I’ve blogged in the past about tap dancers, and I’ve also written about dancing on skates, but a recent facebook post of Gene Kelly tap dancing on skates inspired me to write this post.  I’ve also written about fusion, the blending of two dance styles.  This has got to be the mother of all fusion. My friend and fellow writer and dancer Lisa Buchanan sent my memory rolling when she posted this gem:

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Lindy Hop on Skates

Our Lindy Hop community boasts a couple of dancers who occasionally come to our weekly out door dance and dance lindy hop on skates, usually with normally shod partners.  Lindy Hoppers on skates are always amazing to watch.  See https://www.stepsontoes.com/2014/03/men-dancing-heels/ for an example of Lindy Champion Keven St Laurent social dancing in skates.  Street dances like Lindy and Tap are constantly changing and finding new innovations.  Brilliantly gifted dancers like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire were amazing innovators, never ending sources of new ways to look at the dances of which they were masters.

Skating in the Jazz Era

There are a few examples of roller dancing in the jazz era, but not a lot.  Here’s an example of one of my all time favorite dancers, Donald O’Connor, in the only scene I know of in which he shows off his prowess in skate tapping

 

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And the most famous tap dance on skates would have to be Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers from “Shall We Dance?”

 

By LaurieAnn Lepoff

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