Word: ginger
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...sits down, and he sits next to her, but really behind her, so we can see her singing into her ear. She rarely looks back at him. In the first few bars Fred keeps time by lightly slapping his thigh three times. A few bars later, Ginger keeps time with her riding crop; is it a leather metronome, or a potential instrument of torture...
...music breaks (at, aptly, the moment where the vocal would be "Oh what a break for me"), Fred executes his first big figure, spinning toward us and giving it a showbizzy, hands-out finish, then folding his arms as if waiting for Ginger to foul up. He dares her to match him and, through competition, to be a partner in his dance-romance. She does the same step, but to the left, with smaller arm elevation, and, instead of the beseeching capper, ends with a modest stamp of her right foot - abrupt, dismissive, ever-so-slightly Fred-deflating. Her message...
...Ginger strolls away from Fred. He follows her, and as they move upstage she throws in a cute little step that the music doesn't allow him to duplicate - a cheap little triumph that he acknowledges by wheeling on one foot and raising his hand to his mouth. For 12 bars they do some snazzy vaudeville tap figures in synch and turn in toward each other. This is the moment when dancers would normally embrace and spin off together, but these two stop just short of touching. This tactic continues through most of the number: every time the music...
...enlarge the movement, describing a circle as their arms swinging wider (right, left, four times each). They stop, twirl, clap hands simultaneously and (on "Oh what a break") do a ten-tap strut to the front of the gazebo, landing in synch on the right foot. The first time, Ginger had to undercut Fred's flourish; this time she's with...
...Ginger has now decided she'll play or work along with this persistent fellow, because he's so darned good. She's smiling when they scoot back onto the platform, in smart half-turns that lead to a triple twist for her. Their movements are freer, more familiar; competition is giving way to camaraderie. For the first time the two touch, though only to push the other off into a tandem of quadruple spins. Facing each other at the end of the second dance chorus, they hop again, this time like gleefully agitated kids...