R.I.P., Cyd Charisse

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Legendary dancer Cyd Charisse has died. She was 86.

Here is a not-to-be-missed tribute – it made me cry. In reference to her dance number in Singin’ In the Rain (clip below), Dan Callahan writes:

First, we see her shapely foot in close-up. Then, the camera moves up her leg, and moves, and moves, and moves. This is a woman with legs for days, and after we finally get to her torso, the camera moves up, and we see that she has a face that seems to be hard and humid with insatiable sexual appetite. Charisse was only five foot seven, but the incredible length of her legs and arms made her seem like an Amazon, a creature from another world.

And here he is on a moment in The Band Wagon (clip below as well):

When the music speeds up, we’re in a kind of no man’s land: I really don’t know how Charisse does what she does here. Part of the magic is her technical skill, of course, but a huge part of it comes from her, and it has to do with a kind of taunting yet witty sexuality that actually makes the icy Astaire look randy in response. At the height of their pulsating, “are we being serious?” interplay, Charisse extends her epic legs out to Astaire on five horn blasts: one, two, three, four, five, and on the fifth beat she turns. Then, one, two, three, four, five, and on that crucial fifth beat, she flings her whole upper body backwards to the rhythm. That’s math, maybe, or dance. But the way that she throws her head back on that second beat of five is quite possibly the most thrilling single moment I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Please go read the whole thing.

Sniff.

Obit here. I loved this quote from the obit:

Looking back on her work with Kelly and Astaire during a 2002 interview in The New York Times, Ms. Charisse said that her husband, Mr. Martin, always knew whom she had been dancing with. “€œIf I was black and blue,” she said, “€œit was Gene. And if it was Fred, I didn’€™t have a scratch.”

Singin’ in the Rain

From The Band Wagon.

Nobody like her. Whatever is going on in this number with her – it is not just the steps – and she always said that herself, she knew dance was more than choreography. She’s embodying something – an archetype, a mood, an energy … and it is also about the relationship with her partner – whoever it was at the time. Watch how they relate there. How she crooks her body and stomps towards him, as he backs up … perfectly in unison, a perfect picture. Brilliant! She is inhabiting something here … she’s acting, in that dream-space of the musical number. You wouldn’t get goosebumps otherwise. And it sure doesn’t hurt that she can dance like that as well. Holy crap.

David Thomson writes of Cyd Charisse in his Biographical Dictionary of Film:

Exceptionally tall, austere in features but elegant in the legs, she is perhaps the greatest female movie dancer. Her acting is like the songs in Marx Brothers films, though there were attempts to make the public accept her in straight parts … But in the nightclub dance in Party Girl and all her dancing in Silk Stockings she is as sensual and moving as most actresses have managed to be with words. In Silk Stockings, her rapturous introduction to expensive lingerie conveys emotions denied to her as an actress; while in Party Girl her dancing discloses the scarlet woman invisible in the ostensibly dramatic moments.

Rest in peace.

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5 Responses to R.I.P., Cyd Charisse

  1. Emily says:

    The outfit she has on in that photo is so awesome. I want it.

  2. Jayne says:

    She was amazing. I could watch her over and over. Oh, to dance like that. She was one of a kind.

  3. red says:

    Jayne – I remember being in high school and watching Singin in the Rain at your house!

    (I mean, you guys were there, too. It’s not like I was sitting in your house by myself watching your movies.)

    And yes – she was so so amazing!!

  4. Jayne says:

    Hahaha – sort of a movie-lover’s variation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears – “someone’s been watching MY movies!”

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