Ladies Dancing on the Silver Screen Quiz

Answer: Shirley Temple

'Bright Eyes' was the first to be written specifically for the young superstar who was approximately the same age (five years old) as the character she portrayed. There was only one song, 'On the Good Ship Lollipop', but it was a corker! As usual, Shirley Temple's character was a sweet, charming, optimistic, loving child, a character that moviegoers embraced emphatically. As a result of her work in this film and 'Little Miss Marker' (1934), she was awarded a miniature Oscar in 1935 for "contributions to the film industry", the first child to receive an Academy Award of any type.

Fans of Cairn terriers might be interested to know that Rags, her godfather's dog, was played by Terry, the same dog who later played Toto in 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939).

Shirley Temple continued to turn out several hit films a year through the rest of the 1930s, including such classics as 'Curly Top' (1935), which featured the song 'Animal Crackers in My Soup', and 'Heidi' (1937). As she grew up, she appeared in fewer films, retiring at the age of 22.

Answer: Judy Garland

Although Judy Garland is more often thought of as a singer, she did indeed dance her way along the Yellow Brick Road, accompanied by Toto, and joined (in order) by the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. While Dorothy Gale is a role that is totally associated with Judy Garland, there is evidence that the producers actually wanted to cast Shirley Temple in the part, but decided her singing style was not as appropriate as Judy Garland's. And so we will forever have 'Over the Rainbow', which became Garland's signature song.

As well as 'The Wizard of Oz', Judy Garland made more than 25 movies for MGM, including a number in which she costarred with another hot young property, Mickey Rooney. 'Thoroughbreds Don't Cry' (1937) was the first, followed by several movies in the 'Andy Hardy' franchise; their first pairing as costars was in 'Babes in Arms' (1939).

Answer: Audrey Hepburn

Although this movie shares a name and the male star (Fred Astaire) with a 1927 musical that also had music from the Gershwin brothers, the plot is totally different. Fred Astaire plays a fashion photographer who is looking for a fresh face, which he finds in Jo (Audrey Hepburn), a bookstore clerk who is more interested in philosophy than fashion. (Yes, they do end up together - it's a Hollywood musical comedy, after all.)

In her first musical, Hepburn gets a chance to display her dance training (she had previously trained as a ballerina), both with Astaire and in a solo during the nightclub scene. She also sang her own material, which was famously not the case for 'My Fair Lady' (1964), where her voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon.

Answer: Julie Andrews

'Star!' is a film biography of the British musical comedienne Gertrude Lawrence (Julie Andrews), following her career from its vaudeville roots through her move to New York to star in a show produced by her childhood friend Noel Coward (Daniel Massey), and finishing with her marriage to producer Richard Aldrich (Richard Crenna). It finishes about five years before Lawrence's triumphant performance in the lead of the Broadway show 'The King and I' (1950). Since she died of liver cancer about a year after it opened, including that show would have led to a much less upbeat story than the one used.

Julie Andrews appeared in West End shows starting from the age of 13, and made her Broadway debut at 19 in 'The Boyfriend' (1950). Her Broadway performances included Eliza Doolittle in 'My Fair Lady' (1956), a role that went to Audrey Hepburn for the 1964 film, and Queen Guinevere in 'Camelot' (1960), a part played by Vanessa Redgrave in the 1967 movie. Julie Andrews had more than a few successful musical movie roles, starting with 'Mary Poppins' (1964), and including 'The Sound of Music' (1965) and 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' (1967) before she was cast in 'Star!'.

Answer: Jennifer Beals

Alex (Jennifer Beals) is a mill worker who aspires to a career as a dancer, but she has no training, and can only find work as an exotic dancer. She falls in love with Nick (Michael Nouri), her boss, who arranges an audition for her. After various twists and turns, she has a successful audition, using a routine based on the various styles of dancing with which she had experience. The music for the audition is 'Flashdance... What a Feeling', co-written and performed by Irene Cara.

When Jennifer Beals was cast for the part of Alex, she was an undergraduate at Yale University, She deferred her studies for a semester in order to make the film, before returning to complete her BA in American Literature in 1987. After graduation, she resumed her film career, concentrating more on dramatic roles than song-and-dance material. In fact, when refusing to participate in the television show 'Dancing With the Stars', she declared that she was not a dancer at all. Her later film appearances include 'Devil in a Blue Dress' (1995) and 'The Book of Eli' (2010), both with Denzel Washington.

Answer: Jennifer Grey

At a holiday resort in the Catskills, Frances "Baby" Houseman (Jennifer Grey) is taught to dance by Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze), amid a number of emotional cross-currents. Everything gets sorted out, and the movie finishes with most of the cast members dancing to '(I've Had) The Time of My Life', sung by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley (of Righteous Brothers fame).

Jennifer Grey, who had previously featured in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (1986), was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in 'Dirty Dancing'. In 2010, she and her partner were the winners of the eleventh season of 'Dancing With the Stars'.

Answer: Madonna

This film about Eva Peron, the actress who married Juan Peron and became the First Lady of Argentina, gave Madonna the chance to develop her singing and acting skills beyond the scope required for her previous music videos. She was not the first actress considered for the part, during the several-years-long process of getting the movie organised, but she got the part after writing a letter explaining why she would be fully committed to the role, accompanied by one of her music videos.

'Evita' was not Madonna's first film role. She had previously appeared (less successfully) in 'Desperately Seeking Susan' (1985), 'Dick Tracy' (1990) and 'A League of Their Own' (1992), along with some other roles.

Answer: Nicole Kidman

The Moulin Rouge (Red Mill) is a Montmartre cabaret where Satine (Nicole Kidman) is one of the star performers. The musical, set in 1900, is basically the story of the romance between her and Christian (Ewan McGregor), a young poet. The storyline will be familiar to fans of Alexander Dumas (fils)'s 'La Dame aux Camélias', commonly called 'Camille' in English, or Verdi's opera based on that novel, 'La Traviata'. In which case, you will know that Satine is doomed. The director, Baz Luhrmann, also said he was influenced by the myth of Orpheus, the Greek musician who rescued his love from Hades, then lost her again.

Nicole Kidman started her movie career as a teenager, in the Australian film 'Bush Christmas' (1983). She then played the lead in 'BMX Bandits' (1983), and hit the international stage with 'Dead Calm' (1989). A move to Hollywood followed, where she made her first film appearance in 'Days of Thunder', the first film she made with Tom Cruise, to whom she was married from 1990 to 2001. She was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress for her performance as Satine, and again the following year for the role of Virginia Woolf in 'The Hours' (2002), when she won.

Answer: Catherine Zeta-Jones

Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger) are imprisoned together in a Chicago jail in the 1920s. Their lawyer, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), manages to get them both off by turning the trial into a media spectacle and manipulating (falsifying) the evidence. The setting in the Jazz Age allows for plenty of energetic singing and dancing from both leads. Much of the choreography came from Bob Fosse, who died before the film was completed, but who retained a film credit due to the influence of his work on the final product.

Born in Wales, Catherine Zeta-Jones started performing in West End productions (including 'Annie' and 'Bugsy Malone') as a child. Her first lead came in '42nd Street' (1987). She moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s, and started to forge a film career which led to her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 'Chicago'. She made her Broadway debut in the 2009 revival of 'A Little Night Music'.

Answer: Natalie Portman

Nina (Natalie Portman) wants to be cast in the lead for a production of Tchaikovsky's ballet 'Swan Lake'. The lead is a dual role, involving the innocent White Swan, a perfect fit for Nina, and the sensuous Black Swan, which she finds difficult to portray.

She does get the part, with Lily (Mila Kunis) as her understudy. The movie explores the nature of reality as she senses a doppelganger presence in her life, and experiences a number of events which are in fact hallucinations. Both the leads did extensive training for their roles, but at least some of the ballet dancing was in fact performed by professional dancers, with American Ballet Theatre dancer Sarah Lane performing as a dance double for Natalie Portman.

The exact amount of the dancing performed by each of them remains a matter of dispute.