set way of doing things. The dancing involved is Carlton's own self-expression in dancing which she could not do while attending ballet school. While Carlton has not stated such, the song and/or video holds strong similarities about herself and her coming of age.
Read more about this topic: White Houses (Vanessa Carlton Song)
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