"I just dance."

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 ...

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...

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...

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!