This week’s whimsy is brought to you by a beautifully edited fan video montage of Hollywood dance scenes.
And how does this list of the “Top ten dance movies of all time” grab you?
Please share any bits and pieces you have come across recently that have surprised, delighted, intrigued or otherwise positively engaged you.
NB: the weekly whimsy thread is a stoush-free zone
I’ve begun writing “The Cat From Plenty River”, a quintessentially Australian poem based on the reality of where most Australians live – in the suburbs, far removed from the bucolic settings of A. B. Paterson’s paeans to masculine and equine heroics. Here’s verse one.
There was movement in the garden for the word had passed around
That the chook named Henriette had got away
And had joined the wild brush turkeys to lay eggs inside their mound
So all the cats had gathered to the fray
All the tortoiseshells and tabbies from the suburbs near and far
Had sprayed around the backyard overnight
For the Russian Blues love munching where the warm chook gizzards are
And the Shorthair snuffs the drumsticks with delight.
One of the things i love about dance scenes if that moment when the smile of artifice gives way to the smile of exuberance.
I’m spluttering at the the top ten list. WTF? I suspect it’s written by someone who’s seen very few films made from the ’30s – ’60s. No Fred and Ginger? No Eleanor Powell? No Judy Garland? Only one Arthur Freed MGM musical? No Busby Berkeley? No Jacques Demy?
Singin’ in the Rain is probably the best musical ever. But, you’d also want to include ‘The Pirate’, ‘An American in Paris’, ‘Easter Parade’, ‘The Bandwagon’, ‘Top Hat’, ‘Swing Time’ (really any musical with Fred Astaire), ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’, ‘The Young Ladies of Rochefort’, ‘On the Town’, ‘A Star is Born (1954)’, ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’, ‘It’s Always Fair Weather’, ’42nd Street’, ‘The Goldigger’ series, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and how about ‘Cabaret’ and ‘West Side Story’?
I really like ‘Moulin Rouge’. But, the thing it’s precisely awful about is the dance scenes.
I have a friend who asks in all seriousness; “Fred or Gene?” Then he makes a judgement.
@Fine – I thought it might generate that reaction in some! Seriously, no Eleanor Powell – you cannot be serious.
(Reluctant only because I hate having to make it one or the other, I choose Gene. But were I a casting director, there are some times when it would just have to be Fred.)
The sexiest dance move arrived last week via Facebook from my FB friend Willie Gordon, Nugal-warra Elder and Guugu Yimithirr speaker as well as Indigenous Tour Guide extraordinary.
Gene is very interesting politically. He was quietly blacklisted in the ’50s by HUAC for being a Communist and ended up working in France for a few years.
He really revolutionised dance by bringing the athletic and the hyper-masculine to it, as opposed to Fred’s grace and elegance. I’d go for Fred’s incredible grace, but it’s a photofinish.
And Eleanor Powell – yeah!
Here’s Fred and Eleanor from ‘Broadway Melody of 1940′. I love the art deco sleekness of it all.
I like that one once the colatura stops singing
My preference is a bit more for the studiedly casual, I guess:
With dance, and film, one should always include Maya Deren. Not Hollywood by any means…but just as influential in her own way.
It’s the ease with which they do it tigtog, which totally belies the killing hours that went into every dance. I love the work they do with their arms.
I love Maya Deren, Eric. A really important filmmaker, who’s influenced many women.
And for some beautifully pastel coloured French pop.
Gene in the same film. I love the grace of the camera movement. Ya reckon the people who made ‘Dirty Dancing’ might have watched this a few times?
My pet name for my wife is “The Taipan”, but i don’t think i’ll be trying that move Ootz.
I found this young lad having a dance at the baseball.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ9H5XPKi-o&feature=aso
And this little chap on that ” Ellen show”
ABC News…Now I get it! News’ ABC.
Scanning Electron Microscope image of a blood clot on gauze fibres. Just one of hundreds of images of all sorts of things.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fei_company/5637895781/in/photostream
Use this link to access the other images best.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fei_company/
With thanks to Crazybrave on the twitters In praise of Jonne Rowling’s Hermione Grainger series
Dirty dancing? The Nederlands Dans Theater celebrating Jiri Kylian via one of my artsy friends on Face Book.
Go on, you know you need one!