In one of the greatest dance scenes of all time, Fred Astaire captures the crazy, head-over-heels experience of being in love with this gravity-defying dance routine in the 1951 movie "Royal Wedding." I won't tell you how it was done or what to look for. Just enjoy it for yourself and imagine the jaw-dropping response of audiences who were born at the tail-end of the Victorian era, many decades before the dawn of computer-generated special effects.
Tell you one thing: If you look at some of the great dancers from generations past, you can't help but come to the conclusion that most of today's entertainers are putting in maybe 30% of the effort. You can see it in the way the bodies' of the past greats moved. There is a lightness, fluency, and grace that seem to emerge only after you've been doing tap and other dance styles for about 10,000 hours or so.
To get an idea of what I'm talking about, here is another clip of Astaire, this time with Rita Hayworth. (Be sure to watch it full-screen if you really want to appreciate the footwork.) You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in music or movies today who can move like this.
(And yes, I'm aware I sound like Grampa Squrlz right now.)
Hey I'm not complaining, it's a good post. Thanks for the link, not only was his dancing good in that, but that was sort of a catchy tune too. I agree with you almost completely about the effort thing, Michael Jackson definitely put in the effort though I thought, although he's dead now so I guess it's fair to say we can't call him one of today's entertainers. But I guess one would say as a "modern entertainer," he was pretty good... as far as dancing, singing, and crime drama's go. Not sure he was good with the other stuff.
There's another similarity between MJ and some of the great song-and-dancers of Hollywood's Golden Age: They were raised by entertainers to be entertainers and started very early. Fred Astaire began at the age of 6; Rita Hayworth at 3-1/2; and MJ at 5.
I know both Hayworth and Jackson later lamented their lost childhoods. In MJ's case, I've got to think that his bizarre upbringing may have been what caused him to deteriorate so rapidly as an adult.
Hmmm. All this has me tempering my enthusiasm for some of the fantastic dancers from the past. There was a cost and in some cases, that cost was pretty steep.
I didn't think about that, but it seems your right. Looking into the Nicholas Brothers, it seems they were attending vaudeville acts and learning to dance at the age of 3. Kudos, good call.
No doubt, I remember learning that in certain clubs during that time, if you didn't know how to dance, other dancers would kick at your ankles to try to break them and get you off the dance floor. Hell, look at Jelly Roll Morton for instance. He wasn't a dancer but a jazz artist, yet in 1923 when his trombonist, Zue Robertson, was getting sleepy after a full day and night of recording he started messing up. Jelly stopped his playing, stared right at Robertson and pulled out his pistol and placed it on top of his piano. Jelly said it was his way of letting Robertson know that he had one more chance and his life depended on it. Odd to think that the entertainment industry could really be life or death back in those days.
link to the post is here
Oh wow, it even contains Fred Astaire's remarks about them. Thanks for sending me a link, I missed that post and kudos to @lalapancakes for making it. Love Cab Calloway too, so much talent back then. How the hell did we go from true dancing like this to twerking and the stanky leg?
Its exceptionally effective, for a practical effect.