That's Dancing!

I recently re-watched this film, made in 1985, and it was like looking through an old photo album. We had recorded (I say we but clearly it was my mother) this show when it was first televised and I watched that old VHS over and over and over. Dance has always captivated me. I sadly was not blessed with any talent and that has always, always bothered me. Like a bundle of burdens I had to carry on my back. I used to think that one day I would find that something and all of a sudden I'd unlock my hidden skill. As a child I would sit at pianos and hope that my fingers would hit the keys and I would amaze everyone with the beautiful sounds that I'd create. Never happened. I'm crap at sports, I can't sing worth a damn and as for dance, well, I have about as much rhythm as a can of tuna fish. I still kinda think that if I ever put on a pair of ballet slippers that something will erupt within me and I'll be able to dance. Yeah, that's what's known as a pipe dream. Anyway, watching That's Dancing reminded me of those early Saturday mornings when I would awaken before everyone, go downstairs, still in my jammie-jams, put the tape into the VCR, settle under the green and white afghan and hit the play button on the remote.

That's Dancing! starts with African dancers and leads into Gene Kelly and some super cool kids in the South Bronx breakdancing. Oh how I wanted to know how to breakdance! In the early to mid-1980s breakdancing was the height of fabulous, as far as I was concerned. To this day, it's still sensational to watch. I'm also pretty certain that this is the film that sparked my interest in musicals. Thankfully my Mum loves old musicals and she exposed us kids to Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (a family favourite!), The Little Colonel (although we only saw this a few times - my mother disapproved of Lionel Barrymore's racist character and eventually wouldn't let us see it. I understand her point, but still feel angry that she took Bill Robinson away from me...), and Yankee Doodle Dandy. The truth be told, I think it was my father that favoured this flick, and me too. My Saturday morning ritual tended to involve very specific films that I watched over and over - Rear Window, White Christmas (at any time of year), and Yankee Doodle Dandy. Jimmy Cagney is still kind of hard to understand. I mean, how can one fella act just as good in dramas as he does in comedies, can dance superbly, sing pretty damn good, and play just about any character thrown his way, be it gangster, psychopath, evil Naval Officer, song and dance man, father, lover, you name it, he nailed it every single time. But I digress.

Watching this the other night triggered an old memory that was lost in the far recesses of my file cabinet of a brain. Beat It. My family didn't get MTV until 1990 and I vividly remember one of the network stations (channel 6 maybe?) airing the new Michael Jackson video called Beat It. I had no idea who Michael Jackson was and I think this may have been the first music video I ever saw. My whole family sat and watched it and we (my brother and I) couldn't tell if he was a boy or a girl because of his long-ish jheri curl locks and androgynous features, but soon we were, along with the rest of the world, obsessed with Thriller and all things Michael Jackson. Oh, and Matt Kinsey (cutest boy in fourth grade EVER!) totally had a red zipper jacket and was immediately deemed the coolest of the cool. He was my first long-term crush. What a dreamy kid...

Anyways, That's Dancing! has made me look up Eleanor Powell and Ruby Keeler and I definitely need to go back and see some of my fave Astaire/Rogers films again. Man, was I bananas for that pair! There were so many artists that I nearly forgot completely - Busby Berkley! My mother loved his aerial shots and inventive style. Who couldn't? He was incredible. Mikhail Baryshnikov! This was definitely the film that introduced me to him as well as The Red Shoes and the beauty that is ballet. Good lord is that fella gorgeous and talented and mesmerising to watch. Ann Miller! Definitely the first to be added to my Netflix queue is Kiss Me Kate. Cannot believe that I've never seen this. Ann Miller and Howard Keel and Bob Fosse? Dancing to the choreography of Hermes Pan? Unacceptable. To be remedied shortly. If you fancy old school Hollywood and love dance, and haven't seen this, it is certainly worth a look.

(photo kidnapped from design7studio)