"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...

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...