Gene Kelly (Actor), Tamara Toumanova (Actor), Gene Kelly (Director) | Format: DVD
(11)Release Date: May 16, 2011
Buy new: $26.99
22 used & new from $14.19
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Review & Description
Academy Award(r) winner* Gene Kelly brings his remarkable talents as star, director and choreographer to this glittering gala of music, dance and pantomime - and the result is a lush, one-of-a-kind musical flight of fancy. The film has three episodes, each with its own distinct period and mood. In Circus, a clown (Kelly) in a small carnival troupe is hopelessly in love with the show's high-wire walker. Ring Around the Rosy is a satiric tale about a bracelet which travels from the wrist of one fickle lover to another. Sinbad the Sailor blends live action and animation as Kelly dances his way into an Arabian Nights world after rubbing Aladdin's Lamp. Showcasing talents from ballet companies of New York, Paris, London and Rome, this imaginative tour de force is a must-see for dance lovers everywhere!
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Invitation to the Dance was Gene Kelly's great experiment at turning MGM's famous ballet sequences into a feature film. Kelly directed and choreographed three half-hour segments, all without dialogue or songs. "Circus," with music by Jacques Ibert, is almost traditional Romantic ballet, as Igor Youskevitch and Claire Sanders play the lovers in an old European stage troupe and Kelly, almost unrecognizable in clown-face makeup, suffers from unrequited love. "Ring Around the Rosy" jumps to 20th-century America, as Andre Previn's jazzy score provides the backdrop for an anniversary bracelet that passes through the hands of numerous people and finally back to the owner. Kelly plays the title role in the most famous sequence, the Arabian Nights-type tale "Sinbad the Sailor," set to a loose arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. Incongruously appearing in a U.S. Navy outfit à la On the Town, Kelly explores a live-action Arabian marketplace, discovers a lamp and a genie, then travels to a cartoon palace, where he charms a dragon, dances with a princess, and spars with a couple of swordsmen. Invitation to the Dance is not all dance--much of the action is conveyed through pantomime--and a lot of it does not feature Kelly himself. Even though the film is not quite as entertaining as it could have been, the dancers are consistently good, and Kelly always provides something interesting to watch. --David Horiuchi Read more
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