Roll Away!

by wjw on March 23, 2018

It’s the weekend, so I’m off amusing myself with one thing or another.

In the meantime, please enjoy Fred and Ginger on roller skates in Dance With Me, choreography by Hermes Pan.  I don’t know why this dance isn’t more famous than it is, because it’s brilliant.

Kathy pointed out to me that there’s only one cut in the entire dance, toward the end.  Otherwise it’s just one continuous dazzle-dazzle with no interruptions.

rushmc March 24, 2018 at 1:29 pm

Not bad. But as nothing compared to this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aus1PA5-SyI

wjw March 24, 2018 at 2:37 pm

That one’s pretty good, though the music’s pretty dull. Most impressive is the tap dancing, which he’s doing on old-style roller skates that can’t be locked. He’s got amazing control to be able to tap without his feet shooting out from under him.

And you =know= they’re not locked, because he’s gliding around before and after the taps, and there’s no cut.

Donald O’Conner also did a number on skates, though there’s a cut before and after the tap sequence, where he switched from unlocked skates to ones that had been locked or welded.

https://youtu.be/oGlaPXQyfyM

rushmc March 24, 2018 at 3:38 pm

Fun! But I guess what’s missing for me in the Astaire and O’Conner routines is the narrative force of the Kelly scene within the context of the movie (which I just happened to see three weeks ago).

Jim Janney March 26, 2018 at 5:49 pm

Astaire started in vaudeville. They don’t make them like that any more.

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