Cavalcade of Dance

Narrated by Art Gilmore and directed by Jean Negulesco for Warner Bros., this is a short illustrating the various dance tempos throughout the '20s to '40s era.

Among the dances, the Tango and Rhumba stand out as the most exotic displays of ballroom dancing--but there's also the One Step (1917), Charlston ('20s), Black Bottom, a popular Mexican waltz, and the Jitterbug.

Veloz and Yolanda give all the dances some extra flavor with their darkly Latin looks and body movements that flow with the music in a way that all great dancers are capable of. But the best segment is the exotic movements to the Rhumba.

Strange to see Jean Negulesco, a director later known for his strong dramatic films (JOHNNY BELINDA, ROADHOUSE), rather than musicals, but this must have been at the start of his career at Warner Bros. There is no story angle at all, just the dances.

You've probably heard of the tango and the jitterbug, but the maxixe and the wormstep? These are all examples of the dances on display here from acclaimed partners Veloz and Yolanda with a short and stylish contribution from the Anglo-American pairing of Vernon and Irene Castle in here, too. It's a basic film production but the lighting is used to good effect as is the scoring as these masters take us through the paces of their elegant and lively performances, culminating in an energetic rhumba. It's quite an interesting compendium of early twentieth century routines that is quite artfully put together.

Veloz and Yolanda demonstrate some of their ballroom dancing in a mixture of well-orchestrated shots while Art Gilmore talks about the Castles, the Black Bottom, and the one-step.

The two of them were a popular specialty act in pictures like THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES. They were also married for a long time and had four children before divorcing in 1962.

It's directed by Jean Negulesco whose fluid style of editing had changed the way the Warner Brothers' Vitagraph shorts unit would shoot their musical shorts. The higher-ups noticed, and Negulesco would shortly go on to direct features for a quarter of a century. He died in 1993 at the age of 93.