What an incredibly depressing time these past two months have been for movie lovers. Sydney Pollack, Stan Winston, and now dance legend Cyd Charisse has left us.Secondary to my love of movies is my love of dance, and Cyd Charisse gave us that immortal scene as a gangster's girl to Gene Kelly's starstruck out-of-towner in the greatest of musicals, Singin' In The Rain.
When people like her disappear we can really say
that something has been lost in terms of talent and beauty and that can never and ever been replaced
God bless her
I saw "Signing in the rain" a few decades ago (no : I am not very young anymore) and those two dance scenes (the jazz one and the classic one) were the two scenes I remembered most vividly from this movie, along with the moment when Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) fell in love with Kathie Selden (Debbie Reynolds).
I was litterally awe-struck by the incredible mastery of that dancer who could, at the same time, be very sexy, sobre, supple and extremely obvious (self-imposing) in one dance, then become a celestial or angelic sight, sexless, pure light, almost bodyless, self-effacing and extremely gracious a few moments later. How could one reunite these attributes in the same movements was a total mystery for me, or should I say, total mastery!
I read on various sites that Miss Charisse was not only an exceptionnal dancer and artist, but also a very classy lady. And, I admit, this did not surprise me a bit, as this is often the case with accomplished artists.
Too sad there are so few of those...
Amen brother. Amen.