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The Roller Skate Debate or A Brief Overview of Skate Dances in Classic Film.

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Warning, this post is going to be silly. There seems to be some confusion on the topic of roller-skating in film. While this is by no means a scholarly look, I thought it might be fun to do a brief overview of roller skate dances in classic film. The common misconception is that the first filmed tap-dance on roller skates came in 1955 with Gene Kelly's film, "It's Always Fair Weather." This is not the case.  Based on a quick stint of film-research on the topic, I think that the first scene in a film that could possibly constitute someone "dancing on roller skates" came in 1916 with Charlie Chaplin's film, " The Rink ."  The skating stuff comes right around 10:45. I have not watched enough copies of this film to know which has the best restoration, but this one seems passable, if without a score.  What he does here is an absolutely incredible combination of skating, dance, physical comedy, and fight choreography. There

Tallulah- Ship Ahoy, 1942. Eleanor Powell and Buddy Rich. Dance Director: Bobby Connolly

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She has been called the "queen of tap" and is said to have intimidated Fred Astaire with her skill. Honestly,  even as a die-hard Fred Astaire fan... I don't blame him. Here comes Eleanor Powell! I am going to bet that you haven't heard of this movie. I could be wrong! I have to admit that I hadn't heard a thing about it until I went to research Eleanor Powell and fell head over heels in love with this dance sequence. The film that our upcoming dance is from came out in 1942 and wasn't a big hit in spite of its great dances and star-studded cast. At the beginning of this clip, you can spot Bert Lahr (possibly better known as the Cowardly Lion) and the indomitable comedian Red Skelton. This film is also notable as one of the first films Frank Sinatra ever appeared in. He is seen very briefly as a singer in Tommy Dorsey's Band. Oh yeah, and this movie has the Tommy Dorsey Band! Big-Band fans rejoice! Trivia: Apparently, the Bro

That's Life and One For My Baby- Baryshnikov Dances Tharp: Elaine Kudo and Mikhail Baryshnikov- Choreographed by Twyla Tharp

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Brace yourselves! Here comes the ballet!  A more ballet-educated human than I might point out that this dance could also fall into the "modern" category and they might have a very valid point. Twyla Tharp, the choreographer, is widely considered to have choreographed the first "crossover" ballet; a combo of ballet and modern.  Her work spans ballet to modern and jazz and frequently isn't easy to label as one thing or another. Twyla Tharp's choreography is unlike anything else and is in high demand . According to her website: " Since graduating from Barnard College in 1963, Ms. Tharp has choreographed more than one hundred sixty works: one hundred twenty-nine dances, twelve television specials, six Hollywood movies, four full-length ballets, four Broadway shows and two figure skating routines." I could list all of her awards too, but we would be here all day.  Literally. It is like, book-length list.  Anyway, When I think of gro

Spoilers Ahead!

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Well. It has been a while! I have been utterly neglectful of this blog for the past few years and it is time to put that to rights. I have gone through and updated the old posts and am working on a new one!  I shan't tell you what it is yet but I will give you a hint: it includes two of the people involved in the film that this next clip is from. Spoilers: Not Gregory Hines. Don't worry. He'll have his own post coming up. For my fellow dance technique nerds I also highly recommend this video which talks about the technical aspects of how this was done. This video makes mention of something that could be interpreted as incorrect in the footwork... The dance instructor that I asked said that it could be correct depending on the school of ballet. Any opinions? Enjoy!

Stair Dance- Little Colonel, 1935- Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Shirley Temple

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This dance is one of the most important in the history of film. How often do I get to say that? It marked the first on-screen interracial dance. "The Little Colonel" was the first movie in a line of films that featured both Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Yup. That Bojangles, like the song (not the restaurant... I don't think? That would be weird).  "Bojangles" is one of the most famous American dancers ever and completely revolutionized the art of tap dancing. but first some... Dance Background: There are several different forms of tap. They all basically spring from the original form which is now dubbed "Rhythm Tap." Rhythm Tap came primarily from older African-American dance forms and was an almost entirely black dance style. It is highly rhythmic (as the name implies) and was a big part of the development of the swing music style. I will get into that in a separate post. Rhythm tap became a popular form o

Applied Mathematics- Are You With It? 1948 - Lew Parker, Louis Da Pron, and, Donald O'Connor

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Donald O'Connor is underappreciated. Nowadays when you mention Donald O'Connor you have to add on: "You know, the guy who flips off the wall in Singing in the Rain?" before anyone knows who you are talking about. While "Make em Laugh" is a brilliant dance from a brilliant movie, I figured I would start us on the O'Connor train with a less well-known film.  Donald O'Connor was a pretty big star in his time. He was the leading man in quite a few hit movie-musicals (including one opposite Marilyn Monroe) plus the Francis the Talking Mule movies.  For those of you unfamiliar, they were a series of movies about a guy and his... talking mule. Pretty self-explanatory. They were a really big thing at the time, so much so that when Donald O'Connor finally quit, they dragged in Mickey Rooney to do the last film! Trivia : Mr. Ed was based heavily on Francis the Talking Mule Really Obscure Trivia : Leonard Nimoy (Known best as Mr. Sp

Isn't This A Lovely Day- Top Hat, 1935- Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire - Choreography by Hermes Pan and Fred Astaire.

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When you do musical theatre, you hear about Fred and Ginger. I was first introduced to them as a teenager and basically, all I knew was that they were old, did movies in black and white (at the time a scary concept for me) and that they danced. My family and I used to be a part of this film club that was run by our local paper's film critic. He decided that Top Hat was a worthwhile film to show on the big screen and somehow I ended up sitting in the audience. When I figured out which one was Fred Astaire I was underwhelmed. That's it? That odd-looking man? He looks a bit like a stick bug... Even when he did his first dance ("Fancy Free" the sand dance) I didn't get it. Then he danced with Ginger. That's when it clicked. Thus began my love of dance films, old films, and of course, Fred Astaire. About the Dance: This is hands-down my favorite Fred and Ginger dance, maybe because it is the one that made me fall in love with Fred. One of the th