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| Nicholas Brothers in Stormy Weather + Gregory Hines' commentary |
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The Nicholas Brothers' legendary performance
in Stormy Weather (1943) with commentaries by
Gregory Hines, Maurice Hines and Fayard
Nicholas himself. From the great
documentaries We Sing & We Dance (1992) and
Flying High (1999).
Needless to say, this is one of their bests.
It's a jet coaster ride!! What Gregory Hines
didn't mention there is that the staircase
routine at the climax is sort of a tribute to
Bill Robinson who made a specialty of dancing
on a staircase. He could tap up and down
stairs beautifully. Well then, how did the
successors go down stairs? That's what
"creation" is all about.
And also, the sequence where the Bros dance
on the orchestra bandstand is a variation of
Robinson's 'African Dance' number in the same
movie where he taps on an assemblage of
drums.
Soon after Stormy Weather, the Condos Bros
tapped around a bandstand in Song Of The Open
Road (1944) like the Nicholas Bros did, and,
in Sensations Of 1945 (1944), girls did
splits on huge white tiers reminiscent of the
Jumpin' Jive staircase.
Fayard says the staircase scene was done in
one take without any rehearsal. It's totally
different from a perfectionist like Fred
Astaire who obsessively rehearsed and shot
his routine over and over again. Though
discipline is a very important thing, that
staircase sequence seems beyond what the
repetition of rehearsals can achieve.
Remember most of the great jazz records were
done in just one or a few takes. That's one
of the reasons why it is so fresh and vivid,
and still "the greatest ever put on film".
More about the Nicholas Brothers:
http://strongerthanparadise.blog122.fc2.com/b
log-category-17.html
MAY DA BEAT BE WITH U
Tags : Nicholas Brothers Stormy Weather Fayard Harold Gregory Hines Jumpin' Jive Cab Calloway Bill Robinson Bojangles Lena Horne Dorothy Dandridge Sammy Davis Jr Berry Four Step Tip Tap Toe Buck John Bubbles Bailey Teddy Hale Baby Laurence Coles Atkins Willie Covan Peg Leg Bates Jimmy Slyde Bunny Briggs Buster Brown Sandman Sims Savion Glover Gregg Burge Dance Hoofer |
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Affichage : 6657
Durée : 551 s |
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