Category Archives: Dance

Dance

Gene Kelly’s Dance Scene in Singin’ In The Rain (1952)

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2011’s multiple award-winning movie, The Artist, was an homage to the Hollywood of the late 1920s during its difficult transition from silent movies to the “talkies”, and very good it was too. It wasn’t the first movie to find its inspiration from that time, however: 1952’s Singin’ In The Rain, rightly regarded as one of the greatest Hollywood musicals of all time, also tells the story of silent movie stars caught up in that transition to a new era. It also happened to contain one of the most famous dance sequences ever performed: Gene Kelly’s joyous routine as a loved-up dreamer on a rain-soaked sidewalk.

The story of the film’s making is an interesting one and on the surface may well have resulted in a mishmash of songs and ideas; the movie started out as essentially a vanity project for MGM producer Arthur Freed. Freed had spent the 1920s as a lyricist, writing songs for talkies with Nacio Herb Brown. By the 1940s, he was head of his own MGM unit, and wanted to create a musical from his own back catalogue (his song Singin’ in the Rain had in fact already been used in the movie The Hollywood Revue of 1929). Betty Comden and Adolph Green were hired to write the screenplay and, realising that the songs were very much of their era, “it occurred to us that rather than try to use them in a sophisticated, contemporary story…they would bloom in something that took place in the very period in which they had been written”. The transition from silent to sound thus provided the most appropriate – and as it turned out, perfect – vehicle for Freed’s songs.

Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are a glamourous on-screen couple who are also hyped by the studio as having an off-screen romance, although in reality Don barely tolerates Lina and Lina only convinces herself of the hype due to her own self-importance. They are embarking on a new silent movie but their producer realises late on that he has no choice but to convert it to a talking picture, due to the success of (real-life) movie The Jazz Singer. The production is beset with difficulties, of course, wherefrom much comedy ensues, and Don falls for chorus girl Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds).

Gene Kelly’s famous umbrella-twirling dance scene took three days to film, and despite running a 103°F fever for the whole period, he achieved a piece of cinematic history. Modest as ever, he would attribute the number’s success to the crew, musicians, and composers. Upon the movie’s release in April 1952 audiences flocked to see it and, despite being largely ignored by the Oscars (unlike The Artist), it was a triumph. Get a load of Kelly’s charm and appeal in his famous scene here…

Dance

Fred Astaire’s Revolving Room Dance Sequence in Royal Wedding (1951)

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The rotating movie set is a great example of how moviemakers can create cinema magic. An ordinary stage is suspended within a steel gimbal, like a box wedged into a washing machine drum, and then amazing effects can be achieved, whereby actors can be shown to appear to defy gravity. This has been useful for horror movie makers (Jeff Goldblum lurking on the ceiling in The Fly; JoBeth Williams being paranormally rolled up the wall to the ceiling in Poltergeist; Amanda Wyss in the dream sequence from Nightmare on Elm Street…) and the technique was also impressively employed by Stanley Kubrik in a remarkable scene from sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this scene, a crew member is shown running around the hub of the spacecraft, its rotation providing artificial gravity for his exercise; in reality, he is essentially running on the spot with the entire set rotating beneath his feet. Here’s a brief clip:

Back in 1951, however, director Stanley Donen used the technique to superb effect in musical comedy, in the MGM movie Royal Wedding, which showcased the talents of the suave Fred Astaire. Astaire had already retired once, back in 1946, before being lured back into the movie business to replace the injured Gene Kelly in Easter Parade (1948). Royal Wedding is set in London at the time of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, and features songs by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner; however, it was of course the dance routines that make it stand out.

In one of his solos, You’re All the World to Me, Astaire dances on the walls and ceilings of his room (long before Lionel Richie scored a hit with that concept!). The idea had actually occurred to Astaire himself, years before, so it must have been particularly rewarding for him to perfect this clever illusion. Let’s check out the scene both as seen by the movie audience, alongside the “how it’s done” version.

Dance, Music

Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Swan (1886)

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Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris in 1835 and raised by his widowed mother and his great-aunt, who introduced the young Camille to the piano and gave him his first lessons. The boy was a real prodigy, demonstrating perfect pitch at the age of two and giving his first public concert at five. Over the course of his long life Saint-Saëns was incredibly prolific: after writing his first symphony at 16 he went on to write four more, along with five piano concertos, three violin concertos, two cello concertos and some 20 concertante works.

Nor were his talents limited to music. He was profoundly knowledgeable about geology, botany, lepidopterology, and maths, and his celebrity allowed him to enjoy discussions with Europe’s finest scientists.

Of all Saint-Saëns’ astonishing output, though, the most famous is undoubtedly The Carnival of the Animals, composed in 1886. He hadn’t considered it a serious piece at all and in fact worried that it might damage his reputation. He needn’t have worried. The 13th and penultimate movement of The Carnival of the Animals, The Swan (Le Cygne), became acclaimed worldwide as The Dying Swan after 1905 when it was choreographed for legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova, who performed it about 4,000 times.

The legend of the “swan song” grew from the popular belief among the ancient Greeks that the mute swan is silent until its final moments of life, at which point it sings the most beautiful of all birdsongs. Saint-Saëns captures this idea in the music…and here we see ballerina Uliana Lopatkina effortlessly evoking in dance the gracefulness of the animal (almost entirely en pointe) and the heartbreak of its demise. Beautiful.

 

Dance, Music

Sergei Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights from Romeo and Juliet (1935)

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Sergei Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights, also known as The Montagues and Capulets, comes from his ballet, Romeo and Juliet. It’s an emotionally charged piece of music, with strong horns and woodwinds layering over a powerful melodic line played by the strings. Prokofiev’s dark and brooding passages send chills up the spine and create a wonderfully dark atmosphere, presumably to express the tension between the rival families of the Montagues and Capulets. No wonder it’s used in film and television so often; not least, of course, in the BBC’s The Apprentice.

Like the original play Romeo and Juliet, the story of Sergei Prokofiev and his famous ballet with the same title is filled with betrayal, struggle and untimely death. After the Revolution, Prokofiev had left Russia with the official blessing of the authorities, and resided in the United States, Germany, and Paris, respectively, making his living as a composer, pianist and conductor. He was lured back to the Soviet Union in 1936 with promises of lucrative commissions, but the bureaucrat who commissioned Romeo and Juliet was executed, as was the Central Committee flunky who approved the ballet’s original happy ending (Prokofiev had originally changed Shakespeare’s tragic ending but this evidently did not go down well with the Russian authorities!). The authorities then exiled Prokofiev’s first wife to the Gulag, and in 1938 confiscated Prokofiev’s passport, determining that he needed “ideological correcting” from too much Western influence.

Despite all this interference, however, what comes down to us today is an iconic piece of musical drama, with Dance of the Knights being the standout piece. We watch it here performed by La Scala Milano, as the Capulets strut their stuff on the dance floor. Great costumes too!

Sergei Prokofiev

Dance

The Nicholas Brothers’ dance performance in Stormy Weather (1943)

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All the dance greats of the twentieth century, from Fred Astaire to Michael Jackson, have cited the Nicholas Brothers as huge inspirations for their craft. Fayard and Harold Nicholas were born (in 1914 and 1921 respectively) to musician parents who played with the regular band at Philadelphia’s famous Standard Theater. Consequently, the brothers, who would sit in the theatre whilst their parents were working on stage, got to witness most of the great Afro-American performers, jazz musicians and vaudeville acts of the times.

The older brother, Fayard, taught himself how to dance, sing, and perform by watching and imitating the professional entertainers on stage and first performed alongside his sister Dorothy as the Nicholas Kids. Later, Harold joined, and when Dorothy opted out, they became the Nicholas Brothers. They performed a highly acrobatic and innovative dance technique known as “flash dancing”, incorporating elements of tap, acrobatics and ballet.

As word spread of their dancing talents, they became famous in Philadelphia and their career really took off in 1932 when they became the featured act at Harlem’s Cotton Club, performing with the orchestras of Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. Harold was 11 and Fayard was 18. Spotted by Sam Goldwyn, they were invited to Hollywood and their movie career began.

Their performance in the musical number Jumpin’ Jive (with Cab Calloway and his orchestra), featured in the movie Stormy Weather, is considered by many to be the most virtuosic dance display of all time. It’s certainly wonderful to watch.

Nicholas Brothers in flight