Mikhail Baryshnikov, opening the tribute on the occasion of the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1981 was asked how dancers feel about Fred Astaire; jokingly he said ‘we hate him’. His reason was simple Fred Astaire was too perfect and also he was still around, other legendary dancers such as Nijinsky were easier to deal with because their accomplishments were known from books and from photographs that don't move. Fred Astaire was everywhere – you could watch him live or on the big screen and when he danced he was better than anyone.
This was part of Astaire's power over the public; the uncanny ease of his dance mastery. It made him the envy of dance professionals everywhere, who knew that Astaire must be killing himself just as they all had to, but that in Astaire's case it just never showed. Astaire's place in dance history will rest on his unprecedented efficacy as a role model but also on his unique style of dance. He created a versatile fusion of tap and ballroom dance, and revolutionized the filming of choreography with the riveting intimacy and concentration of his movie duets and solos.
Fred Astaires influences
Unquestionably, Fred Astaire owed much of his craft, style and step vocabulary to the great black jazz tap artists of his time, such as Bill (Bojangles) Robinson, to whom Astaire paid tribute in Swing Time. But tap was not central to Astaire's art as it was to theirs, and purely as a tap virtuoso.He was often said to be the greatest d'ancer in the world but he probably would not have won an international tap-dancing contest. Above everything else, he was a master dramatist.
“Drama clings to every move he makes and to every move that Rogers makes with him. And yet they do not act, they dance ... At the core of their professionalism was a concentration upon dance as dance, not as acrobatics or sexy poses or self-expression.” wrote Alan M. Kriegsman in his 1987 article "For Dancers, A Peerless Model" in The Washington Post.
If one were asked to choose the single most highly developed, intensely focused and sublime example of this concentration in Astaire's career, one could scarcely do better than the rapturous, brink-of-suicide fantasy with Rogers to the Irving Berlin number "Let's Face the Music and Dance" in the film Follow the Fleet.
It was this concentration, perhaps, more than anything else, which made Astaire the object of such unreserved adulation within all corners of the dance profession. Dame Margot Fonteyn spoke of Astaire's "magic of magic," which made "dancing look easier than walking, more natural than breathing."
Four different types of dance
Fred Astaire’s dance numbers can be divided roughly into four categories – exhibition ballroom romances, tap competitions, solos, and solos with props. The most frequently performed was the first type, danced with each of his female partners; the dances were based on conventional exhibition ballroom styles, in turn based on social dance work.
They involved a single format, with the meeting, duet work, breaks apart and pulls together, and a final symmetrical or tandem series of movements. Among Astaire’s examples in this style are the famous love duets with Ginger Rogers, such as “Cheek to Cheek” and “Night and Day,” which are exquisitely beautiful from their openings, in which one touch from Astaire spins her into his arms, to the finales in which they simply sit.
Tap challenge numbers were danced with Rogers, as well as with his other partners. With Rogers and Powell especially, these numbers, based on minstrel formats, presented an alternating series of tap flurries, each dancer trying to best the other. In the “Let Yourself Go” number from Follow the Fleet, the Astaire-Rogers competition is set in a dance hall with “real” inter-couple competitions. The solos with props are among his greatest accomplishments. He could not only dance with anyone, but with anything – the coat tree in Royal Wedding, the wall in that underrated film, or the drum set in Easter Parade.
These films show the importance of and effect of good rhythm; although Astaire may not have been the best technical tap dancer his sense of timing and rhythm captivated the audience. Astaire’s use of simple but highly rhythmic footwork was cleverly combined and interlocked with the use of props which all added to the visual and audio effect, this style is shown in the song ‘Taking on the Ritz’ with Astaire iconic top hat and tails and cane.
By looking at two of Astaire's main influences we can understand how he came to create this style of his own. Bill Robinson who was nicknamed Bojangles was a great African American tap dancer in the twentieth century. His style was based on an upright and swinging manner. Bojangles was responsible for bringing tap on to the balls of the feet using light and exacting footwork. His tap was delicate and danced to perfection.
This relates to Astaire’s style as he also used an upright and delicate manner I believe that Astaire's ballroom dance training added to his upright carriage and delicate manner. John Bubbles is heralded as the Father of Rhythm Tap. Bubbles revolutionized tap dancing by accenting rhythms with the toes and dropping heels on the offbeat he would also use complex beating. I feel this relates to Astaire's use of rhythm as he would also use many heels, toes and accenting the off beat.
Fred Astaire represents tap, theatre, and ballroom dance to much of the world, and perfection in performance to everyone.
