Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Favorite dances

TCM kicks off prime time tonight at 8:00 PM ET with Royal Wedding, the movie that has Fred Astaire's famous dance on the ceiling, courtesy of a revolving set. It's certainly one of the best-known dance scenes from Hollywood's golden age, but is it the greatest?

"Greatest", of course, is a matter for debate. MGM, however, picked a different dance to call the best ever when they released That's Entertainment!, saving the Gene Kelly's climactic number from An American in Paris for their finale. (Royal Wedding was also made at MGM, so the producers of That's Entertainment! could have picked it for the finale if they had wished.)

I think that I would have picked a different Gene Kelly dance, myself, namely the extended cadenza near the end of Singin' In the Rain, in which Kelly dances with Cyd Charisse.

Which dance would you pick as the best ever?

No comments: