CYD CHARISSE, the best female dancer in Hollywood history 

I always thought that of her. Just from some of the interviews I saw of her. Always one of my favorites. The dance scene in the green dress with the boxers. Yes.

She was 86 when she died in 2008. So how old are you?????

@@alixp3411 I’m 67. I was maybe 20 when I worked with her.

wow🤩

@@alixp3411Wikipedia says her last works were in the early 90s so say this person could have been in their 20s around the time - not that old!

I didn’t know that! Thank you for the wonderful inspiration. I’m trying to recover from a pretty nasty injury, and that little bit of knowledge will help me push through.

she dances as if she has had plenty of ballet lessons - such a good idea for strength and everything. Her mother's money was not wasted.

True story: they auditioned a dancer who was still inside an iron lung, but she kept running over gene Kelly’s foot

Used to binge on old movies with my grandma and mom, in Spanish and English. Cyd Charisse was one of moms favorite. She was truly poetry in motion, and so beautiful with a body of a goddess!

@@elinannestad5320 Honestly yeah dance would be good to help build strength and flexibility, Shes so beautiful, im so happy she got to be able to dance again

Singing in the rain I believe

Period!

And that last one “oh well I have to get dressed, but I think I’ll just dance around for a bit” ! Lol, so typically female, so funny.

Yes it was 👏

Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.

Yes, it's not as ethereal, soft nor sweet as it seems.

I am thinking Brigadoon. She leaped into Kelly's arms a number of times, which would be rough on the body if performed exactly correctly, and could result in a fall if the two get it a little wrong.

As a former dancer?I can attest there were days when my daughter said I looked like a battered woman. Lol had to wear pants to ride a bike with her, cause she was embarrassed..lol (shorts showed a lot of bruises)

​@@susjf8644Dancing is hard work. Try it for fun - but if you try to emulate this kind of thing, bruises ensue. Even alone. Furniture checks you. 😊

the greats always make it look easy

Yes! The choice of costumes hides her amazing strength and control... and spins. I wish we could time travel with Baryshnikov and watch them do duets in their prime. How amazing would that be?

Core strength like mad

We were blessed to have a figure model like that at art school.

@@jennywarren Oh man that sounds amazing

Her core strength is amazing, but she makes it look like it's nothing at all. Must have had at least a little bit of background in ballet perhaps, judging by some of those movements. The timing with Fred Astaire is astonishingly good - so precise and together.

Audrey would have done better as a fashion model, great face and no figure. And she really could not act. She just cycled through her portfolio of facial expressions. She was the same old, same old in every role.

@@valkyriesardo278no

​@@valkyriesardo278 terrible opinion

@@valkyriesardo278Blame the Nazis for her not following her real dream of becoming a ballerina

I absolutely love Charisse. I would say Ann Miller was even better. Ann was too good to dance with Kelly, really, and Gene would not want to partner with a better dancing really doing her thing.

😸

Good on you

Even when she was much older, she still had those legs, a lot of women can loose their looks on their face, or other parts but those legs continue to look good and hers did.

Your elaborate response right here makes me question whether she was a woman or a guy. This was just three days ago, why would you care? Now because of you, I really wonder.

She was 86 when she died in 2008. How old are you???

Lotta sexism in the way you described her

@@whatever3145 haha how?

that was a lot of words for saying aside from her talent she was hot and fit the beauty standardds

Yes - dedication and skill. So called 'stars' of today, can't hold a candle to this ladys' talents. She's so precise and flowing - like water I guess. Simply amazing to watch. Glad such art was captured on film.

​@@jamesbarbour8400 ​it's so funny how you old people act like talented artists all went extinct or something.

@@Chibbykins they did !

Totally!

I'm srry, I should probably let this ride, BUT, the best dancer / star actress in cinema history is/was Leslie. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l0oNLU4PSxE.html

Love that movie!

No they don't. 👏🏼👏🏼

I'm srry, I should probably let this ride, BUT, the best dancer / star actress in cinema history is/was Leslie. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l0oNLU4PSxE.html

She was my grandpa’s favorite dancer. When he and I would watch her dance he would slug me and say “that dame has legs that go ALL the way up!”

@@risa122276 And he was right..😉

I don't even know when I started noticing this but womens legs are getting shorter. You rarely see a woman with long legs anymore.

She was Fred Astaire’s favourite partner.

Oh yes

Golden era of deceit.

@@alixp3411👏🏼👍🏼

Kenny, she was a LADY!

​@@e.conboy4286your response right there makes me question whether she was a lady or guy.

I don’t think that ballet was the style of dance she loved most. If it was, she would have continued on in ballet companies and never danced onscreen. She was an excellent ballerina, but she wasn’t a stand out among the other female dancers in the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She became famous because besides being a technically excellent dancer, she exuded more sensuality than any other dancer had before. She excelled at duets where she is quite obviously twisting her male dance partner around her little finger. Cyd Charisse’s talent would have gone to waste if she decided to keep dancing classical ballet. I’m 53 and remember seeing “Singing In The Rain” when I was probably 11. And I absolutely remember seeing Cyd dancing with Gene Kelly and thinking 🤔 ‘I want what she has!’

@@katrinaolsen2444 it was her favorite, it just didn't bring in money and eventually ALL musicals died out

@@abevillanueva1974 Did she say that in her autobiography? I’m not arguing with you, I’m just genuinely curious. I did a search of it. The only thing I could find was that she thought dancing ballet in ballet company was incredibly restrictive. And that seeing all kinds of dances being choreographed on the MGM back lot was incredibly inspiring for her. She didn’t mention that she preferred dancing ballet in anything I could find. But I haven’t read the co-autobiography she wrote with her husband. So I thought perhaps you read it and she mentioned it there.

@@abevillanueva1974 You cannot trust anything in 'The Two of Us', one of the most gruesomely inaccurate memoirs Hollywood celebs ever put their names to. Ghostwriter Dick Kleiner shares the blame.

@@katrinaolsen2444 She had as uphill an apprenticeship to stardom in movies as Betty Grable or Lucy. Cyd was making soundies and doing uncredited bits on film from when she was 19 or 20, soon after eloping with Nico Charisse. Metro contracted her but used her only for specialties like a lesser Ann Miller. They tried her in straight parts, but her acting was very stilted and she never managed to carry a tune, so Judy had no worries. Twice Cyd lost good openings bc of injuries, notably to Miller in 'Easter Parade'. Previously she had missed the chance of a duet with Fred in 'Ziegfeld Follies' when the bubble machine went haywire and most of the finale, 'Beauty' had to be cut. By 1952, despite some good 'exotic' turns using her dark coloring, she must have felt she was jinxed. She was 30, with a kid and another on the way: a moment when many ballerinas would have felt it was time to quit. Her wordless appearance in 'Singin' in the Rain' was only another specialty spot, bc Debbie was not up to balletics; but Cyd had matured sensually with stunning looks which gave her six years in the limelight, before musicals lost their mojo and took her with them. Fortunately she had come in with Technicolor, which would make her pix repeatable on TV and give her a whole new fan base in the 1970s.

I'm srry, I should probably let this ride, BUT, the best dancer / star actress in cinema history is/was Leslie. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l0oNLU4PSxE.html

Yup she had core strength.

She looks taller than she actually was!

@Berlin Saint Clair. She's lovely, but I love Vera Ellen more.❤️

I'm srry, I should probably let this ride, BUT, the best dancer / star actress in cinema history is/was Leslie. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l0oNLU4PSxE.html

❤You could add that your last quote is from Shipman’s THE GREAT MOVIE STARS-2.

Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, so she was one of the corps "baby ballerinas" in 1936! It's worth noting that yet another young American dancer, Yvonne Craig, was one of the corps "baby ballerinas", but about 20 years later. Craig is best known for playing Batgirl in the Batman television series ('67-'68) and also had a role in one episode of Star Trek, the Original Series.

Thank you for this fascinating info! Your body just develops in a certain way if you've been classically trained and I was wondering about her background.

I believe that she only took up ballet by chance and in response to contracting Polio and needing to strengthen her legs. @@minissa2009

Pure perfection spectacular dancer❤

My dad’s as well!

I'm srry, I should probably let this ride, BUT, the best dancer / star actress in cinema history is/was Leslie. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l0oNLU4PSxE.html

If you find that clip daring, I suggest you watch the whole number: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GG3b2l0-5IY.html The Production (“Hays”) Code found it objectionable on script, but had to admit that eventually, it was so artfully done that it had to stay in the picture. The close-up of her legs when she sheds her underwear… well, I can only guess what 1950s viewers thought (but were afraid to ask)!!!

@@NTBinh-pi3eo sexier and more alluring than modern pop stars gyrating their arses sans style and grace like crack’d up pole dancers.

Yes. Whatever happened to grace and modesty? Girls today haven’t a clue! I’m not at all interested in viewing their arses!