I love that film, wish that it would come out properly on DVD here!

I've found this thread really interesting to read. I'm a big fan of dancing in a lot of styles but have never had lessons myself other than doing routines in musicals or for college performing arts reviews. I've always toyed with learning how to tap dance, but was wondering after this programme whether 29 is too late an age to logically begin. I guess as long as I realise that I'll never be world class it's ok?

Old Hollywood musicals did go out of fashion as the fifties turned into the sixties. Industry insiders can go over history better than me.

What replaced them? Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones, Beatles made headlines in pop music, but pop dance did not really come to prominence until John Travolta flew the flag for disco dancing in Saturday Night Fever. Was there a feeling that Fred Astaire style grownup dancing was choreographed and rehearsed, and therefore less appealing to assertive DIY youth who became the key age group among cinema goers?

As disco rose, ballroom social dancing went into decline, with decades-old dance meccas turning into bingo halls. In place of boy-meets-girl at dance came computer dating and now speed dating in pubs.

Come Dancing expired without a whimper from an apathetic audience. Was it partly because viewers saw them as contrived and detached from the people -- i.e. unreal.

If reality TV were indeed the key ingredient, it would explain why Strictly succeeded where Come Dancing failed. Both showed glamorous ballgowns and comparable dance appeal.

It appears Strictly's winning key ingredient of reality was surgically removed by Moira Ross in SCD9, replacing rehearsal clips with airbrushed sketches attempting to be witty.

Lissa I can hardly wait to see how lovely you are.
Until then there is this clip from Broadway Melody, which in 1929 was the first sound film to win Best Picture oscar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toDl2hXt8BM&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKIxmowxB4U

The tap dance above is a 1940 trailer for the 1937 film remake, a dance to end all tap dances, featuring:

Fred Astaire then aged 41,
and Eleanor Powell then aged 28.

Cyd Charisse was the same age as Eleanor Powell.

Why do you want to learn to tap dance?

It's obviously for your own pleasure. Whatever sort of recreational activity people choose, they'll be surprised how varied are the ages in classes of those who commence such activities.

You're never too old to do anything as long as you have the physical ability and the determination to attempt it.

In later life it's far better to think, "I wish I hadn't," than, "I wish I had."

Too true. I can't start at the moment as I'm just about to have a baby (although that might help actually as I'm overdue!) but you're right, it's not as if I'm aiming to be the next Eleanor Powell or Ann Miller!

Brilliant!

Lissa glad if you enjoyed it, it makes me smile to see Eleanor's hair fly like helicopter blades. Just watching Eleanor tap dance was enough to shake up numbers in my brain.

Cyd Charisse was actually 10 years younger than Eleanor Powell. In 1940 Cyd was 18. With the outbreak of war the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo company broke up and Cyd returned to Los Angeles, where she became MGM's resident ballet dancer. In 1952 she got an offer in Singing in the Rain, and the rest was history.

If it helps, my mother took up tap dancing when she was in her early 40s so 29 is definitely not too late to learn! Admittedly she had done ballet, ballroom and Latin as a teenager but lots of people in her class (beginners' tap) hadn't and I vaguely remember one lady being a fair bit older than my mother (I was 8 or so at the time so I wouldn't hazard a guess as to how old said lady was but she was definitely white haired and still had a spring in her step!).

One of my favourite films is Broadway Melody of 1936, just because I love watching Eleanor dance. Apparently loads of MGM regulars used to watch her film her routines when they were on set for other films at the time, and I can see why. She's the best tap dancer imo, although Ann Miller's good, but EP was just incredible.

Linky for you... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEaklU6UyZg

Having said that, Cyd Charisse is probably my favourite dancer of other genres. God I'd love to be able to move like her! Nice to spot her in early films like Ziegfeld Follies in amongst loads of bubbles and The Harvey Girls, but it's good that she was given that part in Singin' in the Rain otherwise we would never have had The Bandwagon etc. Think it was originally going to be Gene Kelly's assistant Carol Haney (one of the dancers in the Day in New York number from On the Town and she was in Kiss me Kate as a dancer as well) but they didn't think she was sexy enough!

Excellent! Give me 6 months to get over having a baby (arrrrrgh!) and I think I'm going to do it!

everyone contributions is very interesting I actually mean that

Thanks Lissa , very good picture and sound quality. Gosh, the spins at the end, were they really humanly possible? Wonder what Joanna will make of them.

Cyd had 2 boys at age 20 and 28. Darcey had 2 girls at age 32 and 35. Some mums are much underrated .

Ballet training is grim. Most dancers often have some or other injury (like professional sports players) .......


...... Darcey was brave, but didn't quite get the essence, I think.

The thing about Sid (Sid Charisse & Jean Kelly) was, her legs! Which Darcey ain't got .............

Good luck with the new baby

I think it depends on what you mean by 'learning to tap dance'. If you want to do it at a professional level then 29 is probably too old unless you have been a professional dancer in another type of dance. If you doing it for pleasure or to do a bit of dancing for musical theatre then, its never too late.

A delightful program.
Loved watching Darcey and co. poised on that sofa not quite coordinated or committed enough to tip it over.
As a youngster the only people that made dance appealing to me was those Hollywood stars.
Watching Darcey in the "Cheek-to-cheek" number,my first thought was how much better to invoke the spirit of Fred & Ginger to have borrowed Anton du Beke,the guy who did perform having a physique that was a little too much towards the Darren Gough type.

£5.99 on Amazon lissa.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&k...l_17e7izm77i_b

My earlier post did not do the contributors justice I was focused at the time in trying to get a thread I had started that in my view has had its time off the fist page.

Speaking as someone who has/ had no interest in dance and watched SCD as Saturday evening light entertainment and I admit enjoyed the irreverence of John Sergeant and the seemingly humbly delight of Anita Dobson this thread is surprisingly fascinating .

The in depth knowledge displayed by soulmate 61 and others including but not limited to Doghouse Rileys common sense interjections is converting me (if not getting me to appreciate to a degree that I had not expected.

Never having a dance lesson in my life and being acutely conscious that I am a very bad awkward uncoordinated social dancer (and then only when press ganged) Posts like these are informing me what to look out for – if this continues The press gang may be made redundant

I have suggested in earlier posts which has been lightly dismissed that their should be a teachers thread, I think the few response I received were suggesting the feed back normally associated with such a thread was pointless

I note that so far there has not been anything negative in this thread Maybe that’s because This years SCD run is over and many regular contributors are away

Someone posted that The SCD Threads as the distance increases from the end of the series become something akin to that of an out of season seaside town, That poster may well be right in time but so far one cant say all the posts are bereft of content

As much as I had resolved to stop visiting these pages each time I have I have found knowledgeable posters with insights that I find fascinating entertaining and rewarding to read Thank you

If you haven’t already perhaps soulmate 61 and others should perhaps consider applying their knowledge for a spot on the TV programme Mastermind.

Amazing, last time I looked it was something ridiculous like £30 on eBay for a foreign copy! Thanks!

Thanks, I'm getting very nervous now! I woudn't want to be professional as I know it's too late for that and I'm a bit too much of a perfectionist to try to carve a career in something I couldn't be brilliant at, but just to be able to do a tap dance routine properly would be amazing

Hehe yes yes we are - those spins are incredible. I remember once trying to attempt the step where she bends backwards and touches the floor when I was about 12 - if it couldn't happen then it's never going to happen now...

I agree with you that this thread has been really nice and am also impressed with the knowledge that others have.

Have you considered going to a dance class? You are obviously interested in dance. Although I did ballet and the usual stuff as a child and young teenager, I was still socially awkward at dancing. I couldn't go into a club or party and do arm extensions at the bar or pretend to be a fairy and flap my wings , so I made an effort as an adult to go to other classes.

It has helped a bit, maybe not in the moves themselves. Although I've now learnt new moves I can't go to a club and do chaine turns around the room without looking like a right ****. It has helped me to become more confident and less self conscious of moving in time to music as I do it in mirrored room ful of people every week anyway.


If you go to a proper beginner's class anywhere (maybe not at proper dance schools like the Royal ballet), there will be people like you and you may find that you are not as bad as you think you are?

Wouldn't it be great if they did a Strictly version similar to what Darcey Bussell was trying to do and recreated famous dance sequences from old musicals...

Yes! Leftfeet2 should join me and maybe do a beginners class, thanks kochspostulates, nice to hear from someone who wasn't a dancer from young but took it up later. A lot of my friends were trained from when they were small, but they're all very encouraging. It's just getting up the confidence to do it

To sit in the Mastermind black chair I would need as essential equipment a laptop accessing Google and YouTube, the alpha and omega of my info .

Whereas Darcey is interested in Hollywood dance 17 years before she was born, I am interested in the same but going back even further in space and time. I want to find out what Leondardo da Vinci who knew everything knew about dance . And how the high priestess of the Parthenon danced, and the goddess Aphrodite. What marks did Salome and Cleopatra score? Alas the great library in Alexandria burned to the ground, and the ancient world's Google was lost for ever.

Riverdance gave a performance in Beijing. The first-time Chinese audience responded quietly, but gradually warmed up, and eventually raved the way Riverdance audiences did in the west. In the audience Communist party leaders saw Riverdance for the first time, while President Mary McAleese saw it for the nth time, and raved for the nth time. A girl dancer later suggested that Irish dance crossed cultural borders because it was elemental, being about sun and wind, fire and water.

If dance is the language of the soul it would not date. Cyd Charisse, Fred Astaire, and Gene Kelly on YouTube still touch the heart. Poets could try recreating in words the experience of dance, but like music and painting, dance speaks for itself.

After the glitterball Final this forum does not switch off the lights and close the door the way The Apprentice Forum does. There follow enthusiastic reviews of the Strictly Tour which goes on into February. Nowadays in the off season there are dance shows put on by pro dancers in the provinces. In the off season Strictly fans depart but true dance fans stay.

There are true dance experts who occasionally read this forum (memo to self: no OTT post please ). Last May I saw a glint in Donnie's eye which suggested he has read at least one thread in this forum, with favour I suspect. Some BBC Strictly organisers unquestionably read this forum in discreet silence, as do some Strictly celebs, and certainly some pro dancers.

There was a thread imbedding ".... dance teachers..." in the title (myself not one) which periodically comes back to life. Non-dancers need not worry. Dance teachers are not mad like Bruno nor biting like Craig. If they were, their students simply do not return the following week. Most group classes include good laughs with good exercise thrown in. Those with two left feet do not fall over every week. So choose the class you like, if there is one in your town. The impression is that every year Strictly kickstarts public interest and boosts attendance in beginners group lessons, but the newcomers do not go on to quite expensive one-on-one private lessons.

Who knows, enabled by Strictly to attain critical mass, maybe social dancing will come back into fashion, with dancing cheek-to-cheek as hot as ecstasy raves but much less harmful. Who knows, maybe a pretty girl from the Royal Ballet will visit, as I saw one Saturday in Miss Bradley's studio years ago, those were the days.