This exhilarating film, marred only by a few stodgy moments from its narrators, maps out the history of screen dancing from silent times to the breakdance craze of the Eighties. There are bound to be those who'll cavil that this and that are left out, but on the whole the film does pretty well by its subject. Such innovators as Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Busby Berkeley all get very fair cracks of the whip, film extracts are clearly labelled, and credit is always given where due (such as the uncredited dancing of Marine Jahan in Flashdance). The whole has a flow that sometimes leaves you breathless, and the dance sequences shown often seem more effective in isolation than they did in their original settings. Amazingly, the film avoids sequences seen in previous compilations (such as Kelly's Singin' in the Rain dance) without seeming to skimp. There's rare, previously little-seen footage, too, including Sammy Davis Jr at seven, and a deleted sequence from The Wizard of Oz which sadly shows all too clearly why the producers took it out. Most memorable: the Busby Berkeley ensemble tap from Gold Diggers of 1935. But it has a lot of hot (shoe) competition.


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