Ladies Dancing on Film Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ginger Rogers

'Top Hat' is generally considered the most successful film of the ten featuring the partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It is a romantic comedy in which Astaire's character is the American star of a London show, who falls in love with the girl living on the floor below him. The movie features some classic songs from Irving Berlin, including 'Cheek to Cheek', a number responsible for many reasons. If you watch closely, you will see that the dress Ginger Rogers is wearing, which is covered in ostrich feathers, sheds some of them during the scene. Apparently the problem was much more severe during the first take, which Astaire later described in his memoirs as, "It was like a chicken attacked by a coyote, I never saw so many feathers in my life." Extensive overnight sewing managed to make the feathers more secure, but not completely. The dress did flow beautifully, which was what Ginger Rogers had in mind when she designed it.

Although she is perhaps best remembered as the partner of Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers followed her success in these movies by moving into more serious dramatic parts, and won an Oscar for her performance in the title role of 'Kitty Foyle' (1940).

Answer: Rita Hayworth

'Gilda' stars Rita Hayworth in the title role, as the archetypical femme fatale found in film noire, and Glenn Ford as Johnny Farrell, a gambler who meets up with Gilda in her husband's casino in Buenos Aires. The two have a passionate relationship (started years earlier) which veers from love to hate and back again repeatedly.

Rita Hayworth was one of the most glamorous stars of the 1940s. A poster of her, possibly in her role as Gilda, or possibly the photo of her wearing a black lace top that was first published in 'Life' (and which was one of the most popular pin-ups for American soldiers during World War II) was featured in the Stephen King novella 'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption'.

Answer: Moira Shearer

In this British drama, Moira Shearer plays Vicky Page, a dancer who is cast in the lead for a ballet based on the Hans Christian Andersen story 'The Red Shoes', about a girl whose shoes force her to dance endlessly. The story of the movie framing the performance of the ballet closely parallels that plot. (It doesn't end well in either case.) The film was notable for including famous classical ballet dancers (including Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine and Ludmilla Tchérina) as the performers in the featured ballet sequence.

Moira Shearer was herself a trained ballet dancer, and had performed on the stage with the Sadler's Wells company before making her film debut in 'The Red Shoes'. She became closely identified with this role, although she continued to dance until 1953, and to act on stage and screen for over a decade after that.

Answer: Ann Miller

'Easter Parade' stars Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, with whom he sings such Irving Berlin classics as 'Easter Parade' and 'Steppin' Out with My Baby'. Ann Miller plays Nadine, the dancing partner who had left Don (Astaire), leading him to decide to train Hannah (Garland), a girl from the chorus, to take her place. The movie allows all three stars plenty of opportunities to display their dancing skills before Don and Hannah walk hand-in-hand in the Easter Parade, and he proposes to her.

The part of Don was originally going to be played by Gene Kelly, but he broke his ankle and had to be replaced, so Fred Astaire was lured out of retirement to join the cast. Similarly, Ann Miller was a late replacement for Cyd Charisse, who broke her leg. Ann Miller already had established herself as a tap dancer, having danced professionally since the age of 13. Most of her earlier movies were B-grade films; this was her first major film with MGM, for whom she subsequently starred in 'On the Town' (1949) and 'Kiss Me Kate' (1953).

Answer: Debbie Reynolds

In 'Singin' in the Rain', Debbie Reynolds stars with Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor as three stars of silent movies coping with the transition to talkies. At the time of making the film, Debbie Reynolds had no dance experience, and had to do a lot of training (assisted by Fred Astaire) to come anywhere near the standard expected by Gene Kelly. Shooting of the sequence for the song 'Good Morning', which took over 15 hours, left her with bleeding feet - you wouldn't know she was in pain when watching it, however.

Cyd Charisse also danced with Gene Kelly in this film, in the 'Broadway Melody' segment. However, if you matched her here, you would not have had a match for 'Silk Stockings'.

Although Debbie Reynolds had received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for the part of Helen Kane in 'Three Little Words' (1950), 'Singin' in the Rain' was the film that established her as a star. It was the start of a long and successful career, including 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown' (1964) and 'The Singing Nun' (1966). Her performance of the song 'Tammy' in 'Tammy and the Bachelor' was released as a single, and had significant chart success.

Answer: Cyd Charisse

'Silk Stockings' was an adaptation of a stage musical of the same name which was based on the 1939 film 'Ninotchka', Greta Garbo's first comedy role. Fred Astaire (yes, him again) stars as an American film producer trying to lure a Russian film composer to come work for him in Hollywood. Cyd Charisse is Ninotchka, the Russian agent given the task of getting the Russian composer (and the three earlier agents sent to Paris to fetch him) to return to Moscow. Since it's a romantic comedy, you can probably guess what happens.

Cyd Charisse, who was trained as a ballet dancer, debuted at the age of 14 with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and most of her movie roles in the 1940s and '50s emphasised her dancing skills. They include 'The Band Wagon' (1953), which featured one of her most famous routines, partnering Fred Astaire in 'Dancing in the Dark'. She featured with Gene Kelly in the closing number of 'Singin' in the Rain' (1952) and starred with him in 'Brigadoon' (1954).

Answer: Leslie Caron

Based on a novella by Colette, 'Gigi' relates the romance between playboy Gaston (Louis Jourdain), and Gigi (Leslie Caron), who is being trained to become a courtesan. Although the original plan is for her to be his mistress, they both realise that they love each other too much for that arrangement to be satisfactory, and end up marrying, despite Gaston's unease at the difference in their ages. The film features Maurice Chevalier, who plays Gaston's uncle Honoré, singing 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls', a song which became one of his signature pieces.

Leslie Caron is known for her dancing - her voice was dubbed in the songs of 'Gigi', although she did sing in some of her later movies. She is one of a very few people who have danced in films with Fred Astaire (in the 1955 movie 'Daddy Long Legs') and Gene Kelly (in the 1951 film 'An American in Paris'), and on stage with Rudolph Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnakov - an impressive set of partners!

Answer: Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli and Michael York starred as the romantic leads in this (loose) adaptation of the 1966 Broadway musical of the same name, but it is Joel Grey, reprising his stage role as the Master of Ceremonies of the Kit Kat CLub, who delivers some of the most memorable song-and-dance routines. Liza Minnelli plays Sally Bowles, a would-be decadent cabaret performer, and has several opportunities in the Kit Kat scenes to display her formidable prowess both as a singer and as a dancer.

The daughter of Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli, Liza was raised in a show business environment, and made her professional stage debut at the age of 17 in an off-Broadway revival of 'Best Foot Forward' in 1963. In 1965 she won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for 'Flora the Red Menace'. Although she received critical acclaim for several of her acting performances, she became better known as a singer. 'Cabaret' and 'Maybe This Time', both included in the film 'Cabaret', were written by Kander and Ebb, with whom she worked closely through the years; both songs became identified with her performance, although they have been covered by many others. Opinion is divided as to whether it is she or Frank Sinatra who produced the definitive rendition of 'New York, New York'.

Answer: Olivia Newton-John

Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) and Danny (John Travolta) were lovers - no wait, that song was about Frankie and Johnny. Still, it fits - the two start off with a summer romance, which develops during their final year of high school when they unexpectedly find themselves in the same school, Rydell High. Because the movie is about teenagers in the 1950s, the dance style is rock and roll rather than the traditional movie styles based on ballet, tap and jazz dancing.

This was Olivia Newton-John's first major film. Because she was unable to produce a convincing American accent during her screen test, the part of Sandy was rewritten to be an expatriate Australian whose family's surprise move to America is the reason Sandy doesn't have to go home at the end of her summertime vacation. (As an Australian resident when the movie was made, I always wondered why she had been allowed to miss the middle of her school year back home - the Australian academic year runs from January to December. Maybe she attended a school with a very long mid-year break.)

Answer: Irene Cara

Irene Cara is not the only female to sing and dance in this movie about teenage students at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City, but since she also sings the title song, her name is one of those immediately associated with the film. She plays Coco Hernandez, an all-round talent as a performer, who is accepted into all three of the performance departments - Drama, Dance and Music. The film follows a group of students through their four years in the school, culminating in their graduation performance, 'I Sing the Body Electric', a number designed to bring together the various performance strands developed during the movie.

Irene Cara was a graduate of the High School of Performing Arts (a number of whose then-current students and faculty members appeared in small parts in the film). She had already had a number of stage roles, including (at the age of 11) the part of Lillie Mae in the 1970 off-Broadway rock musical 'The Me Nobody Knows' (memorable for me, because I saw the show in its early days, and she was amazing, as was Hattie Winston as Nell). She was originally intended to be a dancer in 'Fame', but after they heard her singing, the part of Coco was rewritten to give Cara the chance to show off her skill in that area. She later co-wrote and sang the song 'Flashdance ... What a Feeling", from the movie 'Flashdance (1983), winning an Oscar for Best Original Song.