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Cyd Charisse: Fred Astaire
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Cyd Charisse's legacy will be a collection of movies that will entertain long after the people who made them are gone; and within those movies, a display of dancing that will never be equalled. Cyd is one of the three legendary dancers of the Hollywood musical. Fred Astaire established his credentials within five movies but built up his legend over twenty-five years. Gene Kelly had sixteen years to achieve legendary status. Cyd Charisse did it in five.
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Inarguably one of the most talented dancers in Hollywood history, Cyd Charisse is a performer whose contributions to entertainment are immeasurable. From her prodigious childhood ballet career and showstopping film pairings with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire to her indefatigable stage presence and entrepeneurship, Cyd has been a model of professionalism, grace, and strength. This page is intended as a source of information and inspiration. Enjoy!
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From Variety's contemporary review of the film: "Silk Stockings has Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, the music of Cole Porter and comes off as a top-grade musical version of Metro's 1939 Ninotchka. Adapted from the [1955] Broadway musical adaptation of the same tag, film has two new Porter songs and a total of 13 numbers. Astaire enacts an American film producer in Paris who falls for the beautiful Commie when she arrives from Moscow to check on the activities of three Russian commissars.
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One of the best dancers to ever come out of Hollywood, Cyd Charisse is ... one of the prettiest. Her performances in Band Wagon and Singing in the Rain are spectacular. She was Fred Astaire's last dance partner and he has been said to say, "...when you have danced with Cyd Charisse, you stay danced." She married handsome Tony Martin and they had a son Tony Martin, Jr. Both Tony Martin and Cyd Charisse are living today--she is 83 and he is 90. They still make a glamorous couple and were recently at an awards show in June 2004.
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"When you've danced with Cyd Charisse, you stay danced with." So said Fred Astaire, in tribute to the ability and allure of his last big-screen dancing partner. Cyd Charisse was the last great musical star to come out of MGM, and she barely made it to stardom before the musical genre began its decline. One of the greatest dancers ever to come out of Hollywood, Charisse worked in movies for almost a decade before being allowed to take center stage in a major musical feature; but when she did, she fairly exploded onscreen in The Band Wagon, Vincente Minnelli's greatest musical. Charisse was born in Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, TX, and took to dancing at an early age, encouraged by her father, who loved the ballet. By age 14, she was dancing with the Ballet Russe under the more glamorous (and European-sounding) name Felia Sidorova -- the Sidorova came from her childhood nickname "Sid," which she carried into adulthood.
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Cyd Charisse is an American dancer and actress. She performed in celebrated on-screen pairings with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Her work includes two of the most acclaimed dance sequences in musical cinema, from the movies "Singin' in the Rain" and "The Band Wagon". She appeared more recently in Janet Jackson's "Alright" music video. Her singing voice was usually dubbed in her musical film appearances, most often by India Adams.
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