Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly: Who was the better dancer?

[book_worm]

Poll question: Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly: Who was the better dancer?

TCM spent an entire day devoted to Fred Astaire on Saturday and today it's Gene Kelly. Who, in your opinion, is the better dancer?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Major style difference. I have always loved Gene. but I still appreciate Fred

[Xipe Totec]

2. Gene Kelly did it backwards and in high heels nt

[book_worm]

3. Just like Ginger!

:)

[Cleita]

4. He did?

I thought that was Ginger Rogers.

[Xipe Totec]

7. Ooops!

:blush:

It was Herbert Hoover that did it backward and in high heels....

[book_worm]

10. You must mean J. Edgar Hoover.

[Xipe Totec]

13. Would you believe Edgar Allan Poe?

[Canuckistanian]

9. We're not talking about what he did at home

LOL :rofl:

[verges]

40. I don't seem to recall

Gene ever doing drag.

[Xipe Totec]

43. He dragged his left foot

I'm sure I saw it somewhere....

[nickyt]

5. anyone ever notice Gene's butt?! Perfection!!

[book_worm]

11. true he had a butt, Fred didn't.

[NYCGirl]

31. And his thighs are pretty damned gorgeous, too.

Check out the dream sequence in "The Pirate". OMG.

[Love Bug]

38. Oh, hell, yeah!

[ladywnch]

36. AMEN.....HALLELUJA!!!!!!!!!!

[Punkingal]

44. Funny you should ask that..

I was watching "Singin In The Rain" last night and noticed that fabulous butt. :hi:

[hlthe2b]

6. That's like having me decide which among my beloved doggies--

I've had the pleasure of living with-- that I love more.... Impossible, I tell you, imposible!

[TheCentepedeShoes]

8. Watched Top Hat

last night. Probably had seen it before sometime, very enjoyable.

[NashVegas]

12. More Like Equally GREAT

But my heart belongs to Gene. Can't help it.

[Demeter]

14. Fred Astaire Was the Better PERSON

Ask the women who danced with both which they preferred.....

[BrklynLiberal]

20. Actually Gene Kelly was a long time liberal activist...if that matters.

J. Edgar did not like him or his wife at all.

During his marriage to the actress Betsy Blair, Kelly was radicalized and the couple became well known for their liberal politics. In 1947, when the Carpenters Union went on strike and the Hollywood studios were looking for an intermediary to intervene on their behalf, Kelly was chosen much to everyone's surprise. He traveled back and forth from Culver City to union headquarters in Chicago for two months, mediating a strike that was costing the studios dearly. When a settlement was finally reached, Kelly was shocked to learn that the studios felt it was unfair and that they had been cheated by his siding with the strikers. Naively and genuinely trying to help and unaware of unstated expectations, underhanded tactics, and slush funds Kelly's efforts only resulted in further exacerbating his relationship with Louis B. Mayer.

As the Blacklist Era began, Kelly along with Humphrey Bogart, John Huston, Danny Kaye, and others joined the Committee for the First Amendment. Hoping to diffuse the rising situation in Washington, DC, the group created a kind of whistle-stop national tour to present their views to the public prior to their command performance before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Their efforts and press conference deteriorated into a fiasco and forced many of the stars to return to Hollywood and focus more on personal damage control than on their original idealistic intent.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/kelly_g.html

[jedr]

15. anyone who can dance with a hat tree ;

and make it look elegant has my vote!

[whistler162]

28. Try dancing with a cartoon mouse!

[BlooInBloo]

16. After a certain point in skill level, there's not really any point to the question.

[Ex Lurker]

17. Gene Kelly was much more athletic

so he gets my vote.

[Greyhound]

18. Different styles, Kelly was more athletic, Astaire more artistic. n/t

[Arugula Latte]

19. Fred Astaire was indeed great, but I just prefer Gene Kelly's dancing.

That guy -- wow. Just wow.

[liberalmuse]

21. I guess it depends on what style you prefer.

Fred Astaire was the more graceful and his movements were so fluid it was hard to catch that moment when one movement flowed into the next.

Gene Kelly was more athletic, and had an awesome bod, which he put to good use. Both were athletic to pull of the moves they did. They make it look so easy.

Here are two similar clips. My favorite is w/Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse. Gene Kelly was definitely the more energetic to Fred Astaire's perfection. The choreography was much very difficult in the Fred Astaire clip, but again, he makes it look easy. Cyd Charisse was fabulous in both:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuJxYmJlEHY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YWBOfsXsDA&feature=related

[NashVegas]

29. Maybe the Clothes Made the Man

Astaire seemed to wear looser clothing than Kelly, and appeared to be less expressive as a result, I think.

[Batgirl]

30. I like this one even better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc16m2B2K1g

[NashVegas]

35. TRy This

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asI_U4CL1lg

[Batgirl]

39. all of these great clips caused me to flashback to last night

when the bride pulled me onto the dance floor at a wedding reception leaving me with no choice but to do my best Elaine Benes dance stylings.
Unfortunately for the shocked and horrified onlookers there were only a handful of other people out there and I was under a spotlight.

[gateley]

22. Astaire. The dance seemed to flow FROM him --

like that saying (Buddhist?) The dancer becomes the dance.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

23. Astaire, but Kelly is co-director of one of the top ten films in the 2002 Sight and Sound Poll

So it all evens out.

(I do not consider Singing in the Rain of of the ten greatest films ever made, but the Sight and Sound critics poll does.)

[pscot]

24. Astaire had someting Kelly didn't

Ginger. Yum. Yum.

[whistler162]

27. But they both had Cyd Charisse!

[NashVegas]

33. She Had Them

:)

[blm]

25. Astaire was more elegant, Kelly more athletic. No way to claim one a better dancer.

.

[whistler162]

26. JEEZ....... James Cagney of course!

Stylistically you are talking about two totally different dancers.

Both where brilliant in there own way.

[Hannah Bell]

34. yeah, cagney. i love his bouncy style, it looks so light.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

32. Kelly was cuter :) ...n/t

[NashVegas]

37. Well, I'm Watching SitR Right Now, And It Strikes Me

That Gene Kelly was the better *actor* - and it comes through in his expressive dancing, as well.

[elana i am]

41. pffft

eleanor powell

THEN fred astaire

[donco6]

42. Gene Kelly . . . woof! n/t

[LanternWaste]

45. I know nothing about dancing, but...

I know nothing about dancing, but love the old classic films and have watched many of them over and over.

While I appreciate the discipline Fred Astair illustrated, and his masterful performances (and I'll even go so far as to say that Fred seemed to have many more "Wow!" moves in his repertoire), Gene Kelley's routines never looked as though they had been choreographed-- his routines seemed as though they were simply natural extensions of his performance, as though his dancing came to him via divine grace rather than a learned behavior.

[Iggo]

46. Fred was smoov. Gene was athletic.

They both kicked ass.