Marilyn tagged me for a meme, and it’s a pretty good one, at that. Basically it goes like this: name 15 favorite dancers from the movies. Her answers are here and mine are below. Seeing as how I don’t know a lot about dancing, and probably couldn’t name 15 favorite movie dancers to save my life, I’ve taken a few liberties …
In the order in which they came to me:
Gene Kelly (with Leslie Caron)
Fred Astaire
Ginger Rogers (with Fred Astaire)
Donald O’Connor
Cyd Charisse
Savion Glover
Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle
Ann Reinking
Ben Vereen
Gregory Hines
Dick Shawn
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Love Power! I love these. Ann Reinking sure was great, and Ben Vereen, what hamstrings! I’ve never seen “Me and My Shadow.” A lot of fun. Thanks, Rick, for participating.
Marilyn, anytime. Ann Reinking, in my uninformed opinion, was just about the perfect Fosse dancer. They were married for awhile, as a matter of fact. Or maybe just shacked up.
Better than Fosse, for that matter. Dancers are much better trained than they were in Astaire’s day.
Oh yeah, she was certainly better than Fosse himself. Dancers, as you say, seem to be more technical, more precise these days. I guess that’s almost a definition of Fosse’s signature style: cool, precise, distanced.
Fabulous choices, Rick. I’m so glad that Marilyn tagged you.
I knew Dick Shawn was in the original PRODUCERS (gotta pick that up one of these days – it’s one of the most gutbustingly hilarious movies I’ve ever seen – makes the remake even worse than the ridiculous waste of time it is) but I had forgotten all about LOVE POWER.
That is, as they used to say, too much…
I watched the CYD CHARISSE segment from MEET ME IN LAS VEGAS with my jaw on the floor. TWICE. That woman was a goddess. I learned so much about dance just from watching her. She moves like black silk on a hot summer night.
Absolutely mesmerizing. Frankie was my kind of chick…
Yeah, ANN REINKING was amazing. I totally forgot she was from Seattle.
I think she and Bob Fosse WERE shacked up. But they definitely didn’t marry. Ann is on her fourth marriage. She last wed in 1991. So I guess the last time it stuck for good.
Bob wed Gwen Verdon in 1960 and was still married to her at the time of his death. They never got divorced.
Hey, I worship the man’s talent. As a choreographer and a director, Bob Fosse was a genius. But as a human being, he had serious flaws and demons that drove him. The women that were important to him stayed friends with him.
But what female in her right mind would tolerate an egomaniacal pill and booze addicted sexual compulsive indefinitely?
I remember reading an interview with a dancer who worked with him. She said, “Whenever he did a show, he tried to make it with EVERYONE in the chorus line. He got a fair percentage.”
From what I’ve read and heard, it sounds like she’s probably telling the truth. Poor man was probably tormented. But that excuses nothing. Behaviour like that is indicative of serious psychological problems.
But he was still an immensely gifted artist.
Great list, Rick. Your taste is to die for.
Thanks, Miranda. Yeah, Fosse had his problems, but boy, could he put on a show!
I think I like Fosse the dancer the best. His choreography never really did it for me, though Reinking sells it better than anyone. I never found anything joyful in it, and that is the one thing I feel most about dance – the joy of moving, even when the “story” is sad. Paul Taylor is my favorite modern choreographer.
Paul Taylor certainly is not chopped liver.
I like Fosse’s cynical, hard edge, which, as Miranda has illustrated, came out of how he lived. That’s why I like “All That Jazz” a lot — life as show biz, death as the same thing.
I been tagged for this thing two times, and I just don’t know anywhere near enough about this subject to take part. I don’t even have a good idea for a post-modern take on it. I have failed you all!!!
Well, you could just wing it … you know, buck and wing it. Hah! That’s a dancing joke. Really.
Buck and WING?? What?? This dance talk is like some crazy moon man language!
Bill, go here