That's Dancing!

This Hollywood documentary celebrates dancing in the movies. This starts with an older bundled Gene Kelly presenting a troupe of New York City break dancers. It's cheesy but endearing cheese. He points out the obvious point (which I never considered) that the movement of dance wasn't never captured in the art of the whole human history until the invention of the moving pictures. The start is mostly dancing girls doing bad dances and showing a bit of leg. Then the movie goes through various big sign posts starting with Busby Berkeley and his extravaganza of beautiful babes. There is a very young cute Sammy Davis Jr. Transitioning into his modern self. That's probably my favorite cut. Mikhail Baryshnikov has a section with ballet. It's a lot of movie clips. It becomes a highlight reel but that's fine.

Here's an outstanding collection of some of the great dance numbers from the early 1930s to the mid 1980s.

From the early years, I've always found it fun to marvel at the talent of Ruby Keeler, Eleanor Powell, Fred Astaire, Bill Robinson, Shirley Temple, Gene Kelly, etc. Here they all are on one tape! What a great tribute to these great entertainers and perhaps it can turn people on to watching some of these great musicals of the past.

I'm also always awed at those great sets on the Busby Berkley extravaganzas. They were incredible. The more you like tap dancing, which I do, the better this tape (or disc, now that it's out on DVD) will look to you, but there are other forms of dance featured in here, too.

'That's Dancing' followed the first two instalments of 'That's Entertainment', but this time opens the net a bit wider to include material recorded elsewhere than MGM. Using the definition of dance at its widest, we get some really early stuff, a section on ballet (fascinating, but Baryshnikov was not the greatest communicator in the world as a presenter and it is a shame he fronts this segment), and finish up to date with the disco fever of John Travolta and moon-walking of Michael Jackson.

Along the way you'll see most of the usual suspects - 42nd Street, Fred and Ginger, Gene, and many more. But they are cobbled together with no rhyme or reason, and, as in the second 'That's Entertainment' in particular, the presenters talk over many of the clips. Better to let us see and admire without commentary. Recommended for musical fans and curious dance aficionados (but those looking for modern dance need really to look elsewhere).

Jack Haley, Jr. was a driving force behind this film and That's Entertainment, which was released a decade earlier. As the title states, That's Dancing focuses on just that. Compared to That's Entertainment, it takes itself a bit more seriously as a documentary but is highly entertaining. It explores the early history of dance on film including brief footage of Isadora Duncan, and, like TE, showcases great numbers from the 1930's-50's with performances by Fred Astaire, Elanor Powell, Bill "Bojangles' Robinson, Gene Kelly, and the great Nicholas Brothers. TD also devotes a segment to Busby Burkley's signature work of the 1930's and a section on ballet in the movies. None of the footage overlaps with TE which make this a nice companion piece. TD takes things a step further with dance sequences from the 60-80's, including break dancing. The newer eras show dancing that is grittier, earthier, and in some cases, uglier. In a sense, the attempt to be more contemporary makes That's Dancing less likeable than That's Entertainment. However, it's not the movie's fault that newer dances are uglier; it's the civilization's.

Those who love dance of any kind and classic film will be thrilled with That's Dancing! Some segments are too short and some of the narration I agree is obtrusive(especially for the 42nd Street number)- there could have been much less of the talking over scenes- and not always necessary(the opinion on break-dancing, went on for a little too long and it did ramble a bit). The hosting is mixed, Gene Kelly is very engaging and informative and while he's not always easy to understand Mikhail Baryshnikov also says things of good value but didn't get a huge amount out of Liza Minelli. That's Dancing! is still splendid stuff though, it's skilfully filmed and the editing of the footage is done slickly and not awkwardly. The music of course is outstanding and of good variety, good that it showed more than one style or genre rather than just one without skimming the surface, and the dancing even better, especially in the Busby Berkeley, Nicholas Brothers, Flashdance, West Side Story and Fred and Ginger numbers. The scenes featured feature some deserved classics like Pick Yourself Up, Night and Day, Forty-Second Street(pretty much anything with Busby Berkeley's involvement in fact), Broadway Rhythm and If Only I Had a Brain/We're Off to See the Wizard(in an extended scene cut from the film), as well as the ballet sequence from The Red Shoes and the scene from Yankee Doodle Dandy. And of all the stars featured the ones that stood out were Fred and Ginger(obviously, it would be a crime really to miss them out), Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, Shirley Temple and Bojangles Robinson, Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller and the Nicholas Brothers tap-dance(the Wizard of Oz extended cut scene was charming though if too long, you can understand why it was cut). In conclusion, a very good documentary with the best stuff splendid. 8/10 Bethany Cox