Colours of Radiance

Nupur Arts with Sonia Sabri and Cirque Bijou - Colours of Radiance at Leicester Diwali Lights

Happy Diwali!

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STOP PRESS

What a day for the UK to get its first Prime Minister of Indian (and Hindu) origin...

It's a lovely day for saying it's a lovely day

Another centenary today - the magnificent big-screen dance sensation of the 1950s Vera-Ellen, star of On The Town (with Gene Kelly), The Belle of New York (with Fred Astaire), Call Me Madam (with Donald O'Connor) and White Christmas (with Danny Kaye).

Somewhat overlooked in the "hoofer" stakes in comparison to the likes of Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller, nevertheless several of the mere sixteen movies she made are nowadays recognised as "classics".

Facts:

• Because she was so thin, for her entire life she was dogged by (untrue) rumours of an eating disorder.
• Simliar rumours abounded that Barbie dolls were modelled on her leggy figure; their creator actually based them on a similar German doll called "Bild Lilli".
• Vera-Ellen was not a singer, so all her musical roles were dubbed by others - and in the Sisters duet, both parts were actually sung by Rosemary Clooney!
• Such was her skill and training, she was one of the few Hollywood dancers whose on-screen routines were filmed in one take.
• She married twice, the second time to millionaire Victor Rothschild (which ended in divorce); when they lost their only child to cot death, she retired from public life.

Here's just s small sample of the lovely lady's talents...

Donald O' Connor and Vera Ellen - It's A Lovely Day Today

Vera-Ellen (born Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe, 16th February 1921 – 30th August 1981)

Kaleidoscopic

Busby Berkeley (born Berkeley William Enos, 29th November 1895 – 14th March 1976)

She is the Champion

Felicitations go today to the lovely Marge Champion, who is (remarkably) still with us, aged 101!

All hail.

With her former husband Gower [they divorced in 1973; he died in 1980], the feisty Miss Champion revitalised the world of dancing (as performer and choreographer) in the Technicolor age in such films as Show Boat, Bye Bye Birdie, Hello Dolly, Lovely To Look At, Three for the Show and this one...

Marge and Gower Champion - "Challenge Dance" from Give A Girl A Break (1953)

Facts:

• Miss Champion was the model for Walt Disney’s original Snow White.
• Their film Lovely to Look At was a remake of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie Roberta; Marge and Gower were originally asked to do a series of colour remakes of Fred and Ginger's classics, but they turned down the proposal.
• Among many others who got their first break in Marge and Gower's sumptuously choreographed shows was none other than Miss Carol Channing, who Marge "discovered" in 1940.
• In 2009, at age 90, Marge was still dancing - as featured in a television documentary on her friendship with dance partner Donald Saddler [watch it here].

Marjorie Celeste "Marge" Champion (born Marjorie Belcher, 2nd September 1919)

[More Champion stuff here and here]

Dance is like life

"Leonard Bernstein was afraid of only two things: God and Jerry Robbins.” - Arthur Laurents.

We have another centenary to celebrate today - Jerome Robbins, the man who studied his art of choreography under the legendary George Balanchine, came up with an idea for a modern ballet based around the adventures of three sailors on shore leave, called in his friend [and fellow centenary celebrant this year] Mr Bernstein to produce the music, then, after realising that the ballet was probably not the right medium, went on to co-create out of its remnants the musical On The Town (with book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green). The rest is history!

Jerry went on to collaborate on a whole raft of productions that became the mainstay of modern musical theatre, including Call Me Madam (with Lindsay and Russel Crouse and Irving Berlin), The King and I (with Rodgers and Hammerstein), The Pajama Game (with Richard Adler and Jerry Ross), Gypsy (with Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Mr Laurents), and (of course) West Side Story (with Mr Bernstein, Mr Sondheim and Mr Laurents again). The list doesn't end there, of course: Peter Pan, Funny Girl, Bells Are Ringing, High Button Shoes, Fiddler on the Roof and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; ballets by Stravisky, Debussy, Chopin, Verdi, Ravel, and even Philip Glass - he had a hand in them all.







“Give me something to dance about and I’ll dance it.”

"Essentially what I care about is working ... I don't want to fall into profundities and artistry and surround everything with whipped cream."

"Dance is like life. It exists as you are flitting through it, and when it's over, it's done."

"I told you to sell it, not give it away."

- Jerome Robbins.







He was a complete dragon to work for, of course. Perfectionists always are. He was also a bit of quisling during the McCarthy witch-hunts (apparently because he was threatened with being "outed" by the self-proclaimed "pillar of the American establishment", TV host Ed Sullivan). Nevertheless, his legacy is suffice to forgive him many a queeny strop. [And he shagged Montgomery Clift, so he has kudos for that, too!]

Jerome Robbins: In His Own Words

He was a legend.



Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz, 11th October 1918 – 29th July 1998)

Blame Robert Helpmann

"I got a letter from the Sadler's Wells Ballet School saying they found me temperamentally and physically unsuited to a career as a dancer. I suppose that knocked me back for a couple of days, but then I went to see The Red Shoes at the cinema and I was up on my toes again. Blame Robert Helpmann."

Farewell to one of the most influential people in British popular culture, Lindsay Kemp - the man who mentored David Bowie and taught Kate Bush to dance, studied art with David Hockney and mime with Marcel Marceau, appeared in The Wicker Man, Sebastiane and Velvet Goldmine, collaborated extensively with Spanish composer Carlos Miranda, lent his support to the ongoing campaigns against the "gentrification" of Soho, and co-ordinated productions of various operas across Italy (his adopted homeland, where he died).

A remarkable man. As another longtime collaborator David Haughton says: "He was one of a kind. There won't be another like him."

RIP Lindsay Kemp (3rd May 1938 – 24th August 2018)

Read my previous tribute to the great man, and his collaboration with Mr Bowie.

Strike a pose!

"As an artist, Fosse was known for his thoroughly modern style, a signature one could never mistake for anyone else's. Snapping fingers are omnipresent, so are rakishly tilted bowler hats. Both hip and shoulder rolls appear frequently, as do backward exits. Swivelling hips and strutting predominate, as do white-gloved, single-handed gestures. Fosse himself often called the en masse amalgamation of these moves the "amoeba", and that word as much as any describes his particular style, at once fluid and angular."











"In today's world, everything seems like some sort of long audition."

"If you think you can do better, then do better. Don't compete with anyone, just yourself. When you are in trouble or have a dilemma, ask yourself, "What's the important thing?". And when you wake up in the morning, ask yourself how you can be a better person, not just a better performer."

"Live like you'll die tomorrow, work like you don't need the money, and dance like nobody's watching."

"I would never discriminate against someone's talent because they showed the poor taste to like me."

Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse (23rd June 1927 – 23rd September 1987)