My introduction to tap dancing came through my Dad. He loves big band music, and when I was a kid, we watched many of the movies from the 1940s and 50s that featured them playing. One by one, the great dancers of that era held me in thrall. Here are a couple of my favorites.
Fred Astaire
The movie Holiday Inn starred Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, was filled with song and dance. I'm not sure if this number was born out of artistic creativity or the studio wanting as many gimmicks as they could dream up, but it's fun either way. Astaire's partner here is firecrackers!
The Nicholas Brothers
Sun Valley Serenade featured the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Sonja Henie (yes, the ice skater) and Milton Berle. This clip from the movie starts off with a fabulous rendition of Chattanooga Choo Choo by the Orchestra before segueing into a dance routine by Fayard & Harold Nicholas and a woman I can't identify. In case you're so anxious to see the dancing that you don't want to wait, it starts about 4:50 in.
Gene Kelly
Well I have to admit--I haven't seen this movie. The other tap clips led me to this one, and WOW! Kelly is a talented dancer, but this proves he's a darned fine roller skater too. That's right--he tap dances on roller skates!
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2 comments:
WOW! I love that Gene Kelly clip. He is always great to watch, but tap dancing on skates? I am speechless......
Great entry. Awesome clips there. I don't tap, but I dance, and the big musical dance numbers that influenced me were always Fred Astaire's killer "Puttin on the Ritz" from Blue Skies, Donald O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh from Singing in the Rain, Ann Miller's spectacular "Too Darn Hot" from Kiss Me Kate, and the mambo sequence from West Side Story. There's so much great stuff out there from that era, though...
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