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Invitation To The Dance (film)
''Invitation to the Dance'' is a 1956 dance anthology film consisting of three distinct stories, all starring and directed by Gene Kelly. It was the first film Kelly directed on his own, after co-directing three films with Stanley Donen. The film is unusual in that it has no spoken dialogue, with the characters performing their roles entirely through dance and mime. Kelly appears in all three stories, which feature leading dancers of the era including Tommy Rall, Igor Youskevitch, Tamara Toumanova and Carol Haney. The film's shooting was completed in 1954, but its release was delayed until 1956 because of doubts at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The movie performed poorly at the box office, and is generally regarded as an artistic as well as commercial failure. The film takes its name from a piano composition of the same name by Carl Maria von Weber, portions of which are played during the opening credits. Plot "Circus" The first segment, set to original music composed for the fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed (September 9, 1894 – April 12, 1973) was an American lyricist and Hollywood film producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture twice, in 1951 for ''An American in Paris'' and in 1958 for '' Gigi''. Both films were musicals. In addition, he produced and was also a co-lyricist for the now-iconic film '' Singin' in the Rain''. Early life Freed was born to a Jewish family in Charleston, South Carolina, and wrote poetry while a high schooler at Phillips Exeter Academy. After graduating in 1914, he began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago. After meeting Minnie Marx, he sang as part of the act of her sons, the Marx Brothers, on the vaudeville circuit, and also wrote material for the brothers. He soon began to write songs, and was eventually hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. For years, he wrote lyrics for numerous films, many set to music by Nacio Herb Brown. Career In 1939, after working (uncredited) in the role of associate producer on '' The Wiza ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthology Film
An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of several shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme, premise, or author. Sometimes each one is directed by a different director or written by a different author, or may even have been made at different times or in different countries. Anthology films are distinguished from " revue films" such as ''Paramount on Parade'' (1930)—which were common in Hollywood in the early decades of sound film, composite films, and compilation films. Sometimes there is a theme, such as a place (e.g. ''New York Stories'', ''Paris, je t'aime''), a person (e.g. ''Four Rooms''), or a thing (e.g. '' Twenty Bucks'', '' Coffee and Cigarettes'', '' Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia''), that is present in each story and serves to bind them together. Two of the earliest films to use the form were Edmund Goulding's '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Femme Fatale
A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of literature and art. Her ability to enchant, entice and hypnotize her victim with a spell was in the earliest stories seen as verging on supernatural; hence, the femme fatale today is still often described as having a power akin to an enchantress, seductress, witch, having power over men. Femmes fatales are typically villainous, or at least morally ambiguous, and always associated with a sense of mystification, and unease.Mary Ann Doane, ''Femme Fatales'' (1991) pp. 1–2 The term originates from the French phrase '' femme fatale'', which means 'deadly woman' or 'lethal woman'. A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, or sexual allure. In many cases, her attitude towards sexuality is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude Bessy (dancer)
Claude Bessy (born in Paris, 20 October 1932) is a French ballerina, ballet master of the Paris Opera Ballet (1970–1971) and director of the Paris Opera Ballet School (1972–2004). Bessy trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School from the age of ten, the youngest student ever admitted, and joined the Paris Opera Ballet at age 13, the youngest ''danseuse'' ever admitted. In 1956, she was promoted to '' étoile'', the Ballet's highest rank. Bessy was closely associated with Serge Lifar and created leading roles in his 1951 ''Snow White'', 1955 ''Noces fantastiques'' and 1958 ''Daphnis and Chloe''. She worked with John Cranko, who made his 1955 ''La Belle Hêlène'' on her, and George Skibine, who made a second ''Daphnis and Chloe'' on Bessy in 1959. Bessy was featured in Gene Kelly's film '' Invitation to the Dance'' (1956), and four years later he created ''Pas de dieux'' at the Paris Opera for her. She also made many television appearances. Bessy has staged ballets for the C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Paltenghi
David Paltenghi (1919 – 4 February 1961) was a British ballet dancer, choreographer, director and film director. Early life David Paltenghi was born in 1919 in Christchurch, Hampshire (now Dorset), the son of a Swiss-Italian father and English mother. Career Dancer He was a dancer with Ballet Rambert, until joining Sadler's Wells Ballet in 1941. Paltenghi created leading roles in Robert Helpmann's ''Miracle in the Gorbals'' in 1944 and '' Adam Zero'' in 1946, both for Sadler's Wells Ballet. Choreographer In 1950, he rejoined Ballet Rambert as a guest artist, and as a choreographer, created five ballets from 1950-51. The last was ''Canterbury Prologue'', based on Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'' with music by Peter Racine Fricker and designs by the artist Edward Burra, who he had met when they both worked on ''Miracle in the Gorbals''. Film director Paltenghi later became a film director, and his 1955 ''The Love Match'' starring Arthur Askey was praised, "gets the utmost out ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Ronde (play)
''La Ronde'' (also known by its original German title, ''Reigen'') is a play in which ten people form an unwitting interpersonal circle with their secret, sexual relationships. It was written by Arthur Schnitzler in 1897 and was controversial at that time. It scrutinizes the sexual morality and class ideology of its day through successive encounters between pairs of characters (before or after a sexual encounter). By choosing characters across all levels of society, the play offers social commentary on how sexual contact transgresses class boundaries. Printed privately in 1900, it was not publicly performed until 1920, when it provoked strong reactions. The play's two titles —in German ''Reigen'' and in French ''La Ronde''— refer to a round dance, as portrayed in the English rhyme Ring a Ring o' Roses. Publication and reception ''La Ronde'' was first printed in 1900 for private circulation amongst friends. In 1903, the first German-language edition was published in Vienna, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Schnitzler
Arthur Schnitzler (15 May 1862 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. Biography Arthur Schnitzler was born at Praterstrasse 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, capital of the Austrian Empire (as of 1867, part of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary). He was the son of a prominent Hungarian laryngologist, Johann Schnitzler (1835–1893), and Luise Markbreiter (1838–1911), a daughter of the Viennese doctor Philipp Markbreiter. His parents were both from Jewish families. In 1879 Schnitzler began studying medicine at the University of Vienna and in 1885 he received his doctorate of medicine. He began work at Vienna's General Hospital (german: link=no, Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien), but ultimately abandoned the practice of medicine in favour of writing. On 26 August 1903, Schnitzler married Olga Gussmann (1882–1970), a 21-year-old aspiring actress and singer who came from a Jewish middle-class family. They had a son, Heinrich (1902–1982), born on 9 Au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nursery Rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From the mid-16th century nursery rhymes begin to be recorded in English plays, and most popular rhymes date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The first English collections, ''Tommy Thumb's Song Book'' and a sequel, ''Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book'', were published by Mary Cooper (publisher), Mary Cooper in 1744. Publisher John Newbery's stepson, Thomas Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of English rhymes, ''Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle'' (London, 1780). History Lullabies The oldest children's songs of which we have records are Lullaby, lullabies, intended to help a child fall asleep. Lullabies can be found in every human culture. The English term lullaby i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerialist
Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro dance, circus, and gymnastics, and to a lesser extent in other athletic activities including ballet, slacklining and diving. Although acrobatics is most commonly associated with human body performance, the term is used to describe other types of performance, such as aerobatics. History Acrobatic traditions are found in many cultures, and there is evidence that the earliest such traditions occurred thousands of years ago. For example, Minoan art from c. 2000 BC contains depictions of acrobatic feats on the backs of bulls. Ancient Greeks practiced acrobatics, and the noble court displays of the European Middle Ages would often include acrobatic performances that included juggling. In China, acrobatics have been a part of the culture sin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Maria Von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas, he was a crucial figure in the development of German ''Romantische Oper'' (German Romantic opera). Throughout his youth, his father, , relentlessly moved the family between Hamburg, Salzburg, Freiberg, Augsburg and Vienna. Consequently he studied with many teachers – his father, Johann Peter Heuschkel, Michael Haydn, Giovanni Valesi, Johann Nepomuk Kalcher and Georg Joseph Vogler – under whose supervision he composed four operas, none of which survive complete. He had a modest output of non-operatic music, which includes two symphonies; a viola concerto; bassoon concerti; piano pieces such as Konzertstück in F minor and '' Invitation to the Dance''; and many pieces that featured the clarinet, usually written for the virtuoso c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invitation To The Dance (Weber)
''Invitation to the Dance'' (''Aufforderung zum Tanz''), Op. 65, J. 260, is a piano piece in rondo form written by Carl Maria von Weber in 1819. It is also well known in the 1841 orchestration by Hector Berlioz. It is sometimes called ''Invitation to the Waltz'', but this is a mistranslation of the original. Background Weber dedicated ''Invitation to the Dance'' to his wife Caroline (they had been married only a few months). He labelled the work "rondeau brillante", and he wrote it while also writing his opera ''Der Freischütz''. It was the first concert waltz to be written: that is, the first work in waltz form meant for listening rather than for dancing. John Warrack calls it "the first and still perhaps the most brilliant and poetic example of the Romantic concert waltz, creating within its little programmatic framework a tone poem that is also an apotheosis of the waltz in a manner that was to remain fruitful at least until Ravel's choreographic poem, '' La valse''…". It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variety (magazine)
''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based in Los Angeles, to cover the motion-picture industry. ''Variety.com'' features entertainment news, reviews, box office results, cover stories, videos, photo galleries and features, plus a credits database, production charts and calendar, with archive content dating back to 1905. History Foundation ''Variety'' has been published since December 16, 1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering theater and vaudeville with its headquarters in New York City. Silverman had been fired by ''The Morning Telegraph'' in 1905 for panning an act which had taken out an advert for $50. As a result, he decided to start his own publication "that ouldnot be influenced by advertising." With a loan of $1,500 from his father- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
