Friday, June 28, 2013

The Gene Kelly Work Ethic


What can be said about one of the world's most cherished and talented showman out there. I have been a huge fan of Gene Kelly's since I can't remember. Gene Kelly is one of the people you think of that embodied every talent out there. He had dancing feet like nobody else out there. He was the kind of guy that everyone could relate to. The women loved him and the men wanted to hang around him. He was sensitive, yet he also had the man's man quality about him.
Gene Kelly had a voice that just melted into song. Every other word he spoke he could have sung and he did like an angel. His acting was a force to be reckoned with too. He held his own. In movies away from the song and dance genre his acting skills where impeccable. Dance wise there was very few who could match him, whether man or woman.
Now of course there was a debate on who was the better, Gene or Fred Astaire. My money was and has always been on gene Kelly. Fred was good, but there was something about Gene that just drew you to him and not just because of his charm and good looks
Gene started out as an athlete, but during college he started choreographing shows and thus took him off down the road towards dance. He learned tap dancing through his brother and with his mother and brother started a dance school in the 1920's. I think it was around that time. Soon after wards he headed off to New York to become a choreographer. Once on Broadway he caught the eyes of a movie executive and got a role.
Being an athlete Gene always danced with his upper body. Even Donald O'Conner who he worked with in "Singing in the Rain" commented on how their styles where different. Donald being a hoofer danced from the waist down and he tried to apply Gene's style to his own and tried emulate him in some ways. Donald once said he was one of the few that could keep up with Gene and be just as good as him. He understood Gene's work ethic.
Gene had a really strong work ethic. If he wasn't dancing on screen or on stage he was working out a number in his head or using his feet or he was working on some project either in process or something new in the works.
Gene once said this about dancing, "You can clock in and if you want you can clock out, but always keep the dancing shoes on."
Gene was and still is a legend in every way. There was and still is no one like Gene Kelly and there will never be. When you see one of his movies you fall in love no matter what attracts you to the project. Gene was and is truly an icon in history he should forever stay that way.

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