Today’s challenge is about a dancer. Not just any dancer, though a ballerina. 
In most cases when I think of the ballet I think of the Nutcracker, although Swan Lake is also a ballet I could name. The Nutcracker’s music is what I really envision. I don’t know if I have the patience to sit through a ballet, but I imagine I could get into the Nutcracker because of the wooden soldiers that are supposedly in the tale. Again, I don’t know much about the story, but I get the image of wooden soldiers and I think of antique toys and I like antique toys, so I think I would like the Nutcracker.
This ballerina, though, brings me images of some old joke, revolving around the Elton John song “Tiny Dancer” and I think of the punch line “Hold me closer, Tony Danza” and I wonder what the setup was to that line.
The ballet is about elegance and art. The human figure dancing in sheer beauty around a stage to classical music. However, for me the most memorable scene in a movie that involved ballet came from the musical Bye, Bye Birdie.
I have never seen the stage version of Bye, Bye Birdie, but I always thought this scene was something added to pad the movie. The plot is that Dick Van Dyke plays a songwriter who has to write on more hit for rock and roll star, Conrad Birdie before he gets drafted into the Army. They stage the song “One More Kiss” to be sung by Birdie on the Ed Sullivan Show and at the end of the song, he kisses the president from one of his fan clubs (a girl played by Ann-Margaret). Where the ballet comes in is that a Russian ballet is to perform just before Birdie sings and their ballet will go long, cutting Birdie and the song from the show. However, Dick Van Dyke is also an inventor and has invented a speed up drug for plants. When he gives it to a turtle, the turtle, though takes off like a rocket. So Dick gets his girlfriend to slip the conductor a mickey which has the speed up drug in it. Then during the performance, the speed up kicks in and he changes the tempo dramatically, which in turn, makes the dancers run around like maniacs on the screen. Sometime during the rapid performance, the lead ballerina sticks her tongue out at the conductor. It’s a funny scene. I just felt bad for the conductor who probably got shipped off to some gulag, as this was the Cold War, and Russia was the Soviet Union at the time.
I could not find that scene on YouTube, but I recommend you check out the Ann Margaret movie. It is well worth it.
She not only sings, but she dances, too.
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